Re: [BUG] ALSA FireWire: poll timeout causes JACK to stop (6.10 – 6.17-rc2)

[Takashi Sakamoto <o-takashi@sakamocchi.jp>]

Hi,

I'm sorry for your inconvenience.

If you have ever used your device with Pipewire, I would like to see
your experiences how it works, since both servers uses the different
ways to handle ALSA PCM device in respect to no-period-wakeup mode..

On Tue, Sep 02, 2025 at 03:11:52PM +0500, Илья Кузнецов wrote:
> ________________________________
> 
> Hello ALSA developers,
> 
> I would like to report a reproducible issue with snd-fireface on Linux
> kernels 6.10 through 6.17-rc2.
> 
> ________________________________
> 
> System Information
> 
> Kernel versions tested: 6.10 → 6.17-rc2
> 
> Audio interface: RME Fireface 800
> 
> Driver in use: snd-fireface
> 
> Audio server: JACK (tested with jackd and QJackCtl)
> 
> Distribution: Debian 12
> 
> Kernel config: ALSA FireWire drivers enabled, no FFADO in use
> 
> Chip 1394: Texas Instrumets
> 
> ________________________________
> 
> Steps to Reproduce
> 
> Boot kernel 6.10 … 6.17-rc2 with snd-fireface loaded.
> 
> Start JACK with ALSA backend, for example:
> 
> jackd -d alsa -d hw:Fireface -p 64 -n 3
> 
> Use the system normally — during playback, recording, or even when
> idle. The issue may occur at any time without apparent external cause.
> 
> Actual Behavior
> 
> After some idle time, ALSA stops responding and JACK prints:
> 
> ERROR: ALSA: poll time out, polled for ... usecs
> ERROR: JackAudioDriver::ProcessAsync: read error, stopping...
> 
> JACK immediately terminates. The Fireface 800 does not recover until
> JACK is restarted.
> 
> ________________________________
> 
> Expected Behavior
> 
> The ALSA FireWire driver should maintain the stream and allow JACK to
> continue running without manual restart, even when idle.
> 
> ________________________________
> 
> Notes
> 
> With FFADO backend (jackd -d firewire), the same hardware works
> reliably and does not exhibit this issue.
> 
> This suggests that the problem lies in the ALSA FireWire streaming
> engine rather than the hardware itself.
> 
> The problem has been reproducible across all tested kernels (vanila,
> rt, liquorix) from 6.10 through 6.17-rc2.
> 
> ________________________________
> 
> Request
> 
> Could you please confirm if this issue is known?
> Is there any ongoing work on the ALSA FireWire streaming engine
> (snd-fireface) to address these poll timeout conditions?
> 
> I can provide additional logs (dmesg, journalctl) or test patches if needed.
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Ilya Kuznetsov.


Regards

Takashi Sakamoto