Arch Linux

demonus

Member

Registered: 2005-01-31

Posts: 62

alsa, kernels 2.6.x

did anyone notice that something weird is happening in new kernels? say in 2.6.8 I could play mp3s with mpg321 or anything else even when some other app was using the disk heavily, but now on 2.6.11.7 (own build) it's impossible, xmms stops (freezes rather during playback and I can only play the track again), the same goes for mpg321;
heh and not only when the disk is read by other app heavily but also when let's say you pop up a firefox window (high cpu usage) xmms stops
any clues?

T-Dawg

Forum Fellow

From: Charlotte, NC

Registered: 2005-01-29

Posts: 2,736

Re: alsa, kernels 2.6.x

This is your own kernel build? Did you enable DMA on the hard disk?

leeghoofd

Member

From: the Netherlands

Registered: 2005-04-28

Posts: 61

Re: alsa, kernels 2.6.x

Try

hdparm -d device

to see if DMA is enabled

edit: should be -d, install hdparm with pacman -S hdparm if you don't have it

regards,
david

demonus

Member

Registered: 2005-01-31

Posts: 62

Re: alsa, kernels 2.6.x

dma is enabled and supported by kernel

update:
I get "Alsa: underrun..." messages randomly when playing sound with mpg321

eric

Member

From: under heaven

Registered: 2004-02-11

Posts: 117

Re: alsa, kernels 2.6.x

You can try to increase the buffer size in your sound engine configfile (mine is /etc/asound.conf).

Michel

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2004-07-31

Posts: 286

Re: alsa, kernels 2.6.x

Heya,

maybe changing i/o-scheduler can also help.

there are 3 disk schedulers: anticipatory (the default one), deadline and cfq. Cfq is recommended for desktop usage.

You can find more info about them on the following link:
http://awlinux1.alphaworks.ibm.com/deve … uler.shtml

It seems there is another disk scheduler: Noop

On the folling link you can find which parameter to give to the kernel to change your i/o-scheduler:
http://awlinux1.alphaworks.ibm.com/deve … html#begin
the parameter is:
elevator:<name of i/o-scheduler>

I just found the above links. It seems a nice site ...

Hopes this helps,

Michel