(solved) JRMC Media player high CPU issue in Mint Cinnamon

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LMJ

(solved) JRMC Media player high CPU issue in Mint Cinnamon

Post by LMJ »

Hi, I am new to Linux,have installed Mint Cinnamon 17.2 . I am discovering the problems pulseaudio causes, (unnacceptably high Cpu, limited sound quality )and feel frustrated by the discovery that Cinnamon is so interwoven with it that pulseaudio cannot be safely uninstalled or disabled. Are there any desktop versions of mint in which pulseaudio can be uninstalled, or at least disabled, without causing serious complications?
I love Mint Cinnamon, and have spent hours of many days in the last few weeks setting it up the way I like it, and learning my way around. I hate the idea of quitting now, so I don't ask this question lightly.
A version which comes packaged with compatible applications, just as Mint does, would be best for me.
Would even consider a different distro which doesn't have these pulseaudio issues, and is just as Newbie friendly and well supported.
Thanks
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Re: mint desktop version that functions well without pulseau

Post by Pjotr »

I think your problems might not be related to PulseAudio as such (PulseAudio delivers excellent audio quality on all of my computers, and has a negligible system load on them), but to a driver issue. Please generate an overview of your system like this:
- Launch a terminal window (this is how to launch a terminal window);
- make the terminal window full screen, to avoid chopped lines;
- copy/paste this command into the terminal:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz
(if you type: the letter F is a capital letter)

Press Enter.

Copy/paste the output in your next message.
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Re: mint desktop version that functions well without pulseau

Post by Cosmo. »

2 additional informations are necessary:

1. "unnacceptably high Cpu" of which process?
2. What let you identify PA as the reason for the limited sound quality?
LMJ

Re: mint desktop version that functions well without pulseau

Post by LMJ »

Hi, it has taken me a while to respond ,as I have been learning my mistakes.
I found how to get a clearer more itemised readout on cpu usage than the way I had been checking before. Pulseaudio comes up as 2%. In the previous view of cpu usage, I had been misunderstanding the line that said Pulseaudio Very High as relating to actual cpu usage rather than priority. The culprit is actually the media player itself, which uses 50% cpu without even playing anything, so it will have to go. It is the linux (Debian, Ubuntu) version of my favourite windows media player, where it is much better behaved.
Below is the readout from the terminal command Pjotr suggested. If you are still willing to check them, and show me how I can know if they are up to date, that would still be helpful, thank you
~ $ inxi -Fxz
System: Host: connexion Kernel: 3.16.0-38-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.2)
Desktop: Cinnamon 2.6.13 Distro: Linux Mint 17.2 Rafaela
Machine: System: ASUSTeK product: 1215B version: x.x
Mobo: ASUSTeK model: 1215B version: x.xx Bios: American Megatrends version: 0401 date: 06/17/2011
CPU: Dual core AMD E-350 (-MCP-) cache: 1024 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 6399.64
Clock Speeds: 1: 1280.00 MHz 2: 800.00 MHz
Graphics: Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Wrestler [Radeon HD 6310] bus-ID: 00:01.0
X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1920x1080@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD PALM GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.1.3 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Wrestler HDMI Audio driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:01.1
Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:14.2
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.16.0-38-generic
Network: Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR8152 v2.0 Fast Ethernet driver: atl1c ver: 1.0.1.1-NAPI port: e000 bus-ID: 02:00.0
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Card-2: Broadcom BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter driver: bcma-pci-bridge bus-ID: 01:00.0
IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 628.1GB (30.5% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: ST9500325AS size: 500.1GB
2: USB id: /dev/sdb model: ExtremePro size: 128.0GB
Partition: ID: / size: 28G used: 5.6G (22%) fs: ext4 ID: /home size: 82G used: 1.4G (2%) fs: ext4
ID: swap-1 size: 9.20GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
RAID: No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 72.8C mobo: N/A gpu: 73.0
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 170 Uptime: 5 min Memory: 685.1/3555.9MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4
Client: Shell (bash 4.3.11) inxi: 1.9.17
~ $
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Re: mint desktop version that functions well without pulseau

Post by phd21 »

Hi LMJ,

I just read your post and the good replies to it.

What media player were you using? There are numerous really great Linux Media players and music players.
Phd21: Mint 20 Cinnamon & xKDE (Mint Xfce + Kubuntu KDE) & KDE Neon 64-bit (new based on Ubuntu 20.04) Awesome OS's, Dell Inspiron I5 7000 (7573) 2 in 1 touch screen, Dell OptiPlex 780 Core2Duo E8400 3GHz,4gb Ram, Intel 4 Graphics.
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Re: mint desktop version that functions well without pulseau

Post by Pjotr »

This should help: from the menu, launch Driver Manager. Does it offer you an fglrx driver for your video card? If so, install it and reboot.

Secondly, just like phd21, I'm curious what your media player is.
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LMJ

Re: mint desktop version that functions well without pulseau

Post by LMJ »

Hi pjotr, I followed your instructions.
driver manager.png
Didn't get time to test results of update till I booted up later. Error msg in top right of screen -
post amd install.png
I cannot now change between laptop monitor and external monitor.
When I installed update, AMD Catalyst control centre icon appeared in Mint menu. I clicked on this, got error msg
catalyst error.png
As a precaution, went back to driver manager and installed AMD driver listed. But no luck.

Maybe I messed it up by installing update before trying to install driver. Mint Cinnamon is so good at installing the drivers, I assumed it was listed as one that was already present, not one that needed to be added.
I previously noticed that xorg also ran high cpu when media center was open, so I selected this to install as well.

Cpu is definitely much higher now during general use than it was before, just as warning states.
Can I undo all updates and re-install one by one, so it can be clearer what is going on? How do I do that? Or is there a better way?
Thanks
LMJ

Re: mint desktop version that functions well without pulseau

Post by LMJ »

Hi, an update to my reply yesterday about error messages after update. I didn't know how to deal with it, and shut down again. Booted up today, and hey presto! AMD has sorted itself out. That has happened to me before with Mint. I have noticed that 'restart' after a change sometimes doesn't do what it was supposed to, so have got in the habit of shutting down, leaving it for a while, and booting up again. Yesterday, I still got errors msgs after doing that, but today it's worked itself out.
Regarding the media player, it's now running at between 50-65% when playing music or video, which is higher than it uses in Windows, but it's ok, and i am glad I can keep it on Mint. Thank you!
I have tried Banshee, Guayadeque, and XBMC/Kodi. They all have their plus points, it just happens that JRiver Media Center meets all my whims and preferences, and has the most configurable DSP for the best sound I have heard on any Media player anywhere. Music above a certain range distorts when played in the Linux media players I have tried, even though I have followed the advices for optimising sound in pulseaudio, soundcard, and the players themselves.
Thank you for your help :D
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Re: mint desktop version that functions well without pulseau

Post by phd21 »

Hi LMJ,

1.) Well, glad it is working now for you. It is sometimes beneficial when having issues, to restart your computer and select "Linux Mint Recovery Mode", then after it completes booting up in recovery mode, fix anything you need to, and or just restart the computer in the normal way.

2.) There are numerous excellent Linux music players and managers that will run better on your system rather than running a non-Linux application through wine, etc.. For example: Amarok, Exhaile, Clementine, Rhythmbox, Audacious, Yarock, Tomahawk, etc... some have their own built-in equalizers, if you want to use them. There is also a great program called "Veromix" for enhancing your sound, including increasing volume above 100%, in the Software Manager or Synaptic Package Manager (SPM).

Get incredible control over volume & sound with Veromix
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... t=+veromix

I absolutely love the Amarok music player and music manager and I do not think it is a resource "hog". But, you can and should try these other Linux music players, when you find one or more that you like, remove the ones you do not like.

Audacious 3.7 beta 1 was released recently (lots of new features), this is a fast, lightweight audio player that's focused on high audio quality and low system resource usage. You can install 3.7 Beta or 3.6 Stable using instructions below.
http://www.webupd8.org/2015/10/audaciou ... .html#more

To install "Audacious 3.7 beta" (lots of new features) using the PPA method, open a console terminal, type in, or copy & paste, each line below one by one: (Note: personally, I would disable this "unstable" PPA after installation, or use the 3.6 stable veresion below)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/unstable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install audacious

or install "Audacious version 3.6 Stable", using the command below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install audacious


Hope this helps ...
Last edited by phd21 on Fri Nov 06, 2015 2:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Phd21: Mint 20 Cinnamon & xKDE (Mint Xfce + Kubuntu KDE) & KDE Neon 64-bit (new based on Ubuntu 20.04) Awesome OS's, Dell Inspiron I5 7000 (7573) 2 in 1 touch screen, Dell OptiPlex 780 Core2Duo E8400 3GHz,4gb Ram, Intel 4 Graphics.
LMJ

Re: mint desktop version that functions well without pulseau

Post by LMJ »

Thanks phd21, I did try a few of the ones available in the software manager but am still enamoured of JRMC and I am glad it's working ok now. I will check out Veromix for sure, as it may fix the sound quality issues in the Linux ones I like, for when I just want to play music while I am doing something on the computer.JRiver Media Center doesn't need any help in that way.
I won't rave on about what's so good about JRMC for me, because it's all down to personal preference. I'm actually using the Linux version which had been built on Debian Wheezy/Jessie and had been tested on Ubuntu and Mint Cinnamon, I am avoiding anything that needs to be run on Wine.
Thanks to you and Pjotr :D
P.s. after updating graphics and xorg drivers reduced cpu, I discovered that the media player was running auto import and audio analysis in the background without my knowing, when I de-selected this cpu usage dropped further.
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Re: mint desktop version that functions well without pulseau

Post by phd21 »

Hi LMJ,

You are welcome.

Surprisingly, I have never heard of this "JRiver Media Center" (JRMC) until you brought it up. It looks good, and it works with Mint, although it looks like you have to pay for it; not that there is anything wrong with paying for something that you like, and that you use. There are some other really nice free total media centers available, like Kodi (xbmc). There are numerous really great multimedia players that are "light" on system resources, like VLC, SMplayer, MPV, Kaffeine, Miro, etc.. which have playlist abilities, play music and or video, and online streaming as well. For people coming from the MS Windows world that have paid subscriptions to "Real Player streaming websites" world wide, you can install a Linux version of Real Player as well for those.

As for Linux music players and music managers, there are so many good to excellent ones available, and new ones still popping up, that it is difficult to keep up with all of them. I try to review as many of them as possible, because I love music, and to help out the people in this forum. What I have found out, no offense intended to the developers, is that some of them are not complete, or not refined well - yet, or have hard to use interfaces, or are very basic (nothing wrong with that), some look like they are "text" based (dull). Fortunately, because I use Linux Mint KDE I can install and review them, to test them, and then report my findings, regardless whether they are for Linux Mint Cinnamon, Mate, or Xfce, or another Linux.

My favorite is still Amarok because It is a complete "mature" and refined music player and music manager where I can easily play any music on my system (or attached to it) in numerous ways, create various playlists or import and export them, convert music files from one format to another, easily rip music cd's in a music file format I want, incredibly easy internet (radio) streaming from sites world wide, updating of portable devices, a really nice user interface that automatically changes with my desktop theme, and has automatic song track background information, cover art, updates music file "tags", nice scrolling lyrics (& the easy ability to edit and add lyrics), built-in equalizer (I don't really need or use it), add on functionality through plug-ins and scripts, various independent languages support (I use an English desktop, but for example I can have just Amarok in French, Danish, or Spanish, etc...), and more, etc... Because Amarok is a very complete music manager and player, It may take a little time to get used to its user interface, and all that it can do, but it is so well worth doing, if you really love music. Anyone should easily be able to start listening to their music right away in Amarok, just click the little home folder button in the upper left for your options, and you can use your file manager, or Amarok's built-in file manager ("Files"), to just right click a music file, and open and play them in Amarok.

But as I said before, there are a lot of other really good Linux music players that are also worth installing and trying, to see which one(s) you like the most. I have more than one installed. Here are some other ones, like Clementine, Audacious, Exaile, Rhythmbox, Banshee, etc...

Here is a link to a "discussion" on the "Best Music player", I also provide a basic tutorial for Amarok in my replies.
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=203520

There is a relatively new one called "Tomahawk" that I like with a clean, easy to use, nice user interface that has social networking built-in, if you are into that, where you can share music with your friends, and visa-versa.

I have really come to like this "Yarock" music player recently. It also has a clean, easy to use, very nice user interface with many options, including local radio stations. You can just experiment by clicking various things. You can go forwards and backwards, like a browser. And, you can just right click various things to add to your favorites for quick access. It may not have everything that Amarok has, nor can it do everything that Amarok can (most music player's don't), but it is very nice.

Qt Music Player `Yarock` 1.1.3 Released, Available In PPA
http://www.webupd8.org/2015/08/qt-music ... eased.html


Hope this helps ...

FYI: Some really great software applications and utilities are made for the KDE desktop, but they will run well on other editions and versions of Linux Mint, if you install a few files, see below.

If you are not using the KDE desktop, then install these programs below in the quote box in blue.
If you're experiencing issues with KDE apps (like Okular, Gwenview, KStars, kdenlive, ..etc) run the following command from your console terminal prompt: (you can copy & paste it too)
Depending on your setup, you might also need to install "KDE-runtime" as well.
sudo apt-get install kdelibs-bin kdelibs5-data kdelibs5-plugins
Last edited by phd21 on Fri Nov 06, 2015 6:11 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Phd21: Mint 20 Cinnamon & xKDE (Mint Xfce + Kubuntu KDE) & KDE Neon 64-bit (new based on Ubuntu 20.04) Awesome OS's, Dell Inspiron I5 7000 (7573) 2 in 1 touch screen, Dell OptiPlex 780 Core2Duo E8400 3GHz,4gb Ram, Intel 4 Graphics.
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Re: (solved) JRMC Media player high CPU issue in Mint Cinnam

Post by phd21 »

Hi LMJ,

I updated my last post, let me know what you think...
Phd21: Mint 20 Cinnamon & xKDE (Mint Xfce + Kubuntu KDE) & KDE Neon 64-bit (new based on Ubuntu 20.04) Awesome OS's, Dell Inspiron I5 7000 (7573) 2 in 1 touch screen, Dell OptiPlex 780 Core2Duo E8400 3GHz,4gb Ram, Intel 4 Graphics.
LMJ

Re: (solved) JRMC Media player high CPU issue in Mint Cinnam

Post by LMJ »

Hi phd21, :D) Thank you for all your enthusiasm! I appreciate you trying to steer me to some of the best free media players available on linux - I would probably do the same :D . Personally, I think that people who believe the only way to get something worthwhile is to pay $$ are wasting money, and missing out.
I did install a few Linux Media players, including Kodi,and set them up the best way possible for me with each one, and tried them out for a while. I live on a very small income, and believe me, if any of those players could have stepped into JRiver's place for me I would have been very happy. Although the Linux version hasn't been up and running for long, and HQ video playback is still missing in MC20 for Linux, this is on it's way. (numbers equate with windows editions, they are really only up to version 2.1 for Linux), the media, library, playlist options, the visual options for displaying albums are way more to my liking than any of the others, and the sound quality is also a fast track to sound heaven for me (I probably said that before :) ) The Linux media players came close at times, but couldn't match it. That's why I am not following your lead right now. Except for Tomahawk, which I hadn't realised was available in the software manager.
Do you have any idea why it has no sound, when none of the other media players have a problem? Any idea why the only review in software manager suggested installing phonon-backend-vlc then removing phonon-backend-gstreamer would makeTomahawk better? But how do I find out if any installed applications use phonon-backend-gstreamer? Or phonon-backend-gstreamer-common, which is also installed with Tomahawk.Thank you :D LMJ
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Re: (solved) JRMC Media player high CPU issue in Mint Cinnam

Post by phd21 »

Hi lmj,
Do you have any idea why Tomahawk has no sound, when none of the other media players have a problem? Any idea why the only review in software manager suggested installing phonon-backend-vlc then removing phonon-backend-gstreamer would makeTomahawk better? But how do I find out if any installed applications use phonon-backend-gstreamer? Or phonon-backend-gstreamer-common, which is also installed with Tomahawk.Thank you :D LMJ
You are welcome.

1. If you go into the Synaptic Package Manager (SPM), and try to remove anything, like "phonon-backend-gstreamer", it will tell you what else it would remove and you can cancel or continue. I would not remove it, just install "phonon-backend-vlc". You can have both audio phonon "backends" installed and choose which one is your primary one; the one that has priority. On my system, if I right click the volume icon, select audio setup, there are various phonon options, including choosing a "backend", see screen shot below. I am using "gstreamer". I would try installing the updated Tomahawk using the PPA below first, before messing around with your audio setup. Don't forget to logout, or restart, before bringing up Tomahawk.

2. I installed Tomahawk using their PPA, so that I would have their most current version.
Install Latest Tomahawk Social Player, March 2015
http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/201 ... ntu-15-04/

To install this using the PPA method, open a console terminal, type in, or copy & paste, each line below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tomahawk/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tomahawk tomahawk-dbg



There is no sound at all in Tomahawk Player ! how do I configure audio output !
http://forums.netrunner-os.com/showthread.php?tid=1101

3.) A Note of Caution: There were a couple times when I read instructions from various places on removing something, or installing something, and I did not pay attention when a message popped up and said that it was going to remove a lot of programs that I did not want removed, and then I had to reverse that and re-install a lot of stuff. Now I pay closer attention.

Hope this helps ...
Audio_backend.jpg
Phd21: Mint 20 Cinnamon & xKDE (Mint Xfce + Kubuntu KDE) & KDE Neon 64-bit (new based on Ubuntu 20.04) Awesome OS's, Dell Inspiron I5 7000 (7573) 2 in 1 touch screen, Dell OptiPlex 780 Core2Duo E8400 3GHz,4gb Ram, Intel 4 Graphics.
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