Arch Linux

VerusGott

Member

Registered: 2016-08-04

Posts: 7

[SOLVED] Sound skipping with ALSA and CA0106

Hello.
I'm using ALSA w/o PulseAudio, my soundcard is Creative Audigy SE (using snd_ca0106 module). My sound skips for about half a second on average every 10-20 minutes. I tried all ways from ArchWiki to solve this problem, but it doesn't help me (the only thing, I haven't tried to change governor to perfomance, cause it's not solution). Can anyone help me with this?
There are my alsa.info.txt: http://pastebin.com/jbXAG76F

Last edited by VerusGott (2016-08-05 00:59:47)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,738

Re: [SOLVED] Sound skipping with ALSA and CA0106

This soundcard/driver is notorious for not having much documentation and being heavily reliant on model specific quirks, I wouldn't lay it past it to have some bug in the kernel driver. You might want to try an older/newer kernel (and a default kernel to rule out issues that may stem from linux-ck) do you get any dmesg entries or output from the applications playing sound immediately following such a drop out?

drcouzelis

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 4,092

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Sound skipping with ALSA and CA0106

Is there a chance PulseAudio could resolve the issue?

After experiencing a sound bug in my video game development a couple months ago, I finally bit the bullet and installed PulseAudio. It took less than 30 minutes to read the documentation and setup my computer like the way I wanted it, and it resolved my sound issue. So, consider trying that.

(My issue, for reference: https://www.allegro.cc/forums/thread/616209)

VerusGott

Member

Registered: 2016-08-04

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] Sound skipping with ALSA and CA0106

You might want to try an older/newer kernel (and a default kernel to rule out issues that may stem from linux-ck)

I see this bug for a long time, and it's not related to linux-ck. There are no messages in dmesg. I dunno what app I can use to get needed output. There are no any messages from Firefox/mpv, and I'm also can't check output of mopidy, cause this shit spamming journald with opened/closed sessions.

Is there a chance PulseAudio could resolve the issue?

Hmm... It might be strange, but I'm already know that PulseAudio can solve my issue. I checked it. I prefer config w/o PulseAudio, that is why I trying to solve problem with ALSA. It's not fanaticism, I will use PulseAudio if my issue will not be solved.

Last edited by VerusGott (2016-08-04 14:49:56)

VerusGott

Member

Registered: 2016-08-04

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] Sound skipping with ALSA and CA0106

Oh, my ALSA isn't working now. Perfectly. I will gonna Windows-way and reinstall Arch.
Now I'm think that it's really better to use modern solutions, like NetworkManager and PulseAudio, against spending hours of editing configs.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,738

Re: [SOLVED] Sound skipping with ALSA and CA0106

If pulseaudio fixes this, you might want to try and configure the softvol plugin in ALSA, maybe the chip reacts poorly to hard volume changes. (Or simply use pulse)

Also these kind of issues should never be just solved by reinstalling, maybe something (some active pulse stream) blocks the card temporarily check

sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*

Last edited by V1del (2016-08-04 20:20:33)

VerusGott

Member

Registered: 2016-08-04

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] Sound skipping with ALSA and CA0106

If pulseaudio fixes this, you might want to try and configure the softvol plugin in ALSA, maybe the chip reacts poorly to hard volume changes

How will it help if I change the volume once in 2-3 hours?

Also these kind of issues should never be just solved by reinstalling

Nah, I'm just a little annoyed by all this. I'm already fixed it.

Or simply use pulse

I'm really don't want to use Pulse. I have several scripts, that are using ALSA tools. I'm afraid that it will not work, if I will use PulseAudio. Rewrite all this... I will need a lot of time.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,738

Re: [SOLVED] Sound skipping with ALSA and CA0106

also something I notice from your logs, how does it look like if you disable the resampler definition? The softvol plugin might help if there's some issue related to how the db values are propagated to the hardware mixer, sometimes the simple act of defining a softvol plugin helps with that.

VerusGott

Member

Registered: 2016-08-04

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] Sound skipping with ALSA and CA0106

also something I notice from your logs, how does it look like if you disable the resampler definition? The softvol plugin might help if there's some issue related to how the db values are propagated to the hardware mixer, sometimes the simple act of defining a softvol plugin helps with that.

I tried softvol plugin, it doesn't change anything. I will disable resampler and then write here again.

VerusGott

Member

Registered: 2016-08-04

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] Sound skipping with ALSA and CA0106

So, softvol plugin and disabled resampler did not help me. I see my "SoftMaster" in alsamixer and mopidy responds to volume change - it works. But it does not help.
You have no more ideas?

VerusGott

Member

Registered: 2016-08-04

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] Sound skipping with ALSA and CA0106

Mhm, it seems that I found solution for me. I disabled C1E/C6/Cool'n'Quiet in BIOS and the problem has disappeared. This is so stupid that I can't believe. AMD-related problems as it is.

drcouzelis, V1del, thanks for all help.

Last edited by VerusGott (2016-08-05 01:02:19)