Really, really stuck -- PulseAudio/JACK/ALSA nightmare

MrAureliusR · 2014-11-28 10:55:35

Hey everyone.

So. a few days ago I decided to try and get JACK up and running on my Arch install. About a year ago, living in a different city (same computer though) I had JACK running on both Ubuntu and Arch. I've since ditched Ubuntu, and now dual-boot Fedora and Arch.
For reference, my motherboard is a Gigabyte GA970FX-UD3, with an AMD 8-core FX-8350 (64-bit). I'm using the optical audio out, which hasn't been a problem at all. Running Arch with GNOME, almost latest (did pacman -Syu about two or three days ago).

I started off with legacy JACK, as that was what I had used in the past, which didn't work at all out of the box. I then saw the recommended new config was JACK2 with dbus/PulseAudio, so I followed the steps over on the Wiki, namely:

Install jack2-dbus and other jack packages
Install pulseaudio-alsa, and other pulseaudio packages
Edit /etc/asound.conf to:
pcm.pulse {
type pulse
}

ctl.pulse {
type pulse
}

pcm.!default {
type pulse
}
ctl.!default {
type pulse
}

And essentially, that seemed to be all I could see was necessary. Boy, was I naive. Anyway, grief aside, now when I boot the only recognized sound output is "Jack sink (PulseAudio)". I've now got no audio at all, with or without JACK. When I fire up qjackctl, everything seems to be fine. The driver is set to ALSA, the default output is the Digital output (which I want). However, any JACK application that routes audio to either the JACK Source (which is connected to system out via JACK sink, I'm assuming) or directly to system out, no sound at all.
To top this off, now other apps that used ALSA by default aren't giving me sound (for example, Rhythmbox) because they're using the JACK Sink by default, I'm guessing.

pacmd list-sinks | grep -e 'name:' -e 'index' gives me:
* index: 0
name: <jack_out>
index: 1
name: <null>

Which is what I described above.

I can still play audio using Audacity and setting the output to ALSA driver, digital output, and sound comes through fine. However, this is the only way I can get sound to work.

Here's what I get from aplay -l | grep card:

card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: VT2020 Analog [VT2020 Analog]
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 1: VT2020 Digital [VT2020 Digital]
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 2: VT2020 Alt Analog [VT2020 Alt Analog]
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]

The output I want is card 0, device 1. Trying to load that output as default by editing /etc/pulse/default.pa and adding the line

load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:0,1

causes no device at all to show up upon reboot/relogin. I'm assuming this is interfering with the line below, the module-udev-detect.

To clarify, my goal here is to record music using my MIDI keyboard and possibly USB audio in, while also being able to play music and such through Rhythmbox. So I essentially need to have JACK support but not have everything go through JACK, if that makes sense. It doesn't matter if JACK is running in the background, as long as it works when I fire up Rosegarden or guitarix, etc.

Does it sound like I'm headed in the right direction? Something tells me I'm right around the corner from doing something right with JACK, for once.

All and any help is greatly appreciated!!

ids1024 · 2014-11-29 05:26:34

MrAureliusR wrote:

To clarify, my goal here is to record music using my MIDI keyboard and possibly USB audio in, while also being able to play music and such through Rhythmbox. So I essentially need to have JACK support but not have everything go through JACK, if that makes sense. It doesn't matter if JACK is running in the background, as long as it works when I fire up Rosegarden or guitarix, etc.

I don't believe it is possible. To use alsa or pulseaudio while jack is running, they must be routed through jack. Alsa works through jack with the .asoundrc for jack in the wiki. I personally do not have pulseaudio installed.

Also note that that, with that configuration file, alsa will not work when jack is not running.

satanselbow · 2014-11-29 10:22:41

Looks very similar to my (for my purposes - midi keyboard/controller + USB guitar interface) working setup - have a dig about in alsamixer as I have an ongoing "audio muted on boot" which requires speakers/headphones to be unmuted from there when using non jack apps.

Rasi · 2014-11-29 10:49:52

Pulse and jack are not compatible. both require exclusive access to soundcard. The way pulse handles jack is to suspend itself, when a jack connection is detected.
Obviously while suspended, pulse cannot produce sound output.

But since your alsa config routes all playback to pulse (which is suspended) there is no way whatsoever to get any sound.

If you are a heavy jack user, pulse is probably nothing but a burden.

Last edited by Rasi (2014-11-29 10:51:51)

ids1024 · 2014-11-29 16:11:10

Rasi wrote:

Pulse and jack are not compatible. both require exclusive access to soundcard. The way pulse handles jack is to suspend itself, when a jack connection is detected.

The wiki seems to sugest that you can route pulseaudio through jack.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pu … rough_JACK

Rasi · 2014-11-29 19:13:35

and the jack developers will tell you its a bad idea to use JACK for day-to-day playback stuff.

But yes. linux audio is still very frustrating when you want to make music.

Last edited by Rasi (2014-11-29 19:18:35)

Arch Linux

#1 2014-11-28 10:55:35

Really, really stuck -- PulseAudio/JACK/ALSA nightmare

#2 2014-11-29 05:26:34

Re: Really, really stuck -- PulseAudio/JACK/ALSA nightmare

#3 2014-11-29 10:22:41

Re: Really, really stuck -- PulseAudio/JACK/ALSA nightmare

#4 2014-11-29 10:49:52

Re: Really, really stuck -- PulseAudio/JACK/ALSA nightmare

#5 2014-11-29 16:11:10

Re: Really, really stuck -- PulseAudio/JACK/ALSA nightmare

#6 2014-11-29 19:13:35

Re: Really, really stuck -- PulseAudio/JACK/ALSA nightmare

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