Using alsa-headers-1.0.16 alsa-lib-1.0.16 alsa-tools-1.0.16 and alsa-utils-1.0.16, aplay clips the first few tenths of a second off a sound when it goes thru the dmix plugin (aplay -Dplug:dmix ...) but not when played directly (aplay -Dfront). This does not happen if I revert to alsa-headers-1.0.14 alsa-lib-1.0.14a-r1 alsa-tools-1.0.14 and alsa-utils-1.0.14. (I'm not sure if it's safe to mix those.) This may be related to <https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/alsa-bug/bug_view_advanced_page.php?bug_id=3763> (which says the length of cutoff is 0.3 seconds, which seems about right) but I don't have multiple sound cards, just a VIA 8233A built-in to the motherboard (which doesn't match either card in that bug). % emerge --info Portage 2.1.4.4 (default-linux/x86/2007.0/desktop, gcc-4.1.2, glibc-2.6.1-r0, 2.6.24-gentoo-r5 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.24-gentoo-r5 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1900+ Timestamp of tree: Sat, 19 Apr 2008 15:45:01 +0000 app-shells/bash: 3.2_p17-r1 dev-java/java-config: 1.3.7, 2.1.4 dev-lang/python: 2.4.4-r9 dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r6 sys-apps/baselayout: 1.12.11.1 sys-apps/sandbox: 1.2.18.1-r2 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.61-r1 sys-devel/automake: 1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10.1 sys-devel/binutils: 2.16.1-r3, 2.17, 2.17.50.0.9, 2.17.50.0.10, 2.17.50.0.11, 2.17.50.0.12, 2.17.50.0.13, 2.17.50.0.14, 2.17.50.0.15, 2.17.50.0.16, 2.18-r1 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.0-r4 sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.26 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.23-r3 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-ggdb -O2" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/3.2/share/config /usr/kde/3.5/env /usr/kde/3.5/share/config /usr/kde/3.5/shutdown /usr/share/config" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/terminfo /etc/udev/rules.d" CXXFLAGS="-ggdb -O2" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="distlocks fixpackages metadata-transfer nostrip sandbox sfperms strict unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox" GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://213.186.33.38/gentoo-distfiles/ ftp://ftp.sh.cvut.cz/MIRRORS/gentoo/gentoo http://linux.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/download/gentoo-mirror/ ftp://ftp.belnet.be/mirror/rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo/ http://gentoo.osuosl.org/ " LINGUAS="en ja" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS="--timeout=300" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/portage/local/layman/gentoo-gis /usr/portage/local/layman/xemacs /usr/portage/local/layman/sunrise /usr/local/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.namerica.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="3dnow 3dnowext X Xaw3d a52 aac aalib acl acpi alsa arts berkdb bluetooth bzip2 cairo canna cdr cjk cli cracklib crypt cups dbus debug doc dri dts dvd dvdr dvdread emboss encode esd evo fam firefox fortran freetype freewnn gdbm gif gnome gpm gstreamer gtk hal iconv imagemagick immqt-bc ipv6 isdnlog java joystick jpeg kde kdexdeltas kerberos ldap lm_sensors mad maildir matroska mbox midi mikmod mmx mmxext mng mozsvg mp3 mpeg mplayer mudflap mule ncurses nls nodrm nptl nptlonly ogg opengl openmp oss pam pcre pdf perl pic png pppd python qt qt3 qt3support qt4 quicktime readline reflection ruby scanner sdl session spell spl sse ssl svg tcltk tcpd tetex tiff truetype unicode usb vcd vorbis win32codecs wmf x264 x86 xine xinerama xml xorg xv zlib" ALSA_CARDS="via82xx" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CAMERAS="ptp2" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse joystick" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="en ja" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="mga vesa fbdev" Unset: CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, MAKEOPTS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS
This is not related to your soundcard. This is related to the dmix plugin itself. The bug has been identified by Mike Gorse and his patch is already in the upstream ALSA tree. I expect it to be pulled into 1.0.17-rc1. I've linked it in the URL field. Could you confirm that this resolves the problem for you? If it does, we'll locally patch for you in an 1.0.16-r1.
Okay, I'll give that a try and see if it helps. I should be able to report back in a day or two.
Created attachment 151097 [details, diff] My version of the patch Sorry for the delay. The change in the patch does appear to fix the problem. (I was unable to get the patch from the web-site to apply for reasons I don't understand (patch would not be able to find the file to patch or complain that the patch was malformed); eventually, I gave up and made the fix by hand and created my own patch, which is attached on the off chance it's of use.)
Created attachment 153583 [details, diff] upstream patch
The upstream patch applies cleanly and I can confirm that it does resolve the problem, too.
I modified the 1.0.16 ebuild to apply the upstream patch, then reinstalled alsa-lib-1.0.16. The patch applied cleanly, and my sound problem is solved. I had the same issue as the original poster. Perhaps this should be added to portage?
Created attachment 164440 [details, diff] Modifies ebuild to use upstream patch Patch showing the simple change I made to the ebuild.
(In reply to comment #7) > Created an attachment (id=164440) [edit] > Modifies ebuild to use upstream patch > > Patch showing the simple change I made to the ebuild. > If this was fixed upstream, I assume by now (1.0.20) should have the fixes, right?
Lemme know if this still an issue, thanks guys