rhythmbox freezes after playing for an hour or more and locks all sound until reboot

[gray]

Binary package hint: rhythmbox

The title says it all really - I play from local files - mp3 and ogg - in my /home/user/Music directory created by a default install of Hardy Heron using free space at the end of my hard drive - dual booting with winxp.

I run evolution, firefox and rhythmbox and sit here surfing, or go and do household chores etc - shortly after an hour all sound stops as rhythmbox freezes. I quit rhythmbox, via right-click on taskbar button for rhythmbox and close, and then say yes to quit program not responding. After that all sound apps, such as movie players cannot play sound, tho the movie is showing fine. A reboot gets my sound back. The install is standard, with the addition of the following apps (they were installed AFTER that freezing - Amarok was installed specifically to see if it too would do the same): amarok, K3b, dvdrip, quanta and all required deps and apps for these programs. The codecs to play mp3 were chosen by Totem before I started Rhythmbox just after the fresh install.

Amarok has been playing for 3 and a half hours thus far - one or 2 momentary skips in play, but no freeze and system more responsive than with amarok (as in when minimise and maximise apps)

What I would expect to happen - continual playback for several years if need be !

System here: Ubuntu 8.04 with all updates as of 2 hours ago - 768 megs ram on a Intel Pentium 4 2.66 Ghz

thanks for the work thus far

other info

rhythmbox version via apt-cache:
 Installed: 0.11.5-0ubuntu4
  Candidate: 0.11.5-0ubuntu4
  Version table:
 *** 0.11.5-0ubuntu4 0
        500 http://za.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[gray (info-graydesigns)]

Hello

I have just wiped the previous installation and redone a clean one, with no change to default that might impact on the rhythmbox player in any way. All the music files I have in /home/user/Music are now purely ogg files, so no new codecs required (thereby canceling out that variable) - all updates have been applied. The only added extra is the nvidia module. The only console changes are the usual reduction in timeout of sudoers file and the re-arrangement of the grub list to put XP first.

Now I just have to see if this will still freeze, or not.

Thanks for your time
Gray

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thanks for your bug report. If you can make this happens again please try to obtain a backtrace of the freeze http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProgramCrash and attach the file to the bug report. This will greatly help us in tracking down your problem.

[gray (info-graydesigns)]

hello pedro

I did try to get a backtrace but gdb that was supposed to track this appeared to lock when rhythmbox
froze, and when I quit rhythmbox - which unlocked gdb - no info was available

I have attached the file as made anyway

gray

Pedro Villavicencio wrote:
> Thanks for your bug report. If you can make this happens again please
> try to obtain a backtrace of the freeze
> http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProgramCrash and attach the file to the
> bug report. This will greatly help us in tracking down your problem.
>
> ** Changed in: rhythmbox (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided => Medium
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Ubuntu Desktop Bugs (desktop-bugs)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>

--

Phone: [phone]
E-mail: <email address hidden>
Web: www.graydesigns.co.za

[gray (info-graydesigns)]

Just a thought - the freeze occurred on an mp3 file - and it does not seem to matter which mp3 file - I have restarted the process further down the list to see if that too will cause a freeze on some arbitrary mp3 file. I tried amarok at one point in the past before this last install, and I never had a crash, so wondering if the xine engine is more stable than the gstreamer ?

[gray (info-graydesigns)]

OK back again....

I did all the updates released 22 april on a system that is still a default - no new apps added (apart from Bluefish, which should have no impact on a sound app in any case), and only the recommended codecs as suggested by the system to play my files (Gstreamers) .

I trashed all mp3 files in my music folder, leaving only ogg files, restarted Rhythmbox and within 10 minutes Rhythmbox had frozen, once again, all sound is locked and cannot play movie files. All other apps seem unaffected however.

Just for the record, I usually use Amarok, or before that xmms, and have never experienced this constant freeze before. The mp3 files and ogg files are ones that I listen to often, whatever system I use. What makes it even more frustrating is the otherwise total stability of the rest of my applications !

Thanks for your time and hard work :)

[gray (info-graydesigns)]

Hi

last comment from me - I have changed the sound setup, in system/preferences/sound/devices to alsa and all sound weirdness seems to have gone - no more popping and distorting when windows minimise, and thus far no freezing - so it would appear that the Pulseaudio system is at fault here - certainly I have never had a problem with my soundcard before in linux. This is my sound card - for what it is worth:

 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)

thanks

Gray

[Anton Belyaev (anton-belyaev)]

Gray,

Please check if this bug

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/226342

is a duplicate of yours. Especially, check the log recods and try a woraround I suggested in #226342

If #226342 appears the same, we'll mark it as a duplicate.

[gray (info-graydesigns)]

Hello Anton

I have to say that the answer was **definitely** setting up sound to use alsa
only - as soon as I did this all issues vanished - oh and as a bonus,
audacity (set up to use alsa) worked too - I am at present running Mandriva
One, and I have done the same here specifically to use audacity in this case,
as the crashing never showed here (but the inability of audacity to use pulse
audio was identical) - I assume the variation of pulse audio is different ?

If you really need me to check this I am willing to wipe Mandriva and
re-install Ubuntu to help - but ideally only if you have need of my info.

Please let me know if this is needed.

cheers, and thanks for coming back to me.
Gray

On Thursday 08 May 2008 22:39:07 you wrote:
> Gray,
>
> Please check if this bug
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/226342
>
> is a duplicate of yours. Especially, check the log recods and try a
> woraround I suggested in #226342
>
> If #226342 appears the same, we'll mark it as a duplicate.

[gray (info-graydesigns)]

Hello Anton

I went to the link supplied, and no the bug is not the same - the only issue I
had (asides from audacity not function with pulse) is that I would be playing
sounds off the hard drive for a while and suddenly all would be quiet - the
rhythmbox would be nonresponsive - I would kill it, but still no sounds in
any way, not at all. Only a full reboot would bring sound back. No other
aspect of the system was affected - mouse, keyboard and all other non-media
apps were fine.

thanks
Gray
On Thursday 08 May 2008 22:39:07 you wrote:
> Gray,
>
> Please check if this bug
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/226342
>
> is a duplicate of yours. Especially, check the log recods and try a
> woraround I suggested in #226342
>
> If #226342 appears the same, we'll mark it as a duplicate.

[Sidarth Dasari (sirsid)]

I dont think so either, it may have just been a small glitch with pulseaudio as there are still many.
The only way to tell for sure though would have been error messages in /var/log/messages.

[Vladica (vladica-stanisic)]

I am seeing the same thing, in rhythmbox 0.11.5 on ubuntu heron,i have an hp dv2100 laptop. I used to have gutsy and everything worked fine with audio. I play an internet radio station and rhythmbox just freezes. It has to be killed and at some point my sound disappears. I log out and log back in to get the sound back. I tried setting everything to ALSA and it still happens.

[Vladica (vladica-stanisic)]

it looks like the change to alsa explicitly worked. My rhythmbox has been working for past 2 hours. Before it would block after 2 minutes. I can also see this in /var/log/messages

May 8 21:37:50 my-laptop -- MARK --
May 8 21:44:10 my-laptop kernel: [59418.645251] compiz.real[5206]: segfault at 05000000 eip 08055a80 esp bffbf4d0 error 4
May 8 21:44:28 my-laptop pulseaudio[27942]: pid.c: Stale PID file, overwriting.
May 8 21:44:29 my-laptop pulseaudio[27942]: alsa-util.c: Device front:0 doesn't support 44100 Hz, changed to 48000 Hz.
May 8 21:44:29 my-laptop pulseaudio[27942]: alsa-util.c: Device front:0 doesn't support 44100 Hz, changed to 48000 Hz.
May 8 21:44:29 my-laptop pulseaudio[27942]: alsa-util.c: Cannot find fallback mixer control "Mic".
May 8 21:57:50 my-laptop -- MARK --
May 8 22:17:50 my-laptop -- MARK --

[Travis Larson (tlarson)]

I am also having the same problem with the "alsa-util.c: Device front:0 doesn't support 44100 Hz, changed to 48000 Hz." errors in /var/log/messages. I'll try setting everything to alsa to see if that fixes the problem for me as well.

[John Moser (nigelenki)]

Here is an strace of this exact issue. It goes into an EAGAIN loop on read(3) at the end, when read(3) is some sort of socket.

As an added insult, pidgin immediately ran wild to 700MB memory usage before I could killall -9 it (it wasn't taking sigterm), as a reaction to me killing pulseaudio to try and see if that's the issue and I can work around it. /etc/init.d/pulseaudio restart doesn't do squat. With pulseaudio DEAD, however, it fixes the issue.

[weirdbro (wierdbro)]

This bug is definitely a dup of https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/226342
I had the same problem with Pidgin as you, John. Maybe Pidgin is the application locking the others out of pulseaudio by taking too many channels? Look at the links in the above bug for more info.

[gray (info-graydesigns)]

hi

I am running Ubuntu 8.10 alpha 6 with all updates as of thursday 10 am.

when playing rhythmbox using files in my home partition on a permanent hard drive I get freezes - usually within minutes, sometime it might take 3 or 4 minutes, sometimes it might take 30 minutes. I have attached a strace.

the only way to avoid freezes is by using OSS for all sound here

please note - pidgin was NOT running at this time - in fact I have not used it in this install as yet.

thanks

[gray (info-graydesigns)]

Hi

Just an update - I am now running 8.10 (daily cd from 17/10) with everything updated and using sound preferences set to standard. Music sometimes plays fine for a couple of songs, sometimes crashes seconds into the first song.

Please view attached text file - I have copied/pasted sound-related info from one or two log files in /var/log, as well as a test command suggested to me in the Ubuntu forums.

Please feel free to request any more info, or tests.

cheers

[hackel (hackel)]

There are two separate issues here. First is the issue of pulseaudio crashing. I would imagine this is happening for a variety of reasons, and each should have its own bug report. Second, the issue of rhythmbox locking up when pulseaudio dies. This should not happen. I don't know if the fault lies in the gstreamer-pulseaudio plugin or in rhythmbox itself. In cases where pulse dies, rhythmbox should have a way to detect this and simply abort, ideally just pausing the currently played song. That way, upon restarting pulseaudio, you could hit play in rhythmbox to resume where you left off, instead of having to kill it. I therefore propose this bug be moved to the rhythmbox package, otherwise this report should be isolated to a specific instance of pulseaudio crashing and we need a separate bug report for rhythmbox.

Do other players using gstreamer-pulseaudio respond in the same way when pulseaudio dies?

[gray (info-graydesigns)]

hello hackel

yes agreed - pulseaudio is still causing issues - I did manage to make it mostly play - sometimes for 8 hours - but it does vary as it will sometimes hesitate and then continue or hesitate and then "fail to proceed"..

The settings below seem to result in mostly playing - but as I say, this is very variable

resample-method = speex-float-3

default-fragments = 4
default-fragment-size-msec = 30

I have not tried any other music apps recently, but I seem to remember that the same behaviour occurred in all, including totem with a video, so I would say that pulseaudio setup needs to be fixed - something is causing it to die.

I have noticed a couple of potential issues:

from /var/log/messages:
alsa-util.c: Device front:0 doesn't support 44100 Hz, changed to 48000 Hz
 - possibly this conversion is causing issues ?

and then using pulseaudio -k; sleep 4; pulseaudio -vv I get:

ltdl-bind-now.c: Failed to find original dlopen loader.
 - not sure what that implies ?

I: sink-input.c: Created input 1 "Playback Stream" on alsa_output.pci_1106_3059_sound_card_0_alsa_playback_0 with sample spec float32le 2ch 44100Hz and channel map front-left,front-right
D: memblock.c: Memory block too large for pool: 17640 > 16376
D: memblockq.c: memblockq requested: maxlength=141120, tlength=70560, base=8, prebuf=67032, minreq=3528
D: memblockq.c: memblockq sanitized: maxlength=141120, tlength=70560, base=8, prebuf=67032, minreq=3528
I: client.c: Created 4 "EsounD client (UNIX socket client)"
D: module-alsa-sink.c: snd_pcm_mmap_commit: Buffer underrun!
ALSA lib pcm.c:7160:(snd_pcm_recover) cannot recovery from underrun, prepare failed: Device or resource busy
E: module-alsa-sink.c: Failed to write data to DSP: Device or resource busy
I: module.c: Unloading "module-alsa-sink" (index: #0).
I: module-rescue-streams.c: No evacuation sink found.
 - which was around the time the sound died

and should you wish to read the text file I uploaded to get more detail:
http://launchpadlibrarian.net/18690133/messages-check.txt

thanks

[Max (maxime1986)]

hello hackel

Yes, I tried to use gmusicbrowser using gstreamer and it crashed like rhythmbox.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Should not be reproducible in jaunty, please give feedback.

[gray (info-graydesigns)]

Hello Daniel

I have installed Jaunty daily 25-12-08 and grabbed all updates.

Thus far my experience has been of music without hiccups or freezes - without any need to adjust the daemon.conf file or any other tweaks. I will leave the system playing music while I am at work. Should it still be playing upon my return I would consider the issue fixed as that return home is close to 12 hours.

I will reply here at that time to confirm.

Gray

[gray (info-graydesigns)]

sound still playing !!!

[gray (info-graydesigns)]

Hello

OK for me it would appear that the sound issue has been fixed, in Jaunty - nary a wobble !

many thanks to the devs for sorting this out.

Cheers

[Johnathon (kirrus)]

Glad it's working for you grey. I'm closing this ticket as Fix Released, but should your problem re-appear, let us know and we'll re-open this bug for you.

[hotani (hotani)]

I am experiencing what seems like the same issue with the latest build of 9.04 with all updates. Rhythmbox with pulseaudio will hang the system and go quiet. Everything is slow/unresponsive. After several minutes, rhythmbox will resume and continue playing. Sometimes this takes 10-15 minutes.

Just now I experienced it while scrolling through some photos in picasa. Any strain on the system seems to cause RB to freeze up.

[Robert Hrovat (robi-hipnos)]

I also have such problems. Any music player plays MP3 songs just fine, but after some time - usually 30-40 minutes, sound stops. Players progressbar continues.

The only thing I could found in syslog was:

May 21 17:28:46 willow pulseaudio[23278]: module-alsa-sink.c: snd_pcm_mmap_commit: Device or resource busy

I have to reboot machine for sound to work again.

Oh, and testing sound in sound settings display this:

audiotestsrc wave=sine freq=512 ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! gconfaudiosink: Failed to connect stream: Invalid argument

[Robert Hrovat (robi-hipnos)]

Reinstalled Jaunty completely last night though it will fix this but it's still the same :-(

[Robert Hrovat (robi-hipnos)]

More data about soundcard:

00:06.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP55 High Definition Audio (rev a2)

pulseaudio -k does not solve anything, I have to reboot machine.