pulseaudio ratelimit.c messages and jittery sound

Bug #545065 reported by Hew
182
This bug affects 34 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
linux (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: pulseaudio

I receive a whole bunch of messages in messages.log:

Mar 24 00:08:41 quad pulseaudio[1463]: ratelimit.c: 344 events suppressed
Mar 24 00:08:46 quad pulseaudio[1463]: ratelimit.c: 976 events suppressed
Mar 24 00:08:52 quad pulseaudio[1463]: ratelimit.c: 868 events suppressed
Mar 24 00:08:57 quad pulseaudio[1463]: ratelimit.c: 839 events suppressed
Mar 24 00:09:02 quad pulseaudio[1463]: ratelimit.c: 980 events suppressed
...etc

This only happens at certain times, like when playing some songs with rhythmbox or banshee. The sound goes jittery, like a slight pause a few times each second. This happened on my old machine as well. I have done a fresh install of Lucid Beta 1 but the problem still occurs.

ProblemType: Bug
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: hew 1463 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: hew 1463 F...m pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'SB'/'HDA ATI SB at 0xfe024000 irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC888'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0888,1458e601,00100001'
   Controls : 39
   Simple ctrls : 21
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'HDMI'/'HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfdffc000 irq 19'
   Mixer name : 'ATI R6xx HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:1002aa01,00aa0100,00100100'
   Controls : 4
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card1.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [off]
Date: Wed Mar 24 00:12:11 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Beta amd64 (20100318)
Package: pulseaudio 1:0.9.22~0.9.21+stable-queue-32-g8478-0ubuntu12
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_AU.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-16.25-generic
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-16-generic x86_64

Revision history for this message
Hew (hew) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Daniel T Chen (crimsun) wrote :

Can you reproduce this with 2.6.32-17.26-generic? Can you try the suggestion from CurrentDmesg.txt (for hda-intel)?

affects: pulseaudio (Ubuntu) → linux (Ubuntu)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Hew (hew) wrote :

The problem still occurs with 2.6.32-17-generic. The suggestion from CurrentDmesg.txt appears to be referring to card #1 (HDMI on my graphics card) which I'm not using, and I'm not sure how to fix this.

Revision history for this message
asasoft (asasoft) wrote :

I think this is the same as Bug #434436

Revision history for this message
Hew (hew) wrote :

I don't think it's a duplicate since I haven't received any crashing, only stuttering sound and those log messages.

Still occurs with 10.04 release.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → New
Revision history for this message
Colan Schwartz (colan) wrote :

Getting this in Lucid too. No problems with playback, just messages like this:

pulseaudio[1874]: ratelimit.c: 520 events suppressed

The number goes up when listening to audio (even though it's working).

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
aslam karachiwala (akwala) wrote :

Happens on my Ubuntu 10.04 amd64 w/ the latest dev alsa driver -- repository: ppa:ubuntu-audio-dev/ppa --

$ cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.
Compiled on May 15 2010 for kernel 2.6.32-22-generic (SMP).

Playback audio skips/stutters and I see these recurring in syslog:

May 16 16:25:24 _name_ pulseaudio[4866]: ratelimit.c: 17 events suppressed
May 16 16:25:40 _name_ pulseaudio[4866]: ratelimit.c: 8 events suppressed
May 16 16:25:45 _name_ pulseaudio[4866]: ratelimit.c: 14 events suppressed
May 16 16:26:06 _name_ pulseaudio[4866]: ratelimit.c: 4 events suppressed
May 16 16:26:28 _name_ pulseaudio[4866]: ratelimit.c: 6 events suppressed
May 16 16:26:46 _name_ pulseaudio[4866]: ratelimit.c: 13 events suppressed
May 16 16:27:05 _name_ pulseaudio[4866]: ratelimit.c: 4 events suppressed
May 16 16:28:03 _name_ pulseaudio[4866]: ratelimit.c: 21 events suppressed

Revision history for this message
JB5 (sir-bunt) wrote :

Lucid(64) latest alsa driver module.
$ cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.
Compiled on May 13 2010 for kernel 2.6.32-22-generic (SMP).

I also see the above ratelimit entries, see attached.

I occasionally (Once every ca. 20-30mins) experience a small jump/skip forward (<=1 second) when listening to sound, either streamed via the internet or played locally through Exaile for example.

Problem appears far less aggressive in my situation (cf OP), but if I can supply any further info please let me know.

Revision history for this message
Marcelo Toscani Brandão (mtbrandao) wrote :

It also happens with me.

And to tell the truth, I didn't even noticed and stuttering on the audio.

Jun 7 16:41:30 Zangief pulseaudio[1477]: ratelimit.c: 152 events suppressed
Jun 7 16:41:35 Zangief pulseaudio[1477]: ratelimit.c: 678 events suppressed
Jun 7 16:41:40 Zangief pulseaudio[1477]: ratelimit.c: 174 events suppressed
Jun 7 16:41:45 Zangief pulseaudio[1477]: ratelimit.c: 658 events suppressed
Jun 7 16:41:50 Zangief pulseaudio[1477]: ratelimit.c: 196 events suppressed
Jun 7 16:41:55 Zangief pulseaudio[1477]: ratelimit.c: 635 events suppressed
Jun 7 16:42:00 Zangief pulseaudio[1477]: ratelimit.c: 219 events suppressed
Jun 7 16:42:05 Zangief pulseaudio[1477]: ratelimit.c: 611 events suppressed
Jun 7 16:42:10 Zangief pulseaudio[1477]: ratelimit.c: 243 events suppressed
Jun 7 16:42:15 Zangief pulseaudio[1477]: ratelimit.c: 610 events suppressed

Those are the messages, and it repeats itself hundreds of times.

Revision history for this message
Demosthenes (demosthenes) wrote :

I'm getting stuttering in my audio too - using Audigy2 card. Never happened before in any other Ubuntu or Windows OS. VLC is unplayable, other applications stutter noticeably enough to be annoying. Any logs or other details I can post?

Revision history for this message
Demosthenes (demosthenes) wrote :

And I am using a fresh Ubuntu 10.4 install on a freshly formatted filesystem.

Revision history for this message
lunix (hofmann98765) wrote :

I could stop the ratelimit.c messages bei changing the log-level. To do that edit /etc/pulse/daemon.conf:

Change the line:

;log-level = notice

into:

log-level = error

I don't have stottering.

Revision history for this message
Demosthenes (demosthenes) wrote :

I have no idea what happened, I remember following some site advising me to uninstall a bunch of PulseAudio packages and install something else and everything seems fixed now - I even have my log file back. I did change some applications to use ALSA though (like VLC I think). Anyway if anyone needs my configuration and installed packages I'm happy to help if someone can tell me how.

Revision history for this message
Daniel Lombraña González (teleyinex) wrote :

I have the same problem here. Fresh Lucid installation.

Revision history for this message
Oleg Yaroshevych (brainunit) wrote :

Same problem with sound, same log entries. Fresh 10.04 system (2.6.32-24-generic x86_64) with ATI video and C-Media sound.

Banshee is not usable at all after 30 seconds of playing. VLC sound and video playback become jittery after 10-15 minutes, then stops. Tried to switch VLC to ALSA in VLC settings - same problems. In both cases (banshee and VLC) pulseaudio process eats 100% CPU.

Very annoying!

Revision history for this message
Rick Gabriel (klaxian1) wrote :

Upgrading to kernel 2.6.35 fixed the problem for me. Does this mean that it's not a pulse problem? I was thinking either some timing/scheduling bug or an issue with older Realtek drivers.

Revision history for this message
Oleg Yaroshevych (brainunit) wrote :

Switched from C-Media sound card to built-in sound on my Asus motherboard. This solved the problem for me.

Revision history for this message
Troy James Sobotka (troy-sobotka) wrote :

You can induce this with complete regularity using an audio intensive app such as Blender.

This requires more attention. I'm sure there are _plenty_ of people that don't know their intermittent system slowdowns and slug outs are directly related to PulseAudio.

ratelimit.c gag ups fill up my /var/log/syslog and make for a pretty unworkable workstation.

Revision history for this message
Stephen Hemminger (shemminger) wrote :

Come on just kill the message in pulseaudio source. It is not a useful message.

Revision history for this message
aslam karachiwala (akwala) wrote :

The issue is not just the recurring "ratelimit.c" messages in the logs. The "jittery" sound, or skipping/stuttering, renders the system unusable for multimedia & voice comm. It is not clear whether the log messages are related to the sound problem, but they do seem to occur together.

It would help to know what is known so far about these issues. People seem to have been able to fix the sound problems by upgrading to Alsa 1.0.23, but I'm not one of them. Disabling PulseAudio sometimes eliminates the skipping/stuttering, but not consistently.

Revision history for this message
Wouter van Vliet (me-woutervanvliet) wrote :

I have the same problem, not generally a problem while listening to music - but I have some sound issues while stalking on Skype.

Revision history for this message
Wouter van Vliet (me-woutervanvliet) wrote :

Ehmm, if I had the option to edit - I would have written "talking" obviously ;)

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Sancho (sancho-sancho) wrote :

Same here, also affects the fresh install of Maverick on 3 notebooks.

Revision history for this message
carbonariy (carbonariy) wrote :

Confirm on ASUS UL30A notebook with fresh maverick installation (includes all updates).
Also this bag related to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/659030
After installing last kernel from kernel-ppa (2.6.36-rc8) both don't appear

Revision history for this message
carbonariy (carbonariy) wrote :

Also I try to install kernel 2.6.35-7 from kernel-ppa. Same result, sound works fine

Revision history for this message
Ravi Raj (khmedia) wrote :

Same here:

pulseaudio[1578]: ratelimit.c: 299 events suppressed
pulseaudio[1578]: ratelimit.c: 576 events suppressed

continuous jittery/buzzing sound while pulseaudio inactive (no sound playing). But, if I play some sound like any mp3 it goes off. Again, starts after stopping mp3 after 2-3 minutes.

Please help anyone.

Revision history for this message
Ryan Lovett (ryan-spacecoaster) wrote :

This happens when I use Skype. The audio lags behind the video by about 2 seconds.

Revision history for this message
carbonariy (carbonariy) wrote :

Try to updating pulseaudio from ppa:ricotz/unstable. On my system (ASUS UL30A) this action resolve any sound problem (was https://bugs.launchpad.net/pulseaudio/+bug/496616 now all good).

Revision history for this message
Elias Kostyuchenko (elias-ilya-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Oooops, sorry, change status to "Confirmed". I'am sorry.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
assignee: nobody → Elias Kostyuchenko (elias-ilya)
assignee: Elias Kostyuchenko (elias-ilya) → nobody
Revision history for this message
Alicia Boya (ntrrgc) wrote :

I have this bug when I play a video with audio recorded 44100 Hz. With 48000 Hz there is no problem.

Revision history for this message
Alicia Boya (ntrrgc) wrote :

Using alsa as output does not seem to fix the problem.
Ubuntu lucid with kernel 2.6.38-8-generic-pae

cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.

root@rufian:/opt# lspci | grep -i audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 05)
01:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Redwood HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5600 Series]

(using Intel card)

Revision history for this message
Alicia Boya (ntrrgc) wrote :

Finally, my sample rate had nothing to do with pulse problem; it was a faad/ffaac issue.

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