[Cialug] How to debug media player/window manager interaction

[Daniel A. Ramaley]

Recently i migrated my office machine from Debian Sarge to Debian Etch. 
Rather than upgrading, i wiped the drive and did a clean install. I 
know that isn't necessary with Debian (and on servers i don't bother), 
but i'd learned enough about how i like things set up between 
installations that it would be faster and easier just to start fresh 
rather than massaging the old installation to my current standard. 
Anyway, since the upgrade i've discovered a weird problem and have no 
idea how to track down the cause:

I am usually listening to music using xmms. But, after xmms plays for 
around 10 or 15 minutes, anything involving the window manager 
(AfterStep) starts to bog down; switching between applications becomes 
noticeably slow. By the time xmms has been playing for 20-30 minutes 
the window manager is unusable: applications won't focus correctly, 
applications won't move properly to the foreground or background, and 
switching virtual desktops takes many seconds when it should be 
instantaneous. If i run a terminal and view the output of "top" 
AfterStep will be listed as taking 98 to 100% of the CPU. (Normally 
AfterStep's CPU usage is negligible.) If i pause xmms, then AfterStep's 
CPU use drops to 0. If i unpause xmms, then AfterStep pegs the CPU 
again. If i quit xmms and restart it, then i can play music for another 
20 minutes before AfterStep is unusable again. I've tried not running 
my other major applications (kmail and Firefox (er, "Iceweasel", since 
this is Debian)) and they don't seem to be involved.

Any ideas on how to go about tracking down what the actual problem is? 
Failing that, any recommendations for a different music player that has 
the classic WinAmp interface and can play FLAC, Ogg, MP3, and the 
occasional MOD, MIDI, and NSF?

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Dan Ramaley                            Dial Center 118, Drake University
Network Programmer/Analyst             2407 Carpenter Ave
+1 515 271-4540                        Des Moines IA 50311 USA