Constant crashes

[jh90s]

I don't know why, but Audacity 2.2.1 keeps on crashing after maybe 10 minutes of usage. I end up having to open a terminal and kill the process and re-open and then recover the session. Why is it so unstable?

[steve]

Try setting the recording and playback setting to the "hw" options in the device toolbar, that correspond with the audio device that you are using. That will set Audacity to use the device directly through ALSA, bypassing PulseAudio, and should resolve the stability problems.

[machineghost]

Try un-maximizing Audacity. I know this sounds dumb, but I read someone else suggest it in another forum and it totally stopped the random crashes for me.

[mxdxz]

Try setting the recording and playback setting to the "hw" options in the device toolbar, that correspond with the audio device that you are using. That will set Audacity to use the device directly through ALSA, bypassing PulseAudio, and should resolve the stability problems.

FWIW, this workaround doesn't seem to work for me. I have several hw entries, all of which I have checked, and none of which produce any sound.
I only get the sound when I pick pulse or default. I also checked that none of the channels are muted in alsamixer.

Screenshot_20180919_100609.png (14.03 KiB) Viewed 4515 times

[steve]

FWIW, this workaround doesn't seem to work for me. I have several hw entries, all of which I have checked, and none of which produce any sound.

The default sound card (the one that you would expect to work) is hw:0,0.
I see that is not listed in the device toolbar, which indicates that it is probably being used by some other software.
Try logging out and back in again, then launch Audacity before any other applications and see if hw:0,0 is available.

Note that if Pulse Audio Volume Control is open, then PulseAudio will grab exclusive access to hw:0,0 so it will be unavailable to Audacity. Same goes for "Sound Settings" (which is usually based on Pulse Audio Volume Control).

[mxdxz]

Note that if Pulse Audio Volume Control is open, then PulseAudio will grab exclusive access to hw:0,0 so it will be unavailable to Audacity. Same goes for "Sound Settings" (which is usually based on Pulse Audio Volume Control).

That must have been it. Thanks steve!

[steve]

That must have been it. Thanks steve!

So is it working now?
Say what you did to fix it - that could help others.

[mxdxz]

Well, as you said, I made sure that pavucontrol is not running, and now I do see the hw:0,0 device and it works.

As for the crashes, I haven't observed them since I switched to ALSA, but it hasn't been that long.

[steve]

Thanks for the update.

[mxdxz]

Today I had a particularly hard time making hw:0,0 show up in Audacity, so I discovered a simple and reliable solution: pasuspender. Simply run

Code: Select all

pasuspender audacity