[Alsa-user] random hang when using latest snd-oxygen driver

[Peter A. F. <paf...@oc...>]

I have a bGears b-Enspirer card supported by the snd-oxygen driver of  
the latest ALSA release. Things work fine for a short time then the  
machine hangs and I am forced to reboot. This is a Debian 4 system.  
The build procedure I used was:

1. Build custom kernel from the 2.6.18 sources, with ALSA enabled as  
a module.
2. Build latest version of alsa driver against this kernel, as well  
as libs and utils.
3. Removed modules installed by Debian package of custom kernel and  
installed new driver modules.
4. Depmod and module config changes specified on ALSA site.

Usually the system hangs when adjusting the volume or skipping tracks  
in Rhythmbox or Amarok. For some reason the system hangs more quickly  
when using Rhythmbox. The interval between startup and system hang  
seems completely random, anywhere from a minute or two to a half hour.

System is a quad core Xeon with 8 gigs of ram.

Kernel debugging is something I am new to, so I am looking for  
suggestions on ways to debug the problem myself, and determine  
whether it's a driver issue or perhaps a hardware problem.

The system does not hang in normal operation with the sound drivers  
disabled.

Thanks in advance,

Peter