Kristoffer Gustafsson wrote: > Hi. > since I've got so much problems with alsa I'm thinking of switching to > another distribution than debian. > do you think this will help? Hi Kristoffer, It's going to be similar in any distribution. It's the same libraries, ALSA, JACK, Pulse Audio, naming the big three. Many technical details about the soundcards and audio devices are to be found by browsing the /proc/asound directory tree. > I get so much problems all the time. > suddnely it just stops working. no sound at all. it just says "jack > server not running and cannot be started" You need to have JACK properly configured and started. Diagnosing at the ALSA level comes before that. The soundcard is a resource, and if it is grabbed by software at the ALSA, JACK or pulse level, other processes just don't get it. When repeatedly trying something that doesn't appear to work, you might have zombie processes hanging around, maybe one of them has your soundcard. In Windows you would classically reboot to resolve such problems, although it can usually be resolved in the task manager. In Linux, you don't usually have to reboot. You do have to keep an eye which processes are running, e.g. ps ax . (It also helps to watch the output of top, if you suspect any processes are excessively consuming CPU.) > then I'll have to remove very much things, and then reinstall. > then it works. > I get so tired of this. is it worth trying another distro? In addition to the audio layers mentioned above, and all their complexities, jessie defaults to running systemd as the top-level process manager. It is possible to upgrade across to Devuan jessie, debian jessie without with systemd libraries. You just have to paste in some new entries into /etc/apt/sources.list. But I would delay doing this. Solve your audio problems first if possible. You just have to work on issues, starting at the lowest level. Distros shipping with pulse audio make it easy for people when it works, however, it may be necessary to stop or remove pulse audio to confirm audio functioning at the ALSA level. In my previous mail, I suggested a couple of ALSA-level tests. There is also several mailing lists devoted to Linux, with great help available, but you have to be willing to try stuff at the terminal. For unmuting I/O, setting capture and tweaking levels, alsamixer is useful, but the ncurses interface it uses might need some detective work to use with a braille reader. That leaves amixer, which can serve. (Referencing your previous mails, there is a problem with your distribution or installation if you don't have amixer or alsamixer. ) That ALSA mixer settings can easily block normally expected functioning of your system.... just like a real mixer... you have to look for the relevant sliders and mute buttons. JACK, if the daemon process jackd is started, will try to grab the appropriate audio device. If it succeeds, everything JACK can connect promiscuously. That lets people involved in audio processing build their workflow by plugging together various programs and utilities. To get the most from JACK, parameters must be set somewhere, 'man jackd' for the most direct approach. That is the JACK world, and much of the best of linux audio is JACK aware. After you get the basic audio working, I can offer some suggestions for multitrack recording :-) cheers, Joel > /Kristoffer > > _______________________________________________ > Blinux-list mailing list > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list -- Joel Roth _______________________________________________ Blinux-list mailing list Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list