[Bug 28040] New: handle_underrun=1 hack causes IMMDevice::Activate to fail with PulseAudio

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=28040

Summary: handle_underrun=1 hack causes IMMDevice::Activate to
                    fail with PulseAudio
           Product: Wine
           Version: 1.3.26
          Platform: x86
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: winealsa.drv
        AssignedTo: [e-mail]
        ReportedBy: [e-mail]

Given Andrew's past 1.3.25
commit 9ad60d1d143809c6ae477eb53e75c3dc93736e0e
Date:   Fri Aug 5 09:33:10 2011 -0500

winealsa.drv: Inject handle_underrun=1 setting for pulse-backed devices.

IMMDevice_Activate now fails when pulse is the default device. As a result,
mmdevapi is unusable (=> no more sound) and unwary apps like
dlls/mmdevapi/tests/render.c:test_session crash.  dmix still works.

The console log is:
ALSA lib pcm_pulse.c:855:(_snd_pcm_pulse_open) Unknown field handle_underrun
warn:alsa:AUDDRV_GetAudioEndpoint Unable to open PCM "default": -22 (Invalid
argument)
render.c:141: Test failed: Activation failed with 80004005

I'm using Ubuntu Intrepid. Please don't tell me to update. That is not the
solution.

Probably the interim hack should check the effect and revert to standard
behaviour/configuration in case of an error.

[Bug 28040] handle_underrun=1 hack causes IMMDevice::Activate to fail with PulseAudio

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=28040

Jörg Höhle  changed:

What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
           Keywords|                            |regression
                 CC|                            |[e-mail]
    Regression SHA1|                            |9ad60d1d143809c6ae477eb53e7
                   |                            |5c3dc93736e0e

[Bug 28040] handle_underrun=1 hack causes IMMDevice::Activate to fail with PulseAudio

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=28040

--- Comment #1 from Andrew Eikum  2011-08-10 07:53:25 CDT ---
Sorry Jörg, I'm going to tell you to update :) Your alsa-plugins is too old. We
require the handle_underrun setting to be supported to work around a PulseAudio
bug[1]. Without the handle_underrun setting, your audio will drop out within
about 15 minutes of playback. So your choices are:

1) Don't upgrade, remove the handle_underrun hack, and live with your audio
dropping out after a few minutes;
2) Don't upgrade, leave the handle_underrun hack, and have no audio; or
3) Upgrade

I suppose there is a fourth option, which is to fiddle with the ALSA driver
until the original drop-out bug stops happening. But I have spent weeks trying
to make that work, and this was finally my best solution.

[1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-plugins/+bug/805940

[Bug 28040] handle_underrun=1 hack causes IMMDevice::Activate to fail with PulseAudio

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=28040

--- Comment #2 from Jörg Höhle  2011-08-10 10:56:33 CDT ---
Strange.  For over a year or more, Wine has worked well enough with PulseAudio
that I repeatedly forgot "pactl exit" after logging in, i.e. PulseAudio was
used.
So this "15 minutes" is hard to believe.  OTOH, I've had PulseAudio signal
errors in rare occasions, which are usually cured with "pactl exit" in
Intrepid.

Intrepid is nice because it works with and without PulseAudio.
It works decently with my machines, whereas e.g. Lucid has HW issues with audio
after suspend/resume and with video flickering :-(
I'm considering switching to Debian but it'll cost me time.

You forgot the fifth option which I hinted at: As snd_pcm_open returns -22,
retry without the extra config to not shut the door on all people with
not-the-newest OS (I refuse to say "old". 3 years is *not* old, except in
politics).

It is not acceptable from a user perspective that a hack for PulseAudio causes
loss of sound even on desktops that have PulseAudio installed but disabled.

[Bug 28040] handle_underrun=1 hack causes IMMDevice::Activate to fail with PulseAudio

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=28040

--- Comment #3 from Andrew Eikum  2011-08-10 11:03:53 CDT ---
That's the same as option 1, really. It will still run into the dropped sound
bug. I guess maybe that's preferable to no sound, and is certainly easy to add.
I don't really relish having to dismiss bug reports from people with broken
alsa-plugins versions, though.

On systems where PA is "installed but disabled," I expect that the ALSA config
tree won't have "pcm.<device>.type=pulse", which the workaround checks for. If
it does, then that's really someone else's bug.

[Bug 28040] handle_underrun=1 hack causes IMMDevice::Activate to fail with PulseAudio

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=28040

--- Comment #4 from Jörg Höhle  2011-08-10 13:25:27 CDT ---
Created an attachment (id=35909)
 --> (http://bugs.winehq.org/attachment.cgi?id=35909)
patch to default to normal open when handle_underrun fails
> On systems where PA is "installed but disabled," I expect that the ALSA config
> tree won't have "pcm.<device>.type=pulse", which the workaround checks for.

This assumption is erroneous.  By disabled I meant nothing more than "pactl
exit" (with auto-restart disabled).  make_handle_underrun_config still finds
the pulse device and reconfigures it.  It is only at pcm_open time that the
configuration is refused.

trace:alsa:AUDDRV_GetAudioEndpoint "default" 0x138c98 0 0x33f944
ALSA lib pcm_pulse.c:855:(_snd_pcm_pulse_open) Unknown field handle_underrun
trace:alsa:AUDDRV_GetAudioEndpoint Opening PCM device "default" with
handle_underrun: -22

Without fallback, open fails even when PA is not active.  This is not
acceptable.

My patch adds that fallback.  The FIXME_ONCE functionality is based on the
consideration that if handle_underrun is rejected once by Pulse, it'll always
be.  Better not spam the console with every invocation of PlaySound.

If you wish, one could add
  if(err == -EINVAL){
+     ERR("Please upgrade PulseAudio & alsa-utils to at least 1.0.25\n");
      handle_underrun = 0;

[Bug 28040] handle_underrun=1 hack causes IMMDevice::Activate to fail with PulseAudio

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=28040

--- Comment #5 from Andrew Eikum  2011-08-10 14:35:55 CDT ---
(In reply to comment #4)
> Without fallback, open fails even when PA is not active.  This is not
> acceptable.

I would say your sound API lying to the user is unacceptable. If the device is
not backed by pulse, then why does it claim to be backed by pulse? Although I
guess I should know better than to expect sane behavior from audio APIs by now.

I guess I'm okay with taking Option 1 here. I guess I'll add a note to the
Sound wiki page explaining why users have their sound drop after a few minutes,
and that they must upgrade their sound packages to fix it.

I'd prefer not to use the _ONCE-style functionality. It keeps the code a little
cleaner, and I have no objection to being very loud about this failure (i.e. a
pulse-backed device that doesn't allow handle_underrun).

[Bug 28040] handle_underrun=1 hack causes IMMDevice::Activate to fail with PulseAudio

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=28040

--- Comment #6 from Jörg Höhle  2011-08-10 15:14:05 CDT ---
Oops, I had forgotten that I had restarted PA by hand to rerun the mmdevapi
tests.  EINVAL only occurs when pulse is active under the chosen name (e.g.
"default").  When "default" maps to dmix (e.g. after "pactl exit"), the
configurator bails out (NULL lconf).  I'm sorry for the confusion.

Still I consider it preferable to have the fallback, along with a clear FIXME
or ERR line, rather than no sound on desktops running old PA (which may not be
subject to that 15mins bug -- Intrepid can work for days with PA, incl.
suspend/resume).

FWIW, handle_underrun addition to alsa-plugin on 2010-07-09:
http://git.alsa-project.org/?p=alsa-plugins.git;a=commit;h=c20d516e229620129...

[Bug 28040] handle_underrun=1 hack causes IMMDevice::Activate to fail with PulseAudio

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=28040

Rosanne DiMesio  changed:

What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 CC|                            |[e-mail]

--- Comment #7 from Rosanne DiMesio  2011-08-13 22:06:34 CDT ---
*** Bug 28077 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Bug 28040] handle_underrun=1 hack causes IMMDevice::Activate to fail with PulseAudio

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=28040

Jörg Höhle  changed:

What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|UNCONFIRMED                 |RESOLVED
         Resolution|                            |FIXED

--- Comment #8 from Jörg Höhle  2011-09-18 02:36:55 CDT ---
The fallback is in wine-1.3.27,
commit 8129b1847a13be248098b8d8ec773f8bdf821df6
The ERR message is in wine-1.3.28,
commit 9c75a6aae5518357df464db7c352b27010dafff4

Net effect:
Ubuntu Intrepid regains sound but produces the err message which should be
ignored there.
Ubuntu Lucid is subject to the PA/alsa_plugins bug and should not be used
verbatim with PA.

[Bug 28040] handle_underrun=1 hack causes IMMDevice::Activate to fail with PulseAudio

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=28040

Alexandre Julliard  changed:

What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|RESOLVED                    |CLOSED

--- Comment #9 from Alexandre Julliard  2011-09-23 12:59:50 CDT ---
Closing bugs fixed in 1.3.29.