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[Rkfg <996906@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

So I've bought a laptop with VIA sound as well and it also have
skips/stutters. I worked around it on both systems with these steps:

1) in /etc/pulse/default.pa added tsched=0:
load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0

2) to reduce latency set in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf:
default-fragments = 4
default-fragment-size-msec = 1

The final latency is a product of these numbers, 1*4 == 4 ms which is
acceptable. The number of fragments should be at least 2 so the least
latency possible is 2*1 == 2 ms. I don't know if there's a real
difference between 4 fragments of 1 ms each or 2 fragments of 2 ms each.
Try some experimenting. At least now I don't have latency increase and
sound doesn't skip on pavucontrol launch, though it still skips on LMMS
launch.

Based on the comments' content and timestamps here, it looks to me that
no one in PA team really cares about HDA Intel cards which are the most
popular cards. And if PA performs badly with them out of the box it
hurts PA's face, no matter who's to blame actually. Plus, pure ALSA
works fine or doesn't work at all, usually.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/996906

Title:
  periodic audio skips with Intel HDA

Status in PulseAudio sound server:
  Confirmed
Status in pulseaudio package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  When running PulseAudio, if I'm playing music via any source (Exaile, Totem,
  Flash in Firefox or Chromium, VLC, etc.) every few minutes the audio will skip
  once or twice.  top doesn't show any process eating CPU any more when it
  happens.  dmesg doesn't show anything.  Nothing else seems to be affected.  It
  doesn't seem to happen regularly.

  I just installed Ubuntu 12.04 from scratch (with pulseaudio 1:1.1-0ubuntu15),
  but the same thing happened in 10.04 on the same hardware.  Uninstalling the
  PulseAudio packages and going back to ALSA gives me no issues whatsoever, which
  is how I know the issue is with PulseAudio.  I'm using my onboard audio device:

  $ lspci | grep Audio
  00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel
  HDA)

  Following mailing list instructions, pulseaudio -vvvv --log-time shows during a
  skip:

  ( 684.030|   5.000) I: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Underrun!
  ( 684.030|   0.000) I: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Increasing minimal latency to
  26.00 ms
  ( 684.030|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Latency set to 26.00ms
  ( 684.030|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: hwbuf_unused=60952
  ( 684.030|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: setting avail_min=15944
  ( 684.030|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Latency set to 26.00ms
  ( 684.030|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: hwbuf_unused=60952
  ( 684.030|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: setting avail_min=15944
  ( 684.031|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] protocol-native.c: Underrun on 'ALSA
  Playback', 0 bytes in queue.
  ( 684.036|   0.004) D: [alsa-sink] protocol-native.c: Requesting rewind due to
  end of underrun.
  ( 684.036|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Requested to rewind 10940
  bytes.
  ( 684.036|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Limited to 3320 bytes.
  ( 684.036|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: before: 830
  ( 684.036|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: after: 830
  ( 684.036|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Rewound 3320 bytes.
  ( 684.036|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] sink.c: Processing rewind...
  ( 684.036|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] sink.c: latency = 1337
  ( 684.036|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] sink-input.c: Have to rewind 3320 bytes on
  render memblockq.
  ( 684.036|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] source.c: Processing rewind...
  ( 696.234|  12.197) I: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Underrun!
  ( 696.234|   0.000) I: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Increasing wakeup watermark to
  15.99 ms
  ( 702.033|   5.799) I: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Underrun!
  ( 702.033|   0.000) I: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Increasing minimal latency to
  36.00 ms
  ( 702.033|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Latency set to 36.00ms
  ( 702.033|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: hwbuf_unused=59188
  ( 702.033|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: setting avail_min=15680
  ( 702.033|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Latency set to 36.00ms
  ( 702.034|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: hwbuf_unused=59188
  ( 702.034|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: setting avail_min=15680
  ( 702.034|   0.000) D: [alsa-sink] protocol-native.c: Underrun on 'ALSA
  Playback', 0 bytes in queue.

  ...and it goes on.

  The "Underrun!" messages alone happened a few times before, but it
  didn't skip.

  I'd like to use PulseAudio, but it's pretty annoying having audio skip all the
  time.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
  Package: pulseaudio 1:1.1-0ubuntu15
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.37-generic 3.2.14
  Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic x86_64
  NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
  AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
  ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu7
  Architecture: amd64
  AudioDevicesInUse:
   USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
   /dev/snd/controlC0:  toxite     2136 F.... pulseaudio
   /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p:   toxite     2136 F...m pulseaudio
  Card0.Amixer.info:
   Card hw:0 'SB'/'HDA ATI SB at 0xfe024000 irq 16'
     Mixer name	: 'Realtek ALC889'
     Components	: 'HDA:10ec0889,1458a102,00100004'
     Controls      : 48
     Simple ctrls  : 22
  Date: Tue May  8 21:45:17 2012
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
  ProcEnviron:
   TERM=xterm
   PATH=(custom, user)
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: pulseaudio
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
  dmi.bios.date: 12/03/2009
  dmi.bios.vendor: Award Software International, Inc.
  dmi.bios.version: F2
  dmi.board.name: GA-790FXTA-UD5
  dmi.board.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
  dmi.board.version: x.x
  dmi.chassis.type: 3
  dmi.chassis.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
  dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAwardSoftwareInternational,Inc.:bvrF2:bd12/03/2009:svnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:pnGA-790FXTA-UD5:pvr:rvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:rnGA-790FXTA-UD5:rvrx.x:cvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:ct3:cvr:
  dmi.product.name: GA-790FXTA-UD5
  dmi.sys.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.

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