[Ardour-Users] [Fwd: Re: X Runs at Exactly 10 Minute Intervals]

Wed Sep 26 09:37:17 PDT 2007

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: [Ardour-Users] X Runs at Exactly 10 Minute Intervals
Date: 	Wed, 26 Sep 2007 09:34:29 -0700
From: 	Martin Lynch <martin.lynch at shaw.ca>
Reply-To: 	martin.lynch at shaw.ca
To: 	Brett Clark <Brett at ciscoinc.com>
References: 	<46FA7E5C.5020309 at shaw.ca> 
<E4E0458546917E439DBBF36BB08807D8096412 at mail2.ciscoinc.com>

Many thanks for the response Brett!

I don't have a /var/log/cron file, however I did have a look at every 
file in /var/log and couldn't spot anything suspicious. Using top, the 
only thing that came to the top was Xorg, but it comes to the top on a 
fairly regular basis (many times a minute). Does the column labeled PR = 
Priority? If so, it's showing 15, which is odd since I have it set to 89 
in Qjackctl. /etc/cron.d has 4 files, none of which appear to be 
scheduled at 10 min intervals.

I wondered about your polling suggestion also. The only app I can recall 
which might do this is Thunderbird, which I have set to check for mail 
every 10 mins (however I close it before using JACK). As an experiment 
I'll try changing it to 20 mins and see if that helps.

Any other thoughts or places I could look for 10 minute occurrences?

Thanks again - really appreciate you taking the time to help!

Brett Clark wrote:
> This sounds very suspicious like a cron entry.  You mentioned checking the System Manager, but im wondering if that would show all potential cron jobs.  Can you do a 'tail /var/log/cron' and see if there's anything executing at the time of the XRuns.  Usually there will be an sa1 audit running every 10 minutes, but that should be pretty light. Additional cron jobs that execute in that timeframe could be scheduled in the /etc/cron.d directory.
>  
> Another problem could be a constant running job that does some type of polling at 10 minute intervals and increases the system load.  One way to locate this would be to run 'top' and see what pops to the top when the XRuns happen.
>  
> --Brett
>  
>  
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: ardour-users-bounces at lists.ardour.org on behalf of Martin Lynch
> Sent: Wed 9/26/2007 10:44 AM
> To: ardour-users at lists.ardour.org
> Subject: [Ardour-Users] X Runs at Exactly 10 Minute Intervals
>
>
>
> Hoping someone can help me figure out what's causing X runs at precisely 10 minute intervals - not 9:59, not 10:01 but exactly 10 mins.
>
> My setup: 
>
> AMD 64 X2
> Feisty
> 2 GB DDR2 800 mhz
> M-Audio Firewire Solo using Freebob
> Sample rate: 96,000
> Periods: 3
> Frames: 64
> Latency: 2 ms
> Realtime checked in Qjackctl
> Priority = 89
> Qjackctl 0.2.21
>
> # ps -C jackd -cmL 
> shows:
>
>   PID   LWP CLS PRI TTY          TIME CMD
> 24142     - -     - ?        00:14:40 jackd
>     - 24142 TS   20 -        00:00:00 -
>     - 24143 TS   24 -        00:00:00 -
>     - 24144 TS   24 -        00:00:00 -
>     - 24145 TS   24 -        00:00:00 -
>     - 24146 FF  139 -        00:00:00 -
>     - 24147 FF  129 -        00:05:51 -
>     - 24148 FF  132 -        00:00:00 -
>     - 24149 FF  132 -        00:00:00 -
>     - 29990 FF  139 -        00:00:00 -
>     - 29991 FF  133 -        00:00:25 -
>
> As I understand it, the FF indicates realtime.
>
> Messages from JACK:
>
> Load = 6.0202 max usecs: 44.000, spare = 622.000
> LibFreeBoB ERR: SLAVE XMT : Buffer underrun! 64 (0 / 256) (0 / 0 )
> 17:34:51.873 XRUN callback (2).
> FreeBoB MSG: xrun detected
> LibFreeBoB ERR: Xrun on connection 1
> load = 53.0101 max usecs: 3481.000, spare = 0.000
> load = 29.7333 max usecs: 43.000, spare = 623.000
>
> Load = 4.9502 max usecs: 25.000, spare = 641.000
> LibFreeBoB ERR: MASTER RCV: Buffer overrun!
> LibFreeBoB ERR: Xrun on connection 1
> 17:44:51.782 XRUN callback (3).
> FreeBoB MSG: xrun detected
> load = 4.4270 max usecs: 26.000, spare = 640.000
>
> Note that in the first instance it's an underrun; 2nd instance an overrun, which seems odd to me (ie I'd think with the X runs happening on such a precise schedule it would show the same problem each time).
>
> I've tried using System Manager to track down any processes which might be scheduled to run every 10 mins and can't pin down anything. I also tried stopping ntpd but the problem continued.
>
> Other programs which run simultaneously:
>
> - Beryl
> - Mythtv backend
>
> Using Ardour neither increases the X runs nor eliminates them - they still pop up at 10 min intervals.
>
> Any ideas or suggestions? Could Freebob be the problem? Are there system processes known to run at 10 min intervals that could be interfering?
>
> Also, not sure this has anything whatsoever to do with my X runs, but Qjackctl also reports a whole series of:
>
> QTextCursor::gotoParagraph Index: 49 out of range
> load = 4.1724 max usecs: 26.000, spare = 640.000
> load = 4.0381 max usecs: 26.000, spare = 640.000
> load = 3.9710 max usecs: 26.000, spare = 640.000
> QTextCursor::gotoParagraph Index: 49 out of range
> QTextCursor::gotoParagraph Index: 49 out of range
>
> I also tried running JACK from console, with the same results.
>
> Driving me nuts as every time I need to do a take, I have to wait until an X run hits, then I have a 10 min window to record, which leaves me thinking about the impending X run, rather than the part I'm playing!
>
> Many thanks!
>
>
>   
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