[Stk] RtMidi Freeze Computer

[Zach Dwiel]

I have never had the problem using any other MIDI software, however, I
have also not stressed any other MIDI software as much as my own.  The
problem has occurred with and with out synthesizers running.  The
problem also seems to be tied to MIDI as the problem only really
occurs the instant that MIDI data being processed, on a key press,
etc.  Although the most recent freeze occurred as I tried to shut down
the software.

I did at one point try to get my kernel clock speed up to 1000hz
rather than the standard 250, but I do not think I ended up going
through with it (figured I'd wait for Ubuntu Studio which was slated
for release soon)

So, really I can not be certain that it is RtMidi, but my intuition
was pointing in that direction so I thought I'd see if this was some
issue that others had already dealt with.  Its been a difficult bug to
figure out since it happens very rarely and causes the system to
crash, leaving no trace.  I think I'll set up a quick stress test
program and run it over night to see if I can recreate it.  Do you
have any ideas about how I could glean some useful information from
this kind of test?  I can setup a log file showing which call causes
the error and what the data was, but I would assume that if there was
any kind of pattern at that high a level (RtMidi calls) I would have
already noticed it.  It might be a multithreading or kernel level
timing issue that is causing problems.

I'm also updating ALSA, it turns out I had the most recent version as
far as synaptic was concerned, but was still almost a year behind as
far as ALSA was concerned.

I've been using Edgy for a while and have been awaiting the Ubuntu
Studio release.  I've got a show coming up in a few weeks though so I
decided I'd wait until after the show to make any drastic changes to
my system.

Thanks for the quick response.  If I can't figure it out from here
I'll see if I can't at least provide some more useful information
about what is going on.  I really appreciate it.

-- 
Zach Dwiel
dwiel.net

On 7/4/07, Stephen Sinclair <sinclair@music.mcgill.ca> wrote:
> Hi Zach,
>
> Can you say how you determined that RtMidi is causing the freeze?
> On Linux, RtMidi pretty much just calls ALSA to do all the MIDI stuff.
> Have you ever had issues with other ALSA-MIDI applications?  (PureData
> for instance..)
> Also, are you using any kind of custom kernel?  ALSA sits in the kernel
> so it could cause problems if there is a faulty driver in there.  What
> is your sound card?
>
> By the way, any reason you haven't upgraded yet?  Feisty seems much more
> solid to me.. :)
> (I understand though, there's something to be said for having a reliable
> system that hasn't changed in a year or so.)
>
> Steve
>
>
> Zach Dwiel wrote:
> > Hello, I've been really enjoying the usability and portability of the
> > RtMidi library.  However, everyonce in a while, the library causes my
> > system (ubuntu edgy) to freeze.  The system simply becomes
> > unresponsive and a hard restart is required.  This problem is very
> > infrequent, but I would hate for it to come up during a performance.
> > Any ideas about what may be going on?
> >
> > Thanks
> >
>
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