"Cannot allocate memory" problem with latest CVS

"Cannot allocate memory" problem with latest CVS

[Chris Rankin]

Hi,

The 'cannot allocate memory' problem has returned on
my machine:

$ aplay /usr/lib/sounds/ring.wav 
Playing WAVE '/usr/lib/sounds/ring.wav' : Unsigned 8
bit, Rate 22050 Hz, Mono
ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:297:(snd_pcm_hw_hw_params)
SNDRV_PCM_IOCTL_HW_PARAMS failed: Cannot allocate
memory
aplay: set_params:814: Unable to install hw params:
ACCESS:  RW_INTERLEAVED
FORMAT:  U8
SUBFORMAT:  STD
SAMPLE_BITS: 8
FRAME_BITS: 8
CHANNELS: 1
RATE: 22050
PERIOD_TIME: 100000
PERIOD_SIZE: 2205
PERIOD_BYTES: 2205
PERIODS: 5
BUFFER_TIME: 500000
BUFFER_SIZE: 11025
BUFFER_BYTES: 11025
TICK_TIME: 10000


$ aplay /usr/lib/sounds/jungle_exit.wav 
Playing WAVE '/usr/lib/sounds/jungle_exit.wav' :
Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 22050 Hz, Stereo
ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:297:(snd_pcm_hw_hw_params)
SNDRV_PCM_IOCTL_HW_PARAMS failed: Cannot allocate
memory
aplay: set_params:814: Unable to install hw params:
ACCESS:  RW_INTERLEAVED
FORMAT:  S16_LE
SUBFORMAT:  STD
SAMPLE_BITS: 16
FRAME_BITS: 32
CHANNELS: 2
RATE: 22050
PERIOD_TIME: 100000
PERIOD_SIZE: 2205
PERIOD_BYTES: 8820
PERIODS: 5
BUFFER_TIME: 500000
BUFFER_SIZE: 11025
BUFFER_BYTES: 44100
TICK_TIME: 10000


$ aplay /usr/lib/sounds/star_trek_6_overture.au
Playing Sparc Audio
'/usr/lib/sounds/star_trek_6_overture.au' : Mu-Law,
Rate 8000 Hz, Mono
ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:297:(snd_pcm_hw_hw_params)
SNDRV_PCM_IOCTL_HW_PARAMS failed: Cannot allocate
memory
aplay: set_params:814: Unable to install hw params:
ACCESS:  RW_INTERLEAVED
FORMAT:  MU_LAW
SUBFORMAT:  STD
SAMPLE_BITS: 8
FRAME_BITS: 8
CHANNELS: 1
RATE: 8000
PERIOD_TIME: 125000
PERIOD_SIZE: 1000
PERIOD_BYTES: 1000
PERIODS: 4
BUFFER_TIME: 500000
BUFFER_SIZE: 4000
BUFFER_BYTES: 4000
TICK_TIME: 10000


$ free -t
             total       used       free     shared   
buffers     cached
Mem:       1033544    1020348      13196          0   
  30228     748684
-/+ buffers/cache:     241436     792108
Swap:       498004      10668     487336
Total:     1531548    1031016     500532


$ vmstat
   procs                      memory      swap        
 io     system      cpu
 r  b  w   swpd   free   buff  cache   si   so    bi  
 bo   in    cs us sy id
 2  0  0  10668  13096  30284 748728    0    0     1  
  3   10    14 97  3  0


I am using the snd-emu10k1 driver with a SB-Live!
card, on a 2.4.19-SMP box with 1 GB memory, so this
out-of-memory error is a bit of a mystery. Are there
any other statistics that would be useful? I expect
(hope!) that this error will disappear soon, so I'd
recommend a swift response, if required.

Cheers,
Chris



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Re: "Cannot allocate memory" problem with latest CVS

[Takashi Iwai]

Hi,

At Sun, 27 Oct 2002 18:05:41 +0000 (GMT),
Chris Rankin wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> The 'cannot allocate memory' problem has returned on
> my machine:
> 
(snip) 
> 
> $ free -t
>              total       used       free     shared   
> buffers     cached
> Mem:       1033544    1020348      13196          0   
>   30228     748684
> -/+ buffers/cache:     241436     792108
> Swap:       498004      10668     487336
> Total:     1531548    1031016     500532
> 
> 
> $ vmstat
>    procs                      memory      swap        
>  io     system      cpu
>  r  b  w   swpd   free   buff  cache   si   so    bi  
>  bo   in    cs us sy id
>  2  0  0  10668  13096  30284 748728    0    0     1  
>   3   10    14 97  3  0
> 
> 
> I am using the snd-emu10k1 driver with a SB-Live!
> card, on a 2.4.19-SMP box with 1 GB memory, so this
> out-of-memory error is a bit of a mystery. Are there
> any other statistics that would be useful? I expect
> (hope!) that this error will disappear soon, so I'd
> recommend a swift response, if required.

i guess actually your box has no free space "for the sb live card".
the emu10k1 chip requires the 29bit PCI DMA mask, and it cannot use
the whole 1GB memory.  hence, even if you have memory on the high-mem
region, still this problem may happen.

please note that the current emu10k1 driver allocates pages
dynamically at each pcm playback, while the older version grabbed the
large contiguous area at the module loading time.  this makes the
difference of behavior as you found before.

this problem could be solved by using get_free_page() with GFP_KERNEL
(without ATOMIC) like on 2.2 kernels, since pci_alloc_consistent()
uses always GFP_ATOMIC flag so that it can be called from interrupt
handlers.  but it would be really a hack...


Takashi


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Re: "Cannot allocate memory" problem with latest CVS

[Chris Rankin]

Ouch. This means that this problem will always appear
eventually, and the only way to clear it is waiting
for Linux to free a large amount of cache memory.
<flamebait>Or I could reboot my machine.</flamebait>

In the meantime, I have no PCM playback via my
SB-Live!. Is this a 2.4 or a SB-Live limitation?

Chris

 --- Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de> wrote: > Hi,
> 
> At Sun, 27 Oct 2002 18:05:41 +0000 (GMT),
> Chris Rankin wrote:
> > 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > The 'cannot allocate memory' problem has returned
> on
> > my machine:
> > 
> (snip) 
> > 
> > $ free -t
> >              total       used       free    
> shared   
> > buffers     cached
> > Mem:       1033544    1020348      13196         
> 0   
> >   30228     748684
> > -/+ buffers/cache:     241436     792108
> > Swap:       498004      10668     487336
> > Total:     1531548    1031016     500532
> > 
> > 
> > $ vmstat
> >    procs                      memory      swap    
>    
> >  io     system      cpu
> >  r  b  w   swpd   free   buff  cache   si   so   
> bi  
> >  bo   in    cs us sy id
> >  2  0  0  10668  13096  30284 748728    0    0    
> 1  
> >   3   10    14 97  3  0
> > 
> > 
> > I am using the snd-emu10k1 driver with a SB-Live!
> > card, on a 2.4.19-SMP box with 1 GB memory, so
> this
> > out-of-memory error is a bit of a mystery. Are
> there
> > any other statistics that would be useful? I
> expect
> > (hope!) that this error will disappear soon, so
> I'd
> > recommend a swift response, if required.
> 
> i guess actually your box has no free space "for the
> sb live card".
> the emu10k1 chip requires the 29bit PCI DMA mask,
> and it cannot use
> the whole 1GB memory.  hence, even if you have
> memory on the high-mem
> region, still this problem may happen.
> 
> please note that the current emu10k1 driver
> allocates pages
> dynamically at each pcm playback, while the older
> version grabbed the
> large contiguous area at the module loading time. 
> this makes the
> difference of behavior as you found before.
> 
> this problem could be solved by using
> get_free_page() with GFP_KERNEL
> (without ATOMIC) like on 2.2 kernels, since
> pci_alloc_consistent()
> uses always GFP_ATOMIC flag so that it can be called
> from interrupt
> handlers.  but it would be really a hack...
> 
> 
> Takashi 

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Re: "Cannot allocate memory" problem with latest CVS

[Takashi Iwai]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 515 bytes --]

At Mon, 28 Oct 2002 13:21:48 +0000 (GMT),
Chris Rankin wrote:
> 
> Ouch. This means that this problem will always appear
> eventually, and the only way to clear it is waiting
> for Linux to free a large amount of cache memory.
> <flamebait>Or I could reboot my machine.</flamebait>
 
could you try the attached patch?
as mentioned in my previous mail, this is really a hack, but if it
works...


> In the meantime, I have no PCM playback via my
> SB-Live!. Is this a 2.4 or a SB-Live limitation?

both :)


Takashi

[-- Attachment #2: sgbuf-getpage.dif --]
[-- Type: application/octet-stream, Size: 1211 bytes --]

Index: alsa-kernel/core/pcm_sgbuf.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /suse/tiwai/cvs/alsa/alsa-kernel/core/pcm_sgbuf.c,v
retrieving revision 1.7
diff -u -r1.7 pcm_sgbuf.c
--- alsa-kernel/core/pcm_sgbuf.c	10 Sep 2002 10:20:00 -0000	1.7
+++ alsa-kernel/core/pcm_sgbuf.c	28 Oct 2002 14:35:43 -0000
@@ -128,7 +128,32 @@
 	while (sgbuf->pages < pages) {
 		void *ptr;
 		dma_addr_t addr;
+#ifdef __i386__
+		/* HACK! we try to allocate with GFP_KERNEL */
+		unsigned long rmask;
+		if (sgbuf->pci)
+			rmask = ~(unsigned long)sgbuf->pci->dma_mask;
+		else
+			rmask = 0;
+		ptr = (void *)__get_free_pages(GFP_KERNEL, 1);
+		if (ptr) {
+			addr = virt_to_phys(ptr);
+			if (((unsigned long)addr + PAGE_SIZE - 1) & rmask) {
+				/* reallocate with the proper mask */
+				free_pages((unsigned long)ptr, PAGE_SIZE);
+				ptr = (void *)__get_free_pages(GFP_KERNEL | GFP_DMA, 1);
+				if (ptr)
+					addr = virt_to_phys(ptr);
+				else
+					addr = 0;
+			}
+		} else
+			addr = 0;
+		if (ptr)
+			memset(ptr, 0, PAGE_SIZE);
+#else
 		ptr = snd_malloc_pci_pages(sgbuf->pci, PAGE_SIZE, &addr);
+#endif
 		if (! ptr)
 			return -ENOMEM;
 		sgbuf->table[sgbuf->pages].buf = ptr;

Re: "Cannot allocate memory" problem with latest CVS

[Chris Rankin]

 --- Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de> wrote: > At Mon, 28
Oct 2002 13:21:48 +0000 (GMT),
> could you try the attached patch?
> as mentioned in my previous mail, this is really a
> hack, but if it
> works...

My box has obviously released some memory overnight
and is working again. I'll try the patch as soon as
the problem reoccurs.

Cheers,
Chris


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