not recognizing any device

Audacity Help Forum GNU/Linux
21

Hi Steve :slight_smile: thanks for your answer, here it is:

What’s the exact version of Linux?


No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	LinuxMint
Description:	Linux Mint 18 Sarah
Release:	18
Codename:	sarah

I don’t know what LSB modules are, maybe that is the problem? I will research. (I did, I don’t think that is the problem, right?)

What audio devices should be available?

my UR22 audio interface. I usually connect Audacity through Jack though:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC887-VD Analog [ALC887-VD Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC887-VD Digital [ALC887-VD Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: UR22mkII [Steinberg UR22mkII], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Record devices, the Steinberg UR22 is also in this list:

**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC887-VD Analog [ALC887-VD Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 2: ALC887-VD Alt Analog [ALC887-VD Alt Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: UR22mkII [Steinberg UR22mkII], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0



What is the output from Audacity’s “Help menu > Audio Device Info”

It’s short enough to just copy/paste it here, is not saying much:

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

In both versions 2.1.2 and 2.3.1 they are showing the same things, but right now I installed the PPA and the new version 2.3.1.

Am I the only one with this problem? I thought that maybe could be something from this “audio groups” from linux mint? something not connecting properly? It’s strange :-/

22

That may well be it.

Connect the UR22 with Jack as you normally do, then launch (or restart) Audacity and select “Jack Audio System” as the “host” in the device toolbar. You should then be able to record and play back through the “system” ports (the UR22).

23

Thanks for your answer, but I wished this problem was so easy to solve, unfortunately is not. I have also tried without jack, I have also tried disconnecting the UR22 and using my CPUs soundcard. Still not working.
And in audacity, in the “audio host” space, where I usually change between alsa and jack, there is nothing that I can choose from. I attach the image.
audacity.png

24

Does Jack Audio System start automatically on boot / log-in, or when you launch some other application, or do you start it manually?

25

I start it manually. Although the future plan is to make it start automatically when i start my computer. I don’t know if it’s relevant, but some days ago I discovered that I can use this “execute script after startup” in jack:
pacmd load-module module-jack-source channels=2; pacmd load-module module-jack-sink channels=2;

to be able to use it with programs that don’t support jack. But yeah, until now I have been making it manually.

26

Try this (without starting Jack):

  1. Reboot your computer
  2. Run the two command:
aplay -l




arecord -l

Note the returned info and include that in your reply
3. Launch Audacity, and from the Help menu, open and save the “Audio Device Info”.
Attach the file to your reply.
4. Note which, if any, options are available in the device toolbar.

27

Same Results:

$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC887-VD Analog [ALC887-VD Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC887-VD Digital [ALC887-VD Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 3: UR22mkII [Steinberg UR22mkII], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
kenji@kenjix ~ $ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC887-VD Analog [ALC887-VD Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 2: ALC887-VD Alt Analog [ALC887-VD Alt Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 3: UR22mkII [Steinberg UR22mkII], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0



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

not options available in device toolbar, and in edit/preferences/devices/interface I can’t choose any “host” and a little under that line I can read: Using PortAudio V19.6.0-devel, revision 396fe…(quite long numbers and letters list).

28

I don’t know why this isn’t working for you. The devices appear to be present, but for some reason, not available. My guess is that some other program has grabbed exclusive access, but nothing you have said gives any indication of what that might be.

What do you see in PulseAudio Volume control?

29

Everything looks normal there. Should I send a pic of every tab?
But I have a question, what happens when you press the “rescan audio devices” in audacity? Is there a way to know if it is really scanning? Because it looks like it does nothing (But maybe is because it is not noticeable).
Thanks

30

Ok, I kind of found a solution, which is not perfect, but at least it’s working partly. I uninstalled the version 2.3.1 that I had from the PPA and by luck I learned about something called installing from snaps when I tried to download another program. So I decided to give it a try and search for audacity in here: https://snapcraft.io/store. there I learnt that if I write

sudo snap install audacity

in the terminal, I install it. I dont know what is the difference exactly. Because I installed the version 2.3.1 but I see that the graphics are the old style (theme), and that actually recognizes ALSA as an Audio Device. I tried closing audacity, then jack, and then opening jack and audacity again. and “rescan devices” and nothing is working to make Jack appear in audacity. I solved that problem by connecting Jack through “Jack sink (pulseaudio jack sink)” in Sound settings, and then setting Jack source as the source from where audacity is recording in pulse audio volume control.

Again, I don’t know what are the differences and/or the pros and contras between installing from PPA or from snap, but now it’s working.

31

Launch Audacity from a Terminal window:

audacity

Highlight the last few lines in the Terminal window (so that you can see what the new output is when/if it appears).
In Audacity, Rescan Audio Devices.
You should see a load of messages appear in the Terminal window. This is what I get (it will be different on different machines):

ALSA lib pcm.c:2266:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.rear
ALSA lib pcm.c:2266:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.center_lfe
ALSA lib pcm.c:2266:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.side
ALSA lib pcm_route.c:867:(find_matching_chmap) Found no matching channel map
ALSA lib pcm_route.c:867:(find_matching_chmap) Found no matching channel map
ALSA lib pcm_route.c:867:(find_matching_chmap) Found no matching channel map
ALSA lib pcm_route.c:867:(find_matching_chmap) Found no matching channel map
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 4294967295, skipping unlock
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for 4294967295, skipping unlock
Expression 'stream->playback.pcm' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 4611
Expression 'stream->playback.pcm' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 4611
Expression 'stream->playback.pcm' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 4611
Expression 'stream->playback.pcm' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 4611

Given that in release builds, this output shows only some of the debugging messages, it is possible that with a very simple sound system, Rescan Audio Devices could run without any output to the Terminal, but I’ve never seen that happen. I would expect there to be at least some output.

32

That is good news.

You can check the Audacity version number in “Help > About Audacity”.
If it is Audacity 2.3.1, there should be an option in “Edit menu > Preferences > Interface” for selecting one of the 4 standard Themes (assuming that they build Audacity with Theme support).

33

Thanks! This is what I got from “rescaning devices” which seems for me that it is searching for jack, but not really finding it somehow, even if it’s working.

ALSA lib conf.c:3710:(snd_config_hook_load) cannot stat file/directory /usr/share/alsa/cards/aliases.conf
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.default
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.default
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.front
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.rear
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.center_lfe
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.side
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.surround21
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.surround21
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.surround40
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.surround41
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.surround50
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.surround51
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.surround71
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.iec958
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.iec958
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.iec958
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.hdmi
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.hdmi
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.modem
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.modem
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.phoneline
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.phoneline
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.dmix
Cannot connect to server socket err = Permission denied
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




You can check the Audacity version number in "Help > About Audacity".
If it is Audacity 2.3.1, there should be an option in "Edit menu > Preferences > Interface" for selecting one of the 4 standard Themes (assuming that they build Audacity with Theme support).
Re: not recognizing any device

I did that and the version Audacity 2.3.1 is showing. I could also change the interface, there are five options there: classic, light, dark, high contrast and custom. Now I changed back to light which is the one I am used to. I still see some changes though. I guess it’s the update from 2.2.2. to 2.3.1

I guess this is enough for me right now. I wish I didn’t have to make those extra clicks to make audacity work every time I started it but I can live with it.

Thank you very much again, Steve :wink:

34

That is odd. If Jack is running correctly, then Audacity “should” be able to find it.
Some possible reasons come to mind why Audacity may not be able to see Jack:

  1. Jack isn’t actually running :confused:
  2. Jack is running with different permissions from Audacity, thus prohibiting Audacity from connecting. This can be quite complex, but if it is important enough to you we could investigate this possibility.
  3. Audacity has been built without Jack support. This is a compile time option. I don’t know of any way to test if this is the case or not.

Otherwise, as you now have a workaround, we can leave as is for now, and you can hopefully use Audacity successfully.