[SOLVED] Cannot start JACK as normal user

raccoon · 2014-07-01 17:02:15

Hello,

I cannot start JACK as non-root user. As root, everything works as expected. The user is a member of the audio group, but apparently this system is deprecated anyway.

$ jack_control start
--- start
DBus exception: org.jackaudio.Error.Generic: Failed to open server

This is shown in the "Messages" window of qjackctl:

18:50:01.392 Patchbay deactivated.
18:50:01.395 Statistics reset.
18:50:01.396 ALSA connection change.
Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory
Cannot connect to server request channel
jack server is not running or cannot be started
18:50:01.404 ALSA connection graph change.
18:50:02.951 JACK is starting...
18:50:02.951 /usr/bin/jack_control -v -dalsa -r48000 -p1024 -n2 -D -Chw:USB -Phw:USB
Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory
Cannot connect to server request channel
jack server is not running or cannot be started
Unknown command '-v'
Unknown command '-dalsa'
Unknown command '-r48000'
Unknown command '-p1024'
Unknown command '-n2'
Unknown command '-D'
Unknown command '-Chw:USB'
Unknown command '-Phw:USB'
18:50:03.001 JACK was started with PID=1341.
18:50:03.006 JACK was stopped successfully.

This is the "Settings" part of ~/.config/rncbc.org/QJackCtl.conf, but I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the problem, since starting JACK with jack_control doesn't work either:

[Settings]
Server=jack_control
ServerName=
Realtime=true
SoftMode=false
Monitor=false
Shorts=false
NoMemLock=false
UnlockMem=false
HWMon=false
HWMeter=false
IgnoreHW=false
Priority=0
Frames=1024
SampleRate=48000
Periods=2
WordLength=16
Wait=21333
Chan=0
Driver=alsa
Interface=
Audio=0
Dither=0
Timeout=500
InDevice=hw:USB
OutDevice=hw:USB
InChannels=0
OutChannels=0
InLatency=0
OutLatency=0
StartDelay=2
Verbose=true
PortMax=256
MidiDriver=none
ServerSuffix=

I have found similar threads, but all differ from my situation and the solutions suggested do not seem to work for me. Some people suspect PulseAudio to be the culprit, I tried to redirect ALSA to PulseAudio, and that to JACK without any effect. I don't think I use PulseAudio, but then again, I run Gnome, and gnome-settings-daemon seems to depend on it.

Any suggestions are much appreciated!
Thank you.

Last edited by raccoon (2015-04-17 09:29:21)

ids1024 · 2014-07-01 17:36:47

raccoon wrote:

I don't think I use PulseAudio, but then again, I run Gnome, and gnome-settings-daemon seems to depend on it.

I believe Gnome starts pulseaudio automatically. I think you can disable it by setting autospawn to "no" in /etc/pulse/client.conf. The wiki mentions another way to have pulseaudio use jack.

raccoon · 2014-07-01 18:55:05

ids1024 wrote:

I believe Gnome starts pulseaudio automatically. I think you can disable it by setting autospawn to "no" in /etc/pulse/client.conf. The wiki mentions another way to have pulseaudio use jack.

Hey ids1024,

thank you for your answer. I am now using PulseAudio (which was indeed installed before, but somehow didn't start at boot), and it works very well, also with JACK - as long as I run jack_control as root. As a normal user, it's the same issue as before. I'm not sure if PulseAudio has anything to do with that at all.

EDIT: I installed pulseaudio-alsa. Now I can start JACK as non-root user! However, JACK - although it registers with PulseAudio, as shown by pavucontrol - doesn't output any sound. Unless I'm root, of course.

Last edited by raccoon (2014-07-01 19:26:31)

ids1024 · 2014-07-01 23:59:59

Are you using "load-module module-jackdbus-detect" as mentioned in the wiki? It looks like a better method than the one from the forum post you linked to.

I personally prefer not to use pulseaudio, but that may be difficult in Gnome.

Is audio working in programs that don't use jack?

raccoon · 2015-04-17 09:28:58

I had forgotten about this. I'm sorry!

After getting rid of pulseaudio and switching back to pure alsa, everything was alright. Thank you, ids1024, for your help!

Arch Linux

#1 2014-07-01 17:02:15

[SOLVED] Cannot start JACK as normal user

#2 2014-07-01 17:36:47

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot start JACK as normal user

#3 2014-07-01 18:55:05

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot start JACK as normal user

#4 2014-07-01 23:59:59

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot start JACK as normal user

#5 2015-04-17 09:28:58

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot start JACK as normal user

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