[AG-TECH] Audio service on Mac freezes the machine

Eric Olson eolson at mcs.anl.gov
Wed Feb 23 16:57:07 CST 2005


Jon,

We haven't been able to reproduce that problem here yet, and we have a
similar powerbook.  You shouldn't need to unplug the iSight for audio to
work, so hopefully we can figure out why it was happening.  If you (or
anyone experiencing this problem) can still cause your computer to freeze
and have time to try the following things, we'd be happy to hear your
results.

One thing I've noticed is that plugging in an iSight for the first time
will make it your default audio device.  If you verified your default
audio input device was still the built-in mic while your camera was
plugged in, then this wasn't a problem for you.

Here are some more suggestions, but they are less likely to be the cause
of the problem:

Having other audio applications using audio such as the mac sound
config, iTunes, or an iChat audio chat while using rat could cause
problems.

Starting X11 manually beforehand could eliminate any problems the audio
service might be having starting it.

If storing a configuration solved your problem, does loading the original
default configuration work?

Another thing to pay attention to is that if rat has problems starting
once (i.e. a wrong audio device being set as the default input, or no
multicast), it may leave a hung process.  If you're familiar with unix,
you can kill the related processes to make sure they're not causing
problems.

If none of these things help narrow down the problem, can you submit an
error report through the VenueClient "About" menu?

Thank you,
Eric

On Wed, 23 Feb 2005, Jon Johansson wrote:

>
> The machine is a PowerBook G4 1GHz with 1 GB of RAM.
>
> We unplugged the iSight camera and went into a venue
> without any services. When we added an audio service
> we actually got audio to work. This is with the
> built-in mic selected, and the iSight unplugged - that's
> what it takes to keep audio from crashing?
>
> After plugging in the iSight we managed to add a video
> consumer and producer and that seemed to run fine too.
> We saved this configuration and now when we go into a venue
> the services are starting correctly.
>
> This seems vry finicky to set up, but getting is working on
> a Mac is very neat.
>
> Jon.
>
> --
> Jon I Johansson             *  Research Computing Support
> jon.johansson at ualberta.ca   *  Computing and Network Services
> Tel.: (780) 492-9304        *  University of Alberta
> Fax.: (780) 492-1729        *  Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov
> > [mailto:owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov] On Behalf Of Kathy E Gill
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 6:40 PM
> > To: Jon Johansson
> > Cc: ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov
> > Subject: Re: [AG-TECH] Audio service on Mac freezes the machine
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue, 22 Feb 2005, Jon Johansson wrote:
> >
> > > When we add an audio service,
> > > instead of rat we get some X windows and the machine
> > > freezes completely. The default audio device is set to
> > > the built-in mic.
> >
> > Is that what you are using - the built in mic (no external
> > plugged in?)
> >
> > Which Mac?
> >
> >
> > Kathy
> >
> >
>
>




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