Pulseaudio very unstable

Binero · 2014-03-22 14:31:20

I am not sure if it's a hardware or software issue, but as everything works fine on Windows I'm assuming it's a pulseaudio issue.

Pulseaudio works fine with my speakers, there really are no issues, however if I connect my headset the gates of hell will open and nothing will work as expected. YouTube videos will not play, or play really fast, there will absolutely be no sound and it'll crash every now and then.

I have tried to run Pulseaudio through the commandline using 'puleaudio -vv' and whenever a crash occurs, it'll just say 'Killed'. When a YouTube video is playing really fast, my console will get spammed with underrun messages, they are too fast to even read a single one. (Was able to read by stopping pulseaudio). Every now and then it'll say it's unloading modules. There also is an error relating to bluez when pulseaudio starts, but as I'm not using a Bluetooth headset I don't really mind. (It's somthing about a directory not being found).

What is causing this? How do I fix?

Also, when no instance of Pulseaudio is running, videos and sounds will be played at a normal speed, but there won't be any sound either. In ALSA no channels are muted.

Last edited by Binero (2014-03-22 14:33:11)

Young · 2014-03-23 05:49:19

Have you changed any of the default configuration files for PulseAudio? Are you using an equalizer? Setting the default fragment number and buffer size has solved the problem with YouTube for me (check this page at the Wiki for more information: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pu … ulseAudio). To avoid the errors with bluetooth, you could try to comment out these lines in /etc/pulse/default.pa:

### Automatically load driver modules for Bluetooth hardware
.ifexists module-bluetooth-policy.so
load-module module-bluetooth-policy
.endif

.ifexists module-bluetooth-discover.so
load-module module-bluetooth-discover
.endif

After changing any of the configuration files of PulseAudio, you must restart it for the changes to take effect. I also suggest you to disable the "autospawn" option while testing, as explained in the Wiki. And, if you're not already using it, you should install pavucontrol to change the volume levels for PA, because something could also be muted there.

PS: You could also try to test another DE. I know KDE holds different configurations for speakers and headsets, but I don't know if other desktop environments do the same.

Binero · 2014-03-23 11:21:45

I hadn't changed any Pulseaudio configuration files, I am not using an equalizer. After setting the default fragment number and buffer size nothing changed.

Usually when I opened pavucontrol it'd work (sort of) but it'd disconnect say after a minute. Pulseaudio would simply say it was killed in the console. No channels are muted in pavucontrol, and my stereo was working fine; headset was according to pavucontrol also working fine (it showed the volume bar moving etc when sound was being played). I am not sure if this is related to the changing of the configuration files (as first it didn't happen) but now pulseaudio crashes even after a few seconds pavucontrol is opened.

-------------------------------

I reinstalled pulseaudio (removed it with -Rddn) and the youtube glitching seems to be fixing now. Pulseaudio still crashes every few seconds saying it was killed. This'll only happen when programs like pavucontrol are actually using the sound though. Not sure what messed up the configuration. Headset sound still isn't working though. ALSA automatically seems to unmute my headset when I plug it in, and mute it again when I plug it out.

One thing though, when I boot up Alsamixer, there are 3 sound cards. 'default' and 2 real ones. The default one only has 1 channel, and I must manually switch to my intel sda card.

Last edited by Binero (2014-03-23 11:44:18)

ninian · 2014-03-23 16:40:18

Binero wrote:

One thing though, when I boot up Alsamixer, there are 3 sound cards. 'default' and 2 real ones. The default one only has 1 channel, and I must manually switch to my intel sda card.

If you have 2 real sound cards, could it be that they are conflicting?
I solved a problem like this by blacklisting one of them.

Binero · 2014-03-23 17:23:47

ninian wrote:

Binero wrote:
One thing though, when I boot up Alsamixer, there are 3 sound cards. 'default' and 2 real ones. The default one only has 1 channel, and I must manually switch to my intel sda card.
If you have 2 real sound cards, could it be that they are conflicting?
I solved a problem like this by blacklisting one of them.

I added the option to my configuration file, and now one Output device is gone. I still have one output device left obviously, but my headset still doesn't work. YouTube glitching seems to be fixed. ALSA now displays a HDA Intel MID sound card, and a default one. The default one has only a master and capture channel, but they correspond to the ones from the HDA card it seems.

EDIT: The random crashes seem to be gone as well.

Last edited by Binero (2014-03-23 17:57:56)

Binero · 2014-03-23 20:01:15

Found my solution: http://askubuntu.com/questions/153898/n … ith-stereo

Arch Linux

#1 2014-03-22 14:31:20

Pulseaudio very unstable

#2 2014-03-23 05:49:19

Re: Pulseaudio very unstable

#3 2014-03-23 11:21:45

Re: Pulseaudio very unstable

#4 2014-03-23 16:40:18

Re: Pulseaudio very unstable

#5 2014-03-23 17:23:47

Re: Pulseaudio very unstable

#6 2014-03-23 20:01:15

Re: Pulseaudio very unstable

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