How to enable akode-jack sink?

hoofer · 07-05-2005, 07:44 AM

I'm trying to make aRts connect to jack, but jack isn't listed on KDE Control Center as an possible output. I heard about using the akode-jack sink, but I have no idea how i should do it. I don't even know if akode is enabled. I'm using kdemultimedia-3.4.1 and all the libraries are there, I just don't have a clue how can I make it work.
Is there any akode conf file or something like that??
How can I find out if akode is even enabled??

foo_bar_foo · 07-06-2005, 02:53 AM

i don't think there is any way to output sound from arts to jack
from the standpoint of jack , an audio server designed for detailed audio work, gui sounds being able to get into your mix is a really bad thing.
from the standpoint of kde they i think have stopped working on arts and will unveil a new sound setup with kde 4 so arts will never output to jack. Perhaps they move to a port audio based i/o that can connect to jack or anything else on your system ?
don't know if non audio users will ever use jack or it can become a user space standard unless the kernel people expose rtc and memlock to user space and they will never do that.
so i think jack at least for now is something you start for a serious audio session only.
the concept of an audio sink sounds like a gstreamer output
as of my version of gstreamer the jack sink doesn't seem to work but i didn't try very much and possibly i am missing something. gstreamer is used by gtk apps like Rhythmbox is all i use it for i am KDE user like yourself

hoofer · 07-06-2005, 07:21 AM

I'm actually trying to connect skype to jack, but skype only outputs to oss or aRts, so I needed to connect aRts to jack to make skype output to jack.
I'm not sure about aRts outputing directly to jack, but I'm sure it can be done through aKode, I just don't know how.
If you look at the kdemultimedia-3.4.1 source, there's a folder akode in there, and in that folder, there's a plugin folder, with akode-jack_sink.
The problem is, this folder isn't in the kdemultimedia slackware package, so I'm trying to compile it from the source.
Also, after I install it, I'm not sure if I have to do something else to make it work.
Another option would be to recompile aRts with jack support (like the default ALSA support), I read somewhere about doing that, but I have absolutely no idea how it should be done.
I'll try to install from from source and see what happens, I'll post the results.
By the way, that's probably a ridiculous question, but what happens if I install something I already have??
I have the kdemultimedia slackware package installed (without akode-jack_sink), should I remove it before installing the one from the source or not??

foo_bar_foo · 07-06-2005, 06:16 PM

sorry you were right -- my information was old and i didn't know about aKode
as a matter of fact it appears i am wrong about all of this
i never used artsd so i looked at mine arts-1.3.2.tar.bz2 i compiled from scratch for kde 3.3.2 and LOL

Code:

artsd -A
possible choices for the audio i/o method:

  toss      Threaded Open Sound System
  jack      Jack Audio Connection Kit
  null      No Audio Input/Output
  alsa      Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
  oss       Open Sound System

it can output to jack
so i was wrong about that (shall i try for three)
this i know -- if you recompile kde stuff that's the same version you are using now
./configure --prefix=`kde-config --prefix` you can just install right on top and it's OK
i think i installed jack before arts and just did the regular config and it picked up jack
i threw away my arts build directory so i can't look at the config.log
but ./configure --help to check
i found this
http://twistedlittlegnome.com/Podcas...-on-Linux.html
but you most likely have seen it already
the thing is i didn't install kdemultimedia at all on my system accept for "kmid"-- i go with the minimal thing always so it might be no need for aKode but objiously i can be WRONG ! as we have seen.

hoofer · 07-07-2005, 07:40 AM

Yeah, I tried to install kdemultimedia-3.4.1 from source but still couldn't get it working. Maybe it's got something to do with these ldconfig errors I get about some files not being a link, or something like that.
I think I'll try to compile aRts from source and see if somehow I can make it jack-able, like you did.
Thanks for now, I'll keep you posted

hoofer · 07-12-2005, 01:13 PM

I compiled arts from source and I got it working.
When jack starts, it kills artsd, and then I restart artsd telling it to output to jack.

Concerning skype, I have 2 problems. The first one is a huge delay, but I think that's a buffer size problem, probably easy to fix.

The other one is driving me crazy.
When I'm using skype, I can hear everything, and people usually can hear me ok too, but everyone complains about hearing their voices echoing.
It's not speaker feedback, I've turned them off and people still get echo.
I've traced it down to the "Capture" channel, in the input section of the mixer.
The problem is, I can't turn it off. On kmix, it's just impossible to turn it off. I tried using alsamixer and amixer, and apparently it turns off, but when the call starts, it turns on by itself and the volume slider keeps going up!!
I've seen a couple of people complaining about the same thing, but I can't find a solution.
By the way, it's not jack-related, the same thing happens with alsa output, so I think it's something about the hardware configuration.
Tonight I'm upgrading my kernel (2.6.12 from 2.4.something), that's the only thing I can think of.

foo_bar_foo · 07-12-2005, 03:58 PM

try to turn on only the "Mic" capture device and not any others

Bogi · 07-17-2005, 09:40 AM

Skype... I thing connecting aRts to Jack takes a lot of CPU, doesn't it? If it does, is there any other way to connect Skype with Jack? I really need it, because i'll be a dj soon in the radio and i want my listeners to talk to me "on the air"...