Softsqueeze, linux and pauses

[John Gorst]

Having some minor but annoying performance issues with softsqueeze on a
mandrake linux box (version 10) running java 1.5 beta 2 with version 1.2
of softsqueeze. CPU isaceleron 633 with just over 300mb of ram.

Most of the time the box copes perfectly with running slimserver and
running softsqueeze on the same box. When tracks are actually playing
the playback is faultless - even if I am doing stuff on the comptuer
(web access, reading mail, accessing the box by vnc) etc.

However it persistently has the same problem of there being a long pause
between pressing the play button and something playing (5-6 seconds).
During this time CPU useage increases to 100%. This CPU useage is not
actually due to slimserver but some process that is not listed using the
'top' command line program.

I can see java (which uses around 250mb of virtual memory - normal?)
which uses no CPU, but I can not see any entry for softsqueeze. I can
only assume that softsqueeze is using this extra CPU. This does not seem
to occur using my windows box - softsqueeze cpu useage does nto seem to
peek greatly when pressing play.

Is this a bug in softsqueeze, java or mandrake. Or is it just my box
ebing underpowered?

Just noticed that this behaviour is much improved (eliminated?) when
playing flac files - so I assume that it is softsqueezes mp3 decoded
which is causing problems somewhere? How could I change my convert.conf
so all files are conveted to wav files for playback in softsqueeze and
make sure that it persisted each time I upgraded to the latest ngihtly?
I assume that it would be a lot more efficient to let lame decode the
mp3 stream that the java mp3 decoded?

Many thanks for any help

[John Gorst]

John Gorst wrote:

> Just noticed that this behaviour is much improved (eliminated?) when
> playing flac files - so I assume that it is softsqueezes mp3 decoded
> which is causing problems somewhere? How could I change my convert.conf
> so all files are conveted to wav files for playback in softsqueeze and
> make sure that it persisted each time I upgraded to the latest ngihtly?
> I assume that it would be a lot more efficient to let lame decode the
> mp3 stream that the java mp3 decoded?

Scrun the above. It behaves slightly better when using flac instead of
mp3, but the problem randomly persists.

Cheers for any help

[rtitmuss]

John,

I am not sure what is causing your problem here. The java process that
you see listed in 'top' will be the Softsqueeze process. It is possible
that the extra delay is caused by the PC swapping memory between RAM and
disk. Your memory usage seems high at 250mb, on my Linux server
Softsqueeze uses around 30mb of memory (but I do not have a sound card
in that machine, so cannot actually play any music on it!). How much
memory does Softsqueeze use when it starts?

Regards,
Richard



John Gorst wrote:

>
> Having some minor but annoying performance issues with softsqueeze on
> a mandrake linux box (version 10) running java 1.5 beta 2 with version
> 1.2 of softsqueeze. CPU isaceleron 633 with just over 300mb of ram.
>
> Most of the time the box copes perfectly with running slimserver and
> running softsqueeze on the same box. When tracks are actually playing
> the playback is faultless - even if I am doing stuff on the comptuer
> (web access, reading mail, accessing the box by vnc) etc.
>
> However it persistently has the same problem of there being a long
> pause between pressing the play button and something playing (5-6
> seconds). During this time CPU useage increases to 100%. This CPU
> useage is not actually due to slimserver but some process that is not
> listed using the 'top' command line program.
>
> I can see java (which uses around 250mb of virtual memory - normal?)
> which uses no CPU, but I can not see any entry for softsqueeze. I can
> only assume that softsqueeze is using this extra CPU. This does not
> seem to occur using my windows box - softsqueeze cpu useage does nto
> seem to peek greatly when pressing play.
>
> Is this a bug in softsqueeze, java or mandrake. Or is it just my box
> ebing underpowered?
>
> Just noticed that this behaviour is much improved (eliminated?) when
> playing flac files - so I assume that it is softsqueezes mp3 decoded
> which is causing problems somewhere? How could I change my
> convert.conf so all files are conveted to wav files for playback in
> softsqueeze and make sure that it persisted each time I upgraded to
> the latest ngihtly? I assume that it would be a lot more efficient to
> let lame decode the mp3 stream that the java mp3 decoded?
>
> Many thanks for any help
>
>

[John Gorst]

Hi

My 'java' process uses 30mb of resident memory and 263mb of virtual
memory. It however never uses any cpu according to 'top', however when I
play a file (and there is a pause which occurs about 25% of the time)
idle cpu % goes down to 0% for a few seconds without any obvious process
taking up the resources.

Just tried using softsqueeze 0.6 on the linux machine connecting to a
windows macine runnign an old slimserver version and a similar thing
occurs. So I dont think it is a resource issue with running softsqueeze
on the same computer as slimserver.

I have also tried connecting to the linux slimserver froma windwos xp
machine running softsqueeze 1.3 and none of these problems occur. So it
appears to be a linux only problem.

Very odd!

Richard Titmuss wrote:
> John,
>
> I am not sure what is causing your problem here. The java process that
> you see listed in 'top' will be the Softsqueeze process. It is possible
> that the extra delay is caused by the PC swapping memory between RAM and
> disk. Your memory usage seems high at 250mb, on my Linux server
> Softsqueeze uses around 30mb of memory (but I do not have a sound card
> in that machine, so cannot actually play any music on it!). How much
> memory does Softsqueeze use when it starts?
>
> Regards,
> Richard
>
>
>
> John Gorst wrote:
>
>>
>> Having some minor but annoying performance issues with softsqueeze on
>> a mandrake linux box (version 10) running java 1.5 beta 2 with version
>> 1.2 of softsqueeze. CPU isaceleron 633 with just over 300mb of ram.
>>
>> Most of the time the box copes perfectly with running slimserver and
>> running softsqueeze on the same box. When tracks are actually playing
>> the playback is faultless - even if I am doing stuff on the comptuer
>> (web access, reading mail, accessing the box by vnc) etc.
>>
>> However it persistently has the same problem of there being a long
>> pause between pressing the play button and something playing (5-6
>> seconds). During this time CPU useage increases to 100%. This CPU
>> useage is not actually due to slimserver but some process that is not
>> listed using the 'top' command line program.
>>
>> I can see java (which uses around 250mb of virtual memory - normal?)
>> which uses no CPU, but I can not see any entry for softsqueeze. I can
>> only assume that softsqueeze is using this extra CPU. This does not
>> seem to occur using my windows box - softsqueeze cpu useage does nto
>> seem to peek greatly when pressing play.
>>
>> Is this a bug in softsqueeze, java or mandrake. Or is it just my box
>> ebing underpowered?
>>
>> Just noticed that this behaviour is much improved (eliminated?) when
>> playing flac files - so I assume that it is softsqueezes mp3 decoded
>> which is causing problems somewhere? How could I change my
>> convert.conf so all files are conveted to wav files for playback in
>> softsqueeze and make sure that it persisted each time I upgraded to
>> the latest ngihtly? I assume that it would be a lot more efficient to
>> let lame decode the mp3 stream that the java mp3 decoded?
>>
>> Many thanks for any help
>>
>>

[rtitmuss]

John,

As you say very odd.When the idle cpu% is zero, what's using the cpu a
user process or the system?

To help understand where the time is disappearing could you start
Softsqueeze using 'java -Dlog=com.slim.softsqueeze.Player -jar
Softsqueeze.jar'. If you send me the log off list I'll see if I can spot
what's causing the delay.

Regards,
Richard


John Gorst wrote:

>
> Hi
>
> My 'java' process uses 30mb of resident memory and 263mb of virtual
> memory. It however never uses any cpu according to 'top', however when
> I play a file (and there is a pause which occurs about 25% of the
> time) idle cpu % goes down to 0% for a few seconds without any obvious
> process taking up the resources.
>
> Just tried using softsqueeze 0.6 on the linux machine connecting to a
> windows macine runnign an old slimserver version and a similar thing
> occurs. So I dont think it is a resource issue with running
> softsqueeze on the same computer as slimserver.
>
> I have also tried connecting to the linux slimserver froma windwos xp
> machine running softsqueeze 1.3 and none of these problems occur. So
> it appears to be a linux only problem.
>
> Very odd!
>
> Richard Titmuss wrote:
>
>> John,
>>
>> I am not sure what is causing your problem here. The java process
>> that you see listed in 'top' will be the Softsqueeze process. It is
>> possible that the extra delay is caused by the PC swapping memory
>> between RAM and disk. Your memory usage seems high at 250mb, on my
>> Linux server Softsqueeze uses around 30mb of memory (but I do not
>> have a sound card in that machine, so cannot actually play any music
>> on it!). How much memory does Softsqueeze use when it starts?
>>
>> Regards,
>> Richard
>>
>>
>>
>> John Gorst wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Having some minor but annoying performance issues with softsqueeze
>>> on a mandrake linux box (version 10) running java 1.5 beta 2 with
>>> version 1.2 of softsqueeze. CPU isaceleron 633 with just over 300mb
>>> of ram.
>>>
>>> Most of the time the box copes perfectly with running slimserver and
>>> running softsqueeze on the same box. When tracks are actually
>>> playing the playback is faultless - even if I am doing stuff on the
>>> comptuer (web access, reading mail, accessing the box by vnc) etc.
>>>
>>> However it persistently has the same problem of there being a long
>>> pause between pressing the play button and something playing (5-6
>>> seconds). During this time CPU useage increases to 100%. This CPU
>>> useage is not actually due to slimserver but some process that is
>>> not listed using the 'top' command line program.
>>>
>>> I can see java (which uses around 250mb of virtual memory - normal?)
>>> which uses no CPU, but I can not see any entry for softsqueeze. I
>>> can only assume that softsqueeze is using this extra CPU. This does
>>> not seem to occur using my windows box - softsqueeze cpu useage does
>>> nto seem to peek greatly when pressing play.
>>>
>>> Is this a bug in softsqueeze, java or mandrake. Or is it just my box
>>> ebing underpowered?
>>>
>>> Just noticed that this behaviour is much improved (eliminated?) when
>>> playing flac files - so I assume that it is softsqueezes mp3 decoded
>>> which is causing problems somewhere? How could I change my
>>> convert.conf so all files are conveted to wav files for playback in
>>> softsqueeze and make sure that it persisted each time I upgraded to
>>> the latest ngihtly? I assume that it would be a lot more efficient
>>> to let lame decode the mp3 stream that the java mp3 decoded?
>>>
>>> Many thanks for any help
>>>
>>>

[John Gorst]

Richard Titmuss wrote:
> John,
>
> As you say very odd.When the idle cpu% is zero, what's using the cpu a
> user process or the system?

A user process.

> To help understand where the time is disappearing could you start
> Softsqueeze using 'java -Dlog=com.slim.softsqueeze.Player -jar
> Softsqueeze.jar'. If you send me the log off list I'll see if I can spot
> what's causing the delay.

Will do!

[John Gorst]

>> To help understand where the time is disappearing could you start
>> Softsqueeze using 'java -Dlog=com.slim.softsqueeze.Player -jar
>> Softsqueeze.jar'. If you send me the log off list I'll see if I can
>> spot what's causing the delay.
>
>
> Will do!

Please reply if you didnt get the log as it I send it via gmane which
mangles email addresses - I don't completely truct it to demangle it!

Cheers