[LAU] Ardour complains disk system can't keep up

[Robin Gareus]

On 07/15/2014 06:58 AM, jim wrote:
> 
> Hiya,
>     I've got a Zareason media box
> http://zareason.com/shop/MediaBox-5440.html
> with 8 GB RAM running AVlinux (a debian flavor);
> I use Ardour pretty much exclusively, that and
> the vi editor.
> 
>     The system can record a single track with no
> problem. It occasionally fails if I try to record
> two simultaneous tracks. If regularly fails if I try
> to record four or more tracks.
>     The complaint is always that the disk system
> cannot keep up.
> 

it's unlikely that it's a disk problem. Most modern disks can read/write
at least 40MB/sec, theoretically:

  40 * 10^6 [Bytes / sec]
  / (48000 [samples / sec] * 4 [bytes / sample / channel])
  = 208 mono-channels

Is the filesystem that you record to NTFS? There are some odd issues,
that some have been reported on #ardour IRC. I don't know the details
but with some version (or option) of the linux driver disk read/write
are always blocking with the effect that disk access can stall the
application for seconds.

If not NTFS, the only other thing that comes to mind is bus: Maybe the
internal disk in this box is connected via USB and you've plugged some
mouse into the same USB bus which forces it to 1.1 or something.


> Question: what info should I capture and email to
> get appropriate help?

for starters:

cat /proc/mounts
lsusb -t

ciao,
robin