I have sound - But audio production programs fail

Vansolrick · #1 29th June 2009, 12:10 AM

I am using Fedora 11

I have sound working for flash videos, audio files, and simple recording applications like Audacity and in general. But, when I launch qJackctl I get this error in the terminal:

Code:

16:05:33.763 Could not open ALSA sequencer as a client. ALSA MIDI patchbay will be not available.
ALSA lib seq_hw.c:457:(snd_seq_hw_open) open /dev/snd/seq failed: No such file or directory

Fluidsynth gives me this error as well :

Code:

lash_open_socket: could not connect to host 'localhost', service '14541'
lash_comm_connect_to_server: could not create server connection
jackd 0.116.1
Copyright 2001-2005 Paul Davis and others.
jackd comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; see the file COPYING for details

JACK compiled with System V SHM support.
loading driver ..
apparent rate = 48000
creating alsa driver ... hw:1,0|hw:1,0|1024|2|48000|0|0|nomon|swmeter|-|32bit
control device hw:1
configuring for 48000Hz, period = 1024 frames (21.3 ms), buffer = 2 periods
ALSA: final selected sample format for capture: 16bit little-endian
ALSA: use 2 periods for capture
ALSA: final selected sample format for playback: 16bit little-endian
ALSA: use 2 periods for playback
lash_open_socket: could not connect to host 'localhost', service '14541'
lash_comm_connect_to_server: could not create server connection
Connected to JACK server with client name 'LASH_Server'
ALSA lib seq_hw.c:457:(snd_seq_hw_open) open /dev/snd/seq failed: No such file or directory
alsa_mgr_init_alsa: error opening alsa sequencer, aborting: No such file or directory
loader_run: server closed socket; exiting
lash_open_socket: could not connect to host 'localhost', service '14541'
lash_comm_connect_to_server: could not create server connection
lash_open_socket: could not connect to host 'localhost', service '14541'
lash_comm_connect_to_server: could not create server connection
lash_open_socket: could not connect to host 'localhost', service '14541'
lash_comm_connect_to_server: could not create server connection
lash_open_socket: could not connect to host 'localhost', service '14541'
lash_comm_connect_to_server: could not create server connection
lash_init: could not connect to server 'localhost' - disabling LASH
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1008:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
fluidsynth: error: Failed to open the "default" audio device
Failed to create the audio driver

Any ideas on what it could be? Im confused because everything worked fine on Fedora 8

Here's the output for Rosegarden:

Code:

kbuildsycoca running...
Reusing existing ksycoca
[patrick@Linux-Reign ~]$ PluginFactory::instance(dssi): creating new DSSIPluginFactory
LADSPAPluginFactory::discoverPlugins - discovering plugins; path is [/home/patrick/.dssi] [/usr/local/lib/dssi] [/usr/lib/dssi] 
LADSPAPluginFactory::discoverPlugins - done
PluginFactory::instance(ladspa): creating new LADSPAPluginFactory
LADSPAPluginFactory::discoverPlugins - discovering plugins; path is [/home/patrick/.ladspa] [/usr/local/lib/ladspa] [/usr/lib/ladspa] 
LADSPAPluginFactory::discoverPlugins - done
Rosegarden 1.7.3 - AlsaDriver [ALSA library version 1.0.19, module version 1.0.18a, kernel version 2.6.29.5-191.fc11.i586]

JackDriver::initialiseAudio - JACK server not running
ALSA lib seq_hw.c:457:(snd_seq_hw_open) open /dev/snd/seq failed: No such file or directory
AlsaDriver::initialiseMidi - couldn't open sequencer - No such file or directory - perhaps you need to modprobe snd-seq-midi.
rosegardensequencer: seq.c:3382: snd_seq_get_queue_status: Assertion `seq && status' failed.
KCrash: Application 'rosegardensequencer' crashing...
Launched ok, pid = 9308
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1008:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
Composition::getTrackById(0) - WARNING - track id not found, this is probably a BUG /builddir/build/BUILD/rosegarden-1.7.3/src/base/Composition.cpp:1533
Available track ids are: 
RosegardenGUIApp::awaitDialogClearance: entering
RosegardenGUIApp::awaitDialogClearance: exiting
TrackButtons::slotUpdateTracks
Rosegarden 1.7.3 - AlsaDriver [ALSA library version 1.0.19, module version 1.0.18a, kernel version 2.6.29.5-191.fc11.i586]

JackDriver::initialiseAudio - JACK server not running
ALSA lib seq_hw.c:457:(snd_seq_hw_open) open /dev/snd/seq failed: No such file or directory
AlsaDriver::initialiseMidi - couldn't open sequencer - No such file or directory - perhaps you need to modprobe snd-seq-midi.
rosegardensequencer: seq.c:3382: snd_seq_get_queue_status: Assertion `seq && status' failed.
KCrash: Application 'rosegardensequencer' crashing...

**Edit: I understand that Jack isn't running. The problem is that Jack gives me the error that I first stated and turns off.

I get tons of fatal error popups on the screen as well.

Rather annoying but does anyone know what the source to the problem is?

Vansolrick · #2 29th June 2009, 11:05 AM

Ok I have made some progress. It turns out that the snd-seq module wasn't loaded, which is needed for jack. I did this to fix the major problem of trying to start jackctl

Code:

# su  
# modprobe snd-seq
# echo snd-seq >> /etc/modules
# exit

Then I found out I had "realtime" set on the jack configuration, and because my kernel is not a rt kernel, I had to turn it off. I restarted jack and it worked just fine. I removed rosegarden and fluidsynth, therefor I tested the audio using Ardour and to my amazement it works!

So just in case someone has this problem, here's how I fixed it. This same information about the snd-seq module can be found on the ubuntu studio wiki.

sideways · #3 29th June 2009, 11:23 AM

Just two points

1. To run jack in realtime mode you need to be in the jackuser group:

Code:

usermod -a -G jackuser <username>

(type that as root and then logout/login)

2. Fluidsynth doesn't work well pulseaudio, you can temporarily disable the PA-alsa path with

Code:

mv /etc/alsa/pulse-default.conf /etc/alsa/pulse-default.confx

then start fluidsynth. Or permanently disable the PA alsa plugin with 'yum remove alsa-plugins-pulseaudio'

There is an upstream patch to fluidsynth which enables pulseaudio, but latency is too high for serious use. Lenart Poettering, the main PA developer has said that pulseaudio is not for use with audio production apps.

Vansolrick · #4 29th June 2009, 10:58 PM

Thanks for the reply and info, Sideways.

I added myself to the jack user group.

However prior to that, I am having issues [once again] getting jack to start. Using 'jackd -d alsa' in the cli gives me this:

Code:

loading driver ..
creating alsa driver ... hw:0|hw:0|1024|2|48000|0|0|nomon|swmeter|-|32bit
control device hw:0
ALSA: Cannot open PCM device alsa_pcm for playback. Falling back to capture-only mode
configuring for 48000Hz, period = 1024 frames (21.3 ms), buffer = 2 periods
ALSA: final selected sample format for capture: 16bit little-endian
ALSA: use 2 periods for capture
impossible sample width (1) discovered!

and launching using the gui qjackctl launcher I get this in the message window:

Code:

 14:56:18.934 Patchbay deactivated.
14:56:18.936 Statistics reset.
14:56:19.027 ALSA connection graph change.
14:56:19.260 ALSA connection change.
14:56:32.890 Startup script...
14:56:32.893 artsshell -q terminate
14:56:33.416 Startup script terminated with exit status=256.
14:56:33.418 JACK is starting...
14:56:33.420 /usr/bin/jackd -dalsa -dhw:0 -r44100 -p1024 -n2
14:56:33.437 JACK was started with PID=2502.
jackd 0.116.1
Copyright 2001-2005 Paul Davis and others.
jackd comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; see the file COPYING for details
JACK compiled with System V SHM support.
loading driver ..
apparent rate = 44100
creating alsa driver ... hw:0|hw:0|1024|2|44100|0|0|nomon|swmeter|-|32bit
control device hw:0
ALSA: Cannot open PCM device alsa_pcm for playback. Falling back to capture-only mode
configuring for 44100Hz, period = 1024 frames (23.2 ms), buffer = 2 periods
ALSA: final selected sample format for capture: 16bit little-endian
ALSA: use 2 periods for capture
impossible sample width (1) discovered!
14:56:33.513 JACK was stopped with exit status=1.
14:56:33.514 Post-shutdown script...
14:56:33.515 killall jackd
jackd: no process killed
14:56:33.931 Post-shutdown script terminated with exit status=256.
14:56:35.489 Could not connect to JACK server as client. - Overall operation failed. - Unable to connect to server. Please check the messages window for more info.

I have been using modprobe to load up snd-seq before launching, which solved my problem before. Not to complain but I figure an OS is supposed to allow you to do work and be productive, and not waste your time having you work on your OS.

I have been using linux as my only OS for 3 years and I don't want to go back to windows just because I can't get some important audio productivity software working.

EDIT** I noticed that when I launch Ardour it seems to launch with jackd and I have audio. It shows up just fine in 'top'. I still cant manually launch it, and I can't launch qjackctl. This is confusing :S

too_many_people · #5 19th August 2009, 07:39 PM

So first off, thanks for posting about the snd-seq module. I was having a similar problem with jack, and that fixed it right up.
Now, have you tried using the Planet CCRMA repos for audio work? They have a much newer version of jack (1.9 vs. 0.116, I believe) than Fedora's main repos do. If not, here's the rpm command:

Code:

rpm -Uvh http:/ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/mirror/fedora/linux/planetccrma/11/i386/planetccrma-repo-1.1-2.fc11.ccrma.noarch.rpm

It seems with the newer version you a) don't need the jack-users group anymore and b) can actually run Rosegarden. I haven't tried Fluidsynth yet, but I'm expecting similar results.
Also, with Planet CCRMA you can get a surprisingly stable real-time kernel installed from the 2.6.29 series.