[PlanetCCRMA] maestro3 looping problem on 2.6 kernels / FC4

[Michael Berkowski]

Greetings All,

After a long time running VectorLinux with a 2.4.29 kernel on my old HP 
laptop and no sound problems at all, I decided to switch to a newer 
kernel and different distribution (Vector's pcmcia was too unreliable). 
  I've since tried Ubuntu Hoary and Breezy, and then installed FC4 for 
better compatibility with my FC/planetccrma desktop system.

All of these distributions on various 2.6.x kernels seem to have 
problems with my ESS Allegro 1988 (maestro3) sound device that 2.4 
kernels never had.  Basically, the problem is that when playing back 
audio from disk, the device will loop ~500ms of the file about 20x 
before moving to the next 500ms of the file.  The correct modules 
(snd-maestro3) are loaded. Samplerate and bitrate have no effect on 
this and any streaming audio works fine. The behaviour is there whether 
I am running OSS or ALSA.  Streaming net radio works without issue, as 
does Pd with either ALSA or Jack.  The problem only occurs with aplay 
or any application reading from disk, such as Hydrogen.

I have read various reports of this problem in FC and Ubuntu all over 
the internet, but none that I have found has offered a solution. 
Someone on the Linux Audio User list thought it might be an IRQ problem 
(the device is using IRQ 5 in 2.6.x and used IRQ7 in 2.4.x).

My questions to all of you are these:
Is anyone running FC4 with the ESS Allegro Maestro 3 sound device?  
Have you encountered the problem I have described?

If maestro3 support is broken on 2.6 kernels, I have no problem rolling 
back to FC1 and 2.4.x, as that's what my desktop runs anyway.

Thanks much for any advice,
Michael Berkowski
http://www.berkowski.net/