Many sound problems disappear with removing of Pulse, except for...
Moderators: MattKingUSA, khz
Many sound problems disappear with removing of Pulse, except for...
My laptop is plagued with xruns...I mean like, sometimes it goes to thousands of them, chopping the sound. So today I tried to temporarily remove the pulse folder from etc. And - there are still xruns, but in a significantly smaller number, like, less then 10 in 5-10 minutes with Guitarix and Hydrogen and at most 20 when starting other apps, clicking around and what not. I feel like I'm getting there. Maybe if I find the right settings for Jack and of course, a better sound card, I would get quite decent results. I am using Ubuntu 16.04, because I like Unity. A lighter DE might be beneficial too, I guess, so I am considering a clean install of the upcoming 20.04 mini ISO with Unity in a low graphics mode - and no Pulse whatsoever. The only problem is, well - Skype and Viber, of course. Is there any way of making those too send sound to alsa, or should I outright install, like, a regular Ubuntu for my everyday use, and then another dedicated partition for music?
- bluebell
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Re: Many sound problems disappear with removing of Pulse, except for...
Did you configure Pulse to output to jack (jack_sink)? Works fine here.
Another solution is suspending Pulseaudio while jack is running.
If you run clients that support neither jack nor ALSA then you're screwed when removing Pulse.
Another solution is suspending Pulseaudio while jack is running.
If you run clients that support neither jack nor ALSA then you're screwed when removing Pulse.
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- khz
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Re: Many sound problems disappear with removing of Pulse, except for...
Pulseaudio is connected very deeply in the system.
With a Gentoo (e. g. https://gentoostudio.org/) you can build your complete system without pulseaudio thanks to the (make.conf) USE flags and build programs like Firefox with ALSA.
Otherwise you can temporarily switch off pulseaudio - Stop Pulseaudio temporarily >> viewtopic.php?p=103154#p103154 - or use "jack_sink".
AVLinux would be worth a test, it is optimized for everyday use and LAW.
# AV Linux 2020.4.10 Released!! >> viewtopic.php?f=24&t=21284
# Thread for AV Linux 2020.4.10 Issues >> viewtopic.php?f=4&t=21286
<EDIT>
</EDIT>
With a Gentoo (e. g. https://gentoostudio.org/) you can build your complete system without pulseaudio thanks to the (make.conf) USE flags and build programs like Firefox with ALSA.
Otherwise you can temporarily switch off pulseaudio - Stop Pulseaudio temporarily >> viewtopic.php?p=103154#p103154 - or use "jack_sink".
AVLinux would be worth a test, it is optimized for everyday use and LAW.
# AV Linux 2020.4.10 Released!! >> viewtopic.php?f=24&t=21284
# Thread for AV Linux 2020.4.10 Issues >> viewtopic.php?f=4&t=21286
<EDIT>
16.4 is very old, from the year 2016.
In any case use a current system.
</EDIT>
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. . GNU/LINUX@AUDIO ~ /Wiki $ Howto.Info && GNU/Linux Debian installing >> Linux Audio Workstation LAW
. . GNU/LINUX@AUDIO ~ /Wiki $ Howto.Info && GNU/Linux Debian installing >> Linux Audio Workstation LAW
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Re: Many sound problems disappear with removing of Pulse, except for...
I tried everything, but I still get xruns. I tried this solution too (the last post in the thread), it also worked for some other guy on another forum, but in my case results to no sound at all.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14759&p=66231#p66231
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14759&p=66231#p66231
- turbidh20
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Re: Many sound problems disappear with removing of Pulse, except for...
I run no DE here, just a WM (Compiz). I have never used Pulseaudio (Linux since 2006). Skype works great. I don't know what Viber is. I believe there are applications that insist on Pulse but I've never used them. I just see Pulse as an unnecessary complication.
Arch Linux (i7-4790k/GTX970); UMC204HD; MPK Mini MKII; Jack2 (QjackCtl) & Ardour/Mixbus
- sysrqer
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Re: Many sound problems disappear with removing of Pulse, except for...
I would look at other things before messing around with pulseaudio too much because, as you've found, unless you're running a dedicated audio production system you will run in to tedious inconveniences without it.
I've never had much of a problem with pulseaudio. When it is bridged everything works and it doesn't have much impact on performance for me. A lot of the information you will find on forums about music production and pulseaudio is fairly old and it is a very hot subject, or at least it used to be. The reality is these days is that, for most people, it can coexist with jack perfectly well.
What settings are you running jack with? And what is your hardware? Have you tried running the realtime scan?
A light DE can certainly help but your problem doesn't sound like it is caused by that. Most likely you are trying to use settings too ambitious for your hardware or something is not configured correctly.
I've never had much of a problem with pulseaudio. When it is bridged everything works and it doesn't have much impact on performance for me. A lot of the information you will find on forums about music production and pulseaudio is fairly old and it is a very hot subject, or at least it used to be. The reality is these days is that, for most people, it can coexist with jack perfectly well.
What settings are you running jack with? And what is your hardware? Have you tried running the realtime scan?
A light DE can certainly help but your problem doesn't sound like it is caused by that. Most likely you are trying to use settings too ambitious for your hardware or something is not configured correctly.
Re: Many sound problems disappear with removing of Pulse, except for...
Well, this is the result of the scan
Now, I guess it's the crappy usb sound card (usb guitar cable of sorts). A new one is in order, but until then, I am trying to make the best out of this one. These are my JACK settings.
Code: Select all
Checking if you are root... no - good
Checking filesystem 'noatime' parameter... 4.15.0 kernel - good
(relatime is default since 2.6.30)
Checking CPU Governors... CPU 0: 'performance' CPU 1: 'performance' CPU 2: 'performance' CPU 3: 'performance' - good
Checking swappiness... 10 - good
Checking for resource-intensive background processes... none found - good
Checking checking sysctl inotify max_user_watches... >= 524288 - good
Checking access to the high precision event timer... readable - good
Checking access to the real-time clock... readable - good
Checking whether you're in the 'audio' group... yes - good
Checking for multiple 'audio' groups... no - good
Checking the ability to prioritize processes with chrt... yes - good
Checking kernel support for high resolution timers... found - good
Kernel with Real-Time Preemption... 'threadirqs' kernel parameter - good
Checking if kernel system timer is high-resolution... found - good
Checking kernel support for tickless timer... found - good
== Other checks ==
Checking filesystem types... ok.
** Set $SOUND_CARD_IRQ to the IRQ of your soundcard to enable more checks.
Find your sound card's IRQ by looking at '/proc/interrupts' and lspci.
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- turbidh20
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Re: Many sound problems disappear with removing of Pulse, except for...
I would concur, if you're new to Linux or using a standard DE install, then try and sort it out in your normal environment first.
However, I will say I'm not running a dedicated audio production system and I've only recently adapted my system to running Jack as default instead of just ALSA and everything is fantastic. I merely installed Ardour and Mixbus
But then I never ran Pulse, so there was no transitioning from one sound server to another. I don't see the point in running concurrent sound servers, surely one's enough.
Arch Linux (i7-4790k/GTX970); UMC204HD; MPK Mini MKII; Jack2 (QjackCtl) & Ardour/Mixbus
Re: Many sound problems disappear with removing of Pulse, except for...
I read that sometimes hyperthreading might be causing problems. But when I try to turn it off with I get this error, regardless if I enter it as a root or not:
Why is that so?
Code: Select all
echo off > /sys/devices/system/cpu/smt/control
Code: Select all
bash: /sys/devices/system/cpu/smt/control: Permission denied
- turbidh20
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Re: Many sound problems disappear with removing of Pulse, except for...
It has to be done at as the root user. Try using sudo or a root terminal.Aleks wrote: ↑Mon Apr 20, 2020 10:35 am I read that sometimes hyperthreading might be causing problems. But when I try to turn it off withI get this error, regardless if I enter it as a root or not:Code: Select all
echo off > /sys/devices/system/cpu/smt/control
Why is that so?Code: Select all
bash: /sys/devices/system/cpu/smt/control: Permission denied
Edit: whoops, didn't read your post properly!
Use a root terminal, as sudo only assigns root privelages to the echo part of the command. Or switch to root user before issuing the command...
Code: Select all
su root
Arch Linux (i7-4790k/GTX970); UMC204HD; MPK Mini MKII; Jack2 (QjackCtl) & Ardour/Mixbus