Multimedia players through jack in ubuntu karmic and lucid
Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 9:22 pm
This thread tries to gather the tricks to jackify some popular media players to have them working with Jack instead of resorting to alsa-jack or pulse-jack plugins, or just using another card.
I am not discovering nothing, just gathering. Thanks to you who posted here and there how to jackify your favourite one and of course and above all, to all the developers involved.
These instructions are tested in ubuntu / ubuntustudio 9.10 and 10.04 although the method will be similar in some cases for other versions / distributions. When the contrary is not said, all the packages are installed from the ubuntu official repos, through synaptic or similar method.
The idea behind this guide is not evaluating players, but rather, say, "if one of these is your favourite one, here you have how to jackify it". I hope the list grows.
In some cases, the player outputs will auto-connect to the system:playbacks, some others we will have to connect them manually in qjackctl or patchage. Some of them will only show their ports while playing and they will disappear when the transport is stopped. Some others are more jack-friendly and their ports will be visible as long as the applications is on. For the first ones there is a trick so we can make connections: Play and pause, the same trick we can use with Audacity.
Audacious
karmic:
Install "audacious-plugins-extra". Launch jack, launch audacious, right click on the top frame, preferences, Audio, select: Jack output plugin.
lucid:
audacious-plugins-extra doesn't exist. the jack plugin is included in audacious-plugins which is an audacious dependency. In short, the jack plugin is there out of the box. Of course, you have to select the jack output plugin as the above instructions
Rhythmbox
karmic and lucid:
Install "gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad"
Run (Alt + F2 o from terminal) 'gconf-editor'. Search .../system/gstreamer/0.10/default/ give the vaule: 'jackaudiosink' to the names: 'audiosink', 'chataudiosink' and 'musicaudiosink'. If we don't want rhythmbox to autoconnect to the system:p'laybacks, write: 'jackaudiosink connect=none'
Alternatively, as Auto points out, simply run "gstreamer-properties". In the Audio tab, Default Output, select the Custom plugin and enter "jackaudiosink" (no quotes) in the Pipeline field.
Exaile
karmic and lucid:
Exaile uses gstreamer too, so do the same as with Rhythmbox. In adition, go to Edit->Preferences->Playback and make sure that "Audio Sink" is jack.
VLC
karmic and lucid:
Install 'vlc-plugin-jack'.
In Tools->Preferences->Audio, choose Jack output.
If we wish that the outs auto-connect to the system playbacks, we edit:
gedit ~/.config/vlc/vlcrc
Search for these lines:
# Automatically connect to writable clients (boolean)
#jack-auto-connect=0
Change the second line to:
jack-auto-connect=1
Mplayer / gmplayer
karmic and lucid:
From the terminal, we can specify the jack output with:
mplayer -ao jack foo
for an audio or video file called "foo"
We can have this permanently by editing:
gedit ~/.mplayer/config
And adding the line:
ao=jack
This way we can use mplayer from CLI, just doing
mplayer foo
karmic:
However, this is not enough for launching mplayer by rightclicking on the file, (at least in gnome, this invokes gmplayer). So we edit:
gedit ~/.mplayer/gui.conf
and replace:
ao_driver = "pulse,alsa,sdl:aalib"
with:
ao_driver = "jack"
(In both files we can also write, "jack, alsa" or "jack, pulse" instead of "jack", so that alsa or pulse is a second option if jack is not active)
lucid: We just need the mplayer-gui package. There is no ~/.mplayer/gui.conf
Aqualung
karmic and lucid:
Nothing to do. If Jack is active it will work with Jack, if not, with pulse or alsa.
Amarok
karmic:
Amarok uses xine audio engine. libxine in ubuntu doesn't include jack support. We can add Motin's PPA for karmic:
https://launchpad.net/~motin/+archive/u ... ed-in-main
Just follow the instructions and add this repository to your list and get the signing key
In synaptic, reload and search and update "libxine1-plugins". This will install some related dependencies.
In amarok, Settings->Configure Amarok-> Playback -> Sound System Configure -> Audio Output -> Music, select Jack Audio Connection Kit and raise it to the top with the "Prefer" push button.
We can do the same for the rest of audio outputs, although I think amarok will only care for the Music one. This way we configure xine for other kinds of output (see kaffeine).
lucid:
Not tested.
Kaffeine
karmic:
It also uses xine. If we chose Jack for the Video output in the amarok configuration (actually, xine configuration) it will just work.
lucid:
Not tested
flashplayer (youtube, vimeo, myspace...)
karmic and lucid:
it could be a deb somewhere, but we also can do:
Install:
build-essential
git-core
autoconf
automake
libtool
libasound2-dev
libjack-dev
libsamplerate0-dev
libssl-dev
Form a terminal:
mkdir src (optional)
cd src (optional)
git clone git://repo.or.cz/libflashsupport-jack.git
cd libflashsupport-jack
sh bootstrap.sh
make
sudo make install
For ubuntu lucid, I needed to do a symbolic link, like this:
sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libflashsupport.so /usr/lib/firefox-3.6.3/
For karmic, this might be needed too:
sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libflashsupport.so /usr/lib/firefox-3.5.9/
If somethins goes wrong with firefox, while these tweaks:
killall firefox
and, possibly:
killall firefox-bin
And launch it again
Mixxx
karmic:
We need portaudio19 with jack support. If we enable Motin's PPA (see Amarok) we can update "libportaudio2"
In Mixxx, Options->Preferences, "Jack Audio Connection Kit" as Sound API.
lucid:
No extra repo needed as Jack is already included in main! Choose Jack in the preferences as explained above.
Collateral benefits
karmic:
Thanks to this portaudio version we have jack support for Mscore
Not achieved:
TOTEM:
karmic:
It uses gstreamer, but strangely for me, the hack to gstreamer that works with rhytmhbox and exaile doesn't work with totem. Any ideas?
lucid:
It works
FIREFOX plugins :
I can't get them working inside firefox. As an alternative, I open multimedia files with /usr/bin/vlc (Preferences). Any ideas?
Any more players? Any comments?
Cheers! pablo
I am not discovering nothing, just gathering. Thanks to you who posted here and there how to jackify your favourite one and of course and above all, to all the developers involved.
These instructions are tested in ubuntu / ubuntustudio 9.10 and 10.04 although the method will be similar in some cases for other versions / distributions. When the contrary is not said, all the packages are installed from the ubuntu official repos, through synaptic or similar method.
The idea behind this guide is not evaluating players, but rather, say, "if one of these is your favourite one, here you have how to jackify it". I hope the list grows.
In some cases, the player outputs will auto-connect to the system:playbacks, some others we will have to connect them manually in qjackctl or patchage. Some of them will only show their ports while playing and they will disappear when the transport is stopped. Some others are more jack-friendly and their ports will be visible as long as the applications is on. For the first ones there is a trick so we can make connections: Play and pause, the same trick we can use with Audacity.
Audacious
karmic:
Install "audacious-plugins-extra". Launch jack, launch audacious, right click on the top frame, preferences, Audio, select: Jack output plugin.
lucid:
audacious-plugins-extra doesn't exist. the jack plugin is included in audacious-plugins which is an audacious dependency. In short, the jack plugin is there out of the box. Of course, you have to select the jack output plugin as the above instructions
Rhythmbox
karmic and lucid:
Install "gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad"
Run (Alt + F2 o from terminal) 'gconf-editor'. Search .../system/gstreamer/0.10/default/ give the vaule: 'jackaudiosink' to the names: 'audiosink', 'chataudiosink' and 'musicaudiosink'. If we don't want rhythmbox to autoconnect to the system:p'laybacks, write: 'jackaudiosink connect=none'
Alternatively, as Auto points out, simply run "gstreamer-properties". In the Audio tab, Default Output, select the Custom plugin and enter "jackaudiosink" (no quotes) in the Pipeline field.
Exaile
karmic and lucid:
Exaile uses gstreamer too, so do the same as with Rhythmbox. In adition, go to Edit->Preferences->Playback and make sure that "Audio Sink" is jack.
VLC
karmic and lucid:
Install 'vlc-plugin-jack'.
In Tools->Preferences->Audio, choose Jack output.
If we wish that the outs auto-connect to the system playbacks, we edit:
gedit ~/.config/vlc/vlcrc
Search for these lines:
# Automatically connect to writable clients (boolean)
#jack-auto-connect=0
Change the second line to:
jack-auto-connect=1
Mplayer / gmplayer
karmic and lucid:
From the terminal, we can specify the jack output with:
mplayer -ao jack foo
for an audio or video file called "foo"
We can have this permanently by editing:
gedit ~/.mplayer/config
And adding the line:
ao=jack
This way we can use mplayer from CLI, just doing
mplayer foo
karmic:
However, this is not enough for launching mplayer by rightclicking on the file, (at least in gnome, this invokes gmplayer). So we edit:
gedit ~/.mplayer/gui.conf
and replace:
ao_driver = "pulse,alsa,sdl:aalib"
with:
ao_driver = "jack"
(In both files we can also write, "jack, alsa" or "jack, pulse" instead of "jack", so that alsa or pulse is a second option if jack is not active)
lucid: We just need the mplayer-gui package. There is no ~/.mplayer/gui.conf
Aqualung
karmic and lucid:
Nothing to do. If Jack is active it will work with Jack, if not, with pulse or alsa.
Amarok
karmic:
Amarok uses xine audio engine. libxine in ubuntu doesn't include jack support. We can add Motin's PPA for karmic:
https://launchpad.net/~motin/+archive/u ... ed-in-main
Just follow the instructions and add this repository to your list and get the signing key
In synaptic, reload and search and update "libxine1-plugins". This will install some related dependencies.
In amarok, Settings->Configure Amarok-> Playback -> Sound System Configure -> Audio Output -> Music, select Jack Audio Connection Kit and raise it to the top with the "Prefer" push button.
We can do the same for the rest of audio outputs, although I think amarok will only care for the Music one. This way we configure xine for other kinds of output (see kaffeine).
lucid:
Not tested.
Kaffeine
karmic:
It also uses xine. If we chose Jack for the Video output in the amarok configuration (actually, xine configuration) it will just work.
lucid:
Not tested
flashplayer (youtube, vimeo, myspace...)
karmic and lucid:
it could be a deb somewhere, but we also can do:
Install:
build-essential
git-core
autoconf
automake
libtool
libasound2-dev
libjack-dev
libsamplerate0-dev
libssl-dev
Form a terminal:
mkdir src (optional)
cd src (optional)
git clone git://repo.or.cz/libflashsupport-jack.git
cd libflashsupport-jack
sh bootstrap.sh
make
sudo make install
For ubuntu lucid, I needed to do a symbolic link, like this:
sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libflashsupport.so /usr/lib/firefox-3.6.3/
For karmic, this might be needed too:
sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libflashsupport.so /usr/lib/firefox-3.5.9/
If somethins goes wrong with firefox, while these tweaks:
killall firefox
and, possibly:
killall firefox-bin
And launch it again
Mixxx
karmic:
We need portaudio19 with jack support. If we enable Motin's PPA (see Amarok) we can update "libportaudio2"
In Mixxx, Options->Preferences, "Jack Audio Connection Kit" as Sound API.
lucid:
No extra repo needed as Jack is already included in main! Choose Jack in the preferences as explained above.
Collateral benefits
karmic:
Thanks to this portaudio version we have jack support for Mscore
Not achieved:
TOTEM:
karmic:
It uses gstreamer, but strangely for me, the hack to gstreamer that works with rhytmhbox and exaile doesn't work with totem. Any ideas?
lucid:
It works
FIREFOX plugins :
I can't get them working inside firefox. As an alternative, I open multimedia files with /usr/bin/vlc (Preferences). Any ideas?
Any more players? Any comments?
Cheers! pablo