audio skips, pulseaudio -vvv shows underrun in module-alsa-sink.c

BTW, I have two audio devices, one on-board (AC97) that I do not use, and a SoundBlaster PCI 128 (Ensoniq 5880B) with which the above described behavior occurs. I have attached the output of lspci for details.

Here's a log file of th eoutput of pulseaudio when started with -vvv as command line option. During the playback, the above described behavior happens twice. The first time I also could resolve the issue by pausing the audio and wait a couple of seconds. On resuming playback, the audio was normal again.

Hi rjmoerland,

This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux 388081

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

Hey,

Indeed it's still an issue on the specific machine I used to report this issue. It's still running jaunty as it's a perfectly stable system otherwise. Nevertheless, I will test for this issue with the most recent 10.4 alpha version and report on the results.

Thanks!

It is still a big issue! One of my machines, that never had audio problems with previous Ubuntu versions, renders audio playback unusable with Lucid. It doesn't matter what program do I use and I doesn't matter whether it's audio, video or flash playback. It keeps skipping.

Today I started PA with debug and when it started skipping audio, PA gave output:

D: alsa-sink.c: Wakeup from ALSA!
I: alsa-sink.c: Underrun!
I: alsa-sink.c: Increasing wakeup watermark to 50,00 ms
D: protocol-native.c: Underrun on ''The Racing Rats' by 'Editors'', 0 bytes in queue.
D: protocol-native.c: Requesting rewind due to rewrite.
D: alsa-sink.c: Requested to rewind 39124 bytes.
D: alsa-sink.c: Limited to 6836 bytes.
D: alsa-sink.c: before: 1709
D: alsa-sink.c: after: 1709
D: alsa-sink.c: Rewound 6836 bytes.
D: sink.c: Processing rewind...
D: sink-input.c: Have to rewind 6836 bytes on render memblockq.
D: sink-input.c: Have to rewind 13672 bytes on implementor.
D: source.c: Processing rewind...
D: protocol-native.c: Requesting rewind due to rewrite.
D: alsa-sink.c: Requested to rewind 39376 bytes.
D: alsa-sink.c: Limited to 7036 bytes.
D: alsa-sink.c: before: 1759
D: alsa-sink.c: after: 1759
D: alsa-sink.c: Rewound 7036 bytes.
D: sink.c: Processing rewind...
D: sink-input.c: Have to rewind 7036 bytes on render memblockq.
D: sink-input.c: Have to rewind 14072 bytes on implementor.
D: source.c: Processing rewind...

And it goes on and on and on, until at some point it plays ok for few minutes, then starts skipping again.

As for machine, it has onboard audio:
Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc RS780 Azalia controller

For me (original reporter), it seems like this is not an issue anymore after an upgrade to the lucid distribution. I've been playing audio for a couple of hours now and haven't heard a single hiccup. I had the exact same issues as poster #6, but for me they've disappeared.

I forgot to mention afterwards.... Bios upgrade of motherboard solved those problems.

Upgraded to 10.04 and now I have a stuttering problem with music played over Rhythmbox.

I have added the -VVV flag and I get these kind of messages:

May 2 08:46:26 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Underrun!
May 2 08:46:26 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing wakeup watermark to 30.00 ms
May 2 08:47:20 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Underrun!
May 2 08:47:20 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing wakeup watermark to 40.00 ms
May 2 08:47:21 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Underrun!
May 2 08:47:21 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing wakeup watermark to 50.00 ms
May 2 08:48:40 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Underrun!
May 2 08:48:40 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing wakeup watermark to 60.00 ms
May 2 08:49:28 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: client.c: Created 10 "EsounD client (UNIX socket client)"
May 2 08:50:20 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Underrun!
May 2 08:50:20 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing wakeup watermark to 70.00 ms
May 2 08:50:21 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Underrun!
May 2 08:50:21 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing wakeup watermark to 80.00 ms
May 2 08:54:20 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Underrun!
May 2 08:54:20 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing minimal latency to 1.00 ms
May 2 08:56:20 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Underrun!
May 2 08:56:20 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing minimal latency to 2.00 ms
May 2 08:56:21 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Underrun!
May 2 08:56:21 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing minimal latency to 4.00 ms
May 2 08:58:20 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Underrun!
May 2 08:58:20 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing minimal latency to 8.00 ms
May 2 08:58:21 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Underrun!
May 2 08:58:21 temuko pulseaudio[1287]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing minimal latency to 16.00 ms

I have also seen the wireless noise floor messages although not today.

I have added my name to the pulse and pulse-access group. There is no pulse-rt group (?)

I added the following line to /etc/pulse/client.conf and restarted

extra-arguments = --log-target=syslog --realtime=1 --high-priority=1 --fail=1 -vvv

I am currently using an external USB DAC, a total bithead.

Still having this problem with lucid and my USB DAC. Here's a more minimal set of messages. The underruns occurred about 5 minutes into playing the first song of the day with Rhythmbox. The audio effect was a sort of "stutter" in the music.

I would be pleased to run apport or any other testing required!

May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: alsa-sink.c: Trying resume...
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: alsa-sink.c: Resumed successfully...
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: alsa-sink.c: Starting playback.
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: ratelimit.c: 1 events suppressed
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: sink-input.c: Created input 1 "Playback Stream" on alsa_output.usb-Burr-Brown_from_TI_USB_Audio_CODEC-00-default.analog-stereo with sample spec s16le 2ch 44100Hz and channel map front-left,front-right
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: sink-input.c: media.name = "Playback Stream"
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: sink-input.c: application.name = "Rhythmbox"
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: sink-input.c: native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: sink-input.c: native-protocol.version = "16"
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: sink-input.c: media.role = "music"
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: sink-input.c: application.process.id = "2016"
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: sink-input.c: application.process.user = "clh"
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: sink-input.c: application.process.host = "temuko"
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: sink-input.c: application.process.binary = "rhythmbox"
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: sink-input.c: application.icon_name = "rhythmbox"
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: sink-input.c: window.x11.display = ":0.0"
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: sink-input.c: application.language = "en_CA.utf8"
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: sink-input.c: application.process.machine_id = "76ff65a789ddffd68a9d1bfd4bdb541e"
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: sink-input.c: application.process.session_id = "76ff65a789ddffd68a9d1bfd4bdb541e-1273334136.700155-1606288336"
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: sink-input.c: module-stream-restore.id = "sink-input-by-media-role:music"
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: protocol-native.c: Requested tlength=200.00 ms, minreq=10.00 ms
May 8 09:26:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: protocol-native.c: Final latency 200.00 ms = 90.00 ms + 2*10.00 ms + 90.00 ms
May 8 09:30:28 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: alsa-sink.c: Underrun!
May 8 09:30:28 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing wakeup watermark to 30.00 ms
May 8 09:30:40 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: ratelimit.c: 7 events suppressed
May 8 09:30:40 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: alsa-sink.c: Underrun!
May 8 09:30:40 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: alsa-sink.c: Increasing wakeup watermark to 40.00 ms
May 8 09:30:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: module-suspend-on-idle.c: Sink alsa_output.usb-Burr-Brown_from_TI_USB_Audio_CODEC-00-default.analog-stereo idle for too long, suspending ...
May 8 09:30:42 temuko pulseaudio[1309]: alsa-...

This bug report was marked as Incomplete and has not had any updated comments for quite some time. As a result this bug is being closed. Please reopen if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu development release http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ . Also, please be sure to provide any requested information that may have been missing. To reopen the bug, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]