you really do not want to upgrade to alsa-lib 1.1.2

[Chris Brannon]

So alsa-lib 1.1.2 breaks a couple things that use espeak,
notably both espeakup and the espeak speech server for emacspeak.
You'll start to have lockups after a bit of use.
Here's what little I have been able to piece together so far.

http://the-brannons.com/alsa-espeak.txt

-- Chris

[Zachary Kline]

Chris et al,

Curious. Is this possibly already in some mainstream distros, like ArchLinux? I’ve noticed periodic, but seemingly random lockups for a while now, but attributed them to a kernel upgrade.
Thanks for the info,
Zack.

Post by Chris Brannon
So alsa-lib 1.1.2 breaks a couple things that use espeak,
notably both espeakup and the espeak speech server for emacspeak.
You'll start to have lockups after a bit of use.
Here's what little I have been able to piece together so far.
http://the-brannons.com/alsa-espeak.txt
-- Chris
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

[Chris Brannon]

Post by Zachary Kline
Curious. Is this possibly already in some mainstream distros, like
ArchLinux?

Hi Zack,
Yes alsa-lib 1.1.2 is in Arch Linux. Apparently it is in some of the
more bleeding edge branches of Debian as well, although I do not know
which ones.

-- Chris

[Kyle]

I was ready to release TalkingArch this month, just a little late. Looks
like I may need to hold off until next month. Is this a mostly correct
assessment, or is my build from Saturday OK to continue the testing and
sign-off process? Thanks for the heads-up.
Sent from 3121

[Chris Brannon]

Post by Kyle
I was ready to release TalkingArch this month, just a little
late. Looks like I may need to hold off until next month. Is this a
mostly correct assessment, or is my build from Saturday OK to continue
the testing and sign-off process? Thanks for the heads-up.

I don't know which package your Saturday build contains.
When did 1.1.2 hit [extra]? It was probably sometime close to then.
If you've got alsa-lib 1.1.1 or older, you should be good to go.

So I've spent the best part of 3 hours tonight looking at the espeak
source. I'm reasonably convinced there's a race condition in the audio
output code, even though it looks like plenty of care was taken to
guarantee that this couldn't happen. Or maybe I'm seeing
things that aren't really there, and there's no race after all.
Sometimes I feel like the most phony of amateurs.
Anyway what I think happened is that a change to the alsa library has
done something to trigger a race condition that has been around for a
long time.

-- Chris

[Mike Ray]

Could this be what is causing the sd_espeak module of speech-dispatcher
to regularly crash and be unloaded when using speech-dispatcher set to
'AudioOutputMethod "alsa' ?

Mike

Post by Chris Brannon

Post by Kyle
I was ready to release TalkingArch this month, just a little
late. Looks like I may need to hold off until next month. Is this a
mostly correct assessment, or is my build from Saturday OK to continue
the testing and sign-off process? Thanks for the heads-up.

I don't know which package your Saturday build contains.
When did 1.1.2 hit [extra]? It was probably sometime close to then.
If you've got alsa-lib 1.1.1 or older, you should be good to go.
So I've spent the best part of 3 hours tonight looking at the espeak
source. I'm reasonably convinced there's a race condition in the audio
output code, even though it looks like plenty of care was taken to
guarantee that this couldn't happen. Or maybe I'm seeing
things that aren't really there, and there's no race after all.
Sometimes I feel like the most phony of amateurs.
Anyway what I think happened is that a change to the alsa library has
done something to trigger a race condition that has been around for a
long time.
-- Chris
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

--
Michael A. Ray
Analyst/Programmer
Witley, Surrey, South-east UK

Eyes-free Linux:
http://eyesfreelinux.ninja/

Raspberry VI:
http://www.raspberryvi.org/

[Jude DaShiell]

Very likely, espeak was crashing just on console use with command line
interface over here.

Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2016 07:12:23
Subject: Re: you really do not want to upgrade to alsa-lib 1.1.2
Could this be what is causing the sd_espeak module of speech-dispatcher
to regularly crash and be unloaded when using speech-dispatcher set to
'AudioOutputMethod "alsa' ?
Mike

Post by Chris Brannon

Post by Kyle
I was ready to release TalkingArch this month, just a little
late. Looks like I may need to hold off until next month. Is this a
mostly correct assessment, or is my build from Saturday OK to continue
the testing and sign-off process? Thanks for the heads-up.

I don't know which package your Saturday build contains.
When did 1.1.2 hit [extra]? It was probably sometime close to then.
If you've got alsa-lib 1.1.1 or older, you should be good to go.
So I've spent the best part of 3 hours tonight looking at the espeak
source. I'm reasonably convinced there's a race condition in the audio
output code, even though it looks like plenty of care was taken to
guarantee that this couldn't happen. Or maybe I'm seeing
things that aren't really there, and there's no race after all.
Sometimes I feel like the most phony of amateurs.
Anyway what I think happened is that a change to the alsa library has
done something to trigger a race condition that has been around for a
long time.
-- Chris
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

--
Michael A. Ray
Analyst/Programmer
Witley, Surrey, South-east UK
http://eyesfreelinux.ninja/
http://www.raspberryvi.org/
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

--

[Chris Brannon]

Post by Mike Ray
Could this be what is causing the sd_espeak module of speech-dispatcher
to regularly crash and be unloaded when using speech-dispatcher set to
'AudioOutputMethod "alsa' ?

Mike,
It might be a similar issue on the Speech Dispatcher side. They're not
directly related, since Speech Dispatcher uses its own audio output
code, rather than letting espeak handle audio output on its own. If you
started noticing new and unexpected sd_espeak crashes after upgrading
your alsa library, then Speech Dispatcher's alsa code may not be playing
well with the new library either.

-- Chris

[c***@ccs.covici.com]

I use gnome and speech dispatcher and espeak, but I am always cautious,
so I did not upgrade the library when I was asked.

Post by Chris Brannon

Post by Mike Ray
Could this be what is causing the sd_espeak module of speech-dispatcher
to regularly crash and be unloaded when using speech-dispatcher set to
'AudioOutputMethod "alsa' ?

Mike,
It might be a similar issue on the Speech Dispatcher side. They're not
directly related, since Speech Dispatcher uses its own audio output
code, rather than letting espeak handle audio output on its own. If you
started noticing new and unexpected sd_espeak crashes after upgrading
your alsa library, then Speech Dispatcher's alsa code may not be playing
well with the new library either.
-- Chris
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

[Zachary Kline]

Hi All,

One area I’m curious about is if this might actually be a flaw in the way Espeak/Espeakup handles Alsa. Espeak itself hasn’t been updated i quit a while, and I wonder if it might be showing its age.
I guess those with coding skill can look into this better than I.

Post by Chris Brannon

Post by Kyle
I was ready to release TalkingArch this month, just a little
late. Looks like I may need to hold off until next month. Is this a
mostly correct assessment, or is my build from Saturday OK to continue
the testing and sign-off process? Thanks for the heads-up.

I don't know which package your Saturday build contains.
When did 1.1.2 hit [extra]? It was probably sometime close to then.
If you've got alsa-lib 1.1.1 or older, you should be good to go.
So I've spent the best part of 3 hours tonight looking at the espeak
source. I'm reasonably convinced there's a race condition in the audio
output code, even though it looks like plenty of care was taken to
guarantee that this couldn't happen. Or maybe I'm seeing
things that aren't really there, and there's no race after all.
Sometimes I feel like the most phony of amateurs.
Anyway what I think happened is that a change to the alsa library has
done something to trigger a race condition that has been around for a
long time.
-- Chris
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

[c***@ccs.covici.com]

Thanks for the hint, I will maks it off till I hear different.

Post by Chris Brannon
So alsa-lib 1.1.2 breaks a couple things that use espeak,
notably both espeakup and the espeak speech server for emacspeak.
You'll start to have lockups after a bit of use.
Here's what little I have been able to piece together so far.
http://the-brannons.com/alsa-espeak.txt
-- Chris
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

[Kirk Reiser]

I am definitely experiencing loss of sound with alsa lib 1.1.2,
however it is not locking up my system, just killing the sound
output. I've found that if I do killall -9 espeakup and then espeakup
it will re-initialize my sound. It happens a lot though and thus is
very iritating in it's own right.

Post by c***@ccs.covici.com
Thanks for the hint, I will maks it off till I hear different.

Post by Chris Brannon
So alsa-lib 1.1.2 breaks a couple things that use espeak,
notably both espeakup and the espeak speech server for emacspeak.
You'll start to have lockups after a bit of use.
Here's what little I have been able to piece together so far.
http://the-brannons.com/alsa-espeak.txt
-- Chris
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

--
How do
you spend it?
John Covici
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

--
Well that's it then, colour me secure!

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v1

mQENBFYV5DMBCAC060mbsnLhGPjnFkf0R0p+7MxcfxlOuy5wc8y59y9ZNF0RZD1s
OTEsDih4vD9YJ3zA78VsBUDK47aiDWduh3nHzYN2ZSuxAQ9u7qPqphCG0jPagTU8
p7+Ceeya4I5odWtq+Nkf1UrHB7KKEtexphStSwUG5Bhi4bb84YinmX/a3I+OGV1D
by4QBSdPvSuDw0qFkt/ucLyEwv4L6lDjoH2GF+tnCew4SJtliJFvA1k7NpWO6HW9
aWtBxfYU85ccZKBSE25y+9KprUCncVTpaVs3FztCWG0dQRXHvEbV+Damp/IBd9Jv
HZX7azqbERUa/FjPTIlZhhI9VtaZaFfJSH+5ABEBAAG0HUtpcmsgUmVpc2VyIDxr
aXJrQHJlaXNlcnMuY2E+iQE+BBMBAgAoBQJWFeQzAhsDBQkADS8ABgsJCAcDAgYV
CAIJCgsEFgIDAQIeAQIXgAAKCRAHTEsk7UQUUoeuB/wIqsdLCfDrSvr3qg7rKBDg
ru44OMuRit6hbdWFZjmxccCdjeNhBJRVd5wrEqjj5YoqQAhmacXaEB0DO/TZlDgo
kUfJM7lrtQD4mYU9GVtrzJxCJoBUyeMVnMJt39F91tBu0mYM6oI/dv81dwxIv++4
hj55TZ4GG7DGYAy4LwNb+noNbivgOFHlnfNq8nxhZkHbJdYKP+sptZOL5sagmBQZ
iS9STB54g/U7Jtt1Fe+JwDmbxQhbSHa9JuWn0xZ8CtYhrz06xSqZl5vpMlak3eW2
x6m6IcqZfyuI2K7W/9BCgcsQyYzufO4Gk9KyPNISskX6pFBLuNxIH6hdfxSYYm9y
uQENBFYV5DMBCACtMyhHog5MR6eQUPTx7fWH5ntkgCtmWvQp4lcKj0HHbteDWglS
NVbWKWEk9PAKA4UeQVUH4vOhTRhAPpuDUavLdp2tDtT7ZBVh91B3AWIM6+7fIvyU
2uYt1q/CNjga8RllXBT7mW2zHGEYQFIkBJvqlU0PN1HlxRZIbSSEb+zQuVAd+ph3
kt/oZon3ZbNmKg+arsYMmKkYJ0REwKQib7h5Xl31aK74XmWBp2Ky+lopsJSP8wpH
AfC71h4s3LDm8ADHF1Ns4KuGZdLTugr8uiPm5kEJFGes1uYKy8R7OTFko0NEuJkv
STfpPYnTU2qDCJBH08zZErI/6YBIlSsCSde3ABEBAAGJASUEGAECAA8FAlYV5DMC
GwwFCQANLwAACgkQB0xLJO1EFFKAmgf/d3dk1/HgmF8rmvYVru/hJvmIpmiLqPl5
bYSwdZeU+k82qp3xACM2yMJhOh89SgHsaaqQAE1qo5rAJcSG7/+7M/kzf4u/WM/E
unXDtLkbzi5Zl+gjoikrfOhgF0NmuGdlrOme8a6ue7+iE4XLAo0/jhVlh45O6Iq0
0DGyeFr22cR3jZj4wRmPw5zj4r/sWc06UfquVAEMmfIvJMaGYvwBI+TU6gI8MjLe
VDY0vay/nQ79fXSLQmYEvjwKXIavQu9c8TFt0z9EDdoIMx69ZunqZuYQInxaT+cL
i9zhihMGz4XA1q3blLNX3I0jWzAa23ZchI7htc3kfxp1jWqrGyGEIg==
=nrPH
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

[Jason White]

Post by Chris Brannon
So alsa-lib 1.1.2 breaks a couple things that use espeak,
notably both espeakup and the espeak speech server for emacspeak.
You'll start to have lockups after a bit of use.

I have a long-running espeakup process here which, now that I give it more
thought, may have been started prior to the 1.1.2 upgrade and may still be
using the older version of the library.

Perhaps I shouldn't kill and restart it for testing purposes, although I will
if anyone wants testing done - I have a braille display connected, so the
absence of speech output wouldn't be a major concern.

[Chris Brannon]

Post by Jason White
I have a long-running espeakup process here which, now that I give it more
thought, may have been started prior to the 1.1.2 upgrade and may still be
using the older version of the library.

Yes, that's pretty likely. I'm writing this from emacspeak, and my
speech server has been up since July 23rd, a week or two prior to the
alsa upgrade. My espeakup was fine until yesterday, when I restarted it
because Kirk said that his had gone flaky.
In any case, if LIBASOUND_THREAD_SAFE=0 is exported in your environment
when you start espeakup or the emacspeak server, you won't have the
issue either. If you're stuck with the new library for some reason, or
you just want to have something that can talk while you are testing,
this is a viable short-term workaround.

-- Chris

[Jude DaShiell]

Chris, thanks much! I was wondering what took down my talkingarch
system! Fortunately I have the downgrade script installed so I can not
only downgrade alsalib but also put it on the ignore list until further
notice. Something that wasn't mentioned in archlinux documentation was
if you want to take something off the ignore list explicitly install it
with the -S option and answer yes to the prompt about the package being
on the ignore list and you get the package installed.

Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2016 19:40:24
Reply-To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
Subject: you really do not want to upgrade to alsa-lib 1.1.2
So alsa-lib 1.1.2 breaks a couple things that use espeak,
notably both espeakup and the espeak speech server for emacspeak.
You'll start to have lockups after a bit of use.
Here's what little I have been able to piece together so far.
http://the-brannons.com/alsa-espeak.txt
-- Chris
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

--