Re: [fluid-dev] Problem in fluidsynth (Ubuntu 11.10) still in Ubuntu 12.04

[David Henningsson]

On 05/23/2012 04:56 AM, Aere Greenway wrote:
> David:
>
> I read the link on the SRU process, but am unsure of how to proceed with
> it, or whether I am even able to do so, not being a developer.

Anyone has permissions to do the first part of the SRU process. The 
second part (patch review and final upload) has to be done by a member 
of the SRU team.

http://www.ubuntu.com/community has some initial links to how to get in 
touch with people who hopefully have more time to help you out than I 
currently do.

> I presume it hasn't been tested in the current Ubuntu 12.04 development
> release, and I am not in a position to post the fix for testing.

The development release is now 12.10, as 12.04 has been released.

> I did verify that the PPA fix you made available for the Ubuntu 11.10
> release fixes the problem when installed in 12.04. I did this by
> changing the version designation of your PPA fix to the following:
>
> libfluidsynth1_1.1.5-3ubuntu1~diwicppa_i386.deb
>
> (it was formerly libfluidsynth1_1.1.5-1ubuntu1~diwicppa_i386.deb)
>
> I re-built that modified-version-# Debian package, and was able to
> install it in 12.04 using gdebi.
>
> After doing so, I tested it in four of the machines in my test-bed -
> especially the low-speed / low-memory machines (where the problem is
> brutally apparent), and the fix worked.

Sounds like a good start to me.

> Here is my description of the problem, to the extent of my understanding
> of it:
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> When you play a MIDI file (using Qsynth) which has a lot of parts -
> especially piano parts (which have many simultaneous notes, and use the
> sustain pedal a lot), Qsynth gets into a bad state where new notes are
> either not played, or play for less than a half-second (and go silent).
>
> This is especially apparent on low speed machines, where it is necessary
> to limit Qsynth's polyphony parameter to 64 or 48 to avoid unnecessary
> processor overhead.
>
> Once Qsynth gets into this bad state, it will fail to play (with
> reasonable quality) even simple MIDI files. The only way to get it out
> of the 'bad state' is to restart the Qsynth 'engine' (or Qsynth itself).
>
> The Qsynth (FluidSynth) developers posted a fix for this problem (in a
> PPA) for Ubuntu 11.10 (where the problem was first observed), and it
> fixed the problem in Ubuntu 11.10.
>
> I have re-packaged that PPA version of libfluidsynth1, changing its
> version number so it can be installed in Ubuntu 12.04, and have tested
> it successfully in that (current LTS) release.
>
> The fix, posted as a PPA, was actually their main (trunk) version of
> libfluidsynth1 (at the time of the bug's discovery - they had already
> noticed the problem, and fixed it). For some reason, the new version of
> libfluidsynth1 was not committed for release into Ubuntu 12.04, so the
> bug in release 11.10 remains in 12.04.

And the "some reason" is that nobody took the time to do so, and we (as 
FluidSynth upstream) didn't make a bug fix release either. Perhaps we 
should do that some time soon...so that the fixes will go into 12.10 at 
least...

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> David, I have modified my automated install process for my MIDI training
> courseware to install my re-packaging of your PPA fix. This gets me
> beyond the obvious problem for users trying to use the courseware, and
> when a new version of Qsynth (FluidSynth) is actually released, it
> should replace my re-packaged PPA (because of a higher version
> designation).
>
> I am hoping that somehow this fix can be put into 12.04, which is
> supposed to be supported for 3 years (a very long time).

Actually, it's 5 years.

> I tried to create a bug report on it in Ubuntu 12.04, but have not found
> a way to do it, since nothing crashes.

The terminal command "ubuntu-bug fluidsynth" can be used to report a 
bug, or you can use the link "report a bug" from the 
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/fluidsynth page.

> If I can help by creating such a bug report, please let me know how to
> go about doing it, and I will do so.
>
> P.S. - Dr. Leo (also on the e-mail list) tried playing a standard MIDI
> file of one of the sequences demonstrating the problem (on fluidsynth he
> built on Windows), and it actually crashed. This makes me wonder if the
> latest (or a later) version still fixes the problem, or if some new
> problem has reared its ugly head. I would be happy to send you the MIDI
> file for your testing pleasure.
>
>
> Sincerely,
> Aere
>
> On Wed, 2012-05-02 at 15:47 +0200, David Henningsson wrote:
> > On 04/28/2012 06:40 AM, Aere Greenway wrote:
> > >  All:
> > >
> > >  Months ago, I discovered a problem with fluidsynth where voices for new
> > >  notes would fail to play because (my guess) older notes which had faded
> > >  to inaudible status were still playing.
> > >
> > >  I worked with David Henningson on this problem, and he made a fix for it
> > >  available (in a PPA).
> > >
> > >  This fixed the problem in Ubuntu 11.10, and I assumed it would be fixed
> > >  in the next release of Ubuntu (12.04).
> > >
> > >  Unfortunately, the problem (or a similar, new problem) is in the version
> > >  of fluidsynth in Ubuntu 12.04.
> >
> > The bug is still present in Ubuntu 12.04.
> >
> > This mainly due to lack of time/priority/thought from my part.
> >
> > There has not been a release of FluidSynth lately, so there is no
> > upstream release that could have flown the"natural"  way through Debian
> > to Ubuntu.
> >
> > And, nobody has tried to backport the actual commit (as a bug fix) to
> > Debian or Ubuntu.
> >
> > For Ubuntu 12.04, this fix should be SRUable, if somebody just sits down
> > and does the paperwork:https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates
> >
> > I guess we could also release a version 1.1.6 of FluidSynth with the
> > current tree in it, if we like.
> >
> > // David
>
> --
>
> Sincerely,
> Aere