Audacity will open its GUI, but everything beyond leads to system crash

[steve]

If it's makefiles and command-line utils I'll be right at home.

Great, you'll be right at home then

Although not released yet, we are currently on the release candidates for Audacity 2.3.0, so you may as well go for this version.
There have been some significant changes to the build environment since I last wrote step-by-step instructions (we've updated from WxWidgets 3.0.2 to 3.1.1), but I'm planning to write a new step-by-step guide for Ubuntu later today. The instructions should be very much the same for Mint.

A few prerequisites that you can do in the meantime:
1) Ensure that in your sources list you have "Source Code" enabled.
2) Install "git" and "build-essential"
3) Ensure that your system is fully updated.

Catch you later.

[vandoornw]

OK - the prerequisites are done.

If nothing else, I'll be a good guinea pig for the build procedure on Mint, as it'll be totally from scratch.

It's going to be interesting. And thanks again for looking at my problems. Much appreciated.

Wouter

[steve]

and here is the step by step guide: viewtopic.php?p=354753#p354753

Official documentation may be found in these links:
https://github.com/audacity/audacity/bl ... /build.txt
https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Building_On_Linux

[vandoornw]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for that! That'll keep me occupied for a while. I'll report back in case of issues I can't solve, or with the behaviour of the resulting executable.

One thing I'd like to know first, though. I was used to the windows version, and that did not have significant delays other than a bit at first start-up. Are those normal under Linux, or are they the symptom of something being not happy? The machine locks up for 10+ seconds, ouse pointer won't move or isn't even visible. Then suddenly it goes again.

Best regards,
Wouter

[steve]

One thing I'd like to know first, though. I was used to the windows version, and that did not have significant delays other than a bit at first start-up. Are those normal under Linux, or are they the symptom of something being not happy? The machine locks up for 10+ seconds, ouse pointer won't move or isn't even visible. Then suddenly it goes again.

That's not normal under Linux. As you say, there can be a delay at start up while Audacity looks for plug-ins and audio devices, but then it should run smoothly, and if anything, perhaps a bit snappier on Linux than Windows.

[vandoornw]

Hi Steve,

First about the build steps: that was easy to follow and worked well. If you aim for sheer perfection, I'd suggest the following three changes:
1) remove the '$' prompts in the code section, as they make cop-and-paste less straightforward;
2) insert a # (in two places) where a comment in brackets is present explaining the '-j4' option to make (for the same reason);
3) include the two lines of code that extract the compressed tar archive.
However, it is nitpicking, as I got to a built executable with no mishap at all. I did include the optional parts (lame, ffmpg and jack audio).

Running it before installation was a bit strange, as a lot was missing in the user interface, but no matter, as everything looked normal after install. The first two minutes of running are still riddled with mouse pointer hangs, but eventually it quietens down and is actually functional. So that is good news, and a lot better than where I got to up to now.

The most worrying part is that it quite severely impacts the graphics system. Not only when running (the 'damaged pixesl' are not there now, but the window can suddenly start flickering and displaying partial black areas) but even when the run is terminated that continues - desktop, other open windows, nothing's unaffected. licking here or there can make it temporarily go away, but it'll be back until a restart.

Still, definitely progress!

Wouter

[steve]

1) remove the '$' prompts in the code section, as they make cop-and-paste less straightforward;

That was intentional

I'm not suggesting that this applies to you, but it is very common for people with little experience of code, to blindly copy and paste without paying sufficient attention to what they are doing. Obviously that can be dangerous. By making it a little harder to copy / paste, people will hopefully slow down a bit and pay a bit more attention to what they are doing.

2) insert a # (in two places) where a comment in brackets is present explaining the '-j4' option

Good idea.
Would you put that before or after "-j4" ?

3) include the two lines of code that extract the compressed tar archive.

Personally I just double click on the archive and use the default GUI archive manager.
I would hope that anyone attempting to build Audacity from source knows at least one way to extract an archive.
Also, the exact commands vary depending on which archive manager is installed (which may very depending on the flavour of Ubuntu / Mint / Debian.

Running it before installation was a bit strange, as a lot was missing in the user interface,

That's odd. I know that a couple of bits are missing (such as the default EQ curves), but on the whole I think it should look pretty much the same as a fully installed version.
If you still have your build folder, do you still see bits missing when you launch it from the build folder? If so, could you post a screen shot and I'll investigate.

The most worrying part is that it quite severely impacts the graphics system. Not only when running (the 'damaged pixesl' are not there now, but the window can suddenly start flickering and displaying partial black areas) but even when the run is terminated that continues - desktop, other open windows, nothing's unaffected. licking here or there can make it temporarily go away, but it'll be back until a restart.

I'm going back to my original analysis. I think you've got flaky graphics drivers, or some related problem with the graphics system.

For some graphics cards (notably Nvidia), there is an option for using either open source drivers (created by the Linux community), or closed source drivers provided by the manufacturer. Usually, (but not always), the closed source drivers work best, but a clean Linux installation will often load the open source drivers by default. Check to see what drivers you are using, and if there is an alternative. (Do be careful. Ubuntu has a special utility for handling this - if Mint does, use that: http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/drivers)

[vandoornw]

...before or after "-j4" ?
I think I'd remove the 4, so I'd follow the j with space and hash, then the explanation with 'example: -j4. That way clueless cut-and-paste would lead to an error.

Take the point about the different ways of untarring, and also about the prompts ($). FOr instance, I'd never have thought of untarring via anything but command-line...!

---

I still have the build folder, and starting audacity from there now works the same as via the menu. It was just the first time (note: BEFORE install had been done!) that it was very different. The whole row that normally contains the record, play, pause buttons and all that wasn't there. Ah, well. I'm not worrying about that one.

WHat I am worrying about is the graphics stuff. The driver manager doesn't give me any video driver options. All it says is that ther's microcode available for the CPU. And I see that a *lot* of people have that same problem. Don't know what to do about it, as I didn't see anything that looked remotely like a solution on the forums.

If it helps at all, inxi has this to say (which tells me very little):

Code: Select all

Graphics:  Card: Intel Sky Lake Integrated Graphics bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: [email protected]
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 520 (Skylake GT2)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 18.0.5 Direct Rendering: Yes

I believe I said nvidia earlier - sorry, my mistake.

[steve]

Card: Intel Sky Lake Integrated Graphics

Does that use i965-va-driver?
If so, which version do you have, and which kernel version?

[vandoornw]

Yes, it's the i915 driver. The /var/log/Xorg.0.log reports it as

Code: Select all

Using Kernel Mode Setting driver: i915, version 1.6.0 20171023

The kernel itself is (as promised!) up to date: 4.15.0-34

My quest has taken me to a suggestion that seems to be fixing the most horrible part of the graphics problem (theone that continues after ending Audacity). Anyone in the same boat might want to try this if the file does not exist:

Code: Select all

sudo cat >>/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf <<E_O_F
Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
   Driver      "intel"
   Option      "AccelMethod"  "sna"
   Option      "TearFree"    "true"
   Option      "DRI"    "3"
EndSection
E_O_F

That did not help against the last two issues, which I can ignore:
1) the first two minutes Audacity needs to be left well alone as it'll freeze and unfreeze time and again
2) the main display contains damaged areas.
That damage does not impede the Audacity's function - it now seems reliable! And once those initial freezes are over and done with, nothing like it happens afterwards.

Thank you very much for the help - couldn't have got here without you. If you're not happy with this result (even though I am content enough), then I can perform any tests you like within reason.