Problems setting up JACK with Focusrite Scarlett 2i2

[Kse]

Greeting guys!

I recently got my Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 and am trying to setup JACK to use it as an audio interface (or at least input device). I am running the latest Ubuntu distribution (16.04). Here's what I've done so far:

>Edited the ulimit configuration so that it allows me as a user and the audio group (which I put myself in) realtime priority and unlimited memory lockup

>Disabled pulseaudio's autospawn so that I can kill it when I run QjackCtl. I don't think I'm gonna need to run them both at the same time.

However, when i try to start JACK through QjackCtl, it fails to start the DBus server, giving me the following error message:

14:41:42.272 Statistics reset.
14:41:42.290 ALSA connection change.
14:41:42.315 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 4294967295, skipping unlock
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for 4294967295, skipping unlock
14:41:42.349 ALSA connection graph change.
14:41:43.706 D-BUS: JACK server could not be started. Sorry
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 4294967295, skipping unlock
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for 4294967295, skipping unlock
Sun Jun 19 14:41:43 2016: Starting jack server...
Sun Jun 19 14:41:43 2016: JACK server starting in realtime mode with priority 10
Sun Jun 19 14:41:43 2016: self-connect-mode is "Don't restrict self connect requests"
Sun Jun 19 14:41:43 2016: Acquired audio card Audio2
Sun Jun 19 14:41:43 2016: Acquired audio card Audio0
Sun Jun 19 14:41:43 2016: creating alsa driver ... hw:PCH|hw:USB|1024|2|44100|0|0|nomon|swmeter|-|32bit
Sun Jun 19 14:41:43 2016: configuring for 44100Hz, period = 1024 frames (23.2 ms), buffer = 2 periods
Sun Jun 19 14:41:43 2016: ALSA: final selected sample format for capture: 32bit integer little-endian
Sun Jun 19 14:41:43 2016: ALSA: use 2 periods for capture
Sun Jun 19 14:41:43 2016: ERROR: ALSA: cannot set hardware parameters for capture
Sun Jun 19 14:41:43 2016: ERROR: ALSA: cannot configure capture channel
Sun Jun 19 14:41:43 2016: ERROR: Cannot initialize driver
Sun Jun 19 14:41:43 2016: ERROR: JackServer::Open failed with -1
Sun Jun 19 14:41:43 2016: ERROR: Failed to open server
Sun Jun 19 14:41:44 2016: Saving settings to "/home/kse/.config/jack/conf.xml" ...
14:41:48.378 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 4294967295, skipping unlock
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for 4294967295, skipping unlock

The problem seems to be in these two lines

Sun Jun 19 14:41:43 2016: ERROR: ALSA: cannot set hardware parameters for capture
Sun Jun 19 14:41:43 2016: ERROR: ALSA: cannot configure capture channel

So I'm assuming something's wrong with the connection of ALSA and Scarlett 2i2. After quite a lot of searching, and seeing as I'm very new to the linux environment, I really don't know how to fix this so I thought I'd ask you guys. Thanks in advance!

Edit: Also the interface option in QjackCtl's setup is now greyed out, I'm not sure what i did to cause this.

[MattKingUSA]

I've used a 2i2 in the past and it always just worked when starting from ardour. Same with the solo I have now. I'm sure there's a simple solution. However I have no useful input other than I know that scarlett stuff typically just works. But I don't use qjackctl to start them. Even patch bay is in ardour.

[sadko4u]

Are you sure that there is no pulseaudio installed on your system?

[Kse]

There is, I just kill it when I run Jack. Also I think the error message was different when I was trying to run Jack with pulseaudio still running.

[sadko4u]

Did you add your user to the 'audio' group? Maybe you have no permissions to access the device.

[Kse]

Yep I did, I mention it in the first post

[CrocoDuck]

Hi!

Give us the outputs of:

Code: Select all

aplay -l
arecord -l
lspci -vnn

[Kse]

aplay -l:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: VT2020 Analog [VT2020 Analog]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: VT2020 Digital [VT2020 Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 2: VT2020 Alt Analog [VT2020 Alt Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

arecord -l:

**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: VT2020 Analog [VT2020 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 2: VT2020 Alt Analog [VT2020 Alt Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: USB [Scarlett 2i2 USB], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

lspci -vnn:

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor DRAM Controller [8086:0150] (rev 09)
Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor DRAM Controller [1458:5000]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Capabilities: [e0] Vendor Specific Information: Len=0c <?>
Kernel driver in use: ivb_uncore
Kernel modules: ie31200_edac

00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor PCI Express Root Port [8086:0151] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 24
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 0000e000-0000efff
Memory behind bridge: f6000000-f70fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000e8000000-00000000f1ffffff
Capabilities: [88] Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor PCI Express Root Port [1458:5000]
Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
Capabilities: [a0] Express Root Port (Slot+), MSI 00
Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel
Capabilities: [140] Root Complex Link
Capabilities: [d94] #19
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:14.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller [8086:1e31] (rev 04) (prog-if 30 [XHCI])
Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller [1458:5007]
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 25
Memory at f7200000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Capabilities: [70] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/8 Maskable- 64bit+
Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd

00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 [8086:1e3a] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller [1458:1c3a]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 27
Memory at f721a000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable)
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [8c] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Kernel driver in use: mei_me
Kernel modules: mei_me

00:1a.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 [8086:1e2d] (rev 04) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller [1458:5006]
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at f7218000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [58] Debug port: BAR=1 offset=00a0
Capabilities: [98] PCI Advanced Features
Kernel driver in use: ehci-pci

00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller [8086:1e20] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller [1458:a014]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 28
Memory at f7210000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [60] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [70] Express Root Complex Integrated Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel
Capabilities: [130] Root Complex Link
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 [8086:1e10] (rev c4) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=0
Capabilities: [40] Express Root Port (Slot+), MSI 00
Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
Capabilities: [90] Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 [1458:5001]
Capabilities: [a0] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1c.4 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 5 [8086:1e18] (rev c4) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=03, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
Memory behind bridge: f7100000-f71fffff
Capabilities: [40] Express Root Port (Slot+), MSI 00
Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
Capabilities: [90] Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 5 [1458:5001]
Capabilities: [a0] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1c.6 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge [8086:244e] (rev c4) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
Bus: primary=00, secondary=04, subordinate=05, sec-latency=0
Capabilities: [40] Express Root Port (Slot+), MSI 00
Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
Capabilities: [90] Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd 82801 PCI Bridge [1458:5001]
Capabilities: [a0] Power Management version 2

00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 [8086:1e26] (rev 04) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller [1458:5006]
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 23
Memory at f7217000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [58] Debug port: BAR=1 offset=00a0
Capabilities: [98] PCI Advanced Features
Kernel driver in use: ehci-pci

00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation H77 Express Chipset LPC Controller [8086:1e4a] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd H77 Express Chipset LPC Controller [1458:5001]
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0
Capabilities: [e0] Vendor Specific Information: Len=0c <?>
Kernel driver in use: lpc_ich
Kernel modules: lpc_ich

00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] [8086:1e02] (rev 04) (prog-if 01 [AHCI 1.0])
Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] [1458:b005]
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 26
I/O ports at f070
I/O ports at f060
I/O ports at f050
I/O ports at f040
I/O ports at f020
Memory at f7216000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
Capabilities: [70] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [a8] SATA HBA v1.0
Capabilities: [b0] PCI Advanced Features
Kernel driver in use: ahci
Kernel modules: ahci

00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller [8086:1e22] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller [1458:5001]
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 11
Memory at f7215000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled]
I/O ports at f000
Kernel modules: i2c_i801

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GK106 [GeForce GTX 660] [10de:11c0] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Palit Microsystems Inc. GK106 [GeForce GTX 660] [1569:11c0]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at f6000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at e8000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Memory at f0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
I/O ports at e000
[virtual] Expansion ROM at f7000000 [disabled] [size=512K]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [68] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [78] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [b4] Vendor Specific Information: Len=14 <?>
Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel
Capabilities: [128] Power Budgeting <?>
Capabilities: [600] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=024 <?>
Capabilities: [900] #19
Kernel driver in use: nvidia
Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau, nvidia_304

01:00.1 Audio device [0403]: NVIDIA Corporation GK106 HDMI Audio Controller [10de:0e0b] (rev a1)
Subsystem: Palit Microsystems Inc. GK106 HDMI Audio Controller [1569:11c0]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
Memory at f7080000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [68] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [78] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Qualcomm Atheros AR8161 Gigabit Ethernet [1969:1091] (rev 10)
Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd AR8161 Gigabit Ethernet [1458:e000]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 29
Memory at f7100000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
I/O ports at d000
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [58] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [c0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/16 Maskable+ 64bit+
Capabilities: [d8] MSI-X: Enable- Count=16 Masked-
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [180] Device Serial Number ff-0e-f3-20-94-de-80-ff
Kernel driver in use: alx
Kernel modules: alx

04:00.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge [8086:244e] (rev 41) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
Bus: primary=04, secondary=05, subordinate=05, sec-latency=64
Capabilities: [90] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [a0] Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd 82801 PCI Bridge [1458:8892]

I'm starting to consider reinstalling ubuntu and starting over, I may have messed something up

EDIT: My bad, the above was with pulseaudio running. I killed and the only difference was the addition of this line in the output of aplay -l:

card 2: USB [Scarlett 2i2 USB], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

[sadko4u]

Does alsamixer see your card? Your card may be acquired by one of running processes so JACK can not access it.

[Kse]

Yes it does, of course it says "This sound device does not have any controls." but i don't think this is a problem

[Pablo]

In qjackctl's setup, leave the input and output devices as (default), choose duplex for audio and select the Scarlett in the interface field (it won't be greyed out by now). The first time at least, use the pop-up menu that appears when you click on the little horizontal arrow on the right, rather than the drop-down menu.
By following the instructions above, the Scarlett will be used both for capture and playback. Is this what you want?

[Kse]

Ok, I reinstalled everything. The horizontal arrow doesn't seem to be there, so I selected the Scarlett from the drop-down menu and these are the errors I got when I tried to start JACK:

Mon Jun 20 05:28:18 2016: ERROR: ALSA: no playback configurations available (Invalid argument)
Mon Jun 20 05:28:18 2016: ERROR: ALSA: cannot configure capture channel
Mon Jun 20 05:28:18 2016: ERROR: Cannot initialize driver

[Pablo]

Try this in a terminal and show the output, please:

jackd -dhw:USB

[CrocoDuck]

Ok, I reinstalled everything. The horizontal arrow doesn't seem to be there, so I selected the Scarlett from the drop-down menu and these are the errors I got when I tried to start JACK:

Mon Jun 20 05:28:18 2016: ERROR: ALSA: no playback configurations available (Invalid argument)
Mon Jun 20 05:28:18 2016: ERROR: ALSA: cannot configure capture channel
Mon Jun 20 05:28:18 2016: ERROR: Cannot initialize driver

Weird. You card is recognized by the system, seems to me. All regular also for your kernel modules. By the way, you shouldn't need to kill pulsaudio just to start jack... Try to make a simple setup with qjackctl. It will be saved in .jackdrc. You can view the file with

Code: Select all

cat .jackdrc

And run the string as a command. Have a try run it from there, also with sudo: I smell some weird privilege issue.

[CrocoDuck]

Now that I think about it... I have seen issues with Nvidea audio controllers in the past (You have and HDMI one under snd_hda_intel jurisdiction). You could try to disable all audio devices that are not the Scarlett, maybe in the bios or by blacklisting their kernel modules:

Code: Select all

blacklist snd_hda_intel

Refer to the page I linked to understand what the line above does and needs to be placed.

I see you are using the Nvidea proprietary drivers. It could be worth to make a test by disabling them. It is sometimes dodgy to use them with lowlatency or realtime kernels.