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PlayOnLinux/Wine ALSA continuously breaking.

Discussion in 'PlayOnLinux' started by delsol, Apr 6, 2015.

  1. delsol

    delsol New Member

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    After a bunch of Google searches I've seen that a lot of people have had this same issue but none of the fixes which I've seen have helped in the slightest (and I'd rather not disable PulseAudio and getting OSS because this usually ends up breaking my system sound haha).

    So this started when I noticed severe audio stuttering in (Steam) games and that the "test" button in the Wine audio config sounded like static and gross stuttering. I then realized that changing the audio settings in the Wine config from (System default) to my specific devices completely fixed the "test" button. Screenshot from 2015-04-06 15:51:52.png
    A fairly pleasing noise played and I assumed things were peachy until I ran a program.

    After running Steam, not even opening a game, the settings change as if my output device had completely vanished, and the sound in-game plays accordingly; there is absolutely no sound in any games.
    Screenshot from 2015-04-06 15:59:01.png
    Now there is absolutely no sound until I close Steam, then the settings change back to my specific devices and the "Test Sound" button works flawlessly.

    Changing the settings back to what they were previous fixes the sound, but with horrible quality and extreme amounts of stuttering and the "Test Sound" button is again broken. Any ideas to fix this? Anything would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance for the responses!!!
  2. delsol

    delsol New Member

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    (I should mention that in-game graphics performance is exactly as it should be, with no video stuttering. The audio lags behind the video and stutters a lot.)
  3. booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    Looks like you have a unique audio setup:
    • USB
    • HDA
    I've only ever used the analog output to my stereo system and it works beautifully.
    Sometimes I get the "buffer underrun" errors in PlayOnLinux logs, but its random and you don't always hear it.

    One fix is this:
    1. Navigate to: /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
    2. Open in a text editor
    3. Change: default-fragment-size-msec = 5
    4. Kill Pulseaudio
    5. Pulseaudio should start it-self again
  4. delsol

    delsol New Member

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    Ahhh yes I had done this previously but I did a clean install of Ubuntu and completely forgot. This fixed the "Test Sound" button and also reduced stuttering to what it probably should be. The lag however, is still there.

    The audio in any game that I play is at least half a second behind the video (I test this by using the menu noise in Final Fantasy XIII, the video is perfect but as said before the audio lags behind about half a second.)

    I wonder, would further edits to daemon.conf help? If not then any ideas?
  5. booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    Allen has a complete tutorial on this subject here: Yet Another Linux Blog
    Wine also has some suggestions here: Wine & ALSA

    Have you tried using basic speaker/headphones through the analog output?

    I bet the USB speakers is part of the problem. Not that it should be, but ALSA fighting Pulseaudio with digital audio causes problems like this. Which is why I don't use my HDMI output. I've read many times that Wine has problems with Pulseaudio.
  6. delsol

    delsol New Member

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    I'll take a look at this, thanks a bunch! But my headphones are analog, the only thing which is USB/HDMI is my microphone (which has a built in speaker). I had much suspicion that Pulseaudio was the issue as it is like a barrier from ALSA to my audio card in reference to WINE.

    Thanks again man I'll post my results after further attempts.
  7. booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    ah, didn't realize your headphones were plugged in via analog.
    So maybe the microphone is causing issues?
    Just unplug the microphone and run a game. If the lag goes away, then you know ALSA and Pulseaudio are conflicting with the USB audio connection.
  8. delsol

    delsol New Member

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    Yeah those guides worked kind of in that my computer was still functional after doing them; they didn't change a thing in regards to the sound. I guess it's my hardware because (haha) I just completely removed Pulseaudio and restarted with JUST ALSA and the problem persisted so *shrug* I suppose I've gotta deal with this til I get some better gear.

    Thanks a lot for your help booman I really appreciate this! :)
  9. booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    Unfortunately this stuff happens...
    Not sure why, but I hope updates will eventually fix it ;)
    No problem
    Glad to have new members any time!
    delsol likes this.
  10. delsol

    delsol New Member

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    Hey!! Got it working with a fresh install of POL and 1.6.2 WINE. Now everything's working! Thanks for all the help I wouldn't have done this without your support man. I'll be seeing you!
  11. booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    Nice! All of your audio lags are gone too?
  12. delsol

    delsol New Member

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    Sure thing! Everything works perfectly, I assume I had installed to many components and that messed something up.
  13. booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    That is totally possible. I've done it before by installing dxfullsetup and the game only requires d3dx9
    Sometimes packages/component conflict with eachother and other times they are perfectly fine.
    Good Job!

    I don't think you mentioned which games you are trying to play...
  14. delsol

    delsol New Member

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    Sorry for the late response, I was playing Final Fantasy XIII, Mirror's Edge, and Borderlands to test the functionality.
  15. booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    Besides having a LOT of fun, how is your audio?
  16. delsol

    delsol New Member

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    It's great so far! Each game required a lot of messing about in the configuration but they work fantastically now!
  17. booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    Awsome! Linux triumphs again!
    Feel free to post if you try some other games.
    Screenshots are great too
  18. delsol

    delsol New Member

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    Alright! I'll be trying again in a few minutes actually, I'm gonna do another fresh install and try to remember the steps that I take. Thanks again for all the help friend, I truly appreciate it! :)
  19. booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    Are you doing a fresh install of Linux or a game?
  20. delsol

    delsol New Member

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    Fresh install of POL and WINE. I might try to install Steam using only WINE but I figure that'd be pretty hard considering the amount of extra components I'll have to install.

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