Chrome+Pepper+Flash plays audio+video in fast-forward after several days of uptime; killall pulseaudio fixes it.

[Luke Scharf]

Chrome plays audio+video in fast forward when using the Pepper version of Shockwave Flash 11.3 r31 running on Ubuntu Precise Pangolin x86_64. This is particularly obvious when using Pandora or YouTube.

I initially believed this to be a Chrome+Pepper+Shockwave issue and reported it to Google. The problem went away after a reboot, but returned a couple of days later. I started looking to see if I could kill the Chrome thread that contained the errant instance of Flash, but I noticed that pulseaudio was using more CPU than expected. On a whim, I killall'ed pulseaudio, hit the reload button in my Pandora window, and the audio started playing normally again.

This workaround (killing pulseaudio) suggests that the fix for this issue could lie within pulseaudio. The annoying thing is that this bug takes several days to manifest itself, so it's hard to verify a fix. Also, I'm running Ubuntu on a laptop that moves between my office and home daily, so the problem could be even more subtle than it appears.

In any case, I hope that this can help narrow down the issue.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: pulseaudio 1:1.1-0ubuntu15.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-27.43-generic 3.2.21
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-27-generic x86_64
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu11
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC269VB Analog [ALC269VB Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: lukescharf 7936 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: lukescharf 7936 F...m pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'PCH'/'HDA Intel PCH at 0xc4820000 irq 50'
   Mixer name : 'Intel CougarPoint HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0269,1179062e,00100100 HDA:80862805,11790001,00100000'
   Controls : 25
   Simple ctrls : 12
Date: Tue Jul 10 15:53:11 2012
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-03-13 (119 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 12/05/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.bios.version: Version 3.50
dmi.board.asset.tag: 0000000000
dmi.board.name: Portable PC
dmi.board.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.board.version: Version A0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: 0000000000
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.chassis.version: Version 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnTOSHIBA:bvrVersion3.50:bd12/05/2011:svnTOSHIBA:pnPORTEGER835:pvrPT324U-008003:rvnTOSHIBA:rnPortablePC:rvrVersionA0:cvnTOSHIBA:ct10:cvrVersion1.0:
dmi.product.name: PORTEGE R835
dmi.product.version: PT324U-008003
dmi.sys.vendor: TOSHIBA

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Luke Scharf (lukescharf)]

I just found that the Flash video on the following page triggers the crash every time:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18807774

[Elijah Lynn (elijah-lynn)]

Same here, Ubuntu 12.04 Chrome 21 64bit - really fast video

[Felipe Amado (amadinho10)]

Same here.
Ubuntu 12.04 32bit, not only in Chrome (in Firefox too), not only Flash 11.3 r31 (version 11.2 r202 too).
And not only on several days of uptime, several hours are enough.
killall pulseaudio does fix it temporaly.

[Chris Sadler (chris-g-sadler)]

Same here.
Ubuntu 12.04, 64bit.
Peper flash really fast.
Killing pulseaudio solves the problem temprarily also.

[Retromingent (ray-rwalk2730)]

Same here. Killing pulseaudio corrects it temporarily, then after a few days it comes back.

Linux walkubu 3.5.0-17-generic #28-Ubuntu SMP Tue Oct 9 19:31:23 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Linux Mint 14 Nadia

processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 23
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9550 @ 2.83GHz
stepping : 7
microcode : 0x703
cpu MHz : 2833.511
cache size : 6144 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 4
core id : 0
cpu cores : 4
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 10
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 lahf_lm dtherm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority
bogomips : 5667.02
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor : 1
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 23
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9550 @ 2.83GHz
stepping : 7
microcode : 0x703
cpu MHz : 2833.511
cache size : 6144 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 4
core id : 1
cpu cores : 4
apicid : 1
initial apicid : 1
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 10
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 lahf_lm dtherm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority
bogomips : 5667.02
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

[Felix (cebor)]

Same here since updated to Chrome v27 ( Flash 11.7 r700), the Problem only exists when im using my Soundblaster5.1-USB.

My Workaround: Goto "chrome://plugins" switch to bultin Flash.

restarting pulseaudio has no effect for me.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 12.04 (precise) reached end-of-life on April 28, 2017.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for pulseaudio (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]