I’m a longtime Linux user who recently decided to get into home recording, an area where I know almost nothing.
I bought a Focusrite Scarlett Solo third gen, based on reading it is “plug and play” with Linux.
I use a computer I built for gaming about eight years ago, before I quit gaming when I had a kid:
AMD Athlon 860K Quad Core
16 GB RAM
Nvidia Gtx 960
Dual boot Windows/Linux Mint 21.2
I spent an evening trying to get the Solo to work in Windows Mint, but instead it ended up making it where I was getting no sound at all, even from computer speakers hooked to motherboard audio port.
The Solo works in windows, so it isn’t a hardware or BIOS issue, but I avoid Windows as much as possible.
I then installed Ubuntu Studio 22.04 on a new partition on the hard drive. I like everything about the Distro, except I still can’t get the Solo to work. I’ve followed tutorials and tried setting up Jack with both Studio Controls and QjackCtl.
If I stop Jack, I can get audio from sources like YouTube to play through the headphone Jack on the Solo. If I start Jack, I get no audio from the computer or the Solo when I attempt using either a guitar or microphone connected to the Solo. I’ve made sure volume isn’t turned off on QasMixer.
In terminal, it shows me having three soundcards – the generic one on the motherboard, Pulseaudio Jack, and the Nvidia GPU. Could the GPU be causing me problems?
With Jack running, if I look at the Graph in QjackCtl, it shows Jack System capture_1 and capture_2 connecting to front-left and front-right of PulseAudio Jack source. And it shows PulseAudio Jack sink front-left and front-right connecting to Jack System playback_1 and playback_2. Then there are some Alsa Midi-throughs Jack generic captures and playbacks that aren’t connected to anything.
I don’t know what else I need to do. If I talk into microphone or strum guitar, I see the green lights turn on on the front of the Solo telling me it is getting a signal.