[Stk] RtMidi Freeze Computer

[Gary Scavone]

Hi Zach,

Another person reported a problem with STK in Ubuntu last week and  
found the problem went away when he downloaded a new version of the  
software.  I suggest going to the RtMidi website (http:// 
www.music.mcgill.ca/~gary/rtmidi/) and getting the latest version (if  
you don't already have it).  If you do already have the latest  
version, then perhaps it is an ALSA driver issue as Stephen  
mentioned.  I don't discount possible bugs in RtMidi either. :-)

Regards,

--gary

On 5-Jul-07, at 2:10 AM, Zach Dwiel wrote:

> 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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