FF802: system freeze when starting jack (sometimes)

[jean-emmanuel]

Hi ! Every once in a while I get a system freeze when starting jack (nothing responds, no choice but to hard reboot). It started happening with this driver + the rme FF802 (never happened before with ffado + saffire pro40). Do you have any idea as to how I could track the issue ?

[takaswie]

Hi,

I think the issue is the one recently fixed by Edmund Raile: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-sound/20240730195318.869840-1-edmund.raile@protonmail.com/

There are some workarounds:

• Update the kernel running in your system to recent releases in which the fixes are appled
• Use PipeWire with JACK API emulation
  • https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/wikis/Config-JACK

[jean-emmanuel]

Thank you very much, installing it from topic/backport-to-v6.8/for-next (which btw required below patch to build) worked for me.

diff --git a/drivers/firewire/sbp2.c b/drivers/firewire/sbp2.c
index 8f7810b2..ca28c9ec 100644
--- a/drivers/firewire/sbp2.c
+++ b/drivers/firewire/sbp2.c
@@ -1532,7 +1532,7 @@ static int sbp2_scsi_slave_configure(struct scsi_device *sdev)
        sdev->start_stop_pwr_cond = 1;

    if (lu->tgt->workarounds & SBP2_WORKAROUND_128K_MAX_TRANS)
-       blk_queue_max_hw_sectors(sdev->request_queue, 128 * 1024 / 512);
+       queue_max_hw_sectors(sdev->request_queue);

    return 0;
 }

No more deadlock / freeze, that's a big improvement :). Now it seems the possible root cause is still lying around because it still fails to start from time to time but the logs are available (it used to frezze at ALSA: poll time out [...]):

audio_reservation_init
Acquire audio card Audio0
creating alsa driver ... hw:Fireface802|hw:Fireface802|128|3|48000|0|0|nomon|swmeter|-|32bit
configuring for 48000Hz, period = 128 frames (2.7 ms), buffer = 3 periods
ALSA: final selected sample format for capture: 32bit integer little-endian
ALSA: use 3 periods for capture
ALSA: final selected sample format for playback: 32bit integer little-endian
ALSA: use 3 periods for playback
scan: added port hw:0,0,0 in-hw-0-0-0-Fireface802-MIDI-1
scan: added port hw:0,0,0 out-hw-0-0-0-Fireface802-MIDI-1
scan: opened port hw:0,0,0 in-hw-0-0-0-Fireface802-MIDI-1
scan: opened port hw:0,0,0 out-hw-0-0-0-Fireface802-MIDI-1
ALSA: poll time out, polled for 3998925 usecs, Retrying with a recovery, retry cnt = 1
JackPosixProcessSync::LockedTimedWait error usec = 5000000 err = Connection timed out
Driver is not running
Cannot create new client
Cannot read socket fd = 35 err = Succès
Cannot open qjackctl client
CheckRes error
JackShmReadWritePtr1::~JackShmReadWritePtr1 - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
Jack main caught signal 15
ALSA: poll time out, polled for 3998941 usecs, Retrying with a recovery, retry cnt = 2
ALSA: poll time out, polled for 3998950 usecs, Retrying with a recovery, retry cnt = 3
ALSA: poll time out, polled for 3998819 usecs, Retrying with a recovery, retry cnt = 4
ALSA: poll time out, polled for 3998840 usecs, Retrying with a recovery, retry cnt = 5
ALSA: poll time out, polled for 3998982 usecs, Reached max retry cnt = 5, Exiting
JackAudioDriver::ProcessSync: read error, stopping...
scan: deleted port hw:0,0,0 in-hw-0-0-0-Fireface802-MIDI-1
scan: deleted port hw:0,0,0 out-hw-0-0-0-Fireface802-MIDI-1
Released audio card Audio0
audio_reservation_finish

I can live with that, once it's started it runs reliably, but if there anything I can do / test please let me know.

[takaswie]

Let me close this issue since it has been already resolved.

[jean-emmanuel]

It seems the root cause of the issue is still here, it's not freezing but still failing to start from time to time. demsg shows the following error when it occurs:

snd_fireface fw1.0: invalid position: , pos = 408, buffer size = 384, period size = 128

(pos value is not always the same)