ubuntu sound stops working randomly

[zamrg]

This problem recently started happening where by the sound randomly stops working.
I was just playing an mp3, went away for 10 minutes, and when I unpaused the track, the sound was dead. This happens with anything; system sounds, vlc, music, etc.

I looked at all log files and noticed a few errors in my user.log; not sure if they related to the problem but I've pasted everything.

Nov  8 03:52:01 zephyr bonobo-activation-server (mrg-27236): could not associate with desktop session: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-rqvwrUUKDd: Connection refused
Nov  8 03:52:11 zephyr pulseaudio[27494]: ltdl-bind-now.c: Failed to find original dlopen loader.
Nov  8 03:52:11 zephyr pulseaudio[27496]: main.c: setrlimit(RLIMIT_NICE, (31, 31)) failed: Operation not permitted
Nov  8 03:52:11 zephyr pulseaudio[27496]: main.c: setrlimit(RLIMIT_RTPRIO, (9, 9)) failed: Operation not permitted
Nov  8 03:52:11 zephyr pulseaudio[27496]: alsa-util.c: Device hw:1 doesn't support 8 channels, changed to 2.
Nov  8 03:52:34 zephyr pulseaudio[27496]: module-x11-xsmp.c: X11 session manager not running.
Nov  8 03:52:34 zephyr pulseaudio[27496]: module.c: Failed to load  module "module-x11-xsmp" (argument: ""): initialization failed.
Nov  8 03:53:41 zephyr hp: io/hpmud/pp.c 627: unable to read device-id ret=-1 
Nov  8 03:53:43 zephyr python: io/hpmud/pp.c 627: unable to read device-id ret=-1 
Nov  8 14:41:54 zephyr mrg: Shorewall restarted
Nov  8 20:02:37 zephyr bonobo-activation-server (mrg-19906): could not associate with desktop session: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-3NPfoWVVGU: Connection refused
Nov  8 20:02:42 zephyr pulseaudio[20060]: ltdl-bind-now.c: Failed to find original dlopen loader.
Nov  8 20:02:42 zephyr pulseaudio[20062]: main.c: setrlimit(RLIMIT_NICE, (31, 31)) failed: Operation not permitted
Nov  8 20:02:42 zephyr pulseaudio[20062]: main.c: setrlimit(RLIMIT_RTPRIO, (9, 9)) failed: Operation not permitted
Nov  8 20:02:43 zephyr pulseaudio[20062]: alsa-util.c: Device hw:1 doesn't support 8 channels, changed to 2.
Nov  8 20:03:05 zephyr pulseaudio[20062]: module-x11-xsmp.c: X11 session manager not running.
Nov  8 20:03:05 zephyr pulseaudio[20062]: module.c: Failed to load  module "module-x11-xsmp" (argument: ""): initialization failed.
Nov  8 20:04:12 zephyr hp: io/hpmud/pp.c 627: unable to read device-id ret=-1 
Nov  8 20:04:13 zephyr python: io/hpmud/pp.c 627: unable to read device-id ret=-1

I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this problem or knows of a possible solution.

I'm using Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10 with a Audigy 4 soundcard and 7.1 surround sound.

 

[sn3rd]

Try the following:
1) Clean boot your computer
2) Play some music to verify that sound is working
3) Stop the playback
4) View some flash video using Firefox
5) Try play the music again

If it doesn't play, then it's the same problem I had. If you want it to work again, you can do

killall pulseaudio

But this will make your browser's sound stop working until the next reboot.

Another solution is to install OSS and use that for your sound server.

 

[zamrg]

hi sn3rd

I tried to reproduce the bug like you said but my sound still worked after that.

I guess I might have to try install OSS...

 

[zamrg]

done some reading up on the ubuntu wiki about installing OSS and blacklisting alsa, but it seems to be quite a mission.

The ubuntu forums are clueless with regard to this issue, but a few people have written about this problem on their blogs. A temporary fix is to kill pulseaudio with 'pulseaudio -k' and then restart the daemon with 'pulseaudio -D'. In my case, pulseaudio just kills itself every now and then so I just have to restart the daemon. I remember having this problem with Hardy and would have thought that this would be sorted with Intrepid's release.

I'm gonna try a more permanent fix by configuring PulseAudio according to the instructions at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=866965 . The author mentions that Ubuntu rushed to get PulseAudio packaged in Intrepid and didn't bother configuring it properly, nor the previous irritating bugs.

 

[.Froot.]

Unfortunately there are still a few bugs out there that have migrated from Hardy to Intrepid. Go to ubuntu.com and do a bug report, if it is not already there. They usually try sort it out pretty quickly.
I noticed a major sound issue on the Release Candidate, but it seems to have been sorted coming into 8.10 Final.
The best current fix is to yes, kill the process and restart it if it gives issues.