This morning after running audacity for several hours of playback and adding music tracks, Audacity Froze. All I did was click Pause (while listening) then Click on the main track where I wanted Audacity to re-start playing and then I pressed STOP. It froze with an image of BOTH the Pause and Stop buttons depressed.
Now I am depressed 
When I tired to look at the ABOUT box in Ubuntu to see what version I am using (14.04), the about box and settings would not activate. However I am sending this email and all else appears working.
I am looking for help with why this happens.
Thanks,
Joe
Unfortunately Ubuntu built Audacity with the wrong version of WxWidgets, which causes a number of bugs.
The current 2.1.1 version of Audacity is available (built with the correct version of WxWidgets) from this PPA: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntuhandbook1/+archive/ubuntu/audacity
See the instructions at http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2015/04/install-audacity-audio-editor-2-1-0-in-ubuntu-from-ppa/ for how to install the PPA.
Thank You For Your Reply! I love using Audacity and even with the daily crashes found it excellent. If this resolves the issue it will be SPECTACULAR!
Joe
The Ubuntu handbook 2.1.1 PPA will be more stable generally than the Ubuntu packaged version of Audacity, but it will still be prone to freeze using PulseAudio devices if you hold down play or record, or click play, pause or stop too quickly in succession. It is possible you actually encountered that bug, which is still open. See http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Linux_Issues#pulse for workarounds.
Gale
Gale, you are unfortunately correct. It seems a little better with the updated ppa but it still is unstable and freezes. Then on restart, I get a message Like " there are 140 orphan blocks doing no harm and I could leave them and just move on." Most of the time my recordings seem ok but it is a bit nerve racking. Kind of like being shot at by an invisible sniper just now and then… you are always waiting to be get hurt. Too bad it has not been resolved. Audacity is such a great program otherwise.
Joe
I tried the recommended “work around” and got a message in terminal that did not look inspiring (not that I understand it). Failed, Refused and Unknown are not positive:
drjoeross@DrJs-UbuntuFast:~$ env PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=30 audacity
ALSA lib pcm_dsnoop.c:618:(snd_pcm_dsnoop_open) unable to open slave
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1022:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
ALSA lib pcm.c:2239:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.rear
ALSA lib pcm.c:2239:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.center_lfe
ALSA lib pcm.c:2239:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.side
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
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->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
In most cases those orphan files are perfectly normal when recovering after a crash - the orphans are files that were being kept for Audacity undo/redo.
If you are recovering a project that was never saved, Audacity will delete those orphan files automatically in any case.
Gale
There is nothing bad there - those messages are “normal”.
If you get underruns noted in the terminal when you play audio or if playback does not start immediately, try a higher PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC value.
Gale
Thanks!
Is it possible to put this in a bach file like mos dos, that you can double click and run?
I tried creating a desktop file callerd ( “RunAudacity.desktop” ) but it did not work. I put this in the file →
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Start-Audacity
Comment=test of online script
Exec=/home/DRJOEROSS/StartAudacity.sh <=== the wk around: env PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=30 audacity
Icon=/home/DRJOEROSS/audacity.png
Terminal=true
Type=Application
As it says on http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Linux_Issues#pulse:
to avoid opening the terminal each time, it may (depending on the distribution) be possible to add the required latency command directly to the application launcher. If not, you can (with root permissions) edit /usr/share/applications/audacity.desktop and insert the pulse latency command directly after “Exec=”, for example:
Exec=env PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=30 audacity %F
So, if you are using GNOME flashback, you can right-click over the Audacity launcher and choose “Properties” then edit the command.
If you are using Unity, edit the existing audacity.desktop file. There is no need to call another script (and scripts don’t run until you give them executable permissions).
Gale
The batch file worked fine! It was my first and I put it im the wrong directory because I did not use a root nautilus window to find the user directory to store the new execuable script. I hope this works (yet Ty o be proven) and ma ll es it easier for others to use audacity. Joe