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