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Tasklist

FS#9824 - ALSA Causes Intermittent Freezes of All Windows

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by SpookyET (SpookyET) - Wednesday, 12 March 2008, 17:03 GMT-4
Last edited by Roman Kyrylych (Romashka) - Saturday, 15 March 2008, 07:28 GMT-4
Task Type Bug Report
Category Packages: Extra
Status Unconfirmed
Assigned To Tobias Powalowski (tpowa)
Operating System i686
Severity High
Priority Normal
Reported Version 2007.08-2
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 0%
Votes 0
Private No

Details

Description:
I play music in Banshee, Rhythmbox, mpd, etc. and my windows start to freeze from time to time. They are still movable. Sometimes, they all freeze. Other times one freezes while the other does not. Then the other one freezes in a domino effect.

It does not seem to cause CPU spikes. Though, htop, system monitor, etc. freeze as well. So, I can't tell.
I've switched to XMMS. Freezes occur when playing with the ALSA driver. It seems to use its own ALSA 1.2.11 driver as opposed to the system driver. The alsa-lib plugin is at version 1.0.15 in Arch.

When I switch XMMS to OSS, freezes do not seem to occur any more.

It happens when there is screaming in Alternative/Hard rock. I may be experiencing this bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-lib/+bug/190059

Additional info:
* alsa-lib 1.0.15
* I have an Acer TravelMate 8100



Steps to reproduce:
Play Music?
This task depends upon

Comment by Paul Bredbury (brebs) - Wednesday, 12 March 2008, 19:52 GMT-4
Try alsa 1.0.16: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=45255
Comment by SpookyET (SpookyET) - Wednesday, 12 March 2008, 20:25 GMT-4
Actually, I jumped ship to OSS4 from AUR. Problems gone. No more freezing, but getting everything else to work proves daunting (like gnome volume control ossmix to remember the decibel value which makes it stop hissing, totem to work properly, etc.). At least, this experiment proved that alsa is causing the freezing.
Comment by SpookyET (SpookyET) - Thursday, 13 March 2008, 23:12 GMT-4
I was fixed in 1.0.16.
Those two patches in alsa-lib, python and something about 32bit to 16 audio are not necessary anymore according to an alsa dev.
I also have the patch that fixes it in 1.0.15 if anyone cares.
Comment by SpookyET (SpookyET) - Friday, 14 March 2008, 14:08 GMT-4
I spoke too soon. I just had a major freeze. It doesn't happen as often as with 1.0.15, but one high pitched scream from Flyleaf and everything freezes, except the music.
I guess I have to use OSS4. :-(

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