Fw: Re: Sound problems with latest kernel -- formerly a pulseaudio thread but not any more

[Susan Cragin]

Whoops. This should have gone to the list.
> Susan Cragin wrote:
> > > > > > I have tested the following and I believe found they were not the problem:
> > > > > > --snip--
> > > > > > (3) problem with pulseaudio
> > > > > > How did you determine this? I thought you said your version of Ubuntu
> > > > > > was crippled if pulseaudio was removed, so did you use pasuspender? If
> > > > > > so, did you verify there was no pulseaudio process running while you
> > > > > > were testing Wine?
> > > > > > After I started my testing, I did run into problems when I tried to re-install pulseaudio and then remove it, but the PA problem was unrelated. Ubuntu said there was a PA bug, and issued a fix. After I applied the fix, no more problems working with pulseaudio removed. So the whole thing was sort of a red herring.
> > > >
> > > > I have re-installed my entire system since that problem went away, and immediately purged pulseaudio, and that's where I'm working from now. Still same problem.
> > > > OK, thanks for that clarification.
> > >
> > > So you've tracked the problem down to kernel version 2.6.29? What
> > > version of ALSA drivers are in your working and broken kernels?
> >
> > I've actually tracked it to before that.
> >
> > Wine's audio last worked with one of Ubuntu's generic kernels, probably 2.6.28-10. 
> > Ubuntu's current repository kernel is 2.6.28-11. That's the one I that caused the problem. 
> > The experimental bug-fix kernel is 2.6.28-12. That does not solve my problem. 
> > (Here's where I got the kernel: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~dtchen/test-kernels/ )
> >
> > When my kernel worked, my drivers were 0.1.19 -- one of Tashaki Iwai's daily stable builds from a couple of weeks ago. 
> > They are 0.1.19 now, today's daily stable build, compiled against 2.6.29-1-rt8-custom, which is what I am running at the moment.
> >
> > My 29-rt kernel is showing the same problems as the two kernels mentioned above. 
> > FWIW, the person who compiled the RT kernel said that he did so without applying the Ubuntu patches. So that tells me that the change took place outside the Ubuntu patches.
>
> I've had a few users report crashing in steam games as a result of 
> pulseaudio: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/367379  -- do you think this 
> is all related?
>
> Thanks,
> Scott Ritchie

Maybe. From the bug, it's hard to tell. 
But here's what I think. I think that the kernel made changes recently that changed how sound relates to the kernel, and tied pulseaudio closer to the kernel (hence those error messages I got under 2.6.28-11, which kernel was acknowledged to be buggy the day it came out). Some of the bugs they either backed out or corrected with 2.6.28-12. 
It would be interesting to see if they can get steam running with that kernel. 
If you are working with the steam-bug people ask them to add the below kernel, purge pulseaudio, and test with alsa only. 
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~dtchen/test-kernels/
Of course, they need headers, image & restricted modules.
Susan