Program Crash: Reports Nyquist Files Missing

Hi,

I have been running Audacity 2.0.5 (the latest in the repository) without problems since moving to Linux Mint 17.3 (Mate Desktop) for 18 months ago. Then a fortnight ago I started getting problems. It is just possible that the problems coincided with a power cut that, although no other program seems to have been affected by that irregular shutdown.

The main symptom is that 9 times out of ten playback of a file occurs at “quadruple speed” with just “static” coming from the speakers. If I then attempt to stop play complete lockup of the program occurs, with the “Stop” button remaining depressed. An attempt to close the window causes a delay before a “Marco” dialogue appears:

===========
Audacity (Recovered) is not responding.

You may choose to wait a short while for it to continue or force the application to quit entirely.

On relaunching the program the log will show:

10:27:34: Audacity 2.0.5
10:27:35: Warning: Critical Nyquist files could not be found. Nyquist effects will not work.
10:27:37: Retrieving FFmpeg library version numbers:
10:27:37:    AVCodec version 0x362301 - 54.35.1 (built against 0x362300 - 54.35.0)
10:27:37:    AVFormat version 0x361404 - 54.20.4 (built against 0x361404 - 54.20.4)
10:27:37:    AVUtil version 0x340300 - 52.3.0 (built against 0x340300 - 52.3.0)

I have tried un-installing and reinstalling the program but that appears to leave certain settings in place as on re-installation it will offer to recover the last file loaded.

I guess that as a first step I need to reload the Nyquist files or at least point the program to them.
Where should they be?
How do I check the right location is being sought by Audacity?
What else might help to return the program to a working state?

There’s more than one problem here.

The locking up is most likely due to Audacity and PulseAudio not playing nicely together. The easiest “solution” (“workaround”) for this is usually to bypass PulseAudio by setting Audacity to access the audio hardware directly through ALSA. To do that, select the “hw” options that correspond with the audio device that you wish to use in the recording and playback settings of the device toolbar.


The missing Nyquist files indicates that Audacity is not correctly installed. The files being referred to are part of the standard Audacity application. They should be installed in:
/usr/share/audacity/nyquist/

Do you recall if these effects were previously available:

Generate Menu:
Pluck
Risset Drum
Click Track

Effect Menu:
High Pass Filter
Low Pass Filter
Vocal Removal

Analyze Menu:
Silence Finder
Sound Finder

I should probably add this further log file to provide more clues about the problem after attempting a recovery::

14:01:32: Audacity 2.0.5
14:01:34: Warning: Critical Nyquist files could not be found. Nyquist effects will not work.
14:01:36: Retrieving FFmpeg library version numbers:
14:01:36:    AVCodec version 0x362301 - 54.35.1 (built against 0x362300 - 54.35.0)
14:01:36:    AVFormat version 0x361404 - 54.20.4 (built against 0x361404 - 54.20.4)
14:01:36:    AVUtil version 0x340300 - 52.3.0 (built against 0x340300 - 52.3.0)
14:01:41: Warning: Orphan block file: '/var/tmp/audacity-greg/project2027346503/e00/d00/e000097b.au'
14:01:41: Warning: Orphan block file: '/var/tmp/audacity-greg/project2027346503/e00/d00/e0000fe5.au'
14:01:41: Warning:    Project check ignored orphan block file(s). They will be deleted when project is saved.
14:01:41: Warning: Project check found file inconsistencies inspecting the loaded project data.

“Orphan blockfiles” are common after a crash. They occur when there is audio data (“blockfiles”) that are not in use by the project. This is a symptom rather than a cause.

Thanks for the help, Steve.
My previous reply (with additional log file text) seemsto have been delayed by moderation and I’m not sure how it may help.

Oh dear! :frowning:

The locking up is most likely due to Audacity and PulseAudio not playing nicely together. The easiest “solution” (“workaround”) for this is usually to bypass PulseAudio by setting Audacity to access the audio hardware directly through ALSA. To do that, select the “hw” options that correspond with the audio device that you wish to use in the recording and playback settings of the > device toolbar> .

The point is they did play nicely together until a week or two back.
However, are you saying I should alter things from the options shown highlighted here:
screenshot373.png

The missing Nyquist files indicates that Audacity is not correctly installed. The files being referred to are part of the standard Audacity application. They should be installed in:
/usr/share/audacity/nyquist/

Something appears very wrong. (More likely in my Linux naivety I’m searching for the wrong thing!)
I can find no usr/share/audacity folder at all! The only audacity folders currently on my system with dates after adopting Linux are:
/usr/share/doc/audacity-data
/var/tmp/audacity-greg
/usr/share/doc/audacity
None of these appear to hold program files.
(earlier dated folders are all on my external drives holding old Windows-based backups). However it must be somewhere as Audacity still launches and runs - until it crashes.

Do you recall if these effects were previously available:

Generate Menu:
Pluck
Risset Drum
Click Track

Effect Menu:
High Pass Filter
Low Pass Filter
Vocal Removal

Analyze Menu:
Silence Finder
Sound Finder

Unfortunately not, but I strong suspect they did exist.

There should normally be a “(hw:0\0)” item in the playback settings (in the device toolbar), but you don’t currently have that, probably because something else is still using the sound card. Try rebooting (or just log out and back in again) and then start Audacity. The most likely configuration for recording and playback on your system looks to be “HDA Intel …(hw:0,0)”.
The disadvantage of using the “hw” option is that you can only have one application accessing the sound card (Audacity), but the up-side is that Audacity should be much more stable.

Take a look in /usr/local/share/

I’ve done a re-boot and now see this:
screenshot375.png
I did run Audacious a couple of times since the last reboot earlier in the day. Could that have grabbed the hw:0.0 ?
I’ve also been running a Jackie Lawson Advent Calendar recently, within Firefox. I believe that uses a lot of the dreaded flash.

I had already checked in usr/local/
screenshot377.png
It look remarkably empty.

I still have the missing Nyquist files, of course - and I’ve still no idea where Audacity is hiding!

How exactly are you doing that?

Simply by using Mint’s Software Manager.
Clearly, it doesn’t do what I had hoped for! :frowning:

Greg

Try entering in a Terminal window:

which audacity

What does it say?

/usr/bin/audacity

In that case you should have a folder:
/user/share/audacity/
files.png

Now we’re getting somewhere!
In alphabetical order my user/share folders jump from:

/usr/share/audacious
to
/usr/share/autoconf

Try running this command - it will take a while as it searches your entire computer:

find / -type d -name "nyquist" 2> /dev/null

Unfortunately, absolutely nothing!

greg@GregDesktop ~ $     find / -type d -name "nyquist" 2> /dev/null
greg@GregDesktop ~ $

this search also made me realise that my NAS doesn’t hold it as I only backup my “greg” user folder. :frowning:
Another Linux lesson learned!

I’ve had an idea.
Try installing “audacity-data”
and then try launching Audacity and see if you still get the message about missing Nyquist files.
and run the “find / -type d -name “nyquist” 2> /dev/null” command again.

Is that a GUI application? What’s the exact name of Mint’s Software Manager? If it has “Help > About”, or “About” anywhere in it, what does it say?

The Software Manager installs audacity-data as a dependent package when you opt to install Audacity.

and then try launching Audacity and see if you still get the message about missing Nyquist files.
and run the “find / -type d -name “nyquist” 2> /dev/null” command again.

and I get the empty result.

Here’s the initial screen, with Help>About:


And here’s what it shows when I search for “audacity” and the View is set to show both “Installed” and “Available” packages.

It has worked without issues for me as a naive user up till now. (The green ticks indicate installed packages.)

Mint also provides the Synaptic Package Manager, which has a lot more technical detail about the package installed, and I have only used once when wanting to install a package direct from a publisher. I see that has both an “Mark for Removal” and “Mark for Complete Removal” options.

As I said at the beginning of the topic I fear that my issue started after a power cut and wonder if files/folders got corrupted/deleted as a result of that. Evidence suggests that the “Software Manager” only “disables” an application when it uninstalls it and performs a “recovery” of the original installation when reinstalled - and in my case that is corrupt.

Is using the Synaptic Package Manager to do a “complete removal” followed by an “install” would overcome the issue?

Try that.
It certainly appears that parts of Audacity are missing.

It’s rather worrying if that is the case, because who knows what else may have been corrupted? Loss of power “shouldn’t” be able to do that (though loss of power can corrupt files that are being written to at the time of the power loss, but that shouldn’t be the case here).

Hi Steve,

Apologies for the long delay. Christmas got in the way! :slight_smile:

So I tried the Package Manager. Initially it complained that things were not in order and asked me to fix that and then happily did a complete uninstall. I’ve re-installed Audacity (using the “Software Manager”) The Nyquist folder is back and the “High Pass Filter” (and other) options are back on a “Plug-ins 1-12” sub-menu of “Effects”, so it appears all is well again.

(Still have no realistic theory on why it all went wrong. I agree with you that my idea that it happened as a result of a power cut is far fetched.)

Many thanks for your help.

Well, it’s been a year since I was last here, and once again I have suffering what I described it last year…

9 times out of ten playback of a file occurs at “quadruple speed” with just “static” coming from the speakers. If I then attempt to stop play complete lockup of the program occurs, with the “Stop” button remaining depressed. An attempt to close the window causes a delay before a “Marco” dialogue appears:

However, this time there are no missing Nyquist files! I read through the topic and early on there was a reference to

Suddenly, it dawned on me! Last year I was continually running a copy of Jacquie Lawson’s Advent Calendar throughout December in a browser window! I am this year too, but didn’t get my copy till 22 December - and it was after that I launched Audacity and started having the problem.

I’ve just closed the Calendar and all is back to normal. I still don’t know how I lost the Nyquist files last year, but I do now know why I got “quadruple speed static”.

Thanks, Steve, for all that help last year. It’s still coming in useful a year on!