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Old 05-22-2020, 10:41 AM   #1
Soli Deo Gloria
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Default Some crashes with Ubuntu Studio

While it's mostly been a very pleasant experience up until now, I've had a bunch of crashes during my first weeks in Ubuntu Studio. Two of them were rather worrying, since Reaper stopped playback and a nasty "beeep" kept sounding until I closed Reaper's window. This happened both with Jack and ALSA.

Some questions come to mind :

- Are those "beep" crashes due to some known cause?
- Where is the log with the most useful info? In /var/crash/? In var/log? Which file is the one to look at? The mousepad app crashed when I opened the Reaper crash file in /var/crash/, by the way.

- Is it useful to post any of the logs here, for any wizard to interpret it? I see that Reaper in Linux is unsupported up to now (may 2020), but anyway I think these things must be reported...


Thanks in advance...
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Old 05-22-2020, 11:03 AM   #2
lilith93
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Soli Deo Gloria View Post
While it's mostly been a very pleasant experience up until now, I've had a bunch of crashes during my first weeks in Ubuntu Studio. Two of them were rather worrying, since Reaper stopped playback and a nasty "beeep" kept sounding until I closed Reaper's window. This happened both with Jack and ALSA.

Some questions come to mind :

- Are those "beep" crashes due to some known cause?
- Where is the log with the most useful info? In /var/crash/? In var/log? Which file is the one to look at? The mousepad app crashed when I opened the Reaper crash file in /var/crash/, by the way.

- Is it useful to post any of the logs here, for any wizard to interpret it? I see that Reaper in Linux is unsupported up to now (may 2020), but anyway I think these things must be reported...


Thanks in advance...
You can start Reaper from the terminal to get more information. If it crashed post the output here. Is anything written in the Jack Log-Window?
Are you using plugins? Is it also crashing with e.g. a wav file?
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Old 05-22-2020, 02:19 PM   #3
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I can get 'beep crashes' by overloading my system,
or by configuring my system to use maximum priorities
for audio, generating perhaps a different type of overload,
so when the linux system/kernel needs to work,
it can't work until audio 'lets go' of the cpu.

Hence many recommend slightly less than the highest priorities
for audio. The defaults in Ubuntu studio should be fine.

Some software, like Kontakt, or U-he Diva, will have
special settings for output quality, and multi-core use.
Reaper has some of it's own cpu/thread settings in preferences,
so you can note what's running when crashes occur,
and watch any cpu meters to see how your load is escalating
as you add tracks, hold the sustain pedal, increase polyphony
on a synth etc etc.

I can run a fast complex sequence into some power crazed
synth plugins, and voila...BEEEEEEPPPP

I run Reaper and qjackctl from terminals, so it's easier
to shut down the noisemaker. And I don't put reaper at full screen,
and have the terminal at the top edge, reaper just below,
so the terminal can be closed, assuming it's accessible from
the lockup.

This page could help with some types of re-starting:

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-resta...04-focal-fossa


Cheers
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Old 05-23-2020, 07:00 AM   #4
Soli Deo Gloria
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Thanks for the replies, lilith93 and 4duhwinnn!

Quote:
Originally Posted by lilith93 View Post
Is anything written in the Jack Log-Window?
Are you using plugins? Is it also crashing with e.g. a wav file?
Well, I've attached the log from JACK in this post. There is a good deal of "error" messags in it, although I don't know if they belong to the moment when I experienced the last beep crash, yesterday.

Regarding the other questions, on this last crash I was using 6 instances of Synth 1, a couple of Zyn Fusion (linux-native), many Reaplugs and two tracks with many RS5K instances loaded with string instruments from the Virtual Playing Orchestra and Versilian Chamber Orchestra CE. Really, there shouldn't have been any overload; the machine is "old" for the computer world standards (2013), but it is an I7, 3770k, with 32 Gbs of RAM and everything on SSDs. Even though I can sometimes stack many instruments and plugs on a single project, I rarely experienced a situation - at least on Win 7 - where I would push the resources of the machine to the limit.

Until now, it never crashed on Ubuntu Studio with WAV projects. I have to say, too, that apart from these beep crashes, the experience is quite good so far, apart from some settings hat have to be reconfigured after transferring from Windows. Iĺl be using Reaper from the terminal, to see if I can catch any potencial pitfall from there.


Quote:
Originally Posted by 4duhwinnn View Post
I can get 'beep crashes' by overloading my system,
or by configuring my system to use maximum priorities
for audio, generating perhaps a different type of overload,
so when the linux system/kernel needs to work,
it can't work until audio 'lets go' of the cpu.

Hence many recommend slightly less than the highest priorities
for audio. The defaults in Ubuntu studio should be fine.

Some software, like Kontakt, or U-he Diva, will have
special settings for output quality, and multi-core use.
Reaper has some of it's own cpu/thread settings in preferences,
so you can note what's running when crashes occur,
and watch any cpu meters to see how your load is escalating
as you add tracks, hold the sustain pedal, increase polyphony
on a synth etc etc.

I can run a fast complex sequence into some power crazed
synth plugins, and voila...BEEEEEEPPPP

I run Reaper and qjackctl from terminals, so it's easier
to shut down the noisemaker. And I don't put reaper at full screen,
and have the terminal at the top edge, reaper just below,
so the terminal can be closed, assuming it's accessible from
the lockup.

This page could help with some types of re-starting:

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-resta...04-focal-fossa


Cheers
Good infor there, 4duhwinnn! I began with Ubuntu Studio some weeks ago and many system updates were delayed from the install. Yesterday, it offered me to download and install them, so I did. Among them, there were a bunch of "Ubuntu Studio base" updates. Could it be that something was missing in my installation, hence the hardware was not used to its full potential? As I said above, it's strange to think that any of my current projects could push an I7 (old, but noble) with 32 Gbs of RAM to the limit... I was working with 64 samples of latency, though; could that also have something to do? I haven tweaked anything in the system, apart from the needed options in JACK and Ubuntu Studio Controls...
Attached Files
File Type: txt JACK log.txt (105.8 KB, 185 views)
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Old 05-23-2020, 07:33 AM   #5
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Zynfusion can be quite CPU demanding. 64 samples is pretty low. Try 256 if it's better and if your run into the same problems. With Ctrl+Alt+P you can look at the CPU load of each plugin. There are a lot of errors at the same time.
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Old 05-23-2020, 08:23 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lilith93 View Post
Zynfusion can be quite CPU demanding. 64 samples is pretty low. Try 256 if it's better and if your run into the same problems.

Hmm... I see. I'll be watching it carefully, yes, and for now I'll run Reaper from the terminal, to look for any abnormal message. The default "Jack : setting TIME CRITICAL" value is 4; I guess it's fine...
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Old 05-23-2020, 01:58 PM   #7
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There are few experts sharing on this topic, one of them
stated recently that the relationship between 'priority'
setting in the text file /etc/security/limits.d/audio.conf
(or /etc/security/limits.conf )

and the related priority setting in qjackctl gui has changed,
and that processing calculations are done internally now,
making the setting in qjackctl redundant.
(I'm like the garbage collector in the Dilbert cartoon,
so hopefully an expert will chime in)

I used 99 in /etc/security/limits.d/audio.conf
and 89 in qjackctl, for quite some time, and was
happy with the small amount of trouble, and good performance.
As info and time moved on, 95 became the standard setting
found in audio distros, in limits.conf
allowing some background system work to occur while maintaing
good audio performance.

In Studio 19.10, I now have priority at 95 in limits.conf
and 80 in qjackctl, with good results (i7 2600 8gig ram)
The 'time critical' from reaper terminal launch is reported as 74.
Maybe others with more experience will share settings
they find helpfull.

Cheers
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Old 05-23-2020, 03:01 PM   #8
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I also have 74 as critical time ... whatever that is
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Old 05-23-2020, 08:39 PM   #9
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Hmmm, 4 vs 74... too much of a difference. Could I have changed something during these weeks? Some tweak here or there that could alter my critical time setting? I´ll investigate further during the next days and post here any preliminary conclusion...

Last edited by Soli Deo Gloria; 05-23-2020 at 09:16 PM.
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Old 05-24-2020, 10:41 AM   #10
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If you are not recording live instruments like guitar, bass or vocals you do not need to have such a low latency. if you are using a midi controller your interface is mostly bypassed and a higher latency wouldn't cause you problems.

I don't know but I've tried Ubuntu Studio twice and had that kind of beeping. I have to say I've never had those issues with AVLinux.
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Old 05-25-2020, 06:09 AM   #11
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Well, I was testing the latency for a live project. Actually, I've been using 128 ms for live work (and even 256 in some cases, for extra safety), but I always saw here in the forum that many users used 64 on a daily basis, so I've been testing it lately. But, yes, I agree that it is rather too low a value even for my taste.

Regarding AVLinux, I tried it on 2017, during my first approach to Linux. On that occasion, I couldn't enter this world and wrap my head around the basics for migrating safely from Windows. On that context, I remember AVLinux lacked some basic hardware compatibility that Ubuntu had by default. Now, on my - indeed succesful - comeback to Linux, I really wanted to make a safe bet and leaned toward Ubuntu Studio, to be honest. But, of course, as time goes by and I learn more things about Linux, I'll probably check AVLinux again to see how it performs...
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Old 05-26-2020, 09:10 AM   #12
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The god about AVLinux is that it keeps with the big boys so any new development it will be included in the next edition. I have installed recently version 2020.05 and it really works like a charm. I tried Ubuntu Studio (Included latest version) and even though I setup everything it felt like something was missing. Don't know why so back to AVLinux and I haven't looked back. Hell I'm even using SFZ files in Carla (LinuxSampler) and they work great which I could never do using SFZero (Some instruments sounded kind of weird to me).
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Old 05-27-2020, 08:56 AM   #13
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Well, I've just read that AVLinux is indeed very lightweight and silent. I'll try it at some point, probably in a portable fashion, once I finish polishing my current Ubuntu Studio install. Thanks for reminding me about it, though, I have it under the radar and will surely return to it, at least as an alternative setup. Probably, I'll have to acquire more knowledge about Linux's underlying structure, in order to solve any hardware compatibility issue that could arise.
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Old 05-27-2020, 01:07 PM   #14
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My advice is to install Cadence (part of the Carla package) it really make Jack simpler and easier to manage.
That's what I'm using with AVLinux right now.
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Old 05-28-2020, 08:22 PM   #15
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Yes, I've read about it indeed. I tried to install it in Ubuntu Studio, but Ubuntu Studio Controls conflict with it - in fact, all the main Jack and audio settings in general are integrated into it -. If I try another distro such as AVLinux at some point, Cadence will be my Jack frontend of choice, for sure.
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Old 05-29-2020, 06:42 AM   #16
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If you will end up trying/visiting/curious Manjaro with AUR enabled in Octopi/Bauh"Software"/what evs, then browse the groups, pro-audio
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/proaudio-meta
See lots more in the group/package, not sure what is missing..

and some off-topic, noticed a realtime group and saw this..
https://www.rncbc.org/archive/#rtirq

Sigh..*
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Last edited by SmajjL; 05-29-2020 at 07:18 AM.
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