ChucK Audio Input/Output Error in Ubuntu

Question

I installed ChucK in my Ubuntu 12.0.4 VirtualBox. When I started the miniAudicle Virtual Machine, I got a pop up error message

"The Virtual Machine appears to be hanging.......Abort the current shred? Cancel or Abort button"

I seem can not click either button, the error message will keep popping up. and the console log message:

[chuck]: RtApiAlsa::callbackEvent: audio read error, Input/Output error.

I did:

chuck test.ck

[chuck]: (via rtaudio): no devices found for compiled audio APIs!

[chuck]: cannot initialize audio device (try using --silent/-s)

I have upgraded the VirtualBox but still the same.

Please help.

Thanks.

hc.

Outlook

Answer 1

The Canonical man page for chucK explains the problem:

Use chuck for jack audio interfaces, chuck.alsa to access alsa devices, and chuck.oss to access oss devices.

Thus, the default audio server is actually the Jack Audio Connection Kit (JACK), so you either need to install it:

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y install jackd

and then of course you need to figure out how to use it. It's a great audio server, but is a little bit more geared towards audio professionals than towards the average user.

…or you need to explicitly state the audio server you want to use— either chuck.alsa for ALSA or chuck.oss for OSS.

Assuming you are running Ubuntu (and not a flavor like Lubuntu), you are more likely running PulseAudio (certainly not OSS). That being said, you have the following options:

1. Disable PulseAudio (which falls back to ALSA) like so: pasuspender -- chuck.alsa test.ck (this is my recommended ideal solution).
2. Get rid of PulseAudio and run chuck.alsa (I'm not a big fan of PulseAudio anyways, but that's a matter of personal opinion).
3. You could build chuck 1.3.1.3 (Trusty is currently on 1.2.0.8!) which better supports PulseAudio (harder to maintain since your package manager can't update it for you).

Journalistic

I was able to play sound with chuck via pasuspender, but now other applications do not play any sound. How do I fix this? – Ress

pasuspender suspends PulseAudio altogether. as long as the process is running, no application will be able to access PulseAudio. you could try running your other applications through JACK, if they're capable of it. – Journalistic

I am using ubuntu 14.04. I used your 1. recommendation but I do not hear any sound from chuck. Other sounds stop for program time but no sound from chuck. Just silence. What it could be? – Mccaleb

@BogdanSikach I guess it's remotely possible the settings in ALSA are turned down. This is only suspending PulseAudio on that one command, i.e. it's the only thing using ALSA, so that's likely the issue. You can run alsamixer to see what everything is set at. I'd say, though, if you're not directly experiencing the OP's problems, this might require a new question. – Journalistic

Answer 2

Have you tried changing the audio settings of the VirtualBox machine? I believe it's default is ALSA but it could be set to PulseAudio. You could also try some driver settings.

Welsh

Hi, my VB audio settings are Host Audio Driver: Windows DirectSound (default) & Null AUdio Driver and Audio Controller: ICH AC97 (default), Intel HD Audio, SoundBlaster16. I didn't see ALSA here. – Outlook

I don't know if it is matter but I do have 2 audio cards inside my computer. One is the onboard and the other is additional professional audio card for recording. – Outlook