[alsa-devel] snd_pcm_avail_update returns 0

[Jaroslav Kysela]

On Thu, 14 Jan 2010, Singaravelan Nallasellan wrote:

> Thanks for the response.
>
> I am using mmap for the playback. What is the return value of
> snd_pcm_avail_update when the ring buffer is empty?

ring buffer size

> How does ALSA identify the  empty buffer?

hw_ptr == appl_ptr

> We incremented the hardware pointer continuously to large value more
> than the hw buffer size. ALSA core did not round of the hw_ptr
> properly. The firmware in the audio engine is now rounding of hw ptr
> in the audio engine itself. It will always report the hw ptr between 0
> and hw buffer size.

hw_ptr and appl_ptr are from range 0..boundary to detect xruns. The driver 
should not write to these values and should track own pointers.

> Moreover our driver uses the batch mode and updates the hardware
> pointer for every period. Is it the right way to do?

I'm not sure about what pointers you're talking. If it's hw_ptr and 
appl_ptr, then driver shouldn't write to these pointers. The 
snd_pcm_period_elapsed() function should be called to synchronize hw_ptr 
when playback of period is finished.

Maybe you can put your code to a public place so we can check it.

 						Jaroslav

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Jaroslav Kysela <perex at perex.cz>
Linux Kernel Sound Maintainer
ALSA Project, Red Hat, Inc.