Ubuntu
pulseaudio package

Crackling noise from PulseAudio

Bug #326864 reported by Albin T
8
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
pulseaudio (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: pulseaudio

There is a faint crackling noise during sound playback. Killing pulseaudio (killall pulseaudio) and restarting apps removes the crackling noise (which is why I suspect pulseaudio).

The noise is independent of cpu or hd load. Explicitly selecting ALSA or other in sound preferences does not help. There is still a crackling noise as long as pulseaudio is alive.

The crackling sounds pretty much like a broken speaker or overpowered amplifier which can not handle certain sounds such as high-pitch. The noise is clearly heard when pressing the "Test" button in sound preferences.

The problem has been there since Ubuntu 8.04 and I'm now using 8.10.

Sound card: Sigmatel STAC9220

pulseaudio:
  Installed: 0.9.10-2ubuntu9.3
  Candidate: 0.9.10-2ubuntu9.3

alsa-info.sh
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=724e4464f4b1a8faa4053f4f3d03ca2764827b88

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Package: pulseaudio 0.9.10-2ubuntu9.3
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=./:~/bin:/home/username/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
Uname: Linux 2.6.27-11-generic i686

Tags: apport-bug
Revision history for this message
Albin T (thorena) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Victoria Wilson (mail-vwilson) wrote :

Have you seen this existing bug? https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/272321

If you're unable to set the PCM volume at all, see related bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/315971

If this fixes the problem for you perhaps this bug should be updated to point to the PCM one so users can report that it has affected them and ensure the correct priority is assigned.

Daniel T Chen (crimsun)
Changed in pulseaudio:
status: New → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Albin T (thorena) wrote :

It doesn't seem to be related to the PCM bug. PCM is not muted and I can change the volume etc. (Actually, I can not mute the PCM channel...)

I just noticed it has been fixed and I'm eager to try it out. Maybe it helps you too :)
Thanks a lot for the fix!

Revision history for this message
oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad) wrote :

I have a similar problem on a MacBook Pro, cf https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/328030.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package pulseaudio - 0.9.14-0ubuntu6

---------------
pulseaudio (0.9.14-0ubuntu6) jaunty; urgency=low

  * 0004_disable_autospawn.patch: Disable this patch. Doing so
    allows the daemon to spawn if not already running, which
    works around LP: #191027, #204272
  * 0012_clarify_driver_error_redirect_to_alsa_devs.patch:
    - Only log POLL* being set if tsched is used so that syslog
      isn't filled with innocuous messages when we set tsched=0
      (see 0030 below) (LP: #323712),
    - Hint 'linux' source package instead of 'alsa-driver' for
      Launchpad bug reports,
    - The debug-specific portion is only applicable to 0.9.14;
      0.9.15 enables a rate limiting module by default to work
      around this (and other) issues
  * 0029_fix_suspend_on_idle_null_race.patch: Handle sink case,
    too
  * 0030_set_tsched0.patch: Work around a shedload of (driver)
    bugs by falling back to interrupt-based buffer semantics
    (LP: #190754, #292880, #295519, #298494, #301755, #302964,
     LP: #319118, #323976, #324103, #326205, #326864)
  * Backport fixes from git HEAD:
    - 0031_fix_6chan_map.patch,
    - 0032_reinit_proplist.patch,
    - 0033_fix_pa-gcc-packedmalloc.patch,
    - 0034_bt_fixes.patch
  * Make invoking the stop target in the initscript not fail an
    upgrade (LP: #317921)
  * Previous upload (0.9.14-0ubuntu3) fixed LP: #321357
  * 01PulseAudio: use sudo -H to ensure that $HOME is, in fact,
    the user's when invoking pacmd for suspend/resume

 -- Daniel T Chen <email address hidden> Sun, 15 Feb 2009 02:35:26 -0500

Changed in pulseaudio:
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
To post a comment you must log in.
This report contains Public information  
Everyone can see this information.
Subscribing...

Other bug subscribers

Remote bug watches

Bug watches keep track of this bug in other bug trackers.