[alsa-devel] [PATCH] Fix for assertion in pulse plugin when calling hw_params on a prepared stream

Takashi Iwai tiwai at suse.de
Mon Oct 29 09:06:05 CET 2007


At Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:04:05 -0400,
Sean McNamara wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I have opened a bug and recently submitted a patch for it on bugtrack:
> https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/alsa-bug/view.php?id=3470
> 
> All the details are there. But here is a 5-minute summary for you:
> 
> --The Problem--
> (1) All plugins implementing the PCM interface, that I've tested so far,
> allow calling snd_*_hw_params on a stream when snd_*_state returns
> SND_PCM_STATE_PREPARED.
> (2) Applications have used this fact to their advantage, and sometimes
> employ lazy initialization of the hw params (initialize it once, get to
> another path in code, oh no wait! we need to initialize them differently...)
> 
> (3) Per the spec, calling snd_*_hw_params also makes the stream PREPARED, so
> calling snd_*_hw_params on a stream that has _either_ been explicitly
> prepared, _or_ had its hw_params previously set, will trigger this problem.
> (4) The ALSA<->PulseAudio plugin is an exception to (1) above; i.e., it
> triggers an assertion when exercising this functionality, as if to say, "I
> can't do that!"
> (5) Indeed, the PulseAudio client API forbids re-initialization of the
> parameters in question on a PulseAudio stream, after instantiation.

Yeah, the multiple call of hw_params and sw_params are allowed.
I don't remember whether this is explicitly documented somewhere in
the alsa-lib reference, but it's an empirical rule :)
Ditto for prepare.  snd_pcm_prepare can be called multiple times even
in PREPARED state, just as a reset.


> --The Solution--
> Only perform the assertion if snd_pcm_state(io->pcm) !=
> SND_PCM_STATE_PREPARED.
> The assertion is still useful for cases where the stream is mysteriously
> non-NULL and the stream has not already been prepared; I can't think of a
> valid case where:
> (1) The state is not SND_PCM_STATE_PREPARED, and
> (2) The underlying PulseAudio stream (pcm->stream) is non-NULL, and
> (3) snd_pcm_hw_params would be expected to do anything meaningful or
> correct.
> For this reason, I kept the assertion in, rather than just removing it
> (which by itself "fixes" the problem with alsaplayer and my test case, which
> is submitted with the patch.)
> 
> --Why It Works--
> (1) This assertion might be a throwback from before ioplug was so smart; but
> apparently, ioplug will now call pulse_prepare, which reinitializes the
> underlying pulseaudio stream, after pulse_hw_params.
> (2) There is nothing in pulse_hw_params that actually requires any
> particular state out of pcm->stream. The underlying pulse stream is simply
> not used in this call.
> (3) ioplug catches the fact that the hw_params have been changed, and calls
> back to pulse_prepare to handle the underlying stream teardown and
> reinitialization (which pulse_prepare does correctly).
> 
> --Impact--
> (1) At least one open source application, alsaplayer, can now play through
> the ALSA<->PulseAudio plugin, where it could never do so before.
> (2) The ALSA<->PulseAudio plugin is now more tightly compatible with the
> other alsa-lib and alsa-plugin backends (dmix, hw, asym, oss, jack, ...)
> (3) Older versions of sox might have also suffered from this bug, according
> to information here: http://www.pulseaudio.org/ticket/120 (although the
> Ubuntu 7.10 version of sox does not exhibit this behavior).

The patch looks good.  I applied it to HG tree now.

Please check later whether it works for you.  (If HG repo on hg-mirror
isn't updated, try hg.alsa-project.org instead).


Thanks,

Takashi


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