Not recording from "what I hear" any more

Audacity Help Forum GNU/Linux
1

I’m using fedora 19, audacity 2.0.4 and I installed audacity using yum.

I remembered when I first used audacity on this system it wasn’t working and after I messed with the settings, I got it to record sound.
I also remembered I played with the alsamixer.

I think, the settings that were working were “pulse” for playing and “sysdefault” for recording.

However, one day recording just stopped working. I am not sure if it was due to upgrading fedora or other packages, but I did not change audacity at all.

When I start audacity, these are the errors given. Also, the sysdefault for recording option has disappeared.

ALSA lib pcm_asym.c:106:(_snd_pcm_asym_open) capture slave is not defined
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1286:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.SB-XFi.pcm.hdmi.0:CARD=0,AES0=4,AES1=130,AES2=0,AES3=2'
ALSA lib conf.c:4248:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4727:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2239:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM hdmi
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1286:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.SB-XFi.pcm.hdmi.0:CARD=0,AES0=4,AES1=130,AES2=0,AES3=2'
ALSA lib conf.c:4248:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4727:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2239:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM hdmi
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1286:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.SB-XFi.pcm.modem.0:CARD=0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4248:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4727:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2239:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.phoneline:CARD=0,DEV=0
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1286:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.SB-XFi.pcm.modem.0:CARD=0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4248:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4727:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2239:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.phoneline:CARD=0,DEV=0
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1286:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.SB-XFi.pcm.modem.0:CARD=0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4248:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4727:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2239:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM phoneline
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1286:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.SB-XFi.pcm.modem.0:CARD=0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4248:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4727:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2239:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM phoneline
ALSA lib pcm.c:6984:(snd_pcm_slave_conf) missing field rate
ALSA lib pcm.c:6984:(snd_pcm_slave_conf) missing field rate
ALSA lib dlmisc.c:252:(snd1_dlobj_cache_get) Cannot open shared library /usr/lib64/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_jack.so
ALSA lib dlmisc.c:252:(snd1_dlobj_cache_get) Cannot open shared library /usr/lib64/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_jack.so
ALSA lib dlmisc.c:252:(snd1_dlobj_cache_get) Cannot open shared library /usr/lib64/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_oss.so
ALSA lib dlmisc.c:252:(snd1_dlobj_cache_get) Cannot open shared library /usr/lib64/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_oss.so
ALSA lib dlmisc.c:252:(snd1_dlobj_cache_get) Cannot open shared library /usr/lib64/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_upmix.so
ALSA lib dlmisc.c:252:(snd1_dlobj_cache_get) Cannot open shared library /usr/lib64/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_upmix.so
ALSA lib dlmisc.c:252:(snd1_dlobj_cache_get) Cannot open shared library /usr/lib64/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_vdownmix.so
ALSA lib dlmisc.c:252:(snd1_dlobj_cache_get) Cannot open shared library /usr/lib64/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_vdownmix.so
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1022:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
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
Expression 'stream->capture.pcm' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 4560
Expression 'stream->playback.pcm' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 4579
Expression 'stream->playback.pcm' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 4579

(Audacity:1774): Gtk-CRITICAL **: IA__gtk_widget_get_direction: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed
*repeated a bunch of times*
(Audacity:1774): Gtk-CRITICAL **: IA__gtk_widget_get_direction: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed

Any idea on where to go or what to do? I have a SoundBlaster X-Fi Titanium PCI-e.

Thanks.

2 
IA__gtk_widget_get_direction: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed

That appears to be a Red Hat / Fedora GTK bug: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=924683

Other than that, does Audacity appear to be working correctly? If so then you may be able to record what is playing on the computer by using “PulseAudio volume control”.
I don’t know much about Fedora, but I wrote instructions for Debian based Linux (Debian / Ubuntu / Mint / etc) here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorial_recording_computer_playback_on_linux.html

3

Hi Steve,
Thanks for your note. The GTK is widget bug doesn’t seem to affect anything important.

Also thanks for your instructions, I was able to fix the problem following these steps:
opened the pulse audio volume control
while recording from audacity
change the device from SB0880[SoundBlaster X-Fi Titanium PCI-e] Analog Stereo to
Monitor of SB0880[SoundBlaster X-Fi Titanium PCI-e] Analog Stereo.

I wouldn’t have been able to figure it out with your help.
Thanks!