Choppy audio on Inspiron 8200

[tvilot]

Just got FreeBSD 5.3 running on this Dell Inspiron 8200.

Audio is a bit choppy when playing .wav or .mp3 files.

Haven't tried anything else yet ....

[dev]

Just got FreeBSD 5.3 running on this Dell Inspiron 8200.

Audio is a bit choppy when playing .wav or .mp3 files.

Haven't tried anything else yet ....

What is the audio device on Inspiron 8200?

What app are you using to play MP3s and wavs?


regards
Dev Mazumdar

[Guest]

What is the audio device on Inspiron 8200?

What app are you using to play MP3s and wavs?

According to open sound's config main manu, I have an Intel ICH3.

According to Linux during boot, I have an Intel ac97. Perhaps they are the same chipset -- I don't know.

The applications I have used for audio are:

mpg123
xmms

With xmms I have played both mp3 and lame-decoded .wav files. In all cases, I get a periodic drop-out, almost at regular 1-2 second intervals.

I tried re-nicing the player processes to -10 and -20, but to no avail.

Also tried running xmms and mpg123 as root.

[tvilot]

Oh, and perhaps I should mention this is on windowmaker. I am not at this time running KDE or GNOME.

(I just wanted to see if FreeBSD 5.3 would even *run* on this thing!)

[dev]

What is the audio device on Inspiron 8200?

What app are you using to play MP3s and wavs?

According to open sound's config main manu, I have an Intel ICH3.

According to Linux during boot, I have an Intel ac97. Perhaps they are the same chipset -- I don't know.

The applications I have used for audio are:

mpg123
xmms

With xmms I have played both mp3 and lame-decoded .wav files. In all cases, I get a periodic drop-out, almost at regular 1-2 second intervals.

I tried re-nicing the player processes to -10 and -20, but to no avail.

Also tried running xmms and mpg123 as root.

Try booting with ACPI disabled (one of the options in the FreeBSD menu).

We don't have this laptop but on our ICH4 machine (the same audio driver as the ICH3) OSS works great with XMMS and mpg123.

regards
Dev Mazumdar

[tvilot]

Try booting with ACPI disabled (one of the options in the FreeBSD menu).

We don't have this laptop but on our ICH4 machine (the same audio driver as the ICH3) OSS works great with XMMS and mpg123.

That appears to have fixed it.

There is a fix for the Dell ACPI:
http://sandcat.nl/~stijn/freebsd/dell.php

But that does not appear to have completely solved the issue if I boot with ACPI enabled ...

oh well

If I want to blast music, I'll just boot with out ACPI .... for now ...

[tvilot]

But that does not appear to have completely solved the issue if I boot with ACPI enabled ...

Correction.

Works perfectly. But if I have wmapm running, I do get occasional drop outs. Peculiar. But ... I can live with it.

So, for future reference for those of you running a Dell Inspiron 8200 or any others with similar problems ... There is a patch!