ALSA Buffer Underrun

TrevorBradley · Post by **TrevorBradley** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 12:07 am

Hey everyone, I'm trying to get ZSNES working on my MythTV Frontend, a Sempron 2800+ box running Slackware Linux 11. It's an asus m2npv-vm with hda_intel sound, which I've had some issues with, but seems to be working OK. I've presently upgraded to ALSA 1.0.15.

I'm geting ALSA buffer underrun issues fairly consistently... They don't happen all the time, but usually after 1-2 minutes of gameplay, and once they hit sound is pooched. The rest of the gameplay seems just fine.

I've tried tweaking the Hz settings as suggested by others in the forum, but increasing the Hz only causes the sound to stutter. Decreasing to 22000 or even 16000 seems to improve the alsa buffer underrun.

This seems to be an issue where many people have problems but quickly find solutions... I'm having no such luck and was wondering if anyone could offer any insight.

Thanks for your time.

Post by **Nach** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 12:15 am

That's how ALSA is.
I recommend using OSS.

Even if ALSA is emulating the OSS, that usually works better.
This means ZSNES was compiled with libao support, and you use -ad oss.

TrevorBradley · Post by **TrevorBradley** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 1:04 am

With OSS, I get an "Audio Open Failed" error, with no sound...

Checking my kernel, I believe there aren't OSS drivers for snd_hda_intel... it's too new?

If I install alsa-oss, and prefix the zsnes command with aoss (I didn't realize how this worked until just now) it does work, but the sound is even more choppy.

Post by **Nach** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 2:22 am

I think my friend had that chip in his HP laptop and told me his sound sounds clearer across the board if he installs the official OSS drivers.

But either way, I'm not a fan of ALSA, and don't know what to tell you.

TrevorBradley · Post by **TrevorBradley** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 3:40 am

Are those the ones at opensound.com?

NFITC1 · Post by **NFITC1** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 3:50 pm

I have this same problem too. The problem is with ALSA and possibly SDL. My OSS didn't work either. ZSNES is feeding more than ALSA can process so it gets bogged down and starts skipping. When this happens I just hit Esc twice (enter and exit GUI) and the problem goes away for a few more minutes. It's not a great solution, but it works.
If you find a better solution let us know since I don't like mine.

Post by **Nach** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 6:01 pm

TrevorBradley wrote:Are those the ones at opensound.com?

Yes.