[CentOS] Skype and problem with ALSA mixer driver?

[Ned Slider]

Andrew wrote:
> Having used skype successfully in the past with previous CentOS
> versions, I haven't yet been able to get it working fully with CentOS
> 5.3 - the playback sound works OK but I can't get the mic working. I
> previously used the skype version installed with yum from the skype repo
> but thought maybe this was faulty, so have just installed the static
> version (cd skype_static-2.1.0.81). However, the mic still doesn't work
> and I've notice the following (repeated) error messages on the command
> line (currently this version has to be executed from the command line):
> 
> snd_pcm_avail_update() returned a value that is exceptionally large:
> 203032 bytes (1057 ms).
> Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver. Please report this issue
> to the ALSA developers.
> snd_pcm_avail_update() returned a value that is exceptionally large:
> 201176 bytes (1047 ms).
> Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver. Please report this issue
> to the ALSA developers.
> snd_pcm_avail_update() returned a value that is exceptionally large:
> 199280 bytes (1037 ms).
> Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver. Please report this issue
> to the ALSA developers.
> 
> ..........etc
> 
> Does anybody have any information about this issue/bug and any idea how
> to solve the problem?
> Thanks,
> Andy
> 

What version of ALSA driver are you using? Have you tried updating ALSA 
as the version within CentOS is quite old now (1.0.14rc3).

Elrepo has an updated ALSA driver package here:

http://elrepo.org/tiki/kmod-alsa