24 Aug
2010
24 Aug
'10
6:06 p.m.
Hi there,
I've been having trouble with amarok crashes; every 8-10 songs I
get a segfault. This is primarily on one of my computers, the
one I use most for music. The story about that computer over the
period when I've been getting so many crashes is:
- The operating system has been Mandriva 2007.0 and 2010.0
- The motherboard has been swapped
- The on-board sound card was used on the now dead motherboard
- A Hoontech card (Ensoniq AudioPCI ENS1371) is now used
Throughout all of those changes, the amarok crashes seem to be at a
higher rate, maybe skewed as it's where I do most of my music work.
That's just odd to me.
One thing that's different about this machine versus any of my
others, it runs an AMD processor, specifically an Athlon 64-X2.
Another difference is that I tend to run RT kernels on this box.
Audacity runs very solidly on this machine, as do Ardour and JACK.
I tried RhythmBox, but it crashes too.
I'd really like to get a music player (one that can work with my
ripped CD collection) running on this system. Amarok would be fine,
as I used it elsewhere.
What can I do folk? How can I troubleshoot this? I've already
changed out nearly all the hardware (for other reasons) and nearly
all the software.
Thanks....
--
Kevin
24 Aug
24 Aug
7:02 p.m.
Hi Kevin,
On Tue, 24 Aug 2010, Kevin Cosgrove wrote:
I've been having trouble with amarok crashes;
every 8-10 songs I
get a segfault. This is primarily on one of my computers, the
Which audio engine are you using?
What can I do folk? How can I troubleshoot this?
I've already
changed out nearly all the hardware (for other reasons) and nearly
all the software.
The first thing you need is a backtrace. Unfortunately,
I've found that getting a half-way decent backtrace on
modern distros is a big PITA. I usually do it like this:
0. Install gdb.
1. Enable core dumps (/etc/security/limits.conf)
(Log off/on for changes to take effect)
2. Install some "debug" packages that you think
may be appropriate. E.g. if amarok has a debug
package: score!
3. Start amarok from a command line.
4. When it crashes, note any messages on the console
screen.
5. The core dump will be in your current present
working directory (`pwd`). It will either be
named 'core' or 'core.PID' where PID is the
process ID number for the amarok application
that crashed.
6. Get a backtrace like this:
$ gdb --core=/path/to/core $(which amarok)
(wait for gdb to be "ready")
gdb> bt full
7. Inspect the back-trace for something obvious.
(E.g. if you see "PortAudio" or "PA", then
install the portaudio debug packages and retry.
If you see "Jack" then try to install jack
debug packages and retry. "Gst" for Gstreamer...)
8. Send the back-trace to your distro, this list,
the developers of amarok, or the devs of the
audio engine.
-gabriel
8:40 p.m.
On 24 August 2010 at 12:02, "Gabriel M. Beddingfield" <gabrbedd(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Nice recipe!!!
Your email about the backtrace made me think to check some more
things out. I found these:
Bug Reports to Amarok developers:
http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=115&t=67238
How to create crash reports:
http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Debugging/How_to_create_usefu…
I activated these Mandriva repositories in the media manager:
Main debug
Contrib debug
That made some packages visible, which I installed:
amarok-debug-2.2.0-10mdv2010.0
gstreamer0.10-debug-0.10.25-2mdv2010.0
kdebase4-debug-4.3.2-3mdv2010.0
kdelibs4-debug-4.3.2-11mdv2010.0
kdemultimedia4-debug-4.3.2-2mdv2010.0
pulseaudio-debug-0.9.19-7mdv2010.0
One of the two webpages above indicates that the crash window that
pops up when Amarok dies is suitable for generating the backtrace
required to aid developers.
Then I just found this thread:
Amarok crashes after playing couple of tracks
http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=115&t=89665&p=167287&hilit…
That thread says that their bug is fixed in version 2.3.2. I'm
running version 2.2.0. It could be that I'm seeing the same bug,
or maybe not.
Anyway, I think I have enough info to choke on it now. ;-)
Thanks!
--
Kevin
On Tue, 24 Aug 2010, Kevin Cosgrove wrote:
Amarok tells me that I'm using PulseAudio with GStreamer.
I've been having trouble with amarok crashes;
every 8-10 songs I
get a segfault. This is primarily on one of my computers, the
Which audio engine are you using? What can I do
folk? How can I troubleshoot this? I've already
changed out nearly all the hardware (for other reasons) and nearly
all the software.
The first thing you need is a backtrace. Unfortunately,
I've found that getting a half-way decent backtrace on
modern distros is a big PITA. I usually do it like this:
0. Install gdb.
1. Enable core dumps (/etc/security/limits.conf)
(Log off/on for changes to take effect)
2. Install some "debug" packages that you think
may be appropriate. E.g. if amarok has a debug
package: score!
3. Start amarok from a command line.
4. When it crashes, note any messages on the console
screen.
5. The core dump will be in your current present
working directory (`pwd`). It will either be
named 'core' or 'core.PID' where PID is the
process ID number for the amarok application
that crashed.
6. Get a backtrace like this:
$ gdb --core=/path/to/core $(which amarok)
(wait for gdb to be "ready")
gdb> bt full
7. Inspect the back-trace for something obvious.
(E.g. if you see "PortAudio" or "PA", then
install the portaudio debug packages and retry.
If you see "Jack" then try to install jack
debug packages and retry. "Gst" for Gstreamer...)
8. Send the back-trace to your distro, this list,
the developers of amarok, or the devs of the
audio engine.
25 Aug
25 Aug
9:21 a.m.
Hmmm, now that I've got the debug libraries install, I can't repeat
the problem. Amarok has been running over twice what the average
time to crashing would be for me, including wrapping around at the
end of a playlist without crashing shortly after that.
Too weird. I'll keep fiddling with it....
--
Kevin
6:55 p.m.
On 24 August 2010 at 13:03, Kevin Cosgrove <kevinc(a)cosgroves.us> wrote:
Hmmm, now that I've got the debug libraries
install, I can't repeat
the problem. Amarok has been running over twice what the average
time to crashing would be for me, including wrapping around at the
end of a playlist without crashing shortly after that.
Too weird. I'll keep fiddling with it....
It turned out that my running Amarok on a remote display, as I did
yesterday, was enough to keep it from crashing. When I was sitting
at the computer, it would crash fine enough.
Then I installed the Xine/phonon package so that I could use Xine as
the backend in place of GStreamer. Using Xine apparently keeps
Amarok from crashing.
Whew....
--
Kevin
5298
days inactive
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4 comments
2 participants
participants (2)
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Gabriel M. Beddingfield -
Kevin Cosgrove