Bug 444102 – =media-sound/pulseaudio-2.1-r1 - [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_avail() returned a value that is exceptionally large: 832640 bytes (4336 ms).

• Status: RESOLVED INVALID
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Tom Wijsman (TomWij) (RETIRED) 2012-11-20 21:36:44 UTC]

While playing StarCraft II using wine, my computer froze and after a reboot the dmesg log revealed (alongside NVIDIA problems):

pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_avail() returned a value that is exceptionally large: 832640 bytes (4336 ms).
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c: Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver 'snd_hda_intel'. Please report this issue to the ALSA developers.
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_dump():
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c: Soft volume PCM
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c: Control: PCM Playback Volume
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c: min_dB: -51
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c: max_dB: 0
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c: resolution: 256
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c: Its setup is:
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c:   stream       : PLAYBACK
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c:   access       : MMAP_INTERLEAVED
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c:   format       : S16_LE
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c:   subformat    : STD
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c:   channels     : 2
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c:   rate         : 48000
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c:   exact rate   : 48000 (48000/1)
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c:   msbits       : 16
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c:   buffer_size  : 16384
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c:   period_size  : 8192
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c:   period_time  : 170666
pulseaudio[8415]: [alsa-sink] alsa-util.c:   tstamp_mode  : ENABLE

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Play StarCraft II.
2. It freezes!
3. After a reboot, check /var/log/messages.
Actual Results:  
Reboots, /var/log/messages output tells me to report a bug.

Expected Results:  
My computer not freezing.

[Comment 1 Tom Wijsman (TomWij) (RETIRED) 2012-11-20 21:37:03 UTC]

Created attachment 330094 [details]
emerge --info

[Comment 2 Tom Wijsman (TomWij) (RETIRED) 2012-11-20 21:40:10 UTC]

Created attachment 330096 [details]
grep -a pulseaudio /var/log/messages

When I said dmesg earlier, I meant /var/log/messages.

[Comment 3 Tom Wijsman (TomWij) (RETIRED) 2012-11-20 21:43:40 UTC]

Created attachment 330098 [details]
grep -a kernel /var/log/messages

Machine name and time were stripped out every time, this would be considered the dmesg of the frozen boot.

[Comment 4 Tom Wijsman (TomWij) (RETIRED) 2012-11-20 21:47:05 UTC]

This probably might just be the cause of NVIDIA, but I haven't seen pulseaudio (or anything else) complain like this before...

I have upgraded to =x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-310.19 and rebooted before this freeze.

[Comment 5 Tom Wijsman (TomWij) (RETIRED) 2013-01-11 11:24:21 UTC]

Might no longer be experiencing this, will reopen if I do.

[Comment 6 Tom Wijsman (TomWij) (RETIRED) 2013-01-26 15:09:19 UTC]

Confirmed this to be a once-in-a-lifetime event, the problem lies elsewhere.