Comment 40 for bug 451893

I'm seeing this behaviour as well on a fully updated F12 host (no KVM). As far as I can tell, it is usually triggered by flash (flash-plugin-10.0.42.34-release.i386).

Excerpts from /var/log/messages:

Dec 6 13:50:29 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: ratelimit.c: 78 events suppressed
Dec 6 13:51:01 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: ALSA woke us up to write new data to the device, but there was actually nothing to write!
Dec 6 13:51:01 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver 'snd_emu10k1'. Please report this issue to the ALSA devel
opers.
Dec 6 13:51:01 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: We were woken up with POLLOUT set -- however a subsequent snd_pcm_avail() returned 0 or another value
< min_avail.
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-util.c: Unable to set sw params: No such device
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: Failed to set software parameters: No such device
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-util.c: Unable to set sw params: No such device
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: Failed to set software parameters: No such device
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-util.c: Unable to set sw params: No such device
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: Failed to set software parameters: No such device
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-util.c: Unable to set sw params: No such device
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: Failed to set software parameters: No such device
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-util.c: Unable to set sw params: No such device

[repeats until..]

Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: Failed to set software parameters: No such device
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-util.c: Unable to set sw params: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: Failed to set software parameters: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-util.c: Unable to set sw params: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: Failed to set software parameters: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-util.c: Unable to set sw params: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: Failed to set software parameters: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-util.c: Unable to set sw params: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: Failed to set software parameters: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-util.c: Unable to set sw params: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: Failed to set software parameters: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-util.c: Unable to set sw params: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: Failed to set software parameters: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-util.c: Unable to set sw params: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: Failed to set software parameters: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-util.c: Unable to set sw params: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: Failed to set software parameters: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-util.c: Unable to set sw params: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: Failed to set software parameters: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-util.c: Unable to set sw params: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: Failed to set software parameters: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-util.c: Unable to set sw params: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: Failed to set software parameters: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-util.c: Unable to set sw params: Too many open files
Dec 6 14:04:51 batcave pulseaudio[1842]: alsa-sink.c: Failed to set software parameters: Too many open files

This continues till I notice and kill pulseaudio or till I run out of space on /.

This is a pretty serious problem and I hope it can be resolved quickly. Please let me know if I can help with more information.