[ardour-users] ok... now what? jack problems

[Anthony]

* Josh Karnes <jkarnes1 at austin.rr.com> [Mar 25 04 22:21]:
> 
>  	jackstart: pcm.c:687: snd_pcm_nonblock: Assertion 'pcm' failed.
> 
> However, when I run it under gnome on the same machine, it works fine.

Something is using the device. A sound server?

> FWIW I've been running fluxbox all week trying it out on my other machine 
> and it seems to be loads less stable than gnome/metacity.  I am not sure I 
> can handle this crash-prone behavior with a DAW.

I have no probs with flux dev version and ardour.

> Now, if anyone can point me to a quick start primer on how to use Jack & 
> Ardour, I'd appreciate it.  So far the docs are looking AWFULLY thin, 
> particularly for Jack.
> 
> What's it mean when it says "alsa_pcm: xrun of at least 0.040 msecs"?  It 
> repeatedly says this after I start Jack...  but with different number of 
> msec's.

Read the Jack FAQ. You're system is not meeting the deadlines at that
latency. Run a LL kernel, use a tmp fs for jack, and play with the latency.

> [FWIW I'm running the latest planet ccrma patched kernel with alsa, 
> low-latency patches etc. all from planet ccrma, all on a fresh and lean FC1 
> install.  tons of errors on startup.]

Planet probably takes care of what I said above except w.r.t. latency.

--ant