T520 ThinPro Sound Issues

[Don-B4]

We are running HP T520's with ThinPro 6.1.0 configured with Citrix Receiver 13.4. Our backend Citrix is version 7.12 and some XenApp 6.5. Audio starts out clear but as the audio stream continues audio breaks up to the point of being unintelligible. This behavior is seen with Skype for Business audio calls, You Tube videos, etc. We are primarily use USB Jabra Evolve headsets but the same audio behavior is seen with just the headphone jack and no other peripherals.  I can use a Windows laptop with the Windows Citrix Receiver and audio works as expected. I have tried multple HP Citrix Receivers and ThinPro 5.2 but no luck in getting reliable stable audio. Upgrading to ThinPro 6.1.0 seems to have helped slightly but the audio is still not stable enough for production. Any thoughts on why we have the audio issues with the ThinPro OS?

[iMaxx]

Are the Audio issues only seen when the Cirtix Recievers are in use and connected to a host system?

[Don-B4]

The audio works fine going through RDP setup on the HP520 to the virtual machine.  In regards to the Citrix Receiver I have also deselected the following settings, HDX compression, Session Reliability, Data Compression, H.264 Compression as a trial but I still get the same behavior. Good audio then it fails and becomes fragmented to the point of being unintelligible. The audio sometimes comes back after 30 seconds or so sometimes it doesn't come back. I have also found that audio will come back if I unplug the USB headset and then plug it back in.

[iMaxx]

That looks to be a pretty old version of Citrix Reciever. You will want to try upgrading that. 14.3 seems to be the lastest as of September 2015.

You can also try our own RGS (Remote Graphics Software) solution.
You can get a 60 say trial of the Sender to see if this better suites your needs.

[Don-B4]

Just to clarify we are running ThinPro 6.1.0 on these devices with the latest HP approved Linux receiver version 13.4.2 released 1/23/2017.  I have also tried some older versions but get the same results for audio.

[iMaxx]

Ok, thanks.

Let me ping the Thin Client team.

[Don-B4]

Follow-up information. I noticed that when the audio breaks up that top shows the following stats.

Command     CPU

------------   ---------

Xorg                54%

wfica.bin        33%

pulseaudio    33%

When audio is coming throug clearly a different picture in top. However a youtube video still shows a substantial delay between the audio and the video.

Command      CPU

------------    -----------

wfica.bin         85%

Xorg                  21%

pulseaudio        4%

Are we asking more from the T520 than what it can deliver? It is billed as a HDX Premium device on the Citrix compatibility list but we just can't seem to get a usable multimedia or Skype for Business experience from the device. Are we missing something in the configuration?

[K_Garrett]

Hi

Have you tried installing HP Velocity on the Server and let it run in the background ?

The T520 already has the Velocity Agent installed and active

[Don-B4]

I have tried running HP Velocity 2.1.3r22809 on the server side (full Windows 7 vm) and HP Velocity 4.4.0 version 2.1322531on the ThinPro T520. It did not make a difference the audio is still breaking up. It is the same behavior where audio starts out clear then becomes extremely choppy then it may recover then break up again within the same stream. I beleive I have ruled out the backend infrastructure by using a Windows 7 laptop as the endpoint for the ICA/HDX connection, audio is clear and remains clear.

[Don-B4]

This issue was resolved by making the following update to the pulse audio configuration.

Edit the file etc/pulse/default.pa.

Append this "tsched_buffer_size=1024" to the end of the line  -  load-module module-udev-detect.

The line should look like this after editing  -

load-module module-udev-detect tsched_buffer_size=1024

You must reboot the thin client after editing the default.pa to restart the audio services.

There is a registry key in ThinPro 6.2 that does the same thing now.

root-audio-pulsebuffer