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I'm having a problem with skipping audio on two different machines, both with up-to-date Ubuntu 12.04 Desktop installed (one 32 bit, the other 64)

It doesn't happen all the time (maybe once per song when it gets bad), and happens regardless of the program creating the audio (could be streaming through Grooveshark, or playing files with VLC, etc.)

Does anyone have any ideas as to why this is happening, or how I could fix it? I don't really even know where to start.

Thanks!

3 Answers 3

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I had exactly the same problem (audio skips and stutters at random, CPU usage low) with Ubuntu 14.04. Upgrading Alsa/DKMS following this procedure solved my issues: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/UpgradingAlsa/DKMS

  1. make sure dkms is installed: sudo apt-get install dkms
  2. load .deb for your system from https://code.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-audio-dev/+archive/alsa-daily/+packages
  3. install: sudo dpkg -i <deb file>
  4. reboot
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Jordan, I have been having this same issue for quite some time now. I followed the steps at this page and I haven't noticed any skipping when playing audio/video in VLC. Hopefully this solves the problem.

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  • Sorry for the late response, but this worked! thanks!
    – Jordan N
    Sep 26, 2012 at 13:30
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First I would check if it is a problem on PulseAudio or ALSA-level. Try playing some music in a program that outputs directly to ALSA (launched with pasuspender in Ubuntu). When I had a similar problem I used Mixxx.

If the skipping does not occur you can be pretty sure it is a PulseAudio problem.

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  • Thanks for the response! I'll look into trying to output directly to ALSA. Let's say hypothetically it is a PulseAudio problem; do you know what next steps I should take to try and solve the issue?
    – Jordan N
    Aug 7, 2012 at 17:47
  • the only thing i could think of would be to increase buffer sizes significally and see if it helps. But in my case it was a problem with the usb connection to the audio interface... so, a lot of things can go wrong ;)
    – Karl Frisk
    Aug 7, 2012 at 22:26
  • When I tried to run rhythmbox, totem, and vlc using pasuspender I ended up with no sound at all. Any other suggestions? Aug 21, 2012 at 17:54
  • with vlc, did you change to alsa-output? (select ALSA audio output in Tools->Preferences->Audio)
    – Karl Frisk
    Sep 16, 2012 at 12:48

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