[Freeswitch-users] centos 5.4 timer issue 1000hz, choppy voice at times

Peter Olsson peter.olsson at visionutveckling.se
Tue May 18 09:24:59 PDT 2010


Anthony,

Just so you didn't get me wrong (feels like I got stuck in the middle here...). I Just wanted to point out that I do have the same "problem" as Wasim. I'm well aware I'm running this on old hardware, I just use it for lab purposes, so it really doesn't matter. I don't have any audio problems, since I just use it for 1-2 silutaneous calls. But I do get the warning when I start up FS, the same on both CentOS 5.4 and 5.5 (didn't try 5.3 on this box, I started with 5.4 and upgraded yesterday), so I just wanted to try helping out if anyone needed a 5.5 box to try on.

I'm running "production" (only for internal use, but still) servers on both CentOS 5.3 and Windows 2003, which work perfectly fine (no timer gap warnings) - but they have good hardware though :)

Regards,
Peter

Från: freeswitch-users-bounces at lists.freeswitch.org [mailto:freeswitch-users-bounces at lists.freeswitch.org] För Anthony Minessale
Skickat: den 18 maj 2010 17:35
Till: freeswitch-users at lists.freeswitch.org
Ämne: Re: [Freeswitch-users] centos 5.4 timer issue 1000hz, choppy voice at times

Please heed as this is our official policy.

There is not an issue with CentOS 5.3.
In fact CentOS 5.3 is the preferred platform (not 5.4 or 5.5 until we do proper testing and QA).

What you are describing is the result of poor hardware, (most likely the motherboard)

FreeSWITCH is Free, your box is not, use the money you save not buying FreeSWITCH to buy a decent box.  Even a $500 box can work perfectly fine.  Its not my intent to cater to inferior hardware when my goal is to push telephony into the future not get caught up in legacy drama with older boxes.

If you have altered the kernel to run at something besides 1000hz, change it back to the default of 1000hz.   If you get the error instantly it means the kernel is actually configured at the wrong freq.
If the test runs for a long time and concludes it, it most likely means the box is not good enough to run FS.

If you are not careful you may have installed the xen build of the kernel (check with uname -a)
This can also cause timing issues.

If you see that timing gap warning (especially on centos if you have it set to 1000hz) it means the motherboard cannot give the OS a good enough timing source to provide 1ms resolution which is mandatory and not very demanding.

I have been on dozens of perfectly happy boxes running CentOS 5.3 and I have been on a small handful of boxes that do what you describe and have seen that, once they are where they belong, (in the trash) the new inexpensive replacement does just fine.


On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 2:58 AM, Peter Olsson <peter.olsson at visionutveckling.se<mailto:peter.olsson at visionutveckling.se>> wrote:
I also have this behaviour (timer gap around 2000). Upgraded yesterday to CentOS 5.5 (from 5.4), but the issue still remains. The system is just used for lab purposes, so I could easily fix SSH access if someone wanted to have a closer look.

I should also add - this is a 3-4 year old machine (workstation), but it seems this problem is related to newer CentOS-kernels, so I guess it shouldn't be the issue here.

/Peter

Från: freeswitch-users-bounces at lists.freeswitch.org<mailto:freeswitch-users-bounces at lists.freeswitch.org> [mailto:freeswitch-users-bounces at lists.freeswitch.org<mailto:freeswitch-users-bounces at lists.freeswitch.org>] För Wasim Baig
Skickat: den 18 maj 2010 06:20
Till: FreeSWITCH Users
Ämne: [Freeswitch-users] centos 5.4 timer issue 1000hz, choppy voice at times

I know its been discussed previously on list, but has there been any progress to the timer issue on centos 5.4 32 bit

Linux pum2 2.6.18-164.el5 #1 SMP Thu Sep 3 03:33:56 EDT 2009 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

[root at pum2 ~]# grep 1000 /boot/config-2.6.18-164.el5
CONFIG_HZ_1000=y
CONFIG_HZ=1000

i used a basic timer testing utility to confirm what we're actually getting

[root at pum2 ~]# ./timerchk
kernel timer interrupt frequency is approx. 1002 Hz

however, fs complains ...

2010-05-18 06:17:24.711360 [CONSOLE] switch_time.c:1032 Calibrating timer, please wait...
2010-05-18 06:17:24.861063 [CONSOLE] switch_time.c:223 Test: 1000 Average: 2992 Step: 50
2010-05-18 06:17:24.861097 [WARNING] switch_time.c:227 Abnormally large timer gap 1992 detected!
Do you have your kernel timer frequency set to lower than 1,000Hz? You may experience audio problems.

any recommendations, other than drop to 5.3? which is not doable as the box is a 5k km away ...

--
wasim h. baig | principal consultant | convergence pk | +92 30 0850 8070 | peace be upon you ...

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Anthony Minessale II

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