[mythtvnz] MythFrontend freezing with audio issues

[Aaron Whitehouse]

In case it helps, my ALSA information is at:
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=9d908b5f109b56604caaf3c14968edf5e0bac43c

Thanks again,
Aaron

Aaron Whitehouse wrote:
> Hello all!
> 
> Everyone was really helpful with my previous issues, so I am giving it
> another go!
> 
> I have Mythbuntu Jaunty set up on an AMD 780G (Radeon 3200HD)
> motherboard (with integrated sound). It has HDMI and S/PDIF sound, but I
> just use the speaker-out to plug into the TV.
> 
> We have been suffering through occasional freezes during playback for
> quite some time (it feels like it got a lot worse since the upgrade to
> Jaunty from 8.10). Sometimes I can Ctrl+Alt right-arrow to another
> screen and "killall mythfrontend.real", other times I can Ctrl+F1 and do
> the same (though this sometimes takes a few minutes to come up) and
> other times the system seems completely locked up and I have to hit the
> reset button. We have issues about every third or so time we try to
> watch a recording, so it is fairly frequent (given we watch all of our
> TV, videos and DVDs through the system).
> 
> I have noticed that my mythfrontend.log files have a number of audio
> issues mentioned, often just before I had to restart the machine:
> 2009-08-15 14:52:46.798 WriteAudio: buffer underrun
> 2009-08-15 14:55:36.319 WriteAudio: buffer underrun
> Starting mythfrontend.real..
> 
> 2009-08-16 12:37:19.928 NVP::AddAudioData():p1: Audio buffer overflow,
> audio data lost!
> 2009-08-16 12:37:19.929 NVP::AddAudioData():p1: Audio buffer overflow,
> audio data lost!
> [Above error repeats once per microsecond until here]
> 2009-08-16 12:37:20.464 NVP::AddAudioData():p1: Audio buffer overflow,
> audio data lost!
> 2009-08-16 12:37:20.466 Video timing method: USleep with busy wait
> 2009-08-16 12:37:20.467 NVP::AddAudioData():p1: Audio buffer overflow,
> audio data lost!
> 2009-08-16 12:37:20.468 NVP::AddAudioData():p1: Audio buffer overflow,
> audio data lost!
> 2009-08-16 12:37:20.468 NVP::AddAudioData():p1: Audio buffer overflow,
> audio data lost!
> 2009-08-16 12:37:20.469 NVP::AddAudioData():p1: Audio buffer overflow,
> audio data lost!
> 2009-08-16 12:37:20.469 NVP::AddAudioData():p1: Audio buffer overflow,
> audio data lost!
> 2009-08-16 12:37:20.469 NVP::AddAudioData():p1: Audio buffer overflow,
> audio data lost!
> 2009-08-16 12:37:20.470 NVP::AddAudioData():p1: Audio buffer overflow,
> audio data lost!
> 2009-08-16 12:37:20.470 NVP::AddAudioData():p1: Audio buffer overflow,
> audio data lost!
> 2009-08-16 12:37:20.903 WriteAudio: buffer underrun
> 2009-08-16 12:37:22.068 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-08-16 12:37:23.669 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-08-16 12:37:25.270 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-08-16 12:37:26.871 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-08-16 12:37:28.472 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-08-16 12:37:30.073 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-08-16 12:37:31.674 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-08-16 12:37:33.275 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-08-16 12:37:34.876 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-08-16 12:37:36.477 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-08-16 12:37:38.078 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-08-16 12:37:39.680 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-08-16 12:37:41.281 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-08-16 12:37:42.882 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-08-16 12:37:44.483 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-08-16 12:37:46.084 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-08-16 12:37:47.686 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-08-16 12:37:49.287 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-08-16 12:37:50.888 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-08-16 12:37:52.495 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> Starting mythfrontend.real..
> 
> 2009-08-16 12:39:57.928 Opening ALSA audio device 'default'.
> 2009-08-16 12:39:57.947 ALSA, Warning: mmap not available, attempting to
> fall back to slow writes.
> 
> I have quite a lot of:
> 2009-08-16 12:40:07.455 NVP: prebuffering pause
> 
> 2009-08-16 13:18:24.291 Mixer unable to find control PCM
> 2009-08-16 13:22:16.202 DPMS Reactivated.
> 2009-08-16 13:22:16.529 WriteAudio: buffer underrun
> 2009-08-16 13:22:24.552 DPMS Deactivated
> 2009-08-16 13:22:31.491 Mixer unable to find control PCM
> 
> unknown chip id 0x9610, can't guess.
> 
> 2009-08-08 13:41:39.290 Opening ALSA audio device 'default'.
> I: caps.c: Limited capabilities successfully to CAP_SYS_NICE.
> I: caps.c: Dropping root privileges.
> I: caps.c: Limited capabilities successfully to CAP_SYS_NICE.
> 2009-08-08 13:41:40.758 ALSA, Warning: mmap not available, attempting to
> fall back to slow writes.
> 
> 2009-08-14 20:36:48.752 DPMS Reactivated.
> 2009-08-14 20:36:49.118 WriteAudio: buffer underrun
> 2009-08-14 20:38:02.879 DPMS Deactivated
> 2009-08-14 20:40:53.537 DPMS Reactivated.
> 2009-08-14 20:40:54.007 WriteAudio: buffer underrun
> 2009-08-14 20:41:19.720 DPMS Deactivated
> Starting mythfrontend.real..
> 
> etc. etc.
> 
> I have Googled these to bits for hours and am still at a bit of a loss.
> Most of the hits are people going unanswered.
> 
> I am using the -ati xorg (radeon) driver. I checked the settings
> mentioned here:
> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Prebuffering_pause#Audio_Issues
> but they were all as directed.
> 
> I removed PulseAudio to get rid of a segmentation fault:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/414339
> and hoped that it would fix this, but it didn't. An excerpt from my
> mythfrontend.log is:
> http://pastebin.com/f1c465489
> 
> Does anyone have any suggestions?
> 
> Thanks in advance for your help!
> 
> Aaron
> 
> --
> FSF Associate Member
> 
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