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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: [Select]

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

By default I use the ALSA though pulseaudio option that MC found for itself, but it still happens if I go direct to pulseaudio.

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]

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.

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

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

What? Why would you even ask that?

Have you tried enabling thread priorities? It might help.

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.

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.

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]

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

What? Why would you even ask that?

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