Created attachment 356957 [details]
/var/log/messages output during skipping

Created attachment 356958 [details]
skipping output from pulseaudio -k ; pulseaudio -vvvv

while logging out and getting different pids for pulseaudio didn't seem to stop the issue from occurring, a full reboot of the computer did. so it's not skipping anymore.

Hmm, if you add "tsched=0" as parameter to the "load-module module-hal-detect" line in /etc/pulse/default.pa and restart PA, does the prob go away?

Same problem here with Fedora11-i686.  I can pick any random mp3 and it will
play ok for a few seconds, and then everything goes to noise & static, and
after a few seconds, it just dies.  In /var/log/messages, I see the following:

Aug 12 13:12:31 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-source.c: Increasing minimal
latency to 1.00 ms
Aug 12 13:13:00 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing minimal
latency to 1.00 ms
Aug 12 13:13:12 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing minimal
latency to 2.00 ms
Aug 12 13:13:18 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing minimal
latency to 4.00 ms
Aug 12 13:13:25 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing minimal
latency to 8.00 ms
Aug 12 13:13:26 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing minimal
latency to 16.00 ms
Aug 12 13:13:38 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing minimal
latency to 26.00 ms

Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing wakeup
watermark to 16.00 ms
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing minimal
latency to 36.00 ms
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_avail()
returned a value that is exceptionally large: 4294962144 bytes (22369594 ms).
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c: Most likely this is a
bug in the ALSA driver 'snd_intel8x0'. Please report this issue to the ALSA
developers.
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_dump():
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c: Hardware PCM card 0
'NVidia CK804' device 0 subdevice 0
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c: Its setup is:
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   stream       :
PLAYBACK
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   access       :
MMAP_INTERLEAVED
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   format       : S16_LE
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   subformat    : STD
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   channels     : 2
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   rate         : 48000
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   exact rate   : 48000
(48000/1)
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   msbits       : 16
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   buffer_size  : 16384
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   period_size  : 16384
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   period_time  : 341333
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   tstamp_mode  : ENABLE
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   period_step  : 1
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   avail_min    : 16384
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   period_event : 0
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   start_threshold  : -1
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   stop_threshold   :
1073741824
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   silence_threshold: 0
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   silence_size : 0
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   boundary     :
1073741824
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   appl_ptr     :
3818760
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   hw_ptr       :
3801088
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_delay()
returned a value that is exceptionally large: 342784 bytes (1785 ms).
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c: Most likely this is a
bug in the ALSA driver 'snd_intel8x0'. Please report this issue to the ALSA
developers.
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_dump():
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c: Hardware PCM card 0
'NVidia CK804' device 0 subdevice 0
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c: Its setup is:
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   stream       :
PLAYBACK
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   access       :
MMAP_INTERLEAVED
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   format       : S16_LE
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   subformat    : STD
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   channels     : 2
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   rate         : 48000
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   exact rate   : 48000
(48000/1)
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   msbits       : 16
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   buffer_size  : 16384
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   period_size  : 16384
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   period_time  : 341333
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   tstamp_mode  : ENABLE
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   period_step  : 1
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   avail_min    : 16384
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   period_event : 0
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   start_threshold  : -1
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   stop_threshold   :
1073741824
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   silence_threshold: 0
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   silence_size : 0
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   boundary     :
1073741824
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   appl_ptr     :
3887880
Aug 12 13:13:50 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: alsa-util.c:   hw_ptr       :
3802184
Aug 12 13:13:55 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: ratelimit.c: 28455 events suppressed
Aug 12 13:14:00 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: ratelimit.c: 32650 events suppressed
Aug 12 13:14:00 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing locally
Aug 12 13:14:00 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing locally
Aug 12 13:14:00 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing locally
Aug 12 13:14:00 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing locally
Aug 12 13:14:00 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing locally
Aug 12 13:14:00 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing locally
Aug 12 13:14:00 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing locally
Aug 12 13:14:00 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing locally
Aug 12 13:14:00 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing locally
Aug 12 13:14:00 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing locally
Aug 12 13:14:00 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing locally
Aug 12 13:14:04 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: cpulimit.c: Received request to
terminate due to CPU overload.
Aug 12 13:14:04 netllama pulseaudio[6445]: memblock.c: Memory pool destroyed
but not all memory blocks freed! 104485 remain.  

################


Lennart, will your suggested change take effect if i (re)start 'pulseaudio' or do I need to do something else?  Anyway, I made that change, killed and restarted 'pulseaudio' and the problem appears to have abated.  Prior to making that change I had restarted pulseaudio and reproduced the problem again, plus pulseaudio crashed, and dumped the following to stderr right before it died:

################
E: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_avail() returned a value that is exceptionally large: 4294938112 bytes (22369469 ms).
E: alsa-util.c: Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver 'snd_intel8x0'. Please report this issue to the ALSA developers.
E: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_dump():
E: alsa-util.c: Hardware PCM card 0 'NVidia CK804' device 0 subdevice 0
E: alsa-util.c: Its setup is:
E: alsa-util.c:   stream       : PLAYBACK
E: alsa-util.c:   access       : MMAP_INTERLEAVED
E: alsa-util.c:   format       : S16_LE
E: alsa-util.c:   subformat    : STD
E: alsa-util.c:   channels     : 2
E: alsa-util.c:   rate         : 48000
E: alsa-util.c:   exact rate   : 48000 (48000/1)
E: alsa-util.c:   msbits       : 16
E: alsa-util.c:   buffer_size  : 16384
E: alsa-util.c:   period_size  : 16384
E: alsa-util.c:   period_time  : 341333
E: alsa-util.c:   tstamp_mode  : ENABLE
E: alsa-util.c:   period_step  : 1
E: alsa-util.c:   avail_min    : 16384
E: alsa-util.c:   period_event : 0
E: alsa-util.c:   start_threshold  : -1
E: alsa-util.c:   stop_threshold   : 1073741824
E: alsa-util.c:   silence_threshold: 0
E: alsa-util.c:   silence_size : 0
E: alsa-util.c:   boundary     : 1073741824
E: alsa-util.c:   appl_ptr     : 318592
E: alsa-util.c:   hw_ptr       : 294912
E: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_delay() returned a value that is exceptionally large: 495584 bytes (2581 ms).
E: alsa-util.c: Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver 'snd_intel8x0'. Please report this issue to the ALSA developers.
E: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_dump():
E: alsa-util.c: Hardware PCM card 0 'NVidia CK804' device 0 subdevice 0
E: alsa-util.c: Its setup is:
E: alsa-util.c:   stream       : PLAYBACK
E: alsa-util.c:   access       : MMAP_INTERLEAVED
E: alsa-util.c:   format       : S16_LE
E: alsa-util.c:   subformat    : STD
E: alsa-util.c:   channels     : 2
E: alsa-util.c:   rate         : 48000
E: alsa-util.c:   exact rate   : 48000 (48000/1)
E: alsa-util.c:   msbits       : 16
E: alsa-util.c:   buffer_size  : 16384
E: alsa-util.c:   period_size  : 16384
E: alsa-util.c:   period_time  : 341333
E: alsa-util.c:   tstamp_mode  : ENABLE
E: alsa-util.c:   period_step  : 1
E: alsa-util.c:   avail_min    : 16384
E: alsa-util.c:   period_event : 0
E: alsa-util.c:   start_threshold  : -1
E: alsa-util.c:   stop_threshold   : 1073741824
E: alsa-util.c:   silence_threshold: 0
E: alsa-util.c:   silence_size : 0
E: alsa-util.c:   boundary     : 1073741824
E: alsa-util.c:   appl_ptr     : 419392
E: alsa-util.c:   hw_ptr       : 295496
N: alsa-sink.c: Increasing wakeup watermark to 30.00 ms
E: alsa-sink.c: ALSA woke us up to write new data to the device, but there was actually nothing to write!
E: alsa-sink.c: Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver 'snd_intel8x0'. Please report this issue to the ALSA developers.
E: alsa-sink.c: We were woken up with POLLOUT set -- however a subsequent snd_pcm_avail() returned 0 or another value < min_avail.
N: alsa-sink.c: Increasing wakeup watermark to 40.00 ms
N: alsa-sink.c: Increasing wakeup watermark to 50.00 ms
E: memblock.c: Assertion 'length' failed at pulsecore/memblock.c:356, function pa_memblock_new_fixed(). Aborting.
################

@Lennart: If of any help, I was following the same problem as part of bug 507088. I think the problem lies in the kernel in sound/core/pcm_lib.c. For my hardware, the last working kernel was 2.6.29.5-191. I used the pcm_lib.c file of 5-191 and recompiled the newest kernel (2.6.29.6-217.2.3), and everything works fine again. Refer to bug 507088 for more details. I also include there the patch and spec file to revert the pcm_lib.c file.

For completeness, It may be also the same with bug 506075, where Lubomir Rintel has provided a different fix (comment #8), for snd_intel_8x0. However, in 507088, it has been reported that the problem appears also on the following drivers:
- snd_intel_hda
- snd_via_82xx

Lonni, seriously, why do you post that stuff on every single bug you can find? This is really unnecessary noise. I read your stuff already the first time, your problem is a duplicate of bug 506075, please stop spamming unrelated bug reports, thank you. And Yannis, please keep things regarding bug 506075 on that specific bug!

Hi Lennart, since we last talked I've rebooted my machine several times and the problem hasn't resurfaced. I've been trying to reproduce with no luck. If it happens again, though, I'll try your suggestion in comment 4.

Interesting, I just experienced the exact same issue (with skipping during window switching/scrolling, etc. like Máirín described), and it also mysteriously went away after a reboot.  It occurred on my first boot into kernel-2.6.29.6-217.2.7.fc11.x86_64, for what it's worth - I'd be happy to provide any info here if it shows up again.

interesting, Ricky... I had a different kernel, kernel-2.6.29.4-167.fc11.x86_64, and it wasn't my first time booting it. :-/

Hi Lennart,

So the skipping started happening again. I tried your suggestion in comment 4. Here is what the relevant section of /etc/pulse/default.pa looks like in case I made a goof:

---

### Automatically load driver modules depending on the hardware available
.ifexists module-hal-detect.so
load-module module-hal-detect tsched=0
.else
### Alternatively use the static hardware detection module (for systems that
### lack HAL support)
load-module module-detect tsched=0
.endif

---

After writing these changes out, I restarted pulseaudio, killing it with pulseaudio -k and then running pulseaudio again.

The resulting behavior is really strange. E.g., I'll play a song in rhythmbox and it'll work fine if I don't touch the computer. When I switch windows from Rhythmbox over to Firefox or nautilus, though, the audio skips again and Rhythmbox stops redrawing, and it looks like metacity stops redrawing too, making everything sluggish. When I click over to rhythmbox, I wait for it to redraw and when it does, the audio stops outputting sound completely and the play progress bar starts going superfast. Eventually if I leave it in this state it starts making ugly static noises.

The symptoms at the bottom of comment 12 match those filed about Audacious in bug 524007 (Fedora 11 + a recent alsa-ng output plugin + alsa-plugins-pulseaudio + pulseaudio). Audio starts skipping, playback progress indicator moves forward quickly, possily system load increases. It's ALSA underruns that become fatal (with ALSA snd_pcm_recover failing to recover) and internal file descriptors that turn bad eventually. As a result, PulseAudio locks up in poll().

Since I've encountered audio freezes with/without PulseAudio before (and posted about it to fedora-devel-list in July), I've been tracking that also in the ALSA bug tracker (for snd-ens1371).

There, I've been pointed to this:
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.alsa.devel/66407
It's a broken thread view, so here's a different link:
http://mailman.alsa-project.org/pipermail/alsa-devel/2009-September/021049.html

It's a thread that discusses ALSA driver defaults and claims that the driver/alsa-lib defaults are not suitable for media player type applications. In particular, apps following Lennart Poettering's "safe API" guide (such as the mentioned Audacious alsa-ng output plugin) would be too simplistic as they ought to determine a "better" buffer-size and period. Skimming over the thread, it hasn't become clear to me whether and where to expect a fix.

This message is a reminder that Fedora 11 is nearing its end of life.
Approximately 30 (thirty) days from now Fedora will stop maintaining
and issuing updates for Fedora 11.  It is Fedora's policy to close all
bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained.  At that time
this bug will be closed as WONTFIX if it remains open with a Fedora 
'version' of '11'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version' 
to a later Fedora version prior to Fedora 11's end of life.

Bug Reporter: Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that 
we may not be able to fix it before Fedora 11 is end of life.  If you 
would still like to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it 
against a later version of Fedora please change the 'version' of this 
bug to the applicable version.  If you are unable to change the version, 
please add a comment here and someone will do it for you.

Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's 
lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events.  Often a 
more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes 
bugs or makes them obsolete.

The process we are following is described here: 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping

Fedora 11 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2010-06-25. Fedora 11 is 
no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further 
security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug.

If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of 
Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version.

Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.