Stuttering audio when multitasking? - Page 2 - maemo.org

Joorin | # 11 | 2010-06-23, 18:01 | Report

Originally Posted by pycage View Post

The first happens with non-Nokia applications when, e.g., locking the screen or rotating the phone. Nokia thought it would be very clever to actually freeze all applications it doesn't trust (i.e. all except those made by Nokia and explicitly whitelisted in the OS) to ensure smooth transitions.

How is this done? To "freeze" an application, you need to not schedule it for time in the processor and that sounds like a very dodgy hack in the kernel.

Laughing Man | # 12 | 2010-06-23, 18:06 | Report

Originally Posted by zimon View Post

Maybe Apple and Steve Jobs are just right in this issue. Multitasking is not suitable for mobile devices with these current hardware resources - still.

I had serious problems during this week trying to just use Mappero and µBrowser at the same time during visiting a foreign city abroad. (PR 1.2)
Yet trying to take photos while those two are in the background, will make N900 unresponsible and a few times I had to reboot by removing the battery. It is irritating!

N900 does not have enough RAM-memory perhaps, or kernel is jut not suitable. It shouldn't (thinking it is a Linux system) go so dead just multitasking 3 applications!

Nokia Maps was useless, as it cannot route or find locations offline and even if routes and locations are found when connected to WLAN, one cannot save them anyway, so you will probably loose them when going outside the WLAN zone. Mappero would work, but it is perhaps too big program to be usable in N900 - one wants to take photos also while tracking.

I must say, I was very dissapointed during this week. Should have taken my old N95 with me instead.

I've found that multi-tasking when anything heavy is downloading (Mappero, Gpodder downloads, FeedingIt if your having it download images) is impossible. My favorite thing to do at night is to have Gpodder and FeedingIt update at the same time to see how slow the system crawls (haha).

Which makes sense if you think about all the hardware that's needed when downloading things. But it's fine for me when I use apps (not games) or browse the web. I only get skipping when using panucci.

jackie_jagger | # 13 | 2010-06-23, 18:08 | Report

I brought up a topic regarding same a few days back:
It'd be fair to merge em I guess !
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=56804

Last edited by jackie_jagger; 2010-06-23 at 18:21.

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leetut | # 14 | 2010-06-23, 18:10 | Report

audio has never skipped for me since pr1.2
it happened all the time previously
media player now works 99% of the time
but..
email still refreshes when it feels like it (usually never!)
i often hear ringtones i have not set
and call volume still drops to almost silent after approx 2mins
apart from that the phone is awesome

stlpaul | # 15 | 2010-06-23, 18:37 | Report

Mine stutters all the time, in playing local files, internet radio, FM radio... I think it has gotten worse since PR1.2 but it was always bad.

It especially stutters when first starting to play a file. First 5-10 seconds of the song are basically ruined.

When listening to audio & some background task happens like checking email, it stutters too. And if you're really doing any real multitasking like web browsing or something just forget about it. It is bad.

JorgeFX | # 16 | 2010-06-23, 18:58 | Report

open a terminal, login as root and write:
killall pulseaudio

This help cause it restart the audio process, but after PR1.2 this have to be done very often for me, and it doesn't seem to be just a pulseadio anymore

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Lullen | # 17 | 2010-06-23, 19:15 | Report

Originally Posted by zimon View Post

Maybe Apple and Steve Jobs are just right in this issue. Multitasking is not suitable for mobile devices with these current hardware resources - still.

I think not, the problem I think (for me at least) is that the OS is buggy. Let say you listen to 5 songs, 2 of them lag a bit, for me it does not matter if I have none or a few apps running but the application handler is always causing a big slow down for some reason. And to go on with that it's nokia that sucks just look at the browser, it was perfect(bit slow tho) on the relese PR but on PR 1.2 when nokia made it faster it sometimes do not open web pages, make the whole phone unusable etc etc.

To continue this off-topic post: Maemo is open-source right? From what I've heard the community helps to fix bugs, is this then implanted when nokia release their new PR? Is it not possible for the community to release new updates on the maemo-core?

pycage | # 18 | 2010-06-23, 19:37 | Report

Originally Posted by Joorin View Post

How is this done? To "freeze" an application, you need to not schedule it for time in the processor and that sounds like a very dodgy hack in the kernel.

On Unix you can send a SIGSTOP to a process to freeze it, and a SIGCONT to thaw.
For example

Code:

killall -STOP hildon-thumbnailerd

would freeze the hildon-thumbnailer, and

Code:

killall -CONT hildon-thumbnailerd

would thaw it.
The kill commands don't kill processes but send signals, with the default being the ABORT signal.

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kazuki | # 19 | 2010-06-23, 19:51 | Report

i use the native media player by nokia. it never stuttered until pr 1.2

woody14619 | # 20 | 2010-06-23, 20:06 | Report

Originally Posted by zimon View Post

I had serious problems during this week trying to just use Mappero and µBrowser

So, you're actively doing GPS, while browsing the internet, AND taking pictures, and are surprised that it's laggy and stuttering? Most laptops (or desktop PCs) would have problems doing all that at once! That's expecting an awful lot out of a pocket-sized device, no?

If you're just playing audio, it does well. If you want to browse the web, while GPS navigating, and listening to MP3s, and taking a picture, then go get a... wait.. nothing else can do all that at once either. Go buy a GPS, a digital camera and a cheep mp3 player, then use the N900 to browse. It'll all be much happier that way.

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