Pulse Audio appears to be causing HD to thrash repeatedly

Toadman · 12-09-2009, 07:44 PM

Mandriva 2010, Gnome 2.28, PulseAudio 0.9.19-7mdv2010.0. I'm seeing
about 4 - 5 minutes of drive thrashing intermittently throughout the
hour. Looking at my syslog I see entries such as this:

Code:

Dec  9 19:15:24 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:15:24 localhost last message repeated 10 times
Dec  9 19:15:29 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 563 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:15:29 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:15:29 localhost last message repeated 10 times
Dec  9 19:15:43 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 239 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:15:45 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:15:45 localhost last message repeated 8 times
Dec  9 19:15:48 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 378 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:15:48 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:15:48 localhost last message repeated 10 times
Dec  9 19:15:53 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 586 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:15:55 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:15:55 localhost last message repeated 10 times
Dec  9 19:16:03 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 359 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:16:03 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:16:03 localhost last message repeated 10 times
Dec  9 19:16:08 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 332 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:16:08 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:16:08 localhost last message repeated 10 times
Dec  9 19:16:13 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 435 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:16:13 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:16:13 localhost last message repeated 10 times
Dec  9 19:16:18 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 562 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:16:18 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:16:19 localhost last message repeated 10 times
Dec  9 19:16:24 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 643 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:16:24 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:16:24 localhost last message repeated 10 times
Dec  9 19:16:29 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 739 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:16:29 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:16:29 localhost last message repeated 9 times
Dec  9 19:16:34 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 986 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:16:34 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:16:34 localhost last message repeated 8 times
Dec  9 19:16:39 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 1022 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:16:39 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:16:39 localhost last message repeated 8 times
Dec  9 19:16:44 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 971 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:16:44 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:16:44 localhost last message repeated 7 times
Dec  9 19:16:49 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 998 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:16:49 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:16:49 localhost last message repeated 9 times
Dec  9 19:16:54 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 995 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:16:54 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:16:54 localhost last message repeated 8 times
Dec  9 19:16:59 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 979 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:16:59 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:16:59 localhost last message repeated 9 times
Dec  9 19:17:18 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 415 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:17:18 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:17:18 localhost last message repeated 10 times
Dec  9 19:17:23 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 599 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:17:23 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:17:23 localhost last message repeated 10 times
Dec  9 19:17:28 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 619 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:17:28 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:17:28 localhost last message repeated 10 times
Dec  9 19:17:33 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 598 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:17:33 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:17:33 localhost last message repeated 10 times
Dec  9 19:17:38 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 664 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:17:38 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:17:38 localhost last message repeated 7 times
Dec  9 19:17:43 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 800 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:17:43 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:17:43 localhost last message repeated 8 times
Dec  9 19:17:48 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 796 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:17:48 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:17:48 localhost last message repeated 7 times
Dec  9 19:17:53 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 791 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:17:53 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:17:53 localhost last message repeated 8 times
Dec  9 19:17:58 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 794 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:17:58 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:17:58 localhost last message repeated 7 times
Dec  9 19:18:03 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 826 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:18:03 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:18:03 localhost last message repeated 8 times
Dec  9 19:18:08 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 952 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:18:08 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:18:08 localhost last message repeated 10 times
Dec  9 19:18:17 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 13 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:18:29 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:18:29 localhost last message repeated 10 times
Dec  9 19:18:34 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 591 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:18:34 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:18:34 localhost last message repeated 10 times
Dec  9 19:18:40 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 592 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:18:40 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:18:40 localhost last message repeated 10 times
Dec  9 19:18:45 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 600 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:18:45 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:18:45 localhost last message repeated 10 times
Dec  9 19:18:50 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: ratelimit.c: 646 events
suppressed
Dec  9 19:18:50 localhost pulseaudio[3035]: asyncq.c: q overrun, queuing
locally
Dec  9 19:18:50 localhost last message repeated 10 times

and on and on and so forth. Among other problems this is causing
SpamAssassin to take a very long time to scan a message. Before
upgrading to 2010 I was seeing scan times like:

Spam: 5 Autolearn: 0 AvgScore: 31.40 AvgScanTime: 5.24 sec
Ham: 17 Autolearn: 0 AvgScore: -2.35 AvgScanTime: 17.40 sec

Now due to this almost constant drive access I'm seeing scan times like:

Spam: 21 Autolearn: 0 AvgScore: 19.38 AvgScanTime: 37.67 sec
Ham: 26 Autolearn: 0 AvgScore: -4.50 AvgScanTime: 27.56 sec

In fact while manually scanning a message awhile ago SpamAssassin
actually hung while the drive was being accessed.

Any advice for a fix or where to report this would be appreciated

code933k · 12-10-2009, 12:57 PM

1.) I am very sorry for you, I dropped pulseaudio from my own distros since day 1. I could recommend you do the same (google it) and deploy alsa + dmix instead (if necessary). That way you will not suffer those constant overruns, dumps and extra baggage. Most modern audio hardware does not even need software mix as manufacturing processes became cheaper. Many people will be safe without pulseaudio or things alike.
2.) As you appear to be using Mandriva, use their bugzilla reporting forms: http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org/en/Deve...Howto/Bugzilla

Toadman · 12-10-2009, 08:57 PM

Thanks, I've de-selected pulseaudio in the Mandriva Command Center and things seemed to have settled down now. I'll watch it for a few days and see what happens. Thanks also for the link to reporting bugs in Mandriva.

Chris

mikieboy · 01-08-2010, 09:48 AM

For further information of any others reading this thread, I deselected pulseaudio after an update in 2009.1 screwed up my sound. Prior to the update it worked fine. I think pulseaudio must be buggy but as code933k says, who needs it!