From alsa-user-owner@alsa.jcu.cz  Thu Nov  5 10:05:31 1998
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To: alsa-user@jcu.cz
Cc: kyto@is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp
From: sharkey@ale.physics.sunysb.edu
Subject: Re: Is ALSA stable enough? 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 05 Nov 1998 16:58:55 +0900."
             <199811050758.QAA07477@tjms1f.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp> 
Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1998 17:55:19 +0900
Reply-To: alsa-user@alsa.jcu.cz
Sender: alsa-user-owner@alsa.jcu.cz
Precedence: list

> I just switched from Linux UltraSound Project driver to ALSA driver
> and I'm experiencing terrible crashes. Previous UltraSound driver
> wasn't perfectly stable on my system, but ALSA is much worse. After I
> play something for several minutes, ALSA seems to make other harmless
> programs (like bash, login) to cause GPF, and the system dies.

GPF?  Do you get a BSOD, too?  If you do, I think we found your problem...

Seriously, though, this sounds like a hardware problem.  If you were running
a recent LUSP driver, it should have been rock solid, bet your best friend's
life on it stable.  If you've got some sort of IRQ/DMA resource conflict or
physically bad hardware, then these types of crashes should be expected.

> I'd like to know if this is the case to anyone else.

I administer many systems running ALSA with a variety of different
hardware configurations.  Gus/SB/Clones.  SMP and not.  I have not
observed this problem.

> If ALSA is
> supposed to be stable enough for everyone, I might spend a little more 
> time trying to get it to work. If not, then, I can always go back to
> good old UltraSound driver ;).

It seems stable to me.  Not yet full-featured, but stable.

> My system is Pentium 90MHz, GUS PnP w/ 8Mb RAM, running Linux 2.0.34
> and using libc6. I'm suspecting that the driver is not tested
> extensively enough with libc6.

Nonsense.  Both Debian 2.x and Red Hat 5.x ship with libc6 as the default.
This has been in place for many months.  If anything, I'd say ALSA hasn't
been well tested with libc5.

> BTW, I haven't tried the latest driver yet. I'll do that when I get
> home tonight.

Look for a hardware conflict first.  Check you isapnp.conf and make sure
it looks right.  Try changing the settings.  If you have to, remove
unneccessary hardware and see if stability is still a problem.

Examine your /proc files carefully.

Eric

