Invalid PCM pointer with CMI8738 and pcm.c buffer underuns

[Andoru <andoru.blah@gmail.com>]

[Continued from here:
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.alsa.devel/122028/focus=122354 ]

> It's way too old.  Better to build the latest kernel.

The latest kernel available for my distro, or the latest kernel available
"from Linus"? I've already tried the former.

> You need to figure out the condition reproducing the issue.

For all I know (I'm not that knowledgeable on those things, mind you) this
happens completely at random. There hasn't been any pattern when the PC
would become unusable, and the OS unresponsive.

> For example, application may apply some strange buffer size and period
> size the hardware chip doesn't like. If so, changing the buffer size
> and/or period size may reduce the problem.

I'm not aware of any feature to change the buffer size in any of the
programs that cause the lock-ups.

> Meanwhile, you can try the patch below, too, which aligns the period

That patch is for kernel sources or for the above snapshots I mentioned? Or
perhaps there are more recent ALSA source codes?