audio issues when not using Unity

[JCare2]

Has anyone experienced audio issues when not using Unity? I tried both Gnome3 desktop, gnome session, and i3. All of them have the same issue - audio plays for about 1-2 seconds, and pauses / hangs. If you then do something that will cause the CPU to spike up from idle (drag your browser around, start a process, etc) - the audio will pick up from where it hung - and play until the system goes idle again. ('$ aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav')

I don't have an official Ubuntu/Linux stick to try this on, as I purchased a couple Windows based version (STCK1A32WFC) due to needing more memory. I installed the official Ubuntu 14.04 image, and used Ian Morrison's linuxium-z3735f-patch.sh. I have tested against three different compute sticks with the same results.

I did notice that audio works in the standalone Kodi shell*. The anomaly I ran into here was that if you change the resolution - audio will stop working. I had to logout -> login to Unity -> launch 'unity-control-center' and click the audio 'test speaker' a couple times before audio started to work again. Once it had, I was able to switch back over to the standalone Kodi shell.

Also tried Ubuntu 15.10 last night (was hoping the newer kernel would have some better baytrail support). I was able to get Wifi working (https://github.com/hadess/rtl8723bs hadess/rtl8723bs · GitHub), but no audio.

[BZam]

i've been down that road too and experienced some choppy audio and video playback. i can reproduce this behaviour under ubuntu using different desktop environments. so far i've tried Unity, Unity Flashback with Compiz, LXDE and finally XFCE (package xubuntu-desktop), which gave me the best results in overall usability and memory consumption. as soon as the CPU starts idling, sound and video get very choppy or hang for a second or more. no output in system logs regarding this issue. so yes jpcarey , i can confirm this. i tried some newer kernels too, but the issue still remains.

[JCare2]

bennyzen, just to confirm - you are using the official Ubuntu based Compute Stick (STCK1A8LFC)? If this is the case, I hope Intel will address this issue. It is not very much of a system on a chip, when only half of the system functions.

I'll spend some time trying to figure out how to file an official bug report.

[Ricardo_G_Intel1]

Let me verify if I can find any information about it. You can check http://ubuntuforums.org/index.php Ubuntu Forums.

[BZam]

jpcarey i'm currently using the STCK1A32WFC, since the linux versions are just too limited in point of resources, making it pretty useless for me.

[Ricardo_G_Intel1]

Intel Customer Support is looking into this issue and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

I apologize for the inconvenience you are having with this product and I hope we can provide a solution or at least an explanation for the issue.

[JCare2]

Awesome! I could really use the audio fix - as currently the sticks are unusable without it.

[JCare2]

ricardog_intel any update?

[Ronny_G_Intel]

Hello jpcarey,

I am sorry to hear that you are having trouble with the STCK1A32WFC in combination with Ubuntu, I also work for Intel Customer Support (same as ricardog_intel).

I would recommend that you look into the following Ubuntu* Sound Troubleshooting Guide: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshootingProcedure SoundTroubleshootingProcedure - Community Help Wiki as you are running the Intel Compute Stick outside Intel specifications and fixes, patches and customization that are part of the the original Ubuntu distribution loaded on the STCK1A8LFC may not be present on the Operating System distribution you loaded on the Windows* version. I also encourage some other community members to share their experience.

Regards,