Hello,
newbie to linux sound here (but not to linux). I’m running opensuse 11.2 64 bit, kde desktop. Have performed the one click installation for the restricted codecs from here:
Restricted Formats/11.2 - openSUSE-Community
No matter what I use (amarok, kaffeine, etc) there’s heavy skipping / stuttering while playing back mp3 tracks.
Any ideas?
Pulse audio has been known to cause skipping problems. Did you enable pulse audio in KDE by chance?
If I work on the assumption that you enabled pulse and that it might be a pulse audio problem, and in that case please go here to step-7 in the openSUSE audio troubleshooting guide: SDB:AudioTroubleshooting - openSUSE - step 7 and try some of the fixes there. Be certain to look at the Links.
For example, on my sandbox PC (running gnome) I ended up doing the advice from here http://en.opensuse.org/Pulseaudio:
Glitches in audio playback
Edit /etc/pulse/daemon.conf: uncomment the default-fragments and default-fragment-size-msec, and change values from the default 4 and 25 to 16 and 21.
IF you did NOT enable pulse, then check your applications settings/preferences in (amarok, kaffeine, etc) and switch to the “xine” sound engine (and not gstreamer) and see if that helps. Ensure you installed the packman packaged libxine1.
Thanks for your very prompt reply. How cam I tell if I have pulse-audio enabled?
on amarok, the default output device preference setting shows:
Audigy SE[SB0570] <— first
CA106
PulseAudio <— last
the backend preferences show
Xine <— first
GStreamer <— last
You are told when you install.
You could also run the diagnostic script:
/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh
Just on the off chance, try this.
Go thru this: Multi-media and Restricted Format Installation Guide - openSUSE Forums
make sure Videolan (VLC) repo is disabled.
And finally do this
http://public.bay.livefilestore.com/y1plLhhjS70v5k_dMM4ZDXanIAPKzEDu4DDILKPSef4MpCvUILpkM_vbSq49l3_pXpWk3bwPzJijccgd8AJrIDOIQ/Packman%20Filter%20Final.png
You also told us nothing about your motherboard/cpu/ram.
What happens if you disable special desktop effects ?
Thank you both for all your help.
This is what I get from running /usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh
!!Sound Servers on this system
!!----------------------------
Pulseaudio:
Installed - Yes (/usr/bin/pulseaudio)
Running - No
ESound Daemon:
Installed - Yes (/usr/bin/esd)
Running - No
Mainboard is a Tyan 2915-E, 2 sockets, Opterons, 8 GB RAM
I have libxine1 1.1.17-1pm23.4 installed, as well as libxine1-32bit, libxine1-codecs, libxine1-gnome-vfs, and libxin1-pulse
libdvdcss is also installed
ok, since this is a new machine, and I’ve got some time on my hands, I’ve decided to do a clean reinstall (from scratch) of openSuse and, instead of doing a one click install of the restricted formats tools and codecs, I’ll follow these steps:
Multi-media and Restricted Format Installation Guide - openSUSE Forums
I’ll keep you posted!
I decided to follow the procedure outlined here:
Multi-media and Restricted Format Installation Guide - openSUSE Forums
Now I can listen to my mp3s while I work, but ONLY with MPlayer – not with amarok or kaffeine, where the skipping is terrible.
Anyways, I’m happy. Thanks a lot. In a couple of hours I’ll do a clean install anyways.
Its likely that both amarok and kaffeine are using the xine sound engine, so its quiet possible something is misconfigured in xine.
Install xine-ui (packaged by packman) and then see if you can tune the settings in xine. Once xine-ui is installed you can type xine , then right click on the window that pops and and select Settings > Setup and under “gui” change configuration experience level to “master of the known universe” (or something silly like that) and then close and restart xine. This time under Settings > Setup go to “audio” and under audio driver to use try “alsa” or try “oss”.
unfortunately, neither worked.
Did you test with special desktop effects disabled?