FS#9824 - ALSA Causes Intermittent Freezes of All Windows

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Anonymous Submitter - Wednesday, 12 March 2008, 21:03 GMT
Last edited by Aaron Griffin (phrakture) - Friday, 12 December 2008, 19:47 GMT
Task Type Bug Report
Category Packages: Extra
Status Closed
Assigned To Tobias Powalowski (tpowa)
Architecture i686
Severity High
Priority Normal
Reported Version 2007.08-2
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
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

Closed by  Aaron Griffin (phrakture)
Friday, 12 December 2008, 19:47 GMT
Reason for closing:  None
Additional comments about closing:  Catalyst issue, switched to xf86-video-radeonhd
Comment by Paul Bredbury (brebs) - Wednesday, 12 March 2008, 23:52 GMT
Try alsa 1.0.16: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=45255
Comment by Anonymous Submitter - Thursday, 13 March 2008, 00:25 GMT
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 Anonymous Submitter - Friday, 14 March 2008, 03:12 GMT
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 Anonymous Submitter - Friday, 14 March 2008, 18:08 GMT
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. :-(
Comment by Glenn Matthys (RedShift) - Thursday, 19 June 2008, 10:12 GMT
What's the status of this issue?
Comment by Greg (dolby) - Sunday, 20 July 2008, 23:32 GMT
It seems to be solved with latest alsa. we have to wait until its upgraded
Comment by Peter Csepely (Thief_hu) - Saturday, 04 October 2008, 07:47 GMT
Is this bug still relevant? I have the same problem on x86_64, but it occures on video playback. The result is always a program crash (ex. mplayer).
A little info from gdb:

VO: [xv] 704x400 => 704x400 Planar YV12
A: 229.2 V: 229.1 A-V: 0.148 ct: 0.028 5493/5493 3% 7% 1.4% 51 0
Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
[Switching to Thread 0x7f0a3b0b0780 (LWP 3911)]
0x00007f0a36b6c490 in snd1_pcm_linear_convert () from /usr/lib/libasound.so.2
(gdb) bt
#0 0x00007f0a36b6c490 in snd1_pcm_linear_convert ()
from /usr/lib/libasound.so.2
#1 0x00007f0a36b6d009 in snd_pcm_linear_write_areas ()
from /usr/lib/libasound.so.2
#2 0x00007f0a36b6a116 in snd_pcm_plugin_write_areas ()
from /usr/lib/libasound.so.2
#3 0x00007f0a36b5d4a2 in snd1_pcm_write_areas () from /usr/lib/libasound.so.2
#4 0x00007f0a36b6a9ab in snd_pcm_plugin_writei () from /usr/lib/libasound.so.2
#5 0x00000000004ed622 in ?? ()
#6 0x000000000049239e in main ()

Program versions:
- alsa-lib: 1.0.17a-1
- mplayer: 1.0rc2-6
- kernel26: 2.6.26.5-1

Hardware:
Sound(a) : 82801G ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller module: snd-hda-intel
Comment by Andreas (andreasl) - Friday, 17 October 2008, 23:15 GMT
I also have the same problem with x86_64 and snd-hda-intel. My system crashes periodically during movie playback (smplayer 0.6.3) with ac3 sound enabled. Ac3 is being decoded to the amplifier through SPDIF optical output.
Comment by Jud (judfilm) - Thursday, 04 December 2008, 09:28 GMT
  • Field changed: Status (Unconfirmed → Assigned)
Does this still happen with kernel 2.6.27.7 and alsa 1.0.18?
Comment by Peter Csepely (Thief_hu) - Thursday, 04 December 2008, 18:38 GMT
Hi jud,

(on x86_64)

after kernel26 and alsa-lib upgrade the symptomes changed as follows:
- video player doesn't crash, but videos played back in a staccato style (I mean that when playback started, after a few (second|minute)s playback stops for a while (1, 2, 5, 10... seconds) the whole system freezes and continues, on system monitor a big processor usage spike appears)

but same day as xorg 7.4 moved to extra, I upgraded xorg but unfortunatly xorg 7.4 segfaults whith the latest catalyst driver... no shiny graphical interface, so I switched to xf86-video-radeonhd and my playback problemes disappeared :) I think that catalyst has something to do with staccato playback. If it's correct I'll never buy ati card next time...

If something changes I will let you know.

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