I just installed Slackware 12.0 and most recent
Gnome Slackbuild v2.20.3. Goal is to use Ekiga VOIP
software. Sound card (Ensoniq ES1371) and webcam (USB_PWC)
seem to otherwise work fine, but Ekiga is crashing. I keep
getting this error:

sndrv_pcm_hw_params: Assertion `err >= 0' failed

A search indicates this error pops up with several Linux
distros with Skype and Gizmo, in addition to Ekiga. I am
not finding a solution. Anyone know how to solve this?

Dee

Dominic-Luc Webb wrote:
> I just installed Slackware 12.0 and most recent
> Gnome Slackbuild v2.20.3. Goal is to use Ekiga VOIP
> software. Sound card (Ensoniq ES1371) and webcam (USB_PWC)
> seem to otherwise work fine, but Ekiga is crashing. I keep
> getting this error:
>
> sndrv_pcm_hw_params: Assertion `err >= 0' failed
>
> A search indicates this error pops up with several Linux
> distros with Skype and Gizmo, in addition to Ekiga. I am
> not finding a solution. Anyone know how to solve this?
>
> Dee
>

Have you properly configured your audio device (in Edit -> Preferences
-> devices -> audio devices). The ekiga I am using is the one I have
submitted in www.slackbuids.org (this is a build independant of Gnome).

Olive

Olive wrote:
> Dominic-Luc Webb wrote:
>> I just installed Slackware 12.0 and most recent
>> Gnome Slackbuild v2.20.3. Goal is to use Ekiga VOIP
>> software. Sound card (Ensoniq ES1371) and webcam (USB_PWC)
>> seem to otherwise work fine, but Ekiga is crashing. I keep
>> getting this error:
>>
>> sndrv_pcm_hw_params: Assertion `err >= 0' failed
>>
>> A search indicates this error pops up with several Linux
>> distros with Skype and Gizmo, in addition to Ekiga. I am
>> not finding a solution. Anyone know how to solve this?
>>
>> Dee
>>
>
> Have you properly configured your audio device (in Edit -> Preferences
> -> devices -> audio devices). The ekiga I am using is the one I have
> submitted in www.slackbuids.org (this is a build independant of Gnome).

(it was www.slackbuilds.org sorry...)

Olive

> Have you properly configured your audio device (in Edit -> Preferences
> -> devices -> audio devices). The ekiga I am using is the one I have
> submitted in www.slackbuids.org (this is a build independant of Gnome).
>
> Olive

Thanks for your response. Yes, I am quite sure I set this properly.
I did not know your build existed. Nice! I might not have installed
Gnome in its entirety if I know about this. I should at least look
for this and try.

Dee

On Mon, 3 Mar 2008, Olive wrote:
>
> (it was www.slackbuilds.org sorry...)
>
> Olive

I went here and all I found was a file clearly indicating it
was Ekiga, but was actually just an ASCII file pointing to
some website. Anyway, this may be besides that point. I
suspect that even your build might end up giving the same
problem anyway. From what I can find so far, this looks like
a kernel configuration issue or maybe a bug that needs to be
fixed by those writing drivers. I would most be interested
in hearing from someone who has encountered this problem
and figured out how to fix it. Have you encountered this
yourself or maybe have some idea where it is coming from?

Dee

Specifically, I have found this, thanks to GSB users group:
https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/al...ew.php?id=2601 and
http://www.pulseaudio.org/ticket/23.

These patches can be found there, but not sure if this
should fix my problem???

pcm_pulse.patch [^] (441 bytes) 2007-11-08 18:16
alsa-pulse.patch [^] (819 bytes) 2008-02-21 17:08

Dee

Dominic-Luc Webb wrote:
> On Mon, 3 Mar 2008, Olive wrote:
>> (it was www.slackbuilds.org sorry...)
>>
>> Olive
>
> I went here and all I found was a file clearly indicating it
> was Ekiga,

This site only provide build scripts. You have to download the source
(mentioned in the .info file; this file can be sourced so you can easily
write a script that automate the process) and launch xxx.SlackBuild to
build the package (dependencies are indicated in the README file: in the
case of ekiga it is opal and pwlib).

but was actually just an ASCII file pointing to
> some website. Anyway, this may be besides that point. I
> suspect that even your build might end up giving the same
> problem anyway. From what I can find so far, this looks like
> a kernel configuration issue or maybe a bug that needs to be
> fixed by those writing drivers. I would most be interested
> in hearing from someone who has encountered this problem
> and figured out how to fix it. Have you encountered this
> yourself or maybe have some idea where it is coming from?

I have not experienced it but I would try the following in order to
debug it. Can you play sound files with aplay (try aplay <somefile>.wav)
and can you record something from the micro with arecord? These tests
should tell you if the problem come from the kernel/hardware or not.

What have you configured in audio devices of ekiga? What are the options
available? If aplay works; try to use ALSA as the audio plugin and your
specific card in Audio Devices (I can choose between Default and HDA
Intel: my sound card; do not use the default but your specific sound card).

In case ekiga is misconfigured; try to delete its configuration file
(the non gnome build store it in ~/.config/ekiga but I beleive the Gnome
build use gconf).

Olive

On Tue, 4 Mar 2008, Olive wrote:
> I have not experienced it but I would try the following in order to
> debug it. Can you play sound files with aplay (try aplay <somefile>.wav)
> and can you record something from the micro with arecord? These tests
> should tell you if the problem come from the kernel/hardware or not.
>
> What have you configured in audio devices of ekiga? What are the options
> available? If aplay works; try to use ALSA as the audio plugin and your
> specific card in Audio Devices (I can choose between Default and HDA
> Intel: my sound card; do not use the default but your specific sound card).
>
> In case ekiga is misconfigured; try to delete its configuration file
> (the non gnome build store it in ~/.config/ekiga but I beleive the Gnome
> build use gconf).
>
> Olive

Hi again!

I'll check again. I did mention in my original post that the
sound card and webcam otherwise work fine.... There is a mixer
called alsamixer that seems to work fine to control sound. It
has not yet crashed or given any problems, but I could try
using it more often and see if it ever happens. Thus far the
only crashes have occurred when running Ekiga, and these crop
up rather quickly, with the error mentioned on the subject line
of this thread.

I'll hunt for the config file. Thanks.

Dee

This problem seems to be a bug in ALSA driver or
ALSA-lib. I have submitted the following bug report:

https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/al...ew.php?id=3825

Dee