Unable to start JACK Audio

[Mr. Lumbergh]

I'm trying to set up a MIDI controller to work with my DAW and JACK seems to be key to this, but I can't get it running. When I open qjackctl and attempt to start JACK, I get the following:

Code: Select all

18:33:10.909 Statistics reset.
18:33:10.979 ALSA connection change.
18:33:10.992 JACK is starting...
18:33:10.992 /usr/bin/jackd -dalsa -dhw:PCH -r48000 -p1024 -n2
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
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
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
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
18:33:11.079 ALSA connection graph change.
18:33:11.086 JACK was started with PID=9756.
no message buffer overruns
no message buffer overruns
no message buffer overruns
jackdmp 1.9.12
Copyright 2001-2005 Paul Davis and others.
Copyright 2004-2016 Grame.
Copyright 2016-2017 Filipe Coelho.
jackdmp 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 server starting in realtime mode with priority 10
self-connect-mode is "Don't restrict self connect requests"
control open "hw:PCH" (No such device)
control open "hw:PCH" (No such device)
creating alsa driver ... hw:PCH|hw:PCH|1024|2|48000|0|0|nomon|swmeter|-|32bit
control open "hw:PCH" (No such device)
ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:1826:(_snd_pcm_hw_open) Invalid value for card
ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:1826:(_snd_pcm_hw_open) Invalid value for card
ALSA: Cannot open PCM device alsa_pcm for playback. Falling back to capture-only mode
control open "hw:PCH" (No such device)
control open "hw:PCH" (No such device)
Cannot initialize driver
JackServer::Open failed with -1
Failed to open server
18:33:11.363 JACK was stopped
qjackctlJackGraph::clearItems()
qjackctlAlsaGraph::updateItems()
18:33:13.231 Could not connect to JACK server as client. - Overall operation failed. - Unable to connect to server. Please check the messages window for more info.
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
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
qjackctlJackGraph::clearItems()
qjackctlJackGraph::clearItems()

I'm not sure where to begin sorting this out as I haven't tried JACK before picking up this controller. Any help sorting it out would be appreciated.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Is your user in the audio group and do you have /etc/security/limits.d/audio.conf?

Which version of JACK is this?

[Mr. Lumbergh]

Is your user in the audio group and do you have /etc/security/limits.d/audio.conf?

Yes, this the output when I check my user account's groups:

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lumbergh@HAL9000-Deb:~$ groups
lumbergh dialout cdrom floppy sudo audio dip video plugdev netdev bluetooth lpadmin scanner

The audio.conf is present and configured:

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# Provided by the jackd package.
#
# Changes to this file will be preserved.
#
# If you want to enable/disable realtime permissions, run
#
#    dpkg-reconfigure -p high jackd

@audio   -  rtprio     95
@audio   -  memlock    unlimited
#@audio   -  nice      -19

Which version of JACK is this?

The latest in the repos, which according to Synaptic is labelled as 5+nmu1.

One thing I do notice is that despite running a realtime kernel, my user doesn't appear to part of that group. I may be wrong, but I think that's a separate issue though.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Which version of JACK is this?

The latest in the repos, which according to Synaptic is labelled as 5+nmu1.

I meant are you using jackd1 or jackd2? Not that it really matters 'cos I don't use either so I probably won't be much help but somebody else might be.

One thing I do notice is that despite running a realtime kernel, my user doesn't appear to part of that group. I may be wrong, but I think that's a separate issue though.

AFAIUI the vanilla kernel is now realtime-capable (as long as /etc/security/limits.d/audio.conf is in place) and the RT kernel only offers a small advantage in respect of latency.

[Mr. Lumbergh]

Which version of JACK is this?

The latest in the repos, which according to Synaptic is labelled as 5+nmu1.

I meant are you using jackd1 or jackd2? Not that it really matters 'cos I don't use either so I probably won't be much help but somebody else might be.

Ah, gotcha. Def. JACK2 according to the description in Synaptic.

One thing I do notice is that despite running a realtime kernel, my user doesn't appear to part of that group. I may be wrong, but I think that's a separate issue though.

AFAIUI the vanilla kernel is now realtime-capable (as long as /etc/security/limits.d/audio.conf is in place) and the RT kernel only offers a small advantage in respect of latency.

That's good to know, thank you. I have audio set to a realtime priority of 95 currently, I'll give that a try on 5.5 too since the vanilla kernels are generally more widely used and get bug fixes more quickly.