[ALSA - driver 0001548]: "alsa-play: xrun of at least 0.009 msecs. resetting stream" : inopportune small pauses while playing

[bugtrack@alsa-project.org]

A NOTE has been added to this issue.
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<https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/alsa-bug/view.php?id=1548> 
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Reported By:                moncnam
Assigned To:                
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Project:                    ALSA - driver
Issue ID:                   1548
Category:                   PCI - intel8x0m
Reproducibility:            random
Severity:                   minor
Priority:                   normal
Status:                     assigned
Distribution:               debian sarge 3.1
Kernel Version:             2.6.13-rc7
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Date Submitted:             11-12-2005 10:58 CET
Last Modified:              01-07-2006 02:14 CET
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Summary:                    "alsa-play: xrun of at least 0.009 msecs. resetting
stream" : inopportune small pauses while playing
Description: 
whatever the player i use (alsaplayer, xmms, mplayer) i experience small
pause while playing (half of a second)
using mplayer, i can see the following message appearing when the pause
occur
<<alsa-play: xrun of at least 0.009 msecs. resetting stream>>
the playing doesn't stop, it continue well, just a small pause
i have no other messages in `dmesg` or in syslog
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
 moncnam - 01-04-06 22:38 
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I UNDERSTOOD MY PROBLEM - no pb with alsa

well, 
i ithink i understand what had happend : 
no problem with alsa and i will explain 
- in playing a music throught xmms or noatun, i get no problem (1)
- in playing a title with the command line "mplayer atitle.mp3", i get
some error messages as stated above (2)
the difference should be the priority my process has, in (2), i have a low
priority level for my process (i run this as a common user)

one thing i could add here (not directly related to the topic, but may be
usefull in case...)
i use artsd to forward its sound flow to alsa
once should configure in kcontrol that the rate is manually set to 48000
for exemple in order to have a good output (as 48000 is the default for
alsa) otherwise, the sound do comes out but in a strange way for very bass
or high frequency

remark : 
at the adress
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/alsa-lib/pcm_plugins.html
the text doesn't well explain what the "periods" parameter should expect
as a sample valid value (1024 ? or just 1, 2, 3 ?)

btw, here is my ~.asoundrc file (just in case someone would appreciate
it), i don't bet it is a model to follow but it works for me (bellow is my
hardware config) 
<<
pcm.!default { type plug slave.pcm "dmix" }
pcm.!dmix {
        type dmix
        ipc_key 1
        ipc_perm 0660
        ipc_key_add_uid true
        slave {
                pcm "hw:0,0"
                format  S16_LE
                rate    48000
                channels        2
                period_time 0
                buffer_size 16384
                periods 16384
        }
        bindings { 0 0 1 1 }
}
>>
note : modifying buff_size and periods to 16384 didn't solved my original
pb, i am pretty sure i have to type something like "nice --10 mplayer..."
unfortunatelly, i can't directly do this as a normal user, so i should
make an suid wrapper or some kind of

i add period_time, buffer_size and periods to support oss throught alsa

it used to work the same with my previous file : 
<<
pcm.!default { type plug slave.pcm "dmix" }
pcm.!dmix {
        type dmix
        ipc_key 1
        ipc_key_add_uid true
        slave {
                pcm "hw:0,0"
                period_time 1024
                buffer_size 4096
        }
        bindings { 0 0 1 1 }
}
>>

hardware : 
dell inspiron 9300
ram : 1GB
cpu : 
model name      : Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.86GHz
stepping        : 8
cpu MHz         : 1862.368

----------------------------------------------------------------------
 sashak - 01-07-06 02:14 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You may try larger period_size and of course more than just one period to
prevent underruns (perdiod_size should be <= buffer_size/2 ).

BTW did you try default ALSA config (without .asoundrc)? Default settings
are reasonable for many cases.

Issue History
Date Modified  Username       Field                    Change              
======================================================================
11-12-05 10:58 moncnam        New Issue                                    
11-12-05 10:58 moncnam        Distribution              => debian sarge 3.1
11-12-05 10:58 moncnam        Kernel Version            => 2.6.13-rc7      
11-21-05 23:56 sashak         Note Added: 0006779                          
11-22-05 00:04 moncnam        Note Added: 0006781                          
11-22-05 00:31 sashak         Note Added: 0006783                          
11-22-05 00:31 sashak         Assigned To              sashak =>           
11-22-05 00:43 moncnam        Note Added: 0006784                          
01-04-06 22:38 moncnam        Note Added: 0007456                          
01-07-06 02:14 sashak         Note Added: 0007503                          
======================================================================




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