Can't record after upgrade to Ubuntu Lucid

[ka1ssr]

Hi!

I recently upgraded to Ubuntu Lucid Lynx. I installed Audacity 1.3.12 from the repositories and have just now discovered that I can't record. The cursor on the track moves normally but there is no audio being recorded or indication on the input meter. The input selection dropdown is also missing.

I checked all my settings on Alsamixer and all is well there. I am recording from the line input on the soundcard, an Ensoniq 5880B that was recording fine until the upgrade. Playback has issues, too. Only the first 3-4 seconds of the file gets played before audacity hangs. The buttons are responsive.

Running Audacity from a terminal yields:

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[email protected]:~/audacity$ audacity &
[1] 8175
[email protected]:~/audacity$ 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)
Expression 'stream->capture.pcm' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 3653

Many thanks for your help.

Bill

[bgravato]

What host, playback and recording devices do you have selected in audacity's preferences? From others comments I believe ubuntu uses pulseaudio and/or jack for the audio, try selecting that in the devices section in audacity's preferences.

[ka1ssr]

I haven't changed the device preferences since the upgrade. The host is set to ALSA, the record and playback devices are set to the sound card. Setting the devices to pulse result in no change.

[bgravato]

Do you have sound problems in any other app? From the terminal output this seems like permissions problems... and something related to a bluetooth audio device...

If you do not have or use any bluetooth audio device, then try purging bluez-alsa (apt-get purge bluez-alsa). This was suggested in some other forum relating to the "bt_audio_service_open: connect()" problem.

[steve]

The host is set to ALSA, the record and playback devices are set to the sound card.

Try setting it to:
Host: ALSA
Device(s): Default.

Do you have pavolume control installed?
Do you have more than one audio device installed?
What output do you get if you type the following command into a terminal?

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aplay -l

[ka1ssr]

Hi, bgravato!

Thanks for the tip on purging the bluetooth stuff from my system. I'm not running any bluetooth and purging that package got rid of those pesky connect messages. I'm now down to a "Expression 'stream->capture.pcm' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 3653" error. I'm still working on my original problem however.

Many thanks for your help.

Bill

[ka1ssr]

No change with host set to ALSA and devices set to default.

apt-get tells me that I have the latest version of pavolume installed.

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[email protected]:~$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: AudioPCI [Ensoniq AudioPCI], device 0: ES1371/1 [ES1371 DAC2/ADC]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: AudioPCI [Ensoniq AudioPCI], device 1: ES1371/2 [ES1371 DAC1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Bill

[steve]

I don't think I have pavolume installed. Is that the same as the volume control applet?

Sorry, I got the name wrong - I meant "pavucontrol" - the "PulseAudio volume control (not the Gnome/Alsa volume control). Pavucontrol is not just a volume control, it is also used for configuring the playback streams in and out of your audio hardware.

From a bit of Googling it seems that you are not alone - there's quite a few people with the same problem with Ensoniq ES1371 after upgrading Debian based distro's.
As far as I can make out it is because alsaconf and asoundconf are no longer in the repositories. http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/pkg-alsa/tru ... ebian/NEWS

I've not found any solutions yet (other than do a clean install of Ubuntu), but it looks like the problem is that Ubuntu/Debian/... do not install the Ensoniq sound card correctly through the current upgrade.

If you type into a terminal;

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lsmod

you will get a list of loaded modules. "snd-ens1371" should be in the list.
If it isn't, you can try reloading the module with;

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modprobe -r snd-ens1371 && modprobe snd-ens1371

[ka1ssr]

Ha! Progress!

I did a little reading on the Ubuntu foru,s and found a dated tutorial (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=205449)
on dealing with sound issues. Basically what I did was modprobe snd-ens1371 and now I can monitor the input on the VU
meter. arecord seems to be working as well. I added the module to /etc/modules. Joy!

My problem now is the cursor doesn't move when I record. Also, I still have the playback problem where about 4 seconds of audio is played before stopping.

Would building the svn version help?

Thanks for getting me this far.

Bill

[bgravato]

It's always recommended to install the package available from the distro's repositories... If that's version 1.3.12 it's pretty recent and you probably won't see any improvement in using the svn version... I think there has been more threads here about the "stopping after 4 seconds" problem... try browsing the forum for that.

I'm a bit on a hurry now, but I'll try to take a look at it later...