USB Audio Interface JACK Xruns on Linux but not on Windows

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merlyn
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Re: USB Audio Interface JACK Xruns on Linux but not on Windows

Post by merlyn »

It looks like it's what Drumfix said then.

Before you investigate patching the kernel -- 'duplex' mode is for using a different input and output device. If you don't select 'duplex' then the same device is used for input and output.

You also mentioned you had enabled D-bus. You could try deleting ~/.config/rncbc.org/QjackCtl.conf which will reset QjackCtl to its defaults.
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Re: USB Audio Interface JACK Xruns on Linux but not on Windows

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

Drumfix wrote:Then it looks as if ALSA does not use implicit feedback for synchronization of input and output for this device. Changing this requires a kernel patch.
The topic starter uses a "real time kernel" so I don't think he uses the kernel that comes per default installed w/ his distro. Maybe switching back for a few days to the standard kernel might get rid of the xruns if it indeed is a kernel problem. Also bear in mind that the Linux kernel now-a-days is already pretty much low-latency: no real need to use a special low-latency kernel.

Good luck in solving thew problem! :)
vittopascu

Re: USB Audio Interface JACK Xruns on Linux but not on Windows

Post by vittopascu »

merlyn wrote:It looks like it's what Drumfix said then.

Before you investigate patching the kernel -- 'duplex' mode is for using a different input and output device. If you don't select 'duplex' then the same device is used for input and output.

You also mentioned you had enabled D-bus. You could try deleting ~/.config/rncbc.org/QjackCtl.conf which will reset QjackCtl to its defaults.
Hi Merlyn, I don't have any other option than duplex, capture only and playback only. In capture only and playback only I cannot record and monitor at the same time...

I tried to delete the aforementioned file, still without success. I will try to switch back to the generic kernel and see what happens, but again, weird that it happens both on linux mint and ubuntu studio out of the box
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Re: USB Audio Interface JACK Xruns on Linux but not on Windows

Post by merlyn »

I see. It is a while since I used QjackCtl. :)

So @Drumfix is saying the problem is with the ALSA driver for your hardware, which is a kernel module.
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Re: USB Audio Interface JACK Xruns on Linux but not on Windows

Post by merlyn »

You could try using your USB soundcard as an input and the internal soundcard as an output.
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Re: USB Audio Interface JACK Xruns on Linux but not on Windows

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

merlyn wrote:You could try using your USB soundcard as an input and the internal soundcard as an output.
Or one for both?
vittopascu

Re: USB Audio Interface JACK Xruns on Linux but not on Windows

Post by vittopascu »

I tried using my usb interface as input and the on-board sound card as output but I still get xruns, and I cannot go below 10ms latency without having too many to be manageable.

I tried updating to kernel 5.0.16, still no difference.

At this point my conclusion is that the issue lays with how the operating system handles my motherboard or processor, because they are pretty much the only differences against my lenovo w510 that has an intel i7, where everything works fine. If I ever have the chance I'll try to get an old intel platform and see if I can get it to work then.

For now, sadly, I think I will have to give up... :roll:

Thank you all very much for your valuable help, I definitely learned something out of this experience!
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Re: USB Audio Interface JACK Xruns on Linux but not on Windows

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

vittopascu wrote:I tried using my usb interface as input and the on-board sound card as output but I still get xruns, and I cannot go below 10ms latency without having too many to be manageable.

I tried updating to kernel 5.0.16, still no difference.

At this point my conclusion is that the issue lays with how the operating system handles my motherboard or processor, because they are pretty much the only differences against my lenovo w510 that has an intel i7, where everything works fine. If I ever have the chance I'll try to get an old intel platform and see if I can get it to work then.

For now, sadly, I think I will have to give up... :roll:

Thank you all very much for your valuable help, I definitely learned something out of this experience!
Have you tried something as radical as installing a different distro? Lot's of us switch from Ubuntu to, say, OpenSuse within a few hours if things do not work out of the box. However, given the amount of time and energy that you've already invested in this problem I wouldn't take it against you take a break from this though.
vittopascu

Re: USB Audio Interface JACK Xruns on Linux but not on Windows

Post by vittopascu »

Linuxmusician01 wrote:
vittopascu wrote:I tried using my usb interface as input and the on-board sound card as output but I still get xruns, and I cannot go below 10ms latency without having too many to be manageable.

I tried updating to kernel 5.0.16, still no difference.

At this point my conclusion is that the issue lays with how the operating system handles my motherboard or processor, because they are pretty much the only differences against my lenovo w510 that has an intel i7, where everything works fine. If I ever have the chance I'll try to get an old intel platform and see if I can get it to work then.

For now, sadly, I think I will have to give up... :roll:

Thank you all very much for your valuable help, I definitely learned something out of this experience!
Have you tried something as radical as installing a different distro? Lot's of us switch from Ubuntu to, say, OpenSuse within a few hours if things do not work out of the box. However, given the amount of time and energy that you've already invested in this problem I wouldn't take it against you take a break from this though.
You know what? No one wants Linux to be a successful and "all round" OS more than I do and if this is the way I can contribute to the community, then I guess I will try that as a last resort. Any recommendation for a distro that should work well? I am not the distro-hopping king of guy and I have almost run out of time so I need something quick to set up :wink:
vittopascu

Re: USB Audio Interface JACK Xruns on Linux but not on Windows

Post by vittopascu »

I just did a fresh install of manjaro, added all the settings and tweaks that I have learned during this process, and still I get the infamous single periodic xrun with the exact same period as with Mint. At this point I guess it is just a hardware compatibility issue. Sooner or later I will upgrade my system, in the mean time I will either make music on my laptop or boot into windows. :(
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Re: USB Audio Interface JACK Xruns on Linux but not on Windows

Post by Musicteacher »

Hi,

I have read through the whole thread, but I might have overlooked something.

Did you

- set the cpu governor to performance
- prevent the cpu from going into deeper c-states

?

I use intel-cpus, but it seems that things are not too different for amd:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/CP ... requencies

Sorry, just a shot in the dark. Preventing higher c-states made a lot of difference on my system.

REgards,

Andreas
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Re: USB Audio Interface JACK Xruns on Linux but not on Windows

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

vittopascu wrote:I just did a fresh install of manjaro, added all the settings and tweaks that I have learned during this process, and still I get the infamous single periodic xrun with the exact same period as with Mint. At this point I guess it is just a hardware compatibility issue. Sooner or later I will upgrade my system, in the mean time I will either make music on my laptop or boot into windows. :(
I'm afraid that I have to agree w/ you on that. But you didn't give up and made the community wiser. :)
vittopascu

Re: USB Audio Interface JACK Xruns on Linux but not on Windows

Post by vittopascu »

Musicteacher wrote:Hi,

I have read through the whole thread, but I might have overlooked something.

Did you

- set the cpu governor to performance
- prevent the cpu from going into deeper c-states

?

I use intel-cpus, but it seems that things are not too different for amd:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/CP ... requencies

Sorry, just a shot in the dark. Preventing higher c-states made a lot of difference on my system.

REgards,

Andreas
Hi there, thanks for the advice. Yes I already set the governor to performance and all power saving c-states are always disabled in the BIOS because my processor starts whining if they are enabled.

It's a shame that I recently sold a spare motherboard that I had laying around, I could have checked if the motherboard was the problem by swapping it... If anyone here is based in Holland (around Rotterdam) and has a compatible motherboard (AMD fx-8350) we could organize a meeting and run an experiment :wink:
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Re: USB Audio Interface JACK Xruns on Linux but not on Windows

Post by merlyn »

It works on your laptop. Probably you plugged the soundcard into a USB 2 port. So it may be USB 2 works, rather than the laptop.

You could move your mouse, keyboard and everything else onto USB 1 and use USB 2 for the soundcard.
vittopascu

Re: USB Audio Interface JACK Xruns on Linux but not on Windows

Post by vittopascu »

merlyn wrote:It works on your laptop. Probably you plugged the soundcard into a USB 2 port. So it may be USB 2 works, rather than the laptop.

You could move your mouse, keyboard and everything else onto USB 1 and use USB 2 for the soundcard.
The first thing I tried when I started this painful adventure was in fact trying all possible USB combinations, removing all peripherals and so on. No difference. As I posted early in the thread USB2.0 produces hundreds of xruns.
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