Pulseaudio stutters and crashes under high cpu load

You can work around this by setting "no-cpu-limit = yes" in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf

I've tried setting it to yes, and it seems to improve the situation somewhat. But I have still managed to make it crash (or at least hang, I'm not sure which is worse...).

Please kill pulseaudio and run it in a terminal with pulseaudio -D -vv, and attach the output after it crashes.

Tim Skinner <email address hidden> wrote:

>I've tried setting it to yes, and it seems to improve the situation
>somewhat. But I have still managed to make it crash (or at least hang,
>I'm not sure which is worse...).
>
>--
>Pulseaudio stutters and crashes under high cpu load
>https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/279847
>You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
>Audio Team, which is subscribed to pulseaudio in ubuntu.

it doesn't run in the terminal with the -D flag, I just get:

tim@Bellerophon:~$ pulseaudio -D -vv
I: main.c: PolicyKit refuses acquire-high-priority privilige.
I: main.c: Called SUID root and real-time/high-priority scheduling was requested in the configuration. However, we lack the necessary priviliges:
I: main.c: We are not in group 'pulse-rt' and PolicyKit refuse to grant us priviliges. Dropping SUID again.
I: main.c: For enabling real-time scheduling please acquire the appropriate PolicyKit priviliges, or become a member of 'pulse-rt', or increase the RLIMIT_NICE/RLIMIT_RTPRIO resource limits for this user.
I: main.c: Note that real-time/high-priority scheduling is NOT normally required. If you experience crackling or other sound anomalies, consider one or more of the above solutions.
I: main.c: High-priority scheduling enabled in configuration but now allowed by policy. Disabling forcibly.
W: ltdl-bind-now.c: Failed to find original dlopen loader.
I: main.c: daemon startup successful.
tim@Bellerophon:~$

sorry, If I'm just being slow or something... Perhaps those warnings about real-time scheduling are significant?

The -D tells it to daemonize. You'll find output in /var/log/messages. The RT spam is irrelevant.

Tim Skinner <email address hidden> wrote:

>it doesn't run in the terminal with the -D flag, I just get:
>
>tim@Bellerophon:~$ pulseaudio -D -vv
>I: main.c: PolicyKit refuses acquire-high-priority privilige.
>I: main.c: Called SUID root and real-time/high-priority scheduling was requested in the configuration. However, we lack the necessary priviliges:
>I: main.c: We are not in group 'pulse-rt' and PolicyKit refuse to grant us priviliges. Dropping SUID again.
>I: main.c: For enabling real-time scheduling please acquire the appropriate PolicyKit priviliges, or become a member of 'pulse-rt', or increase the RLIMIT_NICE/RLIMIT_RTPRIO resource limits for this user.
>I: main.c: Note that real-time/high-priority scheduling is NOT normally required. If you experience crackling or other sound anomalies, consider one or more of the above solutions.
>I: main.c: High-priority scheduling enabled in configuration but now allowed by policy. Disabling forcibly.
>W: ltdl-bind-now.c: Failed to find original dlopen loader.
>I: main.c: daemon startup successful.
>tim@Bellerophon:~$
>
>sorry, If I'm just being slow or something... Perhaps those warnings
>about real-time scheduling are significant?
>
>--
>Pulseaudio stutters and crashes under high cpu load
>https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/279847
>You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
>Audio Team, which is subscribed to pulseaudio in ubuntu.

this is with "no-cpu-limit = yes". It hasn't crashed completely (using 90% cpu) and getting no audio.

this is with "no-cpu-limit =no". Has completely crashed

> sorry, If I'm just being slow or something... Perhaps those warnings about real-time scheduling are significant?

I'd say yes, add yourself to the pulse-rt group, log out and in again, and see if it's any better.

It's no better, if anything it now crackles a bit before failing.

When I run pulseaudio -vvv
the only message I get that seems to be related to the crash is:

'Soft CPU time limit exhausted, terminating.
Hard CPU time limit exhausted, terminating forcibly.
Aborted'

fixed in jaunty's 0.9.14-0ubuntu10

This bug was fixed in the package pulseaudio - 0.9.14-0ubuntu11

---------------
pulseaudio (0.9.14-0ubuntu11) jaunty; urgency=low

  [ Daniel T Chen ]
  * Reenable 0030_set_tsched0.patch, which re-disables glitch-free;
    too many users are reporting regressions and audio aberrations.
  * Adjust 0003_change_resample_and_buffering.patch to use linear
    resampler to work better with lack of PREEMPT in jaunty's
    -generic kernel config (LP: #207135, #322250, #332761, #335955,
    LP: #336965).
  * Last upload, specifically 0091_workaround_alsa_horkage, fixes:
    LP: #235990, #237443, #279847, #317997, #323185, #330814,
    LP: #334874.
  * sudo -H change in ubuntu6 fixed LP: #312505.
  * Closing old bugs fixed in 0.9.11+: LP: #187963, #193520, #211052.
  * Refresh 0006_regen-autotools.patch.
  * Add 0043_load_sample_dir_lazy.patch to cache
    /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/* in default.pa.
  * debian/:
    - control: Build against libcap2-dev (LP: #339448);
    - copyright: Update copyright from Debian's 0.9.14-2;
    - rules: Add DEB_OPT_FLAG = -O3 as per recommendation from
      pulseaudio-discuss/2007-December/001017.html.
  * Refresh fixes from git HEAD:
    - 0038_handle_errno_properly.patch,
    - 0091_workaround_alsa_horkage.patch,
    - 0092_fix_null_pointer_access.patch.

  [ Luke Yelavich ]
  * Add a special case to prevent Pulseaudio from being started when the
    blindness accessibility profile has been enabled from the Ubuntu live CD,
    and for an accessibility install. Unfortunately Pulseaudio and speech do
    not currently work very well with each other, and its too late in
    the cycle to solve this problem any other way.

 -- Luke Yelavich <email address hidden> Tue, 10 Mar 2009 09:00:40 +1100