Playback stops during high cpu load, doesn't recover

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Ancipital:
Hi,

I have noticed that MC23 on Linux seems a lot more fragile than on Windows, in an important respect. If something spikes cpu use hard, it stops playing, and doesn't recover. You have to manually stop and start playback to get it to play once more.

Bearing in mind that little CPU spikes aren't uncommon (pathological browser behaviours, user error in wonky Python development etc.), this is a pain in the rear.

I initially wondered if it was an iowait from disk breaking it, so have MC load the entire (non-decoded) track into memory now, but that makes no difference. By default I use the ALSA though pulseaudio option that MC found for itself, but it still happens if I go direct to pulseaudio.

Spurious details for the interested:

Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS, Linux [redacted] 4.4.0-109-generic #132-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jan 9 19:52:39 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux. MC23.0.80 x64

Trying to copy from the JRMark window causes a CTD too- so restarting and fishing it out from system info, 3853.

One last thing, it's not the OOM killer kicking in, either:

--- Code: ---free -h
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 31G 15G 756M 378M 14G 14G
Swap: 19G 11M 19G
--- End code ---

How many of these are known issues, out of interest?

JimH:
We recommend Debian. Ubuntu can work, but you may have something missing in the installation. Try the other threads here.

This is probably not an MC problem.

Are you using VNC to connect? Try a monitor and keyboard instead.

Awesome Donkey:
Have you tried enabling thread priorities? It might help.

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,111373.msg769735.html#msg769735

--- Quote from: Ancipital on May 09, 2018, 05:04:15 am ---By default I use the ALSA though pulseaudio option that MC found for itself, but it still happens if I go direct to pulseaudio.
--- End quote ---

I'd avoid using Pulseaudio, especially if you care about bit-perfect audio output. By default using the Pulseaudio output resamples everything to 48 kHz. I'd recommend one of the hw: or front: ALSA outputs (which bypass the mixer, hence they're a bit-perfect audio output), if you have them available.

Ancipital:

--- Quote from: JimH on May 09, 2018, 06:30:49 am ---We recommend Debian. Ubuntu can work, but you may have something missing in the installation. Try the other threads here.

This is probably not an MC problem.

--- End quote ---

I'm not about reinstall my work desktop machine because MC is misbehaving. Quality support there, cheers.

--- Quote from: JimH on May 09, 2018, 06:30:49 am ---Are you using VNC to connect? Try a monitor and keyboard instead.

--- End quote ---

What? Why would you even ask that?

--- Quote from: Awesome Donkey on May 09, 2018, 07:14:46 am ---Have you tried enabling thread priorities? It might help.

--- End quote ---

I'll give that a go tomorrow, thanks. For the rest of the day, I used VLC, which didn't miss a beat (literally). A quad core Xeon playing redbook FLAC shouldn't, mind.

--- Quote from: Awesome Donkey on May 09, 2018, 07:14:46 am ---I'd avoid using Pulseaudio, especially if you care about bit-perfect audio output. By default using the Pulseaudio output resamples everything to 48 kHz. I'd recommend one of the hw: or front: ALSA outputs (which bypass the mixer, hence they're a bit-perfect audio output), if you have them available.

--- End quote ---

Only if you leave it at the default sample rate of 48KHz.

Also, nobody chooses to use Pulseaudio, apart from maybe Poettering himself. However, for Linux on the desktop in any pragmatic reality, we're stuck with it now.

JimH:

--- Quote from: Ancipital on May 09, 2018, 03:49:54 pm ---I'm not about reinstall my work desktop machine because MC is misbehaving. Quality support there, cheers.

What? Why would you even ask that?

--- End quote ---
If you have such strong feelings, maybe you should solve your own problems. Read other threads on Ubuntu.

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