Opensuse 11.3: Sound works, but stutters while moving window

English Multimedia
1

Hi,

I’m using OpenSUSe 11.3 and have problems: While moving windows or doing anything else, music gets faster, jumps forward or to interrupt. All worked fine in 11.1 and almost fine in 11.2.

hwinfo --sound

15: PCI 14.2: 0403 Audio device                                 
  [Created at pci.318]
  Unique ID: 5Dex.04rYcbu13CB
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.2
  SysFS BusID: 0000:00:14.2
  Hardware Class: sound
  Model: "ATI IXP SB4x0 High Definition Audio Controller"
  Vendor: pci 0x1002 "ATI Technologies Inc"
  Device: pci 0x437b "IXP SB4x0 High Definition Audio Controller"
  SubVendor: pci 0x144d "Samsung Electronics Co Ltd"
  SubDevice: pci 0xc02b 
  Revision: 0x01
  Driver: "HDA Intel"
  Driver Modules: "snd_hda_intel"
  Memory Range: 0xc0400000-0xc0403fff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  IRQ: 16 (22717 events)
  Module Alias: "pci:v00001002d0000437Bsv0000144Dsd0000C02Bbc04sc03i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    Driver Status: snd_hda_intel is active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe snd_hda_intel"
  Config Status: cfg=yes, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

uname -a

Linux linux-1bee.site 2.6.34-12-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT 2010-06-29 02:39:08 +0200 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

dmesg

  870.871275] ALSA hda_intel.c:711: azx_get_response timeout, switching to polling mode: last cmd=0x10a90000
  871.872017] ALSA hda_intel.c:719: No response from codec, disabling MSI: last cmd=0x10a90000
  872.873015] ALSA hda_intel.c:750: hda_intel: azx_get_response timeout, switching to single_cmd mode: last cmd=0x10a90000

Pulseaudio is already disabled by “setup-pulseaudio --disable”, but this did not help.

Thanks for any help.

2

Using speaker-test results in:

stefan@linux-1bee:~> speaker-test -tsine

speaker-test 1.0.23

Wiedergabe-Gerät ist default
Stream-Parameter sind 48000 Hz, S16_LE, 1 Kanäle
Sinuswelle mit Frequenz 440,0000 Hz
Rate ist 48000 Hz (angefordert: 48000 Hz)
Puffergröße von 2048 bis 8192
Periodengröße von 1024 bis 1024
Verwende maximale Puffergröße 8192
Perioden = 4
gesetzt: period_size = 1024
gesetzt: buffer_size = 8192
 0 - Vorne links
Schreibfehler: -32, Datenübergabe unterbrochen (broken pipe)
Schreibfehler: -32, Datenübergabe unterbrochen (broken pipe)
Schreibfehler: -32, Datenübergabe unterbrochen (broken pipe)

Using Ubuntu it works fine too: I found out, that there is a difference in interrupts:

Under Ubuntu, irq 16 is used.

In Opensuse cat /proc/interrupts retrievs 24:

           CPU0       CPU1       
  0:     112369          0   IO-APIC-edge      timer
  1:        500          0   IO-APIC-edge      i8042
  8:          1          0   IO-APIC-edge      rtc0
 12:      68187          0   IO-APIC-edge      i8042
 14:       8103          0   IO-APIC-edge      pata_atiixp
 15:       2859          0   IO-APIC-edge      pata_atiixp
 16:       7917          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   ath
 17:       6600          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   radeon
 18:          0          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   eth0
 19:          2          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   ehci_hcd:usb1, ohci_hcd:usb2, ohci_hcd:usb3
 20:          0          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   yenta
 21:        308          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   acpi
 22:          0          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   mmc0
 24:       2332          0   PCI-MSI-edge      hda_intel
NMI:          0          0   Non-maskable interrupts
LOC:     123332     141755   Local timer interrupts
SPU:          0          0   Spurious interrupts
PMI:          0          0   Performance monitoring interrupts
PND:          0          0   Performance pending work
RES:      37131      48591   Rescheduling interrupts
CAL:        140         53   Function call interrupts
TLB:       1338       1656   TLB shootdowns
TRM:          0          0   Thermal event interrupts
THR:          0          0   Threshold APIC interrupts
MCE:          0          0   Machine check exceptions
MCP:          2          2   Machine check polls
ERR:          1
MIS:          0

May be, I have a problem with interrupts?

Greetings,
Stefan

3

The same to me. Sound was ok with 11.2. Now, for example, it’s unpossible to watch a video, because the speech isn’t understandable because of the CPU load (I assume). When I choose the “Start” window in Kaffeine, so that there is no video image any more, the sound is much much better (but not completely ok).

Laptop: ASUS F5RL-AP277D

# hwinfo --sound
23: PCI 14.2: 0403 Audio device                                 
  [Created at pci.318]
  Unique ID: 5Dex.IOFetRyhSn6
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.2
  SysFS BusID: 0000:00:14.2
  Hardware Class: sound
  Model: "ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)"
  Vendor: pci 0x1002 "ATI Technologies Inc"
  Device: pci 0x4383 "SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)"
  SubVendor: pci 0x1043 "ASUSTeK Computer Inc."
  SubDevice: pci 0x1339 
  Driver: "HDA Intel"
  Driver Modules: "snd_hda_intel"
  Memory Range: 0xfebf4000-0xfebf7fff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  IRQ: 16 (150549 events)
  Module Alias: "pci:v00001002d00004383sv00001043sd00001339bc04sc03i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    Driver Status: snd_hda_intel is active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe snd_hda_intel"
  Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

Any hint how the problem could be solved? Thanks.

Schoeffler

4

You state this occurs when ‘moving’ a window, … does this happen when the window is NOT moving ?

If happens when moving … that suggests to me that something to do with the graphics processing involved in moving the window is impacting the sound. Ergo one needs to know what graphic hardware on your PCs, and what graphic driver any use, and what desktop (KDE or Gnome or Xfce or LXDE) and whether special desktop effects are enabled or disabled. If enabled, does the same happen when they are disabled?

Any hints as to what those graphic hardware/drivers might be ? :slight_smile:

5

Thank you for answering.

It’s not depending on CPU load, I tested this using a script loop.

You are right, it depends on the desktop effects. I use KDE. When I deactivate the desktop effects in KDE system control, I can watch a video as usual, provided I don’t move a window. When I move a window, speech cannot be understood, also when desktop effects are deactivated.

In Amarok, while moving a window, the music (mp3) plays accelerated, and the played time is displayed as running quicker.

When desktop effects are activated and there is no activity with the windows, then there is a short interruption in the sound every 2 seconds. It’s sufficient to absorb about a syllable when hearing speech.


# hwinfo --gfxcard
26: PCI 105.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)             
  [Created at pci.318]
  Unique ID: ul7N.ki6N8VLN_JB
  Parent ID: vSkL.4UFp5fHqms6
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:05.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:01:05.0
  Hardware Class: graphics card
  Model: "ATI Radeon XPRESS 200M 5A62 (PCIE)"
  Vendor: pci 0x1002 "ATI Technologies Inc"
  Device: pci 0x5a62 "Radeon XPRESS 200M 5A62 (PCIE)"
  SubVendor: pci 0x1043 "ASUSTeK Computer Inc."
  SubDevice: pci 0x1402 
  Driver: "radeon"
  Driver Modules: "drm"
  Memory Range: 0xc0000000-0xcfffffff (ro,non-prefetchable)
  I/O Ports: 0x9800-0x98ff (rw)
  Memory Range: 0xfa8f0000-0xfa8fffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0xfa8c0000-0xfa8dffff (ro,non-prefetchable,disabled)
  IRQ: 17 (88576 events)
  I/O Ports: 0x3c0-0x3df (rw)
  Module Alias: "pci:v00001002d00005A62sv00001043sd00001402bc03sc00i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    XFree86 v4 Server Module: radeon
  Driver Info #1:
    XFree86 v4 Server Module: fglrx
    3D Support: yes
    Extensions: dri
  Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #9 (PCI bridge)

Greetings

Schoeffler

6

The problem exists also in the IceWM-GUI.

Greetings

Schoeffler

7

I note the ATI Radeon XPRESS 200M with the radeon driver. Thats NOT a new card. Just the contrary. It is old. ATI do not even support that card any more under Windows nor under Linux.

What video player are you using? Did you try more than one? What output video mode have you selected in your video player? Did you try “xv” (ie xvideo) or try any other output video modes in your players to see if that provided an improvement?

8

I bought the laptop in June 2008, it was new. It’s labeled „Graphic: ATI Radeon Xpress 1100“, but I think that this doesn’t give us a new chance. I see that AMD has published Radeon Xpress 200M Catalyst driver version 10.2 for Vista on 23.02.2010.

I tried kaffeine and vlc, the problem exists with each of them. In kaffeine, I cannot see where to adjust video output modes. In vlc, I tried what is offered, but no improvement: speech can only be understood with desktop effects disabled and no window movement.

Greetings

Schoeffler

9

Please, can you try to be more exact in terms of your video player details. Unless I read the details you tried, I can’t be convinced you adequately tried the various options.

In the case of kaffeine, it obtains its video settings from the KDE desktop. Typically, if one does not see custom controls in a media player, then one can assume the media player gets its settings from the desktop. If not in the application, and if not from the desktop, then from where else could the settings be controlled? Hence thats a logical assumption that the settings are thus in the desktop (since not in the application), and not difficult to deduce. Perhaps the exception would be if the settings are in Pulse Audio (but that would not be the case for video, unless there is some proprietary driver video control).

So go to KMENU > Configure Desktop > Computer Administration > Multimedia > Backend and check which backend you have selected. GStreamer ? Xine? In either case, have you replaced the crippled SuSE-GmbH packaged GStreamer/libxine1 with the superior packaged Packman packaged version ?

If you have selected xine, then to tune the xine backend settings, you need an interface to access the xine settings (which is logical).

Hence if you look on both the OSS repository and the Packman repository, you will see the application xine-ui (ie the xine user interface). Install that application so as to tune the xine settings. Then run ‘xine’. In the window right click and select SETTINGS > SETUP > GUI > Configuration Experience Level and select ‘master of the known universe’. Apply that, close xine, and then restart xine so that setting is applied. Now under SETTINGS > SETUP > VIDEO > Video driver to use, instead of ‘auto’ try ‘xv’ or some other setting and see if that helps.

Also in xine under SETTINGS > SETUP > AUDIO > Audio driver to use you can look at trying something other than audio. Maybe try ‘OSS’ or some other setting. You likely need to close and restart for those settings to be applied.

Reference vlc, EXACTLY what video settings did you try ? When you say you ‘tried what is offered’ I have NO IDEA as to exactly what you tried, which makes it really impossible for me to say, “ok thats all you can do” or to say "hey! you missed setting x ".

10

I’m sorry, I don’t have in-depth knowledge of multimedia concepts by now, and misestimated the level of details you asked for.

libxine1 and GStreamer come from Packman:

# zypper info libxine1
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
                                                                                          
Information for package libxine1:                                                           
                                                                                            
Repository: @System                                                                         
Name: libxine1                                                                              
Version: 1.1.19-1.pm.44.1                                                                   
Arch: i586                                                                                  
Vendor: http://packman.links2linux.de                                                       
Installed: Yes                                                                              
Status: up-to-date                                                                          
Installed Size: 6.4 MiB                                                                     
Summary: Video Player with Plug-Ins  

# zypper info gstreamer-0_10
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

Information for package gstreamer-0_10:

Repository: @System
Name: gstreamer-0_10
Version: 0.10.29-9991.pm.9991.1
Arch: i586
Vendor: http://packman.links2linux.de
Installed: Yes
Status: up-to-date
Installed Size: 2.7 MiB
Summary: Streaming-Media Framework Runtime

The multimedia backend setting is xine. The video driver setting „xv“ in xine doesn’t help neither for kaffeine nor xine player. I tried „raw“, „opengl“ in xine player: the same, no improvement (this means: when desktop effects enabled: speech cannot be understood permanently; when desktop effects disabled: speech cannot be understood when moving a window). When I choose „none“, there is no video present (clear), but the sound is ok, except when moving a window. This is independent of desktop effects enabled or disabled.

Instead of moving a window, the sound is disturbed also for example when I press the return key in a konsole window, and the konsole window content must be scrolled one line. Then the sound is interrupted for about 2 seconds. The sound is not interrupted when I press the return key and the konsole window content is not scrolled, because e.g. the command prompt is in the first line of the konsole window. This is true for all audio drivers in xine (auto, pulseaudio, alsa, oss).

When I set the multimedia backend to GStreamer, I have the same appearance. The sound interruption by pressing the return key in the konsole windows lasts about 1/2 second.

As mentioned above, amarok shows some strange behaviour too. So the problem doesn’t seem to come from the video driver for multimedia playing.

Greetings

Schoeffler

11

I have no more suggestions. … Your hardware is not new, and unfortunately support is dwindling for it. Your best bet is likely to raise a bug report on this with guidance here: openSUSE:Submitting bug reports - openSUSE … however given the age of your hardware, I don’t hold much promise, as I am seeing a disappointing (to me) view of the packagers to stop supporting older hardware.

You could also try a different distribution, and if it works better post that information in the bug report (note - no point in posting about it here as we can not do anything with that information, but a packager monitoring the bug report might (be able to do something))

12

Actually, I do have one more suggestion. … Try a lighter weight desktop. LXDE for example. There will be NO special effects, but you ‘might’ have better multimedia performance.

13

Try a lighter weight desktop.

I think its bug. There were no problems with sound in opensuse 11.2 with same HW. I have same problem with my Lenovo R60 and Radeon X1400. I found workaround for mplayer using -ao sdl for audio output.

14

Are you using PulseAudio? I have slightly different hardware, but I was experiencing hard lockups which I was able to fix by granting PulseAudio realtime access and rolling my own kernel. That might not be helpful to you, but it worked for me.

15

No. I am not using pulse.

16

Hallo everybody!

I have the same problem on my Asus x50R Notebook with opensuse 11.3 KDE 4.4.4.

I added ‘nomodset’ to the boot command. This seem to resolve the problem with
scratchy sound when a window will moved. It indicates a problem in the new way to set the x-server in KMS. I guess. I am not very familiar with this.
Is that a possible work around?
Please let me know if its usable for you. :\

Thanks

17

Typically by specifiying nomodeset you end up with a different graphic driver being used. You can tell by looking inside your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file to see what driver is in use. Or simply look at the ‘mycomputer’ icon on your KDE plasma and that will also tell you what driver is in use when using ‘nomodeset’ and when not using ‘nomodeset’.

18

There is no change at all. Same driver. Just a lot of experimental stuff seem not in use now. And the sound is working propper. Systemsound and Amarok. Only the Modeline prepared by KMS seems disabled. if necessary, the mode option can be edit in the file ‘/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-monitor.conf’. I am not changeing anything else expect the boot params. And it works.

kraul

19

Hello!

I do have the same kind of problem. Sound stutters, not as hard as here described additionally you can here a jitter. Playing an audio file with kaffeine and playing acard game like patience is really terrible to listen.
I still have Suse 11.0 on my computer and there is everything really fine.
It seems this problem has to do something with the content on screen, meaning video, opening windows etc.
Really a hardware issue? Not in my mind.
If you read around in other forums this problem appears quite wide spread. In some cases: Problem solved, I changed back to 11.2.:expressionless:
Now I read: Ad to boot options ‘nomodeset’ . Please where exactly. Sorry I have tomatoes on my eyes. Or I’m an id…:shame:

Thank You in advance

Kalli

20

Adding ‘nomodeset’ is a recommendation that is mostly specific to openSUSE-11.3 and it is mentioned in the openSUSE-11.3 release notes.