[SOLVED] Unknown driver "alsa": Jack/Alsa suddenly not playing nice

Optimize your system for ultimate performance.

Moderators: MattKingUSA, khz

Skippy
Established Member
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2019 3:19 pm

[SOLVED] Unknown driver "alsa": Jack/Alsa suddenly not playing nice

Post by Skippy »

Hi all,

Firstly, I'm using Xubuntu-core 16.04 and working on audio with Bitwig Studio. For hardware, I have an old Hoontech DSP24 eight channel audio interface. It's great and working fine. Or was. The card is referred to as an 'ICE1712' device or 'DSP24'. The first time I used the Hoontech on the Xubuntu box, it 'just worked'. No diddling around necessary. Ditto with Jack. First time I launched it, it just worked; saw the Hoontech and all its ports (has MIDI ports, too). Until about [s]three[/s] five days ago.

Some background. I have been using QJackctl to start and use jack. Everything was working beautifully. Working late one night on something, closed down the computer with droopy eyes, get up inspired the next day to continue work, boot up and Jack and ALSA are no longer talking to each other. Haven't been able to play a note or creat anything since.

Thing is, I didn't fiddle or tweak any file prior to this happening. Everything was working perfectly so no need. Wasn't digging around in code or changing files. Was just sitting there working and then closed down, switched the machine off, switched it back on the next day, chaos.

The only thing I can think of at this point is that when I closed down, I left something open and that, in turn, has left something hanging and I can't find what. I was playing with Ardour that night as never dug around much there and had it and Bitwig open at the same time at one point.

Is it possible that I have stopped jack and quit QJackctl while Ardour, or something else, was still open and this has broken something? I was also playing around with Audacity for a bit with both Ardour and Bitwig open at one stage. I definitely stopped and started QJackctl a number of time during the session with Ardour open (Bitwig is very robust and solid and is not effected by that, don't know about Ardour or Audacity).

I was also playing around with Drumgizmo that night (which I couldn't get to work) and I downloaded and fiddled with Pianoteq (brilliant), just in case that sets alarm bells ringing for someone re. Jack conflicts/anomalies/issues.

To what actually happens. When I launch QJackctl, this is what I get in the 'Messages' window.

Code: Select all

00:50:43.659 Logging started --- Mon Feb 18 00:50:43 2019 ---
00:50:43.695 Statistics reset.
00:50:43.702 ALSA connection change.
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
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
00:50:43.741 ALSA connection graph change.
When I now click 'Start' in QJackctl, I get the following.

Code: Select all

00:52:17.784 /usr/bin/jackd -dalsa -r48000 -p256 -n2 -D -Chw:DSP24 -Phw:DSP24,2
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
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
Unknown driver "alsa"
jackdmp 1.9.11
Copyright 2001-2005 Paul Davis and others.
Copyright 2004-2014 Grame.
jackdmp comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; see the file COPYING for details
00:52:18.007 JACK was started with PID=6658.
00:52:18.013 JACK was stopped
00:52:20.020 Could not connect to JACK server as client. - Overall operation failed. - Unable to connect to server. Please check the messages window for more info.
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
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
And Jack, obviously, doesn't start. This is the line that has me totally bemused.

Code: Select all

Unknown driver "alsa"
Now, if I open a terminal and ...

Code: Select all

jack_control start
... jack seems to start (no error in terminal). If I then hit 'Start' in QJackctl, I get this in 'Messages'.

Code: Select all

01:04:37.897 JACK connection change.
01:04:37.900 Client activated.
01:04:37.900 Patchbay deactivated.
01:04:38.113 JACK connection graph change.
But ... and it's a big one; when I click 'Connect' in QJackctl, under 'Audio' there is 'System', but under system I only have two output and two input ports; all the rest are missing. This suggest to me QJackctl is seeing and using the regular consumer audio card in the computer, NOT the 8 channel audio interface, as this two channel 'system' is an interface I am totally unfamiliar with.

The whole system has always used the Hoontech and QJackctl has always showed the audio interface's ports which ends up being eight audio ins and eight audio outs under 'Audio' and the MIDI ports under the 'MIDI' tab. I've never used internal audio for anything (it is switched off in the BIOS in fact). The only thing QJackctl can be seeing/using is the Hoontech 'consumer' audio card physically in the computer and its two channels.

Bit more detail on the Hoontech: there are three bits of hardware: the audio interface with its eight ins/outs/midi plugs into its own PCI card in the computer and attached to that PCI card is a regular little consumer type card (that sits in another PCI slot, but is not plugged into the computer, if you follow, but the bigger PCI audio card). I have never used the smaller consumer card, it is just there, but now it pops up out of nowhere!

I have a feeling this could be related to Jack not finding Alsa because Alsa seems to be seeing the DSP24 and all of its ins/outs/MIDI ports.

Any ideas, clues, fixes, magic, spells, voodoo that might get me over this hump would be very much appreciated. I will say that I have tried quite a lot of things, but have avoided doing anything major because I didn't do anything major prior to this happening. I would rather not use an elephant gun to kill a mosquito, if you know what I mean, and figure I can't be too far away from the fix as I haven't done anything to take me too far away from a working, stable setup.

So my question would be, how do I get QJackctl and ALSA playing nice again and get rid of that error message?

Another question would be how do I identify what is using my audio card, if anything, when I try to start jack? As simple as this question may appear, I can find no definitive answer to this online, as so many other things Linux audio. If I could identify for certain whether something else is using the card when and refusing to hand it over I try to start Jack , then I could proceed to figure out how to change that. Any help on that one?

I will add finally that, before all this, when I started jack the card was happily handed over, Pulse shut up and would produce no sound (via Firefox for instance, fine by me) and when I closed Qjackctl, ownership of audio went straight back to Pulse. All in order there, as it should be, perfect. Oh, for the good old days!

All ideas welcome. :(
Last edited by Skippy on Sun Feb 24, 2019 3:11 pm, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
bluebell
Established Member
Posts: 1909
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2012 11:44 am
Location: Saarland, Germany
Has thanked: 111 times
Been thanked: 116 times

Re: Unknown driver "alsa": Jack/Alsa suddenly not playing nice

Post by bluebell »

I'd say your jackd is broken.

I'd reinstall the jackd package.

Linux – MOTU UltraLite AVB – Qtractor – http://suedwestlicht.saar.de/

Skippy
Established Member
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2019 3:19 pm

Re: Unknown driver "alsa": Jack/Alsa suddenly not playing nice

Post by Skippy »

Thanks for your input, bluebell. My thoughts exactly and I have re-installed jackd a number of times. No different. Exactly the same error message(s) and state every time. I have removed, purged, completely removed and same. I have reinstalled jackd2 a number of times, done a forced reinstall (I think that's what it was) of Alsa. Still no different.

Maybe I'm missing something when I uninstall jack and there are configuration files that stick around.

I will just mention that I have Envy24Control installed and in there, the right card is being used (2) and everything else looks normal. I am getting a signal on all eight channels. The problem seems to be identified and a communication issue between Jack and Alsa. If Jack could see Alsa, then it would be showing the correct eight channels as that's what Alsa can see. I think! Instead, it's just grabbing what it can, the internal sound card.

Perhaps the DSP24 is being used by something else which is why Jack can't use it. But doesn't explain the 'Unknown driver "alsa"' error.

Days later, desperate to get back to work and I am truly going mad! Time for breakfast then I'll give it another hour. No success and it will be with heavy heart that I'll be installing Bitwig in Windows. After many years of thinking about it, I am trying to move to Linux audio full time, but this has made me awfully reluctant. If this would have happened a day before a gig I'd be screwed. All suggestions greatly accepted.

(I will add that I have been an avid Xubuntu user for over ten years and use it 95% of the time (I have Sibelius in Windows) so Linux far from new to me. :))
User avatar
bluebell
Established Member
Posts: 1909
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2012 11:44 am
Location: Saarland, Germany
Has thanked: 111 times
Been thanked: 116 times

Re: Unknown driver "alsa": Jack/Alsa suddenly not playing nice

Post by bluebell »

Hm, there is some strange Voodoo happening on your machine. The "unknown driver" message could be misleading since error messages don't always name the root cause.

- Is there a ~/.jackdrc leftover?
- Is pulseaudio grabbing the card?
- does "aplay -l" list the card

Linux – MOTU UltraLite AVB – Qtractor – http://suedwestlicht.saar.de/

Skippy
Established Member
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2019 3:19 pm

Re: Unknown driver "alsa": Jack/Alsa suddenly not playing nice

Post by Skippy »

- Is there a ~/.jackdrc leftover?
I have just once more uninstalled jack and reinstalled fresh so the .jackdrc file is fresh; in other words, it is showing the way I have qjackctl setup currently.

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/jackd -dalsa -r44100 -p1024 -n2 -D -Chw:DSP24 -Phw:DSP24
If I now run that in a terminal to try and start Jack, I get the same old error.

Code: Select all

Unknown driver "alsa"
If I try and start jack from qjackctl, I get the usual and the error in red, "Could not connect to JACK server as client. - Overall operation failed. - Unable to connect to server."
- Is pulseaudio grabbing the card?
As I can no longer start Jack after the reinstall, don't know and wouldn't know how to find out if that's what's preventing it. It does seem like something else has control of the DSP24s interface.
- does "aplay -l" list the card
Yes. Here's is the relevant section. The card/device qjackctl seems to be seeing card 2/device 1. It should be device 0 I'd think. A question. Any idea what the six subdevices listed last are?

Code: Select all

card 2: DSP24 [Hoontech SoundTrack Audio DSP24], device 0: ICE1712 multi [ICE1712 multi]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: DSP24 [Hoontech SoundTrack Audio DSP24], device 1: ICE1712 consumer [ICE1712 consumer]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: DSP24 [Hoontech SoundTrack Audio DSP24], device 2: ICE1712 consumer (DS) [ICE1712 consumer (DS)]
  Subdevices: 6/6
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
  Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
  Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Skippy
Established Member
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2019 3:19 pm

Re: Unknown driver "alsa": Jack/Alsa suddenly not playing nice

Post by Skippy »

Re. your question, bluebell, of whether Pulseaudio has control of the card when I start Qjackctl. The answer seems to be yes. The only way I can start Qjackctl is to start jack first in a terminal with ...

Code: Select all

jack_control start
... which I think starts jack using dbus? Read something about that somewhere on the journey. In any case, then I can click start in Qjackctl and it does so, with same errors, and under Audio> System I have the two channel ins/outs. If I then go to Youtube and play a vid, plays with audio no problem. Prior to mystery problem, when I started qjackctl pulse/alsa must have handed the card over because I couldn't even start a vid in Youtube, let alone hear it.

And, ideally, that is the setu I'd like to get back to. Will keep digging. Thanks for your input, bluebell.
Pablo
Established Member
Posts: 1274
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:57 pm
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Unknown driver "alsa": Jack/Alsa suddenly not playing nice

Post by Pablo »

It seems that there are two jack servers trying to run, one being jackdbus and the other jackd (without dbus). To start again, close the music programs and type in a terminal the following command:

Code: Select all

killall -9 jackd jackdbus qjackctl
Run the above twice so that the terminal says:
jackd: no process found
jackdbus: no process found
qjackctl: no process found

Then start again by launching qjackctl and choosing the audio interface you wish (not "default").

In qjackctl, Setup, Misc tab, there are these options "enable dbus interface" and "enable jack dbus interface". I think it is better to enable them. That way, qjackctl will launch jackdbus instead of jackd and, in theory at least, you won't have to worry about pulseaudio.

A useful pair of commands for diagnosis are:

Code: Select all

cat /proc/asound/cards
to see the card numbers (typically, 0 is the onboard, but you will see)
and

Code: Select all

lsof | grep /dev/snd
With the latter, you will see what process owns which card for playback and capture.
For example:
jackdbus /dev/snd/pcmC1D0p
jackdbus /dev/snd/pcmC1D0c

means that jackdbus owns the pcm (sound) of card 1(C1) for playback (p) and the same for capture (c).
Pablo
Established Member
Posts: 1274
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:57 pm
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Unknown driver "alsa": Jack/Alsa suddenly not playing nice

Post by Pablo »

I forgot to say, if jacdkbus is running on the DSP24 card, then in desktop's sound settings (which is a pulseaudio interface) you have to choose "jack sink" as the audio output to get sound from desktop applications, such as firefox (assuming you want to use the DSP24 for that).

EDIT: For this to work, make sure you have installed "pulseaudio-module-jack"

Code: Select all

sudo apt install pulseaudio-module-jack
Skippy
Established Member
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2019 3:19 pm

Re: Unknown driver "alsa": Jack/Alsa suddenly not playing nice

Post by Skippy »

Did this twice ...

Code: Select all

killall -9 jackd jackdbus qjackctl
... and got this second time around.

Code: Select all

jackd: no process found
jackdbus: no process found
qjackctl: no process found
My audio interface is already selected in Qjackctl in/out devices (DSP24; the same selection I have been using for the last three years) and the 'Misc' tab has the options "enable dbus interface" and "enable jack dbus interface" already set (by me some time ago).

From 'lsof | grep /dev/snd' I get ...

Code: Select all

pulseaudi 1890                    bucky  mem       CHR              116,9                  575 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c
pulseaudi 1890                    bucky  mem       CHR              116,8                  574 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
pulseaudi 1890                    bucky   20u      CHR              116,7       0t0        573 /dev/snd/controlC0
pulseaudi 1890                    bucky   27u      CHR              116,7       0t0        573 /dev/snd/controlC0
pulseaudi 1890                    bucky   39u      CHR              116,8       0t0        574 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
pulseaudi 1890                    bucky   40u      CHR              116,9       0t0        575 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c
alsa-sink 1890 1914               bucky  mem       CHR              116,9                  575 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c
alsa-sink 1890 1914               bucky  mem       CHR              116,8                  574 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
alsa-sink 1890 1914               bucky   20u      CHR              116,7       0t0        573 /dev/snd/controlC0
alsa-sink 1890 1914               bucky   27u      CHR              116,7       0t0        573 /dev/snd/controlC0
alsa-sink 1890 1914               bucky   39u      CHR              116,8       0t0        574 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
alsa-sink 1890 1914               bucky   40u      CHR              116,9       0t0        575 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c
alsa-sour 1890 1916               bucky  mem       CHR              116,9                  575 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c
alsa-sour 1890 1916               bucky  mem       CHR              116,8                  574 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
alsa-sour 1890 1916               bucky   20u      CHR              116,7       0t0        573 /dev/snd/controlC0
alsa-sour 1890 1916               bucky   27u      CHR              116,7       0t0        573 /dev/snd/controlC0
alsa-sour 1890 1916               bucky   39u      CHR              116,8       0t0        574 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
alsa-sour 1890 1916               bucky   40u      CHR              116,9       0t0        575 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c
That is without Jack running. With Jack running, it appears in the list but that is it. Doesn't start and qjackctl doesn't start jack.

Unfortunately, none of this made the slightest difference to my issue and when I reboot the machine and launch Qjackctl, I get exactly the same old error message.

Code: Select all

21:45:51.282 Logging started --- Tue Feb 19 21:45:51 2019 ---
21:45:51.311 Statistics reset.
21:45:51.317 ALSA connection change.
21:45:51.319 D-BUS: Service is available (org.jackaudio.service aka jackdbus).
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
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
21:45:51.543 ALSA connection graph change.
What your instructions have achieved is to completely disappear my HDMI entry from Pulseaudio Volume Control> Configuration. I haven't rebooted yet, by I am praying to my lucky stars Pulse restarts and appears again on reboot as I had no intention of killing off pulse permanently and most certainly don't want to do that. The way it was all working previously was perfect for me (start jack, kills pulse; stop jack, pulse starts, all automatic ... I never set it up to do it this way, it just was that way from the very beginning ... until about six days ago now).

What is left in PAVControl> 'Configuration' after your instructions is an entry for my ICE1712. And that's it. When I do try and start jack from Qjackctl by hitting 'Start', I get a whole series of error messages beginning with 'D-BUS: SetParameterValue('driver:nperiods', '2')'. Same as I've been getting for some time now. Perhaps that gives further clues.

So, really appreciate the input, but I'm sorry to say, it hasn't made any difference and I am in the exact same place I've been in for about six days now.

Really curious that things can be working fine with audio one minute, switch machine off and back on nine hours later and Jack doesn't work at all and can't see the audio interface when I do get it to start (even though I have the correct interface set in qjackctl and it is setup in there exactly the way it has been for the last three years). Life's full of little mysteries, I guess! :roll:
Skippy
Established Member
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2019 3:19 pm

Re: Unknown driver "alsa": Jack/Alsa suddenly not playing nice

Post by Skippy »

Further update. Some progress and some success. Kind of.

I unticked 'Enable ALSA Sequencer support' in Qjackctl> Misc, click start in Qjackctl and no errors. Getting somewhere.

Problem is, of course, that I now get now ALSA tab in 'Connections' and under 'Audio> System' the 'System' entry is still showing just two ins/outs rather than the eight on the DSP24 audio interface.

When this was all working I had Settings> Driver: none and 'Enable ALSA Sequencer support' ticked. All was working fine.

Not out of the woods yet, but feeling some ray of hope.

Thanks for your input Pablo (and bluebell). Appreciated. Was starting to feeling pretty lonely battling away with this solo and hitting nothing but brick walls.
Skippy
Established Member
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2019 3:19 pm

Re: Unknown driver "alsa": Jack/Alsa suddenly not playing nice

Post by Skippy »

Scratch my last post. False alarm. I realised after I posted it that I'd started jack with 'jack_control start', which is why I wasn't getting the same errors.

Rebooted machine, open Qjackctl, hit 'Start' and same issues, same errors, nothing changed.

I have a new issue now, though, which has happened after running your commands, Pablo. Not sure which caused it, but am now going to go back and see if I can fix myself. After reboot, my HDMI monitor sound is still missing from Pulseaudio Volume Control> Configuration. I only have ICE1712 in there now and I need the other back. (I use headphones for everything, but watch TV with monitor sound. This was also working perfectly previously; Firefox used the HDMI audio out the monitor speakers and everything else was routed through headphones via PAVControl.

Pablo, please let me know how to reverse whatever command you gave me that made my HDMI entry in PAVC disappear. I don't need that issue as I have plenty enough already! :)

(I am currently running Bitwig with ALSA so I can at least get back to work. Not perfect, but something and has cheered me some.)
Skippy
Established Member
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2019 3:19 pm

Re: Unknown driver "alsa": Jack/Alsa suddenly not playing nice

Post by Skippy »

Apologies, Pablo. Looking back through the commands you gave me, I don't see anything there that would have killed my HDMI entry.

This just gets weirder. Maybe there's a hardware problem somewhere. I'm lost at this point.
User avatar
Linuxmusician01
Established Member
Posts: 1524
Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2015 2:38 pm
Location: Holland
Has thanked: 756 times
Been thanked: 137 times

Re: Unknown driver "alsa": Jack/Alsa suddenly not playing nice

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

Strange problem. Maybe your hard disk got damaged and now ALSA isn't working properly. I do not think that I can solve your problem, but maybe the following trouble shooting procedure can shed a little more light on things...

1. Check if Alsa works and try to play some audio and make sure it comes through your speakers.

2. Like somebody already said: kill pulseaudio and jack to "start over clean":

Code: Select all

pkill -9 jackdbus
killall jackd
pulseaudio --kill      
3. Determine the number of your audio card/audio device and place the output of this commando in this forum:

Code: Select all

cat /proc/asound/cards
4. Let's say that your preferred audio device is 1 (i.e. the second one because the first is number 0).

5. Start Jack without using Qjackctl in a very bare minimum way like this:

Code: Select all

jackd -d alsa --device hw:1
6. Determine if Jack works properly. You may try looking at it's connections in your favorite DAW or Qjackctl. Or simply try to play back some music w/ your DAW. The only Jack friendly DAWs that I work with are Qtractor and Audacity. But I don't understand Adacity's way of selecting Jack's in- and outputs. I like Qtractor better for that.

Good luck! :)


P.S. If your hard disk is indeed damaged back up your data ASAP.
Pablo
Established Member
Posts: 1274
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:57 pm
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Unknown driver "alsa": Jack/Alsa suddenly not playing nice

Post by Pablo »

Hi Skippy, no problem!

Your system seems to be broken. I don't know why.
User avatar
bluebell
Established Member
Posts: 1909
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2012 11:44 am
Location: Saarland, Germany
Has thanked: 111 times
Been thanked: 116 times

Re: Unknown driver "alsa": Jack/Alsa suddenly not playing nice

Post by bluebell »

Simply do a

Code: Select all

jackd --help
on the command line. It should list "alsa" under "Available backends:".

Linux – MOTU UltraLite AVB – Qtractor – http://suedwestlicht.saar.de/

Post Reply