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Author Topic: [ SOLVED ] Kmix and Pulse  (Read 2048 times)

Offline Was_Just19

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[ SOLVED ] Kmix and Pulse
« on: March 27, 2011, 08:35:30 AM »
Seems it is time for things to go amiss for me  :(

For a week or more Kmix has been misbehaving .......  locking up, using 50% CPU and generally behaving badly.
It uses the 50% on start up and also when any audio app tries to play a file ....  probably video with audio too but I have not bothered to check.

Removing or disabling PulseAudio allows it to perform as it should.

Removing Pulse and cleaning out all files I found, and then reinstalling after a reoot did not help.

Alternatively, removing Kmix, and running with PulseAudio and using its volume control does not present any problems.

In addition I used VolumeIcon for a little while with Pulse and no problems, but that is not integrated with Pulse so I think that can be discounted.

So it seems there is some clash between Kmix and Pulse that I am unable to find.

Has anyone else experienced these symptoms?


In addition, on occasion, usually immediately after start up, the sound output is noisy/scratchy.

I cannot think what else I can do at the moment, so suggestions welcome.

The audio is a PCI Creative SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 08) which works well and has not been changed.

I hope someone can suggest something ....
« Last Edit: March 28, 2011, 01:12:14 PM by Just19 »
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Offline kalle123

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Re: Kmix and Pulse
« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2011, 08:42:04 AM »
Quote from: Just19 on March 27, 2011, 08:35:30 AM

In addition, on occasion, usually immediately after start up, the sound output is noisy/scratchy.


Same with me here.

On board sound ASUS P5N-E SLI

Disabled all system sounds....
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Offline Was_Just19

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Re: Kmix and Pulse
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2011, 09:02:46 AM »
It seems that the scratchy sound is only noticeable when I kill Kmix  :(

When initially launched from the terminal there are two instances of Kmix in the System Activities.
One is using some 50MB of memory and about 50% CPU cycles.

The second instance is using near nothing of either.

After a little while the second instance dies and this is returned in the terminal


Code: [Select]
[user@Dell ~]$ $ kmix
unnamed app(3689): Communication problem with  "kmix" , it probably crashed.
Error message was:  "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply" : " "Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken." "
[user@Dell ~]$
The first instance continues to run, consuming memory and CPU, so I suppose that the above error is only related to the second process.

After a long time the following shows up in the terminal ......

Code: [Select]
[user@Dell ~]$ kmix(3690) context_state_callback: Connection to PulseAudio daemon closed. Attempting reconnection.
It sems to just hang there ....  consuming (as I write this) 50% CPU and 63MB.

Maybe that will give someone some idea of something for me to try.

There appears to be some failure of Kmix and Pulse to 'talk to each other' .....

regards.

EDIT:
TOP
         shows Kmix as using 100% CPU .....  presumably that is 50% of both threads in this Hyperthreading P4 CPU
« Last Edit: March 27, 2011, 03:41:02 PM by Just19 »
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Offline menotu

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Re: Kmix and Pulse
« Reply #3 on: March 27, 2011, 03:30:32 PM »
I looked at my KMix usage and can't duplicate - opened up Sys Activity and it's averaging about 11 to 12MB of memory and it's not showing any CPU usage at all.

I tried running various media types; MP3, OGG, and MP4 videos etc and it stays as above.

The only problem KMix showed recently was the mixer window not coming back after "Hide Mixer Window" was invoked - but that was soon solved.

But I have seen various KMix issues in recent posts so it does look as though something is amiss.
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Offline Was_Just19

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Re: Kmix and Pulse
« Reply #4 on: March 27, 2011, 03:39:55 PM »
It seems what I have is peculiar to this install.

I just wish I could sort it ....  as I like Kmix.

If you have any ideas on how I might get rid of that error in communication between Kmix and Pulse I would appreciate them.

regards.
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Offline scoundrel

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Re: Kmix and Pulse
« Reply #5 on: March 27, 2011, 04:48:05 PM »
Quote from: Just19 on March 27, 2011, 03:39:55 PM
It seems what I have is peculiar to this install.

I just wish I could sort it ....  as I like Kmix.

If you have any ideas on how I might get rid of that error in communication between Kmix and Pulse I would appreciate them.

regards.


try this, but in your case rename the file so you won't loose your setup ..

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,88395.msg744542.html#msg744542
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Offline Was_Just19

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Re: Kmix and Pulse
« Reply #6 on: March 27, 2011, 05:50:18 PM »
Quote from: scoundrel on March 27, 2011, 04:48:05 PM
Quote from: Just19 on March 27, 2011, 03:39:55 PM
It seems what I have is peculiar to this install.

I just wish I could sort it ....  as I like Kmix.

If you have any ideas on how I might get rid of that error in communication between Kmix and Pulse I would appreciate them.

regards.


try this, but in your case rename the file so you won't loose your setup ..

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,88395.msg744542.html#msg744542


I had previously uninstalled both Pulse and Kmix and deleted all related files I could find, but no difference.

regards.
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Offline hal8000

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Re: Kmix and Pulse
« Reply #7 on: March 28, 2011, 04:21:49 AM »
In addition to your PCI Creative SB Live! card does your motherborad have integreated sound?
Also, some video cards e.g. my ATI 5750 has HDMI integrated sound ports that I have to disable.

Scartch sound, I remember this fault from KDE 3 and the cure was to buffer the sound stream, something
that KDE 4 has no option for.
Meanwhile these commands
 "lspcidrake -v | fgrep -i AUDIO" will tell you which driver your card uses by default
 "grep sound-slot /etc/modprobe.conf" will tell you what driver it currently uses
 "/sbin/lsmod" will enable you to check if its module (driver) is loaded or not
 "/sbin/chkconfig --list sound" and "/sbin/chkconfig --list alsa" will tell you if sound and alsa services are configured to be run on initlevel 3
 "/sbin/fuser -v /dev/dsp" will tell which program uses the sound card.

I don't use pulse audio, just alsa and kmix works ok.

As an another idea you can try and create a new user for your system.
If the new user account works ok with pulse audio and kmix then you are looking at a configuration
error with sound in your existing account. Hope that helps.
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Offline Was_Just19

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Re: Kmix and Pulse
« Reply #8 on: March 28, 2011, 06:10:27 AM »
Played about a little more today with this problem, and it does seem to be a failure of Kmix to communicate with Pulse when Pulse is enabled.

The first instance of Kmix I reported above, which uses the high level of resources, does not get launched if Pulse is disabled, and Kmix launches the other instance only and all is OK.

Now for the rather weird part ......

If I disable Pulse in the PCC and reboot, Kmix will operate fine.

If I now enable Pulse from the command line ......

pulseaudio --start

and then launch a media file in VLC, the first few seconds are scratchy, but then it all comes good and both Pulse and Kmix are happy with the arrangement, it seems.

So this raises a different question ........  should Kmix be started before PulseAudio?

..... but then I try it on another PC and Kmix 'speaks' to PulseAudio without problems.  :(

when launched after PA is running .......   Arrrrrrrrrghhhhhh


Has anyone got any ideas about this 'communication' problem between the two?

regards.
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Offline hal8000

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Re: Kmix and Pulse
« Reply #9 on: March 28, 2011, 11:03:57 AM »
I've not read through it all, but there is a document
"The perfect setup" on the Pulse Audio Wiki

http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/PerfectSetup

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Offline Was_Just19

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Re: Kmix and Pulse
« Reply #10 on: March 28, 2011, 11:12:10 AM »
Quote from: hal8000 on March 28, 2011, 11:03:57 AM
I've not read through it all, but there is a document
"The perfect setup" on the Pulse Audio Wiki

http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/PerfectSetup




I have been using Pulse for many months without incident ......  this situation is recent.
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Offline Texstar

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Re: Kmix and Pulse
« Reply #11 on: March 28, 2011, 12:03:39 PM »
I have full pulse enabled on my system. I removed the following files from my /home/texstar/.kde4/share/config

kmixctrlrc
kmixrc
phonondevicesrc

rebooted and reset my kmix master and the scratchy sound for a few of the KDE sound events went away.

I checked in Configure Your Desktop -> Hardware -> Multimedia -> Phonon and they all show in device preference PulseAudio Sound Server. The backend is VLC phonon.



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Offline Was_Just19

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Re: Kmix and Pulse
« Reply #12 on: March 28, 2011, 12:57:29 PM »
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Offline Was_Just19

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Re: Kmix and Pulse
« Reply #13 on: March 28, 2011, 01:11:53 PM »
Quote from: Texstar on March 28, 2011, 12:03:39 PM
I have full pulse enabled on my system. I removed the following files from my /home/texstar/.kde4/share/config

kmixctrlrc
kmixrc
phonondevicesrc

rebooted and reset my kmix master and the scratchy sound for a few of the KDE sound events went away.

I checked in Configure Your Desktop -> Hardware -> Multimedia -> Phonon and they all show in device preference PulseAudio Sound Server. The backend is VLC phonon.





I deleted the three files and rebooted ........  and all is well.

Thank you ......  I must have missed one or all of those files when I previously tried to cleanse the system of relevant files.

No scratchy sound and no over-use of resources. (starting Kmix before a reboot gave the expected scratchy sound)

I will mark this as solved.

Thanks Tex  (BTW I have Xine as the backend)

regards.
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Offline Was_Just19

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Re: [ SOLVED ] Kmix and Pulse
« Reply #14 on: March 28, 2011, 01:42:43 PM »
Just a final note after some testing .......

a whole range of audio apps playing different audio files work without problems ......

SMPlayer
Bangarang
Whaah MP
Kaffeine
KMPlayer
Clementine

......  and VLC gives me scratchy sound.

That is for another day to sort out .....  only put it here in case someone is interested  ;)
« Last Edit: March 28, 2011, 01:44:20 PM by Just19 »
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