[Problem]: The audio is constantly breaking as if someone is pausing and playing it again and again it plays okay for a second and then starts to lag

[ThunderBirrddd]

What happened?

Hey,
I am flabbergasted by the way Shairport-sync works, flawless airplay2 ah love it.

Just took me some time to get it set up because I had to route my audio to a Bluetooth device which was a big hassle but got it working, now the issue I am facing is:

The audio is constantly breaking as if someone is pausing and playing it again and again it plays okay for a second and then starts to lag like this,
I have a video attached below . Let me know if it makes sense.

Pretty sure the issue lies somewhere In the audio server or shairport-sync as I've tried running normal audio through GUI and it plays perfectly fine on the speaker.

Let me know if you require anything to troubleshoot.
Also, I am a literal beginner to Linux and have very little knowledge,
Any help will be appreciated
I am running ubuntu on a core 2 duo, 3gb ram machine.

IMG_2835.MOV

Relevant log output

No response

System Information.

Ubuntu running on Intel core2duo and 3gb RAM

Configuration Information.

warning: The "general" "log_verbosity" setting is deprecated. Please use the "diagnostics" "log_verbosity" setting instead.
         0.022871189 "shairport.c:2129" >> Display Config Start.
         0.017718900 "shairport.c:2129" 
         0.000049173 "shairport.c:2129" From "uname -a":
         0.000016613 "shairport.c:2129"  Linux Bhaviks-linux 6.8.0-44-generic #44-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Tue Aug 13 13:35:26 UTC 2024 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
         0.022122429 "shairport.c:2129" 
         0.000046778 "shairport.c:2129" From /etc/os-release:
         0.000006353 "shairport.c:2129"  Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS
         0.002010790 "shairport.c:2129" 
         0.000017399 "shairport.c:2129" Shairport Sync Version String:
         0.000026252 "shairport.c:2129"  4.3.4-1-g910264e5-AirPlay2-smi10-OpenSSL-Avahi-ALSA-pa-soxr-sysconfdir:/etc
         0.000017522 "shairport.c:2129" 
         0.000020711 "shairport.c:2129" Command Line:
         0.000014876 "shairport.c:2129"  shairport-sync --displayConfig
         0.000025763 "shairport.c:2129" 
         0.000015590 "shairport.c:2129" Configuration File:
         0.000016316 "shairport.c:2129"  /etc/shairport-sync.conf
         0.000012169 "shairport.c:2129" 
         0.000051831 "shairport.c:2129" Configuration File Settings:
         0.000005733 "shairport.c:2129"  general : 
         0.000004132 "shairport.c:2129"  {
         0.000003812 "shairport.c:2129"    name = "Shairport Sync";
         0.000004169 "shairport.c:2129"    log_verbosity = 3;
         0.000003835 "shairport.c:2129"  };
         0.000003748 "shairport.c:2129"  output_backend = "pa";
         0.000003812 "shairport.c:2129"  pa : 
         0.000003748 "shairport.c:2129"  {
         0.000003729 "shairport.c:2129"    application_name = "Shairport Sync";
         0.000003910 "shairport.c:2129"    service_name = "Shairport Sync on %H";
         0.000003992 "shairport.c:2129"    sink = "bluez_output.50_DC_E7_41_A0_C0.1";
         0.000004794 "shairport.c:2129"  };
         0.000003857 "shairport.c:2129"  alsa : 
         0.000003755 "shairport.c:2129"  {
         0.000003816 "shairport.c:2129"    buffer = 8192;
         0.000003741 "shairport.c:2129"    period = 2048;
         0.000003733 "shairport.c:2129"  };
         0.000003733 "shairport.c:2129"  pulse : 
         0.000003703 "shairport.c:2129"  {
         0.000003718 "shairport.c:2129"    buffer = 8192;
         0.000004380 "shairport.c:2129"    period = 2048;
         0.000003849 "shairport.c:2129"  };
         0.000003756 "shairport.c:2129"  buffering : 
         0.000003741 "shairport.c:2129"  {
         0.000003733 "shairport.c:2129"    buffering_mode = "adaptive";
         0.000003943 "shairport.c:2129"    adaptive_buffer_size = 10000;
         0.000003903 "shairport.c:2129"    fixed_buffer_size = 5000;
         0.000003785 "shairport.c:2129"  };
         0.000004365 "shairport.c:2129" 
         0.000003695 "shairport.c:2129" >> Display Config End.
         0.000004143 "shairport.c:2131" >> Goodbye!
         0.000005215 "shairport.c:1582" exit_function begins
         0.000004105 "shairport.c:1592" exit function called...
         0.000003673 "shairport.c:1602" Stopping the activity monitor.
         0.000007507 "shairport.c:1604" Stopping the activity monitor done.
         0.000011760 "mdns.c:137" Can't stop a DACP monitor -- no mdns_dacp_monitor_stop registered.
         0.000005861 "shairport.c:1729" normal exit

PulseAudio or PipeWire installed?

• Check if your system uses a Sound Server.

How did you install Shairport Sync?

Built from source

Check previous issues

• Confirm

[mikebrady]

Thanks for the post. Apologies for the delay — I’m away from devices in recent days. I’ll respond ASAP. Meantime, let me suggest that you look through older issues, including closed ones — there has been a lot of commentary about Bluetooth and Shairport Sync.

[mikebrady]

Apologies again for the delay. It seems possible that this problem is caused by problems with PulseAudio and Bluetooth.

Here are a few points about the configuration.

1. Don’t use a log verbosity of 3, except for a specific purpose. The reason is that all the outputting of diagnostic information in the log can slow everything down and Shairport Sync can easily lose sync. Normally, a log verbosity of 1 is fine.
2. Shairport Sync does not have a pulse or a buffering section in the configuration file, so those settings have no effect. You should remove them.
3. You have selected the PulseAudio backend, so the alsa settings are not used. Again, I suggest that you remove them.

Let me suggest that you run Shairport Sync with a log_verbosity of 1 and with statistics set to ”yes”(both settings are in the diagnostics section of the configuration files.) Then play some music for a minute or so and then post the log here.

[Updated]