XMMS (alsa) Playback Stops Randomly

alienvenom

At first I thought it was because of a large amount of disk activity (I was emerging something) but it also happens when I browse websites that take a while to render. Perhaps it's got something to do with high CPU usage...

I installed the drivers the same way I always have... Not using the ones built into the kernel, emerged them, using the intel8x0 driver.

Is this normal behavior? I've not experienced such a thing before. If so, how would I go about disabling it? The weird thing is, XMMS almost appears as if its in a "paused" state. It just doesn't say "paused" though.

The only config file that I think would have anyting to do with it is /etc/asound.conf:

bakreule · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:18 pm Post subject:

I had a similiar problem a little while back. My solution was to activate pre-emption in the kernel. Which kernel are you running?

Before the hoards descend on me with flaming swords, let me say that this was MY solution. It's probably not the best one. People say pre-emption slows things down, but it fixed my sound problem, and I didn't notice any general slowdown.

That being said, this was back with 2.6.6, and kernel pre-emption is no longer activated by default, so maybe I should try disabling it again.....

alienvenom · 2.6.10-gentoo-r5

2.6.10-gentoo-r5

bakreule · Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 6:56 pm Post subject:

How did it go? Did you recompile the kernel? Did it work?

alienvenom · Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:06 pm Post subject:

Well, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I'm still trying to figure out what is triggering it to stop playing randomly.

I may just re-emerge XMMS. I had Bleep (god forbid) Media Player installed. I'm not sure how it got installed, but I don't like it. Since it is very much related to XMMS (which is what I've noticed this random sound stoppage in), I'm thinking may have interfered at one point.

I also noticed that with XMMS open, if you try to launch Bleep, interesting things happen. On my computer, it caused XMMS to change to the next track -- weird.

Ateo · Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:20 pm Post subject:

I had a similar issue with BMP. Turns out it was an issue with libmpeg123 and alsa. However, this only occured with gentoo-dev + alsa (using either the built in OR the alsa-driver package). I use ck sources but decided to try gentoo-dev for gensplash as I wasn't successful with patching my kernel for it.

Try launching xmms from terminal and see what the dump is when it crashes. If that doesn't get you anything, use gdb to run the program to debug. This might give you or others some clues as to what's happening.

hans0r · Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2005 1:14 am Post subject:

i had the same problem. switching to bmp "solved" it.

no more mysterious playback-freezes.

i don't know what you have against bmp. i really like it. it even looks better

Ateo · Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2005 4:22 am Post subject:

zidour · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 29 Apr 2004 Posts: 103

I have the same issue. When CPU usage reaches 100%, XMMS stops playing. My kernel is gentoo-dev-sources 2.6.11-r4, I use the same configuration of ALSA.
Did you solve the problem?
Thanks,
Z.

Given M. Sur · Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 4:44 am Post subject:

Same problem here. It's quite annoying.

I tried reniceing xmms to -5 (every other user process is niced at 0) and that didn't help at all.

I guess it's time to start looking for alternatives to xmms

edit: Based on the other threads on these forums it seems to be related to dmix, and also seems to affect bmp for some people.

This really sucks.

I'm gonna try xmms niced at -10. -- edit2: that doesn't work either. :evil:

Given M. Sur · Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 5:34 am Post subject:

I filed a bug report: https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=87999

Since all of my music is now ripped to my hard drive, I would really like it to be resolved. It really sucks to not be able to listen to songs the whole way through.

opentaka · l33t Joined: 18 Feb 2005 Posts: 840 Location: Japan

same problem here to..
but it works fine in my 2.0.11-r4 gentoo box in my laptop without dmix(but alsa) but 2.6.10-r6 with dmix(and alsa) doesnt work.
it annoys me.. looks like streaming music doesnt randamly stop, only local mp3 files.
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Given M. Sur · Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2005 6:21 am Post subject:

Ya, it's definately a dmix problem. I disabled dmix and haven't had any problems since. I had to turn off sounds in gaim though, becuase I couldn't take the long stream of chimes after I finish listening to a few songs.

I'm not too happy with this workaround, but at least I can listen to music without saying "What the fuck!!!!" every few minutes.

Errrr.... I guess I spoke too soon. It just happened with no dmix. Definately not as often as before though, as it's only happened once in about 2 hours worth of music as opposed to 80 times in two hours worth of music.

opentaka · l33t Joined: 18 Feb 2005 Posts: 840 Location: Japan

yaya I first thoght its my alsa problem or my hardware gone mad, but good to know someone has the same error.
I use moc now and it works cool, but dmix doesnt work on moc, thats the only sad thing

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"Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent" - Marilyn vos Savant

paolo · l33t Joined: 23 Jul 2002 Posts: 768 Location: SBT (AP)

I've got the same prob (music stop) here with Beep Media Player. Resolved disabling Mmap in the Preferences of the output plugin (alsa), but now with high CPU load sounds crappy...
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Given M. Sur · Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2005 8:58 pm Post subject:

I've been using xmms with the OSS output plugin for the last few days, and haven't had the problem since.

I'll add that to the bug report later today.
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