Fixes for Overtone and SuperCollider on PopOS 20.10
I took the update to PopOS 20.10,
and my Overtone setup stopped working.
When I’d try to boot up
the internal SuperCollider server
from Emacs or from the leiningen repl
on my music projects
which all (:require [overtone.live :refer :all]),
get an error in native libraries.
I could also try to start the server
with (boot-internal-server) or (boot-external-server),
but it gives the same error.
--> Booting internal SuperCollider server... Cannot read socket fd = 107 err = Success CheckRes error Could not read result type = 22 Client name = Overtone conflits with another running client Cannot connect to the server JackShmReadWritePtr1::~JackShmReadWritePtr1 - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock could not initialize audio. # # A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment: # # SIGSEGV (0xb) at pc=0x00007f5eec0e9ba7, pid=30517, tid=30605 # # JRE version: OpenJDK Runtime Environment AdoptOpenJDK (15.0.1+9) (build 15.0.1+9) # Java VM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM AdoptOpenJDK (15.0.1+9, mixed mode, sharing, tiered, compressed oops, g1 gc, linux-amd64) # Problematic frame: # C [libscsynth.so.1+0x63ba7] World_WaitForQuit+0x7 # # No core dump will be written. Core dumps have been disabled. To enable core dumping, try "ulimit -c unlimited" before starting Java again # # An error report file with more information is saved as: # /home/john/workspace/music/hs_err_pid30517.log --> Connecting to internal SuperCollider server... [thread 30576 also had an error] # # If you would like to submit a bug report, please visit: # https://github.com/AdoptOpenJDK/openjdk-support/issues # The crash happened outside the Java Virtual Machine in native code. # See problematic frame for where to report the bug. #
Since it can no longer start the server internally
from within Overtone,
I start the server manually.
I wrapped a script around the start up,
so I can set the environment variables
for configuring jack
and starting up the synth:
#!/bin/sh # automatically connect up jack ports export SC_JACK_DEFAULT_INPUTS="system:capture_1,system:capture_2" export SC_JACK_DEFAULT_OUTPUTS="system:playback_1,system:playback_2" scsynth -u 57110
To get Overtone going again,
I disabled the automatic boot
of the server within Overtone
by switching all the requires
in each file
from overtone.live to overtone.core,
and I connect
to that external server
from my REPL manually
with (connect-external-server)
before doing anything else.
Finally,
Overtone was consistently
failing to find my MIDI keyboard.
When things were working
well enough a couple months ago,
it still had required
a little dance of killing off jackd
and restarting Overtone,
since something had been
tying up the MIDI interface.
This workaround was no longer adequate,
since scsynth and jackd
needed to already be started.
I disabled MIDI connection in jackd
by removing the -Xseq option
from my ~/.jackdrc.
I’m back in business,
and it’s probably more robust
with these manual steps now.
I think I’m also seeing
some other odd little things working
with the external server
that didn’t previously,
like using (mouse-x)
for reading mouse positions into the synth values.
The built-in piano synth is also
working where it hadn’t previously.
Update 2021-02-13:
I had lost the ability
to send desktop audio (pulseaudio)
through to the Jack Sink
with this setup,
so I figured out
to start qjackctl
before my supercollider.sh.
That gets the Jack Sink
available again to pulseaudio
and the desktop sound menu.