Re: [PATCH 0/2] ALSA: aloop: Fix notify mode, add a selftest

[Takashi Iwai]

On Sat, 03 Oct 2026 15:26:10 +0200,
Henrik Enquist via B4 Relay wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> snd-aloop has a notify mode (the pcm_notify module parameter, or the
> "PCM Notify" control per cable) where the playback side may switch
> format, rate and channels while a capture is running. The driver then
> stops the capture and updates the "PCM Slave" controls, so the capture
> application can reopen with the new parameters. alsaloop enables it in
> its slave mode, and I'd like to use it in CamillaDSP, which captures
> from a loopback and needs to follow whatever the player outputs.
> 
> This hasn't worked since 2018. Commit 898dfe4687f4 ("ALSA: aloop: Fix
> racy hw constraints adjustment") moved the hw rules over to the shared
> cable->hw. That fixed a real race, but it also pins the playback side
> to the capture's parameters in notify mode. Pavel reported it on
> alsa-devel in 2020 [1], and Jaroslav reproduced it and pointed at the
> same commit:
> 
>   It seems that 898dfe4687f4 from Takashi broke this functionality
>   (tied the cable parameters more strictly, so the playback cannot set
>   freely own parameters for the pcm_notify=1 case). We need to find
>   another way to detach capture stream in this case.
> 
> The thread ended there, without a patch.
> 
> The breakage is quiet, which probably explains why it lasted. A player
> that probes the playback device sees only the capture's rate and
> format, and resamples to them. aplay prints a warning, most players
> don't. There's no rate change, no stopped capture and no event.
> 
> Patch 1 skips the hw rules for the playback side when notify is on,
> which gives it back the freedom loopback_open() still intends it to
> have. That makes the capture stop in loopback_check_format() reachable
> again. That path was hardened this year by 826af7fa62e3 ("ALSA: aloop:
> Fix racy access at PCM trigger") and e5c33cdc6f40 ("ALSA: aloop: Fix
> peer runtime UAF during format-change stop"), and with those in place
> I'm comfortable turning it back on. They need to go first in any
> stable backport.
> 
> The period bytes rule is skipped as well. It came later, for the sound
> timer source, but without skipping it a playback that switches rate
> keeps the old capture's period size. The stream then runs with a period
> that doesn't match the timer, and every switch fills dmesg with "Period
> size ... not corresponding to timer resolution".
> 
> Patch 2 adds a selftest, so this doesn't break silently again. It
> doesn't need to go to stable, so it can go via for-next if that's
> easier.
> 
> Testing: for-linus at b4e7fc36e31f, arm64 VM, kernel with KASAN,
> lockdep, DEBUG_ATOMIC_SLEEP and DEBUG_LIST, comparing the patched
> driver with the unpatched one built from the same tree. With the
> jiffies, hrtimer and sound timer (via snd-dummy) sources:
> - With notify on, rate, format and channel changes on the playback
>   side now go through, stop the capture and update the controls. With
>   notify off they're refused as before.
> - A capture that reopens at "PCM Slave Rate" after each stop follows a
>   player alternating between 44.1k and 96k files, 20 of 20 switches,
>   with both RW and mmap access. Unpatched: 10 of 20, the playback stays
>   pinned to the capture's rate.
> - A capture opened second is still pinned to the playback.
> - 2 minutes of random open/start/close on both ends per source gave no
>   KASAN or lockdep reports. The sound timer source logs an occasional
>   "snd_timer_stop ... failed with -16", at the same rate unpatched.
> - The new selftest fails 2 of 4 tests unpatched, and passes 4 of 4
>   patched, 50 runs in a row.
> Not tested: real hardware, other architectures, pause/resume, more
> than two substreams.
> 
> One question, following up on Takashi's point in that thread about
> telling user space that a stream got invalidated. After the stop, the
> capture drains and then reads return -EBADFD. alsa-lib now documents
> -ENODATA as meaning the PCM must be completely restarted, which looks
> like the right signal here. Would you want aloop to report that
> instead? I left it out since it changes what user space sees, but I'm
> happy to do it as a follow-up.
> 
> AI disclosure: I used Claude Code (Claude Opus 5.5) for this. Starting
> from my description of the problem and the 2020 thread, it did the
> root cause analysis from the driver source and git history, set up the
> test kernels and VM, wrote the test scripts, ran the measurements, and
> wrote both patches and their changelogs. I reviewed all of it, and both
> patches carry an Assisted-by tag.
> 
> [1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/b4af9071-f8d7-5b47-4d7a-c5743bd67394@xxxxxxxxxxx/
> 
> Henrik
> 
> ---
> Henrik Enquist (2):
>       ALSA: aloop: Don't constrain playback params in notify mode
>       selftests/alsa: Add a test for snd-aloop notify mode

Applied both patches to for-next branch now.  Thanks.


Takashi