Arch Linux

habbe

Member

Registered: 2009-09-06

Posts: 45

Gapless playback with jack support

mpd from extra repository has jack output disabled, why is this? What other options do I have, if gapless playback and jack support is a must? I guess compiling mpd myself is a solution in the end, at least.

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: Gapless playback with jack support

mpd from extra repository has jack output disabled, why is this? What other options do I have, if gapless playback and jack support is a must? I guess compiling mpd myself is a solution in the end, at least.

If you don't know ABS yet, it makes it very simple to build Arch packages:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ABS

Fortunately MPD doesn't take very long to build. Just remove the --disable-jack line from the PKGBUILD and run makepkg.

habbe

Member

Registered: 2009-09-06

Posts: 45

Re: Gapless playback with jack support

Thank you, that was endeed quite simple. All is well now, but I still think jack should be enabled by default unless it really causing terrible problems, in which case it should be fixed. This is the kind of stuff that makes linux audio really difficult to use.

ngoonee

Forum Fellow

From: Between Thailand and Singapore

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 7,356

Re: Gapless playback with jack support

I'm not the one in charge of the package, but I believe that if the package were built with jack (and pulse) support, then installing mpd into systems without such support would cause problems, if such an output was specified in the .conf. Of course, my system has both jack and pulse, and I simply recompile mpd myself to use them, so no big issue here.

I'd think you'd find that the vast majority of Arch users do NOT use Jack, and a slightly lower majority do NOT use pulse, so no sense in having mpd by default compiled with both.

---

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Army

Member

Registered: 2007-12-07

Posts: 1,784

Re: Gapless playback with jack support

In Arch packages aren't built that way, you don't need to have every single feature. I'd say hardly 1% uses jack in combination with mpd, so it wouldn't make sense to deliver the package that way. As you can see, it is terribly simple to recompile packages in Arch. That's how it's meant to be, if you wish a special feature, go compile it yourself.

thisoldman

Member

From: Pittsburgh

Registered: 2009-04-25

Posts: 1,172

Re: Gapless playback with jack support

Take a look at aqualung in AUR. I haven't tried it yet, but it's on my list.

habbe

Member

Registered: 2009-09-06

Posts: 45

Re: Gapless playback with jack support

I'm not the one in charge of the package, but I believe that if the package were built with jack (and pulse) support, then installing mpd into systems without such support would cause problems, if such an output was specified in the .conf. Of course, my system has both jack and pulse, and I simply recompile mpd myself to use them, so no big issue here.

I'd think you'd find that the vast majority of Arch users do NOT use Jack, and a slightly lower majority do NOT use pulse, so no sense in having mpd by default compiled with both.

I understand most of the people don't use jack but then again most of the people using Windows don't use fw-soundcards, still their system does not need anything special other than the driver. If this is a matter of one feature that is disabled on purpose, I find it weird.

So IMO it makes absolutely sense to include all of  the (stable) features, especially since a lot of pro-audio is done on fw-cards and jack is the only option for them.

Anyways, this is just a little rant; all is fine now, and it didn't take long. I hope someday we have some general solution to Linux audio, we need a common goal.

Last edited by habbe (2009-09-07 11:28:25)

cha0s6983

Member

Registered: 2009-09-15

Posts: 5

Re: Gapless playback with jack support

I dunno what the prevailing philosphy is here, but IMO, it's a tradeoff. If compiling in JACK/pulse support will only add a few kB and is configured to not use them by default, IMO it should come like that out of the box.

I think it's kinda clunky to have to recompile to add something like that. My opinion...