I’m creating this new post but I would have rather commented on this automatically closed post to provide my feedback and help other users who would run into this problem.
Our local radio organization uses several computers running Ubuntu and Audacity. Since recent Ubuntu upgrades (can’t really tell if it was 20 > 22 or 22 > 24) we have been problems using Audacity to record live radio shows lasting 1 hour or more. During recording the computer would suddenly freeze, and Audacity error logs were empty.
Monitoring computers while recording showed that it was due to a memory problem (memory cache was growing infinitely). I tried different versions of Audacity and different sources (.deb, snap, etc) and the problem was still there. I tried also with a brand new 2025 computer with lot of memory : the freeze would just happen later than usual as the memory cache kept increasing anyway…
I “solved” the problem by installing Linux Mint instead of Ubuntu and the memory cache problem is gone.
So I identified an incompatibility between recent Ubuntu versions and recent Audacity versions. I’m not a developer and I don’t know how to identify clearly what is causing the problem.
I have a home computer which runs into the same problem, so if anyone needs more info or tests it might be possible for me to provide that to you.
Ubuntu is a widely used distribution, it would be too bad to not solve this problem. I will also try to file an issue in the Ubuntu dev community.
Thank you for this post! You described my issue exactly and rescued me before I spent a lot of money on new hardware. I may try going back to an earlier Ubuntu version since I’m unfamiliar with Mint, and will post the result, whether it works or not.
Glad you saw my post, I didn’t find any way to send a private message (I just realized that I could have pinged you probably though).
Linux Mint is probably as easy to use as Ubuntu, the look is a little different, but otherwise it is very similar in my opinion (maybe somebody else can confirm), and I don’t think you will have any troubles.
I’m saying this because I don’t think that trying to stay on an older Ubuntu version on a long term is a good idea anyway. You probably might need to go back to Ubuntu 20…
I opened an Ubuntu bug, maybe someone with the knowledge will find where the problem comes from.
It’s very strange that the issue was present on Ubuntu and not Mint, since Mint is based on Ubuntu. Many people think Mint is Ubuntu ‘done right’ and I’m one of them. I’ve used it for maybe 15 years and, although I try other distros sometimes, I’ve seen nothing to make me switch. TuxedoOS is the only other Ubuntu-based distro that really impressed me. Like MInt it doesn’t use Snap packages. Big plus!
I’d say give Mint a go, I doubt you’d be disappointed. I’d recommend the MATE desktop rather than Cinnamon though.
As a plan B, have Ocenaudio installed on your machine to complement Audacity. It’s also free and would handle the radio recordings easily.
I installed Mint (Cinnamon), then installed Audacity 3.4.2 from the Mint Software Manager. Recorded 50 minutes without any problems. I noticed memory cache creeping up steadily throughout the test, so I suspect it might crash eventually. Audacity 3.7.3 and 3.7.5 appimages crashed after about 15 minutes. The next test will be editing a 90 minute program. If I encounter problems with longer recordings I’ll try the Mate version.
I used Ocenaudio with my original Ubuntu system and it also crashed around the 20 minute mark. I’ll see what happens with Mint. Ocen seems to be a decent product that belongs in the toolbox.
No problem at all with the editing. I have a project coming up in a couple of weeks that I anticipate will involve about two hours of continuous recording. It will be interesting to see what happens, and I’ll post the result. Keeping my fingers crossed that we’ve found the solution.
Problem solved! Just completed 2+ hours of continuous recording without a hitch. I can’t imagine ever running more than that without taking a break. And I really do like the Linux Mint interface.