Arch Linux

slamfog

Member

Registered: 2022-03-07

Posts: 3

Random audio skips/glitches/stutters on Alsa, PulseAudio, PipeWire

Hello everyone! I have random audio skips/glitches/stutters, does not matter from what app sound is coming. I have tried all solutions I found relevant from arch wiki page about PulseAudio troubleshooting.

I came to linux and arch about 5 or 6 years ago, and I had this problem from the start, but if i recall right adding tsched=0 in /etc/pulse/default.pa always solved this problem. But around 3 years ago it stopped working, now nothing I do helps.
I also tried changing the CPU governer to "performance", no results.

And It happens with pure Alsa, Jack2 and PipeWire too, there are differences though:
With PulseAudio and Alsa most of the time it sounds like a tiny snippet of several milliseconds of sound is repeated.
With PipeWire it is just silence for the same several ms.
With Jack it is just stuttering (like xruns).

And by the way, if I have something playing in mpv, it says "Audio device underrun detected.", But only with PulseAudio and with pure Alsa, with PipeWire and Jack it does not say anything.

I hope someone can help me to finally solve this problem.

OS: Arch Linux x86_64
Host: HuronRiver Platform Lenovo B570e
Kernel: 5.16.11-arch1-2
WM: dwm
CPU: Intel i5-2450M (4) @ 3.100GHz
GPU: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family

Last edited by slamfog (2022-03-07 11:12:14)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,076

Re: Random audio skips/glitches/stutters on Alsa, PulseAudio, PipeWire

If it's that global it usually is something global, first thing I'm thinking of is that power saving got enabled by default on snd-hda-intel somewhere around the 4.15ish kernel if I'm not mistaken, which aligns somewhat well with the three year time frame you mention.

Try /etc/modprobe.d/disablePowerSave.conf

options snd-hda-intel power_save=0

and reboot.

slamfog

Member

Registered: 2022-03-07

Posts: 3

Re: Random audio skips/glitches/stutters on Alsa, PulseAudio, PipeWire

If it's that global it usually is something global, first thing I'm thinking of is that power saving got enabled by default on snd-hda-intel somewhere around the 4.15ish kernel if I'm not mistaken, which aligns somewhat well with the three year time frame you mention.

Try /etc/modprobe.d/disablePowerSave.conf

options snd-hda-intel power_save=0

and reboot.

At first it looked like it is it. But after somewhere 15 minutes mpv said "Audio device underrun detected.". But actually I did not heard any glitch. Will be listening futher.
Most annoying is that it happens randomly, it can happen on the second minute or after half a hour.

slamfog

Member

Registered: 2022-03-07

Posts: 3

Re: Random audio skips/glitches/stutters on Alsa, PulseAudio, PipeWire

If it's that global it usually is something global, first thing I'm thinking of is that power saving got enabled by default on snd-hda-intel somewhere around the 4.15ish kernel if I'm not mistaken, which aligns somewhat well with the three year time frame you mention.

Try /etc/modprobe.d/disablePowerSave.conf

options snd-hda-intel power_save=0

and reboot.

Okay, so it does not help unfortunately. I hear cracks/glitches/stutters on PulseAudio, Pipewire and Jack. I think I can't hear anything wrong on pure Alsa anymore, but maybe it is just luck. I still see "Audio device underrun detected." in mpv though.
I tried adding my user to realtime group after installing "realtime-priveleges", does not help either.