Multimedia playback broken with pulseaudio and alsa

[Tim Cole]

Binary package hint: pulseaudio

After upgrading to Ubuntu 8.04, Multimedia playback will stop working after a seemingly random period of time. This happens with both Audio and Video playback and in both Totem and Mplayer that I have observed so far.

At the time multimedia playback stops there is a corresponding log message in syslog.

pulseaudio[14155]: module-alsa-sink.c: Got POLLERR from ALSA

See attached file for extract of syslog.

The only way to restore playback is to re-initialise the alsa kernel module for the sound card (usb-audio in my case).
Once this is done, playback continues as expected.

I was not sure if this is an ALSA bug or a pulseaudio bug. Please reassign if it is in the wrong section.

Ubuntu 8.04

Software
pulseaudio 0.9.10-1ubuntu1
alsa-base 1.0.16-0ubuntu4
alsa-utils 1.0.15-3ubuntu2

Hardware
Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 NX (USB)

[Tim Cole (timothy-j-cole)]

Including alsa-info.txt as per https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingSoundProblems

[Tim Cole (timothy-j-cole)]

Including output of amixer

[Tim Cole (timothy-j-cole)]

Including output of aplay --list-devices

[Tim Cole (timothy-j-cole)]

Including output of uname -a

[Tim Cole (timothy-j-cole)]

Including some bugs that sound similar to this for reference.

http://lkml.org/lkml/2008/4/2/289
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/194903
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/207750

[Tim Cole (timothy-j-cole)]

It is usually between 3 and 6 minutes of playback before this occurs. This can be very frustrating watching a movie or a soundtrack longer than 3 minutes.

[Davidiam (hectorjerezano)]

You are not alone, I am have the same issue.

[Davidiam (hectorjerezano)]

Troubleshooting the problem I found that if login as root in gnome I can play music using the same setup as my user account (default soundcard pulseaudio, etc) and problem goes away. but I do not think the solution will be to run pulseaudio as root because them in my user account I cant get sound nor the pauvcontrol,etc to work.

[Tim Cole (timothy-j-cole)]

What sound hardware are you using and what ALSA modules does that use ?
Do you consistently get the problem, or just occasionally ?

[Tim Cole (timothy-j-cole)]

Just out of curiosity, do you use CPU frequency scaling ? In particular, the on demand governor.

[Tim Cole (timothy-j-cole)]

Setting my CPU governor to performance seems to prevent this bug from occurring.

[Davidiam (hectorjerezano)]

I use the same as you do , Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 NX (USB) and the same module snd_usb_audio.
I have installed the CPU governor POWERNOWD and on AC I have setup for performance and on battery on demand, and in booth modes still have the bug.
And yes I get it consistently but in random times.

[Davidiam (hectorjerezano)]

Tim I think you should close this bug, I solved my problem by removing from the gnome panel the sensor applets.

[Tim Cole (timothy-j-cole)]

Removing the sensors applet has also fixed the problem for me.
However, I will not close this bug. It needs to be investigated and fixed.

[glymor (glymor)]

I have this but I'm not running gnome sensors or a laptop.

Basically it looks like something interrupts usb (a separate bug) but pulseaudio doesn't deal cleanly with the device going away and coming back (it freaks out when it's not there).

In my case this is more annoying as pulseaudio refuses to die/gets stuck in state D. This stops the alsa sound module from being removable so I have to reboot.

[Davidiam (hectorjerezano)]

Tim you are right , I also found that if I close the laptop activating the lid close feature /etc/acpi/lid.sh reproduce the same bug, and the sensor applet I had it was the one from the ACPI CPU Temp, So It is more something related with acpi and the USB module hci_usb.

[Davidiam (hectorjerezano)]

glymor I think that if you do not have a Laptop You may try disabling acpi in your /boot/grub/menu.lst look for the kernel line and put at the acpi=off

[Tim Cole (timothy-j-cole)]

Davidiam, Good pick up, I also close the laptop lid.Never occurred to me.

[Tim Cole (timothy-j-cole)]

Hmm, i just had it happen without the sensors-applet loaded, an with the laptop lid open.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

This symptom seems to be a specific instance of usb-audio going haywire. Will you please attempt to reproduce the symptom using 8.10 alpha 6?

[Tony McKenzie (mckenzie-tony)]

I'm running 8.10 current as of oct 15th.
I have an m-audio 24/96 card and when I leave my computer extended period of time it seems that most of the time the sound will disappear. If i go to sound preferences and try to test it, it will display this message "audiotestsrc wave=sine freq=512 ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! gconfaudiosink: Internal data flow error." Restarting the computer fixes this problem.

[Tony McKenzie (mckenzie-tony)]

forgot to mention, pulseaudio manager shows that it has actually been disconnected for whatever reason and it refuses to reconnect until computer is restarted.

[Cristi (mcvconsult)]

I have the same problem for Ubuntu 8.10: when using the CPU frequency scaling feature with applets active the sound module (pulse audio) crashes after an undetermined period of time.
I am not a linux kernel expert, so unfortunately I don't know what logs to sent to you precisely.

For the beginning I present the hardware platform:
AMD (quad processor Phenom model 9550)
Motherboard ASUS M3A32_MVP Deluxe (with onboard sound).

Please tell me what symptoms (kernel logs, package versions, etc) to send you in order to have this problem further investigated.

[Mario Zigliotto (marioz)]

Reproduced with the following config:

- CPU Freq scaling applet
- Ubuntu 8.10
- Dell Latitude D630
- pulseaudio - 0.9.10-2ubuntu9

user.log has this 3 times:
Nov 28 23:55:49 coffee-bean pulseaudio[6524]: module-alsa-sink.c: Got POLLERR from ALSA

I can fix by killing Pulse and restarting it.

Note:
I recently was having problems with my laptop's fan ramping up and down... using this thread as guidance: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=977347 i found that i could fix it with a firmware upgrade, the current firmware version is listed below. UNFORTUNATELY, i don't really use sound much at all so i am not sure if the problem started after the firmware upgrade :/

The Dell fw update may have touched on sensor related stuff (i think fan ramping up and down was related to a sensor issue).

Extra info:

coffee-bean:~$ sudo getSystemId
Libsmbios: 2.0.3
System ID: 0x01F9
Service Tag: _
Express Service Code: _
Product Name: Latitude D630
BIOS Version: A14
Vendor: Dell Inc.
Is Dell: 1

lsmod:
Module Size Used by
af_packet 29568 4
binfmt_misc 18700 1
rfcomm 51104 11
bridge 64544 0
stp 11268 1 bridge
bnep 23168 2
sco 20612 2
l2cap 33280 12 rfcomm,bnep
vboxdrv 1653120 0
ppdev 16904 0
ipv6 314312 16
acpi_cpufreq 16400 1
cpufreq_powersave 10368 0
cpufreq_stats 14468 0
cpufreq_userspace 12420 0
cpufreq_ondemand 16400 1
cpufreq_conservative 16392 0
freq_table 13568 3 acpi_cpufreq,cpufreq_stats,cpufreq_ondemand
container 12288 0
sbs 22288 0
pci_slot 13704 0
sbshc 14592 1 sbs
iptable_filter 11520 0
ip_tables 28176 1 iptable_filter
x_tables 31752 1 ip_tables
sbp2 32652 0
parport_pc 44200 0
lp 19588 0
parport 50096 3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp
arc4 10368 2
joydev 20736 0
ecb 11520 2
crypto_blkcipher 27780 1 ecb
pcmcia 48408 0
iwlagn 113668 0
iwlcore 105540 1 iwlagn
snd_hda_intel 489264 1
yenta_socket 35084 1
rfkill 19364 2 iwlcore
rsrc_nonstatic 19328 1 yenta_socket
snd_pcm_oss 52608 0
led_class 13192 1 iwlcore
mac80211 253440 2 iwlagn,iwlcore
pcmcia_core 48804 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
psmouse 51612 0
btusb 21912 0
serio_raw 14596 0
snd_mixer_oss 25088 1 snd_pcm_oss
cfg80211 37136 3 iwlagn,iwlcore,mac80211
bluetooth 70820 9 rfcomm,bnep,sco,l2cap,btusb
iTCO_wdt 21072 0
pcspkr 11136 0
iTCO_vendor_support 12420 1 iTCO_wdt
dcdbas 16688 0
evdev 20512 15
nvidia 7804864 42
snd_pcm ...

[Mario Zigliotto (marioz)]

Forgot to mention that i am closing the laptop to reproduce. Have not see it occur any other way but via a lid close.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

For people running intrepid, can you try the version of pulseaudio in intrepid-proposed?

[Tony McKenzie (mckenzie-tony)]

seems to work just fine now after custom setting all my pulse settings for
my soundcard (m2496). which is the only way to get this card to work to my
knowledge.

On Mon, Dec 29, 2008 at 2:12 PM, Daniel T Chen <email address hidden> wrote:

> For people running intrepid, can you try the version of pulseaudio in
> intrepid-proposed?
>
> ** Changed in: sensors-applet (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Invalid
>
> ** Changed in: pulseaudio (Ubuntu)
> Status: Invalid => Incomplete
>
> --
> Multimedia playback broken with pulseaudio and alsa
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/223103
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in ALSA driver: New
> Status in "linux" source package in Ubuntu: Incomplete
> Status in "pulseaudio" source package in Ubuntu: Incomplete
> Status in "sensors-applet" source package in Ubuntu: Invalid
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: pulseaudio
>
> After upgrading to Ubuntu 8.04, Multimedia playback will stop working after
> a seemingly random period of time. This happens with both Audio and Video
> playback and in both Totem and Mplayer that I have observed so far.
>
> At the time multimedia playback stops there is a corresponding log message
> in syslog.
>
> pulseaudio[14155]: module-alsa-sink.c: Got POLLERR from ALSA
>
> See attached file for extract of syslog.
>
> The only way to restore playback is to re-initialise the alsa kernel module
> for the sound card (usb-audio in my case).
> Once this is done, playback continues as expected.
>
> I was not sure if this is an ALSA bug or a pulseaudio bug. Please reassign
> if it is in the wrong section.
>
> Ubuntu 8.04
>
> Software
> pulseaudio 0.9.10-1ubuntu1
> alsa-base 1.0.16-0ubuntu4
> alsa-utils 1.0.15-3ubuntu2
>
> Hardware
> Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 NX (USB)
>

--
-Tony McKenzie

[Stefan Bader (smb)]

Can you confirm this issue exists with the most recent Jaunty Jackalope 9.04 release - http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-9.04-desktop . If the issue remains in Jaunty, please test the latest upstream kernel build - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Let us know your results. Thanks.

[Tony McKenzie (mckenzie-tony)]

Sound works without any tweaks using 9.04 and stays connected to pulse with my m2496 card. I still receive some pops/clicks in the sound when 2 programs compete. For example, using rhythmbox for music and pidgin receives a message and makes a sound it will click as it plays both. As far as this bug report, pulse seems to work with pulse audio now without any major problems.