Arch Linux

Rec100

Member

Registered: 2022-03-12

Posts: 32

[FIXED] Audacity can't find audio device

Hi all,

I am getting a

Could not find any audio devices.
    You will not be able to play or record audio.

    Error: Unanticipated host error

error from Audacity, which I am not able to fix for about an hour or so.

Hardware:
Device: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9
Memory: 31.1 GiB
Processor: 11th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-1185G7 @ 3.00GHz × 8

Software:
OS: Arch Linux; Build ID: rolling (64-bit)
Gnome version: 41.3
Windowing System: Wayland

Audacity:
Audacity 3.1.3 (snap)
Program build date: Feb 24 2022
Commit Id: ff6d67 of Wed Dec 22 16:35:36 2021 +0100
Build type: CMake Release build (debug level 1), 64 bits
Compiler: GCC 9.3.0 (Audacity)

I've installed and configured ALSA - https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Advanc … chitecture. Sound works great, just not with Audacity. I am running out of ideas and the Audacity device log still shows:

==============================
Default recording device number: -1
Default playback device number: -1
No devices found

Could someone point me into a direction what I could check?
Thank you for your support.
Rec

Last edited by Rec100 (2022-03-12 18:30:26)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,944

Re: [FIXED] Audacity can't find audio device

On a guess I'd say a snap issue, can you reproduce this with the repo package? On a googler I found https://snapcraft.io/docs/alsa-interface

Rec100

Member

Registered: 2022-03-12

Posts: 32

Re: [FIXED] Audacity can't find audio device

This didn't happen with the official Arch repo package. However, this one is so outdated and thus buggy, it cost me some hours of work that were just lost. I installed snap because I didn't see other options to get a running Audacity. I had already done all the alsa-interface configurations.

The problem seems now fixed. What I did:

1. uninstall audacity (sudo snap remove audacity)
2. reinstall it (sudo snap install audacity)
3. During first run, you are asked if you want to grant permission to access the ALSA audio system - previously I had selected [permission has been granted], this time, I've selected [start and ask next time]. This worked because I had Pulse Audio configured to access/manage (?) ALSA.

A bit counterintuitive and after hours of configuring and rebooting this is what worked for me.