Memory Lock Warning at Mixbus Session Startup

[sriddle]

Hello,

I keep getting the ulimit warning at startup of mixbus session. I'm using fedora 24. I've tried setting limits.conf @audio memory unllimited - logged out - still get warning. I've download rt-permissions from planet ccrma and continue to get warning as well. I've added myself to audio group - still doesn't work. I've removed myself from audio group and created realtime group. All options I've come across so far have done nothing to alleviate memory lock message. The command sudo -i ulimit unlimited does not change memory lock for me as user - remains at 64 when doing ulimit -l. Still get the mixbus message at startup. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Scott

[Lexridge]

Hello,

I keep getting the ulimit warning at startup of mixbus session. I'm using fedora 24. I've tried setting limits.conf @audio memory unllimited - logged out - still get warning. I've download rt-permissions from planet ccrma and continue to get warning as well. I've added myself to audio group - still doesn't work. I've removed myself from audio group and created realtime group. All options I've come across so far have done nothing to alleviate memory lock message. The command sudo -i ulimit unlimited does not change memory lock for me as user - remains at 64 when doing ulimit -l. Still get the mixbus message at startup. Any ideas?

Make sure the file /etc/security/limits.conf contains these two lines:

@realtime - rtprio 99
@realtime - memlock unlimited

Now, I also have a /etc/security/limits.d directory that contains a file called 95-jack.conf. It contains these lines:

# Default limits for users of jack-audio-connection-kit

@jackuser - rtprio 70
@jackuser - memlock unlimited

@pulse-rt - rtprio 20
@pulse-rt - nice -20

I am also member of both groups, realtime and jackuser. I am not sure which file my Fedora 23 system is actually using, but you might check and see if your matches this.

You might also check this link:
http://www.jackaudio.org/faq/linux_rt_config.html

[sriddle]

Hello,

I keep getting the ulimit warning at startup of mixbus session. I'm using fedora 24. I've tried setting limits.conf @audio memory unllimited - logged out - still get warning. I've download rt-permissions from planet ccrma and continue to get warning as well. I've added myself to audio group - still doesn't work. I've removed myself from audio group and created realtime group. All options I've come across so far have done nothing to alleviate memory lock message. The command sudo -i ulimit unlimited does not change memory lock for me as user - remains at 64 when doing ulimit -l. Still get the mixbus message at startup. Any ideas?

Make sure the file /etc/security/limits.conf contains these two lines:

@realtime - rtprio 99
@realtime - memlock unlimited

Now, I also have a /etc/security/limits.d directory that contains a file called 95-jack.conf. It contains these lines:

# Default limits for users of jack-audio-connection-kit

@jackuser - rtprio 70
@jackuser - memlock unlimited

@pulse-rt - rtprio 20
@pulse-rt - nice -20

I am also member of both groups, realtime and jackuser. I am not sure which file my Fedora 23 system is actually using, but you might check and see if your matches this.

You might also check this link:
http://www.jackaudio.org/faq/linux_rt_config.html

Thanks for the info/suggestions. I do have a 99-realtime.conf and the 95-jack.conf. As well I am in both jackuser and realtime groups. I also put an @audio line in limits.conf. Do you think that is necessary?

I no longer get the memory lock message at session startup but I'm continuing to get a lot of xruns. Still trying to limit those. I have F/P at 256 and P/B at 3, so I don't feel these are pushing it givin I have 12gb ram, quad core i5.

[Qualitymix]

Xruns are less a results of raw machine power (although that's still majorly important) and are often due to limitations found in whatever hardware I/O interface you're using.
Trying to get 'realtime' on a USB2.0 interface will almost assuredly result in xruns.
I, for instance, have a tower that is plenty powerful, but my main limiting factor in terms of round trip latency is the fact that I'm using a Mackie Onyx board with the Firewire option. Sure, firewire is great, but the module used in this board is rather old, and therefore restricts my latency.
So, my hardware is my bottleneck, not my system.

Before messing with any more system optimization, I would check and make sure that your interface is properly configured.
Also, make sure you're using at least a lowlatency kernel. Attempting real time audio on a kernel that doesn't understand this as a priority results in xruns, as it is simply deferring your audio requests and placing other things in front of the processing queue.

[sriddle]

Yeah, I do want to avoid making every suggested system tweak I happen to come across on the internet. I use fedora, so I've been trying to install the plant-ccrma realtime kernel, but when I try to boot, I get a double memory(?) message then system lock up. I had been able to use the realtime kernel a few years ago on a different system, but this particular kernel is not working, so I have to use the standard kernel provided by Fedora.

Thanks for the reply.

[sriddle]

For what it's worth, in case others have similar experience: The message I was getting when trying to boot planetccrma-rt-kernel on Fedora 24 was = double free at 0x616f5760.
I didn't think about secure boot, which I had enabled, so that was preventing the booting of that particular kernel. I disabled secure boot and now can boot rt-kernel, which has reduced xruns to almost none. A few occur, but it is more than tolerable. Also, from planetccrma site, I read that the rt-permissions file I had is not needed with Fedora versions 17 or greater. I've ketp the 99-realtime.conf file in /etc/security/limits.d in case it is needed. As of now, my setup seems to be reasonably and more than adequately capable of handling mixbus with a focusrite 2i2 usb interface (2nd gen).

[PBuryk]

For what it's worth, in case others have similar experience: The message I was getting when trying to boot planetccrma-rt-kernel on Fedora 24 was = double free at 0x616f5760.
I didn't think about secure boot, which I had enabled, so that was preventing the booting of that particular kernel. I disabled secure boot and now can boot rt-kernel, which has reduced xruns to almost none. A few occur, but it is more than tolerable. Also, from planetccrma site, I read that the rt-permissions file I had is not needed with Fedora versions 17 or greater. I've ketp the 99-realtime.conf file in /etc/security/limits.d in case it is needed. As of now, my setup seems to be reasonably and more than adequately capable of handling mixbus with a focusrite 2i2 usb interface (2nd gen).

Just to offer a different perspective...
I'm running AVL64 2016.8.30 and Mixbus 3.6
I encountered a mem lock condition once so far, but that was after I had to crash
my mixbus session (for a non-mixbus related issue). When I tried to restart mixbus
I received that error. I rebooted my machine and have not seen it since (having run
about 8 error free mixbus session since then).

Cheers!

Patrick

[micksedan]

Hello,

I keep getting the ulimit warning at startup of mixbus session. I'm using fedora 24. I've tried setting limits.conf @audio memory unllimited - logged out - still get warning. I've download rt-permissions from planet ccrma and continue to get warning as well. I've added myself to audio group - still doesn't work. I've removed myself from audio group and created realtime group. All options I've come across so far have done nothing to alleviate memory lock message. The command sudo -i ulimit unlimited does not change memory lock for me as user - remains at 64 when doing ulimit -l. Still get the mixbus message at startup. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Scott

Hi, I think you should add yourself back in to the audio group,
and set all your root-level audio priorities at the same number,
preferably 99, and set your user-level audio priority at 89,
the user maximum, which can be done in the qjackctl setup panel,
or by editing the /home/you/.jackdrc textfile (which qjackctl generates)

The 99 and 89 help insure audio i/o doesn't get interrupted by a
fiery fox, or other rogue creature.

x-runs often occur in machines infested with internet, bluetooth, and networking
utilities constantly snooping for signs of life. Sometimes xruns come from a cpu
being run at lowest speed, to save an imaginary polar bear, and sometimes
power-management utilities are tampering with the fans too much,
and fans don't care much about music. Turning off any non-audio hardware
in your bios is a good start. Even webcams can cause trouble.
Run the htop or similar live system monitor, and you
might discover a villain or two that can be reconfigured. HAL could
be polling your dvd every 2 seconds, if you're as lucky as I am...
Cheers

also, does fedora still impose SE Linux as default? I had to disable that
to run Bitwig happily in Fedora 20, awhile back.

[billparcells]

Hey my xruns were fixed in fedora and centos by running the performance governor.

Let me know if you need help with this. I see my DSP load average drop by 20 percent or more compared to default on demand governor. Stay fast little man.