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

Tue May 18 12:31:28 PDT 2010

Just so others reading this thread years down the line don't get the wrong
idea, Tony's bark is much worse that his bite, he's really a big softie
underneath, going out of his way, leaving no stone unturned to help folks
out and ensure that any problem is identified quickly and accurately, and a
fix provided pronto, proof being the yummy pudding FS is.

Further comments inline below ...

On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 20:35, Anthony Minessale <
anthony.minessale at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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)
>

If its the motherboard, then it should affect 5.3 as well.  If not, then the
issue is 5.4, and should (hopefully) be more addressable, rather than
chucking out the hardware.
For others with this issue, I'd recommend you drop down to 5.3 and verify
the HW, if it goes away with 5.3, then lets see whats needed to fix it in
5.4/5.5.

fwiw, i'm gonna try it on brand spanking new hpdl180g6 quad core xeon, will
try both 5.3 and 5.4

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.
>

tony, these are the same boxes we did FS on way back when, remember the MGCP
UA mode for * would keep crashing and you said screw it and started writing
up FS instead,  that was ages ago ... at least 5 years back ... so yeh, old
boxes, dell poweredge 1450 ... point taken

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.
>

sometimes it runs for long, sometimes its real fast ...

> 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.
>

stock kernel, 2.6.18-164.el5

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.
>

:) ... 10-4

-wasim

> On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 2:58 AM, Peter Olsson <
> 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] *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 ...
>>
>> !DSPAM:4bf2176432938985444358!
>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> Anthony Minessale II
>
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-- 
wasim h. baig | principal consultant | convergence pk | +92 30 0850 8070 |
peace be upon you ...
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