Can't play audio due to PulseAudio hanging

[Fibonacci]

Ever since upgrading to Intrepid Ibex, I've noticed that audio suddenly stops working for all apps. The cause always seems to be that /usr/bin/pulseaudio has hanged, and nothing short of killing and restarting the program will fix the problem - at least until it manifests again after PulseAudio has been running for about 2 days. However, the daemon does not respond to SIGINT or SIGTERM (kill -2 and kill -15 respectively), so I invariably have to use SIGKILL (kill -9) to terminate the program.

Following a suggestion on another thread, I decided to run pulseaudio -vv and record the output. The bzip2'ed log is attached to this message (the original file was 6.7 MiB in size). Some interesting output lines I noticed:

D: memblock.c: Pool full
D: memblock.c: Pool full
(repeated 936 times)
W: protocol-native.c: Failed to push data into queue
D: memblock.c: Pool full
(randomly printed one or the other 5000 times)
W: protocol-native.c: Failed to push data into queue
(repeated over 42000 times)


Has anyone here experienced this problem? Is there anyway to prevent it that does not involve completely getting rid of PulseAudio?

Thanks in advance.

[boxrec]

bump - got the same problem

[Fibonacci]

I forgot to mention this on my first post.
If I try to open the PulseAudio volume control when PulseAudio has hanged, I get the following error message before the program automatically closes:

Connection failed: Timeout

Whenever I try to play audio via MPlayer (which, by the way, works like a charm when PA is not hanged) on the same situation, I get the following error message:

[AO_ALSA] alsa-lib: pulse.c:272:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect: Timeout

[AO_ALSA] Playback open error: Connection refused
Could not open/initialize audio device -> no sound.


Any ideas on what could be causing this?

[jellyfisharepretty]

I am glad I am not the only one. I have the *exact* same problem you described, Fibonacci. I tried the same stuff you did. Finally I made a bash script that kills and restarts pulseaudio, I run it every one or two days, whenever I see my audio is not working.

You are correct in saying mplayer will refuse to start with this error. I can also say that I will get no sound in flash in Firefox unless I restart pulseaudio, and then Firefox too, which is very annoying.

In fact all media apps will hang of refuse to start with an error relating the the sound server connection.

I would much like to know if anyone knows how to fix this problem.
Thanks!

BTW I have a creative audigy 2 pci card. When pulseaudio has not hanged, sound works beautifully across all applications.


EDIT: I forgot to write what I see at the command line whenever pulseaudio has hanged. I get many, many lines just saying

W: protocol-native.c: Failed to push data into queue

[2hot6ft2]

Here are a few options to choose from from fixing pulse to disabling it and using asla or esound.

First fixing pulse
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=885437

Disabling pulse and using alsa
http://forumubuntusoftware.info/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=2179&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
and another one going the same route here
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6370902#post6370902

Replacing pulse with esound
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=885437

There are more but this gives you some alternatives that are being used.

[Fibonacci]

You are correct in saying mplayer will refuse to start with this error. I can also say that I will get no sound in flash in Firefox unless I restart pulseaudio, and then Firefox too, which is very annoying.

Couldn't have said it better.

First fixing pulse
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=885437

(...)

Replacing pulse with esound
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=885437

Why are those two links of yours the same?
Also, I had hoped I could have fixed PulseAudio instead of removing it - but I will remove it if there's no other option.

[jellyfisharepretty]

Actually, I quite like PulseAudio when it is working, so I'd also prefer to keep it.

[markbuntu]

Have you tried reinstalling pulseaudio?
also,there is a pulseaudio update today. that might fix your problem.

[jellyfisharepretty]

I think I'll try what is suggested here (http://www.uluga.ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=6339805&postcount=5) first, that is, change buffer settings of PulseAudio.

Then I'll try the update. Do you know if the update will be through the ubuntu repositories and synaptic/apt-get or do I have to get the update directly from the PulseAudio website ?

If these steps don't work, I'll try reinstalling it. And if that doesn't work, well I guess I just switch back to using plain old ALSA I guess.

I'll keep you posted of my findings. Might take some days though, because I get this problem at about 1,2 or 3 days intervals.

[kostkon]

I think I'll try what is suggested here (http://www.uluga.ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=6339805&postcount=5) first, that is, change buffer settings of PulseAudio.
Also make yourself a member of the pulse and pulse-rt group, if you haven't done this already.

You can easily do it in System → Administration → Users and Groups.

[jellyfisharepretty]

Thanks Kotskon. Upon checking, I was already a member of those groups.

[jellyfisharepretty]

Well, it's been 3 days without any incidents regarding PulseAudio. So far so good. I think either the PA update fixed it, or removing the buffer settings in the config file did it. Unfortunately, I changed both those things at the same time.

If there's no more PA hanging in another 3 days, I think we can probably declare this fixed.

[jellyfisharepretty]

Sorry to post here again, but the problem has not been fixed, since PA hung again. So we'll have to keep searching for a solution.

[Fibonacci]

Sorry to come so late, but the problem just reappeared yesterday night.
My case is slightly different from jellyfish's, since that bit about default-fragments and default-fragment-size-msec was not on my /etc/pulse/default.pa. I did update PA and was already a member of the mentioned user groups - according to users-admin, that is, because they don't show in the output of the groups command.

[markbuntu]

One thing that can happen with pulseaudio is that applications with poorly written alsa drivers can open and close devices at a rapid clip. When the device number reaches about 1,100 pulseaudio will crash.

This was the problem with flash 9 and it is also a problem with some SDL apps.

You can check this in the PA Manager where you can see the sink numbers. If you see this, please file a bug report on the particular application or plugin.

default-fragments and default-fragment-size is in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf

[chocolateboy]

Bug #288093: Can't play sound because of pulseaudio hang (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/288093)

[Fibonacci]

One thing that can happen with pulseaudio is that applications with poorly written alsa drivers can open and close devices at a rapid clip. When the device number reaches about 1,100 pulseaudio will crash.

This was the problem with flash 9 and it is also a problem with some SDL apps.

You can check this in the PA Manager where you can see the sink numbers. If you see this, please file a bug report on the particular application or plugin.

Apparently they don't. But I'm not sure since I can't check anything after a crash.

Edit: I just checked, and no, the sink numbers never even exceeded 10 before PA hung again.

default-fragments and default-fragment-size is in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf

Thank you, tried that too and PA took even less time to hang.

Bug #288093: Can't play sound because of pulseaudio hang (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/288093)

Apparently this is exactly the same problem I'm experiencing. Good find!