From alsa-user-owner@alsa.jcu.cz  Mon Oct 26 16:45:04 1998
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Subject: Re: Machine locks on record, ALSA to blame?
To: alsa-user@jcu.cz
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 21:41:07 +0000 (GMT)
In-Reply-To: <3634216B.63C@erols.com> from "Paul Winkler" at Oct 26, 98 02:14:51 am
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> I also use a TB Malibu and am having lockup problems when recording. But

I'm quite sure it is NOT the Malibu card.  I had these exact problems
with the Gus PnP, but not with the Ultra drivers (or maybe it was
some other piece of software at the time), but only with ALSA (or
around the time of the switch).  In fact, I bought the Malibu for
two reasons... because the GUS had a noisy DSP, and I thought maybe
this lockup thing would go away.

> How consistent is that? Does it ever lock much sooner or later? See, I'm
> getting lockups, and the timing seems completely random! Sometimes I can
> record full-duplex for 10 minutes, sometimes it locks up instantly, but
> sooner or later it inevitably locks...

My lockups are completely consistent.  I'm not sure 20 seconds is the
threshold (because I really don't want to reboot 30 times to find out),
but it's close.  Short sound clips never cause lockups, and long ones
always do.  This didn't use to be the case.  Yes, I'm using full-duplex
operation (I forgot to mention that!), since I've told SoundStudio
to play the existing tracks while recording.  It just occurred to me
that perhaps this only happens when it's doing full-duplex with 0
tracks to play (recording first 2 tracks).  I can't see why this would
make any difference, but it's a start.

> Do you get lockups when *just* recording, or is it only when doing
> duplex (i.e. playback & record at same time)? I don't think I've ever
> had a problem when just recording.

That's something to look into.  I _think_ it's only on full-duplex,
and is only happening when SoundStudio is playing nothing during the
record (because I'm recording the first two tracks), and locks right
when the record stops, when /dev/dsp is closed (never during). 

> > [sysrq]
> How do you enable those? THis is new to me... I can't reboot at all,
> short of just hitting the power button and risking filesystem problems.

Need a 2.1 kernel.  If you have a recent machine (Debian Slink works
wonderful, don't need to upgrade anything), you can upgrade to 2.1 in 
a few minutes.  Be sure to read the Documentation/Changes file for
all the utilities you (might) need to upgrade.  2.1 is really stable
now, especially for SMP, I'd recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind
recompiling a kernel.

> Try looking at http://sound.lovebead.com/#hdr if you haven't already
> seen Dave Phillips' list.

Thanks for the pointer!  I was using SoundStudio because I didn't
really put much time into looking at other products, not because
I had some special attachment to it (well, I am pretty good at using
it now).  Oh, and as far as I can tell, CERESsoft is dead... their
web site hasn't been touched in ages (if it's there), and I even
sent mail to Igor (a programmer, possibly head of company, he's listed
in Internic records) and never got anything back.  

A quick look at Multitrack shows he doesn't want to release source.
That's sad.  These are exactly the types of problems that would 
have been fixed (or at least identified) if I had source code to these 
programs.  And because I'm sure there are others who aren't using 
his program because it locks their systems up, he might even have
more users because of it.  Oh, and it's linked to libc5.  Can't
use this on half my machines.

> yet. Maybe you could get SLab working?

I'll try SLab... thanks for the mention of other apps to do this.
I really hadn't looked around since 1996 or so, when I bought a 
SoundStudio license (for a whole $39).  If only I had source code,
a few breakpoints and a look at the ioctl()s...

-- 
Shaw Terwilliger (twig@advancenet.net)

