Oricutron slow in kernel 3.0.0-15

[vrozos]

I am running Oricutron under xubuntu 11.10 in an IBM ThinkPad T40.
Recently my system upgraded the kernel from 3.0.0-14 to 3.0.0-15
and Oricutron (version 0.8 ) became intolerably slow. It is so slow
I cannot play Zorgons anymore

Running "top" I saw pulseaudio consuming all CPU resources. I guess
SDL is to blaim but I am reporting this anyway. The following is the
output of ldd oricutron (not sure if it makes anything clearer):

linux-gate.so.1 => (0x005a8000)
libSDL-1.2.so.0 => /usr/lib/libSDL-1.2.so.0 (0x00f1c000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00a30000)
libasound.so.2 => /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libasound.so.2 (0x00110000)
libm.so.6 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x0066d000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x006d1000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x00201000)
/lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x00c39000)
librt.so.1 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/librt.so.1 (0x00cd1000)

V.

[Xeron]

thanks for the report, but although oricutron builds for linux, nobody is maintaining a linux build or fixing linux specific problems. Volunteers are welcome....

[highwayman]

pulse is always a cpu hog,
switch to using alsa if you can.

[Dbug]

pulse is always a cpu hog,
switch to using alsa if you can.

Is it transparent when using SDL, can SDL use both Alsa and PulseAudio?

[vrozos]

Is it transparent when using SDL, can SDL use both Alsa and PulseAudio?

Alsa or PulseAudio in my SDL? Depends on which package is installed:
libsdl1.2debian-alsa for Alsa
libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio for PuseAudio
Only one can be installed at any given time.

I tried the alsa but didn't see any improvement so switched back to pulse.

BTW, I installed and tested an SDL-based game (xpilots) and was really slow.
This is a pretty plain vector-graphics game that should run fast even in a 386.

So most probably SDL is the culprit and we have just to wait for a new release in linux.

V.

[vrozos]

I retested Oricutron on kernel 3.0.0-26 and looks improved. Oric can now be simulated at 66% of its original speed. I did some experiments.

In the picture OricutronUp.png Oricutron is up and running. Three processes (oricutron, pulseaudio and X) consume 100% of the CPU.

In the picture OricutronDown.png Oricutron is minimized but still running (I can hear the sound of the Zorngons' magnetic bar). Oricutron (2 processes) now consumes 40% of the CPU.

Finally, in the picture OricutronDown.png Orictron menu is up. Oricutron consumption now is minimal.

[vrozos]

Just to mention that I tried Oricutron in two machines with Ubuntu 12.04. The first is a Thinkpad T40 with 1.8GHz CPU and the second a Thinkpad R50e with 1.5 GHz CPU. Strangely, Oricutron works OK in the latter whereas runs at 70% in the former.

[ibisum]

By means of comparison, I run Oricutron on my aging AMD quadcore machine on ubuntu-studio-amd64, with a properly primped JACK setup which includes an alsa-jack bridge, and I experience absolutely zero contention for audio with Oricutron. I can fire up a couple of them, in fact, and I get a pretty fat cacaphony of PING:ZAP:SHOOT as required. Well it is true that there is often a small lag when I first fire up Oricutron, which I know is the alsa-jack bridge being set up for the first time, but once some app opens this bridge, it stays open and is from then on, fast to come online.

There is some braindead stigma around pulseaudio I can't quite place, because I just simply remove pulseaudio anywhere I see it and properly primp JACK, most times. But then, I have done it so many times, over and over, on my DAW as I tried to move into Linux, that its just second nature. For the consumer distro side of things, I think it requires a bit more bravery.

Apropros maintaining the Linux build - Xeron, I volunteer to assist as much as possible, I just didn't perceive a need for it since it has been smooth cookies for me, mostly, keeping up with r487,

[vrozos]

Just to mention that I tried Oricutron in two machines with Ubuntu 12.04. The first is a Thinkpad T40 with 1.8GHz CPU and the second a Thinkpad R50e with 1.5 GHz CPU. Strangely, Oricutron works OK in the latter whereas runs at 70% in the former.

The slow Oricutron runs on a ATI RV200 [Mobility Radeon 7500] whereas the fast runs on a Intel 82852/855 GM.

[vrozos]

The speed was restored to 100% after selecting "OpenGL rendering" in "Video options".

V.

[ibisum]

Yes, I have full GL acceleration on my aging GeForce 9800 GTX / 9800 GTX+ (rev a2) video card .. perhaps that is something else to know/consider. For a few years now, this machine has sufficed as a general-purpose development machine with GL, audio, other devices &etc. pretty much working very smoothly. I run Oricutron only on it and the Open Pandora, but not often these days as we have working Oric hardware in the house and are trying to be purist about it.