There was an error opening the audio hardware jack error creating client

I have been trying for weeks to get my scarlet solo to work with reaper. I’ve found the device in reaper but the drivers aren’t installed and wont install so i get this error code:

There was an error opening the audio hardware:

Error initializing ASIO driver

so i searched and have seen the word «jack» thrown around endlessly. where do i get it? I’ve looked on their website and nothing gives me a download or terminal code. somehow i managed to find a way to get it on my computer, then I open the files and there’s only README files, change logs, and news files. nothing I can actually run. I’ve had my scarlet solo for over 2 months and haven’t been able to use it once. I’m using ubuntu 16.04 LTS 64-bit. please provide links to any download suggestions.

The generic setup is installing jackd, a lowlatency audio server. Jackd can use audio interfaces that are supported by ALSA and other lowlevel drivers.

There is some good news: The Scarletts run out of the box with Linux, its builtin ALSA drivers and jackd.

I don’t know Reaper. ASIO ist no architecture found in the Linux world. It’s from the Windows world. There is software like WINE that enables Windows programs to be run on Linux, including ASIO. AFAIK there is a Reaper version for Windows and a native version for Linux. I hope some Reaper users can tell you more details.

You find more infos about setting up jackd on http://libremusicproduction.com/workflow

To run reaper in wine there is the wineasio driver, that turns an ASIO host into a JACK client.

But I’d suggest trying the the native version being developed at the moment, it’s more or less complete, just some smaller issues. Many windows vsts work well in LinVst and possibly other vst wrappers.

bluebell wrote:The generic setup is installing jackd, a lowlatency audio server. Jackd can use audio interfaces that are supported by ALSA and other lowlevel drivers.

There is some good news: The Scarletts run out of the box with Linux, its builtin ALSA drivers and jackd.

I don’t know Reaper. ASIO ist no architecture found in the Linux world. It’s from the Windows world. There is software like WINE that enables Windows programs to be run on Linux, including ASIO. AFAIK there is a Reaper version for Windows and a native version for Linux. I hope some Reaper users can tell you more details.

You find more infos about setting up jackd on http://libremusicproduction.com/workflow

the problem is that i cant find «jackd» the only thing i can find is jack audio connection kit which (the link you provided) shows as the window name of Qjackctl but theres nothing inside of it that i can run to get the program open. i have reaper working fine through wine, its connected to my scarlet solo, it just gives me that error every time i open it.

FrenchuTheAlmightu wrote:
the problem is that i cant find «jackd» the only thing i can find is jack audio connection kit which (the link you provided) shows as the window name of Qjackctl but theres nothing inside of it that i can run to get the program open. i have reaper working fine through wine, its connected to my scarlet solo, it just gives me that error every time i open it.

jackd is the name of the program binary that works as the main sound server of the jack audio connection kit.
So when you use the jack audio connection kit then jackd is running on your machine.

Have the same problem right now.
Don’t know why it happened.

Until yesterday I worked with Linux Mint Cinnamon (18 ?)
With a Focusrite Solo, Reaper worked directly out of the box.

Since today, I switched to another OS (Linux Mint XFCE 19), and installed Reaper again.

Now, Reaper doesn’t seem to recognize the hardware (see screenshot) anymore.

However, in the Volume Control, the Scralett Solo is already set by default and it’s working as I can play music via VLC Player or Youtube or whatever.

Already switched to other USB port, rebooted, reïnstalled Reaper,… nothing seemed to work.

Any other things I could try?

(I want to work directly via ALSA, not Jack)

Thanks in advance!

bulevardi wrote:Have the same problem right now.
Don’t know why it happened.

Until yesterday I worked with Linux Mint Cinnamon (18 ?)
With a Focusrite Solo, Reaper worked directly out of the box.

Since today, I switched to another OS (Linux Mint XFCE 19), and installed Reaper again.

Why? If you don’t know why something works or why it doesn’t work then you shouldn’t wildly install one distribution after another.

If it’s only the desktop environment that you want to replace then most distributions allow to install alternate desktop environments like xfce4.

The screenshot seems to show Pulseaudio’s pavuctrl. That means that Pulseaudio already «owns» the soundcard and no other program can own it. It’s common that Pulseaudio redirects other programs that output to ALSA (default device) to itself so ALSA programs can output via Pulseaudio.

I recommend setting up jack, configuring Pulseaudio to output via jack (with jack-sink) and having all audio programs output to jack if they can. Then you can connect everything with everything.

EDIT:
I saw that Reaper offers to suspend Pulseaudio. So you should select input and ouput device. Note that this is a bad solution since you won’t be able to use Pulseaudio clients at the same time with Reaper.

bluebell wrote:I recommend setting up jack, configuring Pulseaudio to output via jack (with jack-sink) and having all audio programs output to jack if they can. Then you can connect everything with everything.

Thanks for the idea of using Jack, but since I started with Linux in 2014, I did a long time configuring jack and troubleshoot it’s settings without succes. I don’t want that nightmare anylonger. I know you can do everything with jack, when it works.

But my experience with ALSA is that it worked directly, out of the box, without the need to setup or connect anything or manually run a server on the background. That’s the reason why I asked for ALSA and no jack With all respect for jack lovers.

merlyn wrote:@bulevardi The ‘input device’ and ‘output device’ drop downs are blank. Is that it?

That’s right indeed.

bulevardi wrote:
But my experience with ALSA is that it worked directly, out of the box, without the need to setup or connect anything or manually run a server on the background. That’s the reason why I asked for ALSA and no jack With all respect for jack lovers.

Mastering ALSA isn’t that easy when it comes to several programs running concurrently.
Understanding ~./asoundrc can be demanding

bluebell wrote:
Why? If you don’t know why something works or why it doesn’t work then you shouldn’t wildly install one distribution after another.

If it’s only the desktop environment that you want to replace then most distributions allow to install alternate desktop environments like xfce4.

Why, well I tested Xfce on another pc elsewhere, I installed an SSD to experience the fast boot time and it it was very nice to work with. (however, didn’t test sound recording on that one)

I wanted to do this on my audio recording pc aswel, as the boot time was quite slow, I installed an SSD for the OS (aside the hdd for the files), and decided to install a more lightweight version instead of Cinnamon. So that’s why I chose for Xfce.

If necessary, I can always go back installing Cinnamon again… if the desktop environment is really causing the problem…

bluebell wrote:
EDIT:
I saw that Reaper offers to suspend Pulseaudio. So you should select input and ouput device. Note that this is a bad solution since you won’t be able to use Pulseaudio clients at the same time with Reaper.

Just tested with Pulseaudio: no error, the sound comes through, however with a long delay of more than 2 seconds. I really need a lower latency

bulevardi wrote:

bluebell wrote:
If necessary, I can always go back installing Cinnamon again… if the desktop environment is really causing the problem…

Reïnstalled Cinnamon, this went quite quick, as my working files are on a separate disk.
Opened Reaper, error message, went to Reaper Preference menu, ALSA input/output field was blank too, clicked on it, did nothing…
but when fiddling in the blank field, I clicked on the dropdown arrow and the HW: usb audio Scarlett appeared !!

Did a recording, worked perfect.

I’m now wondering that I clicked on the arrow or not when I was testing in Xfce… Grrrr
The Volume Control of Cinnamon is slightly different as UI, but I’m really wondering if that really changed anything…

Should I reïnstall Xfce again… tempting… :s

bulevardi wrote:Reïnstalled Cinnamon, this went quite quick, as my working files are on a separate disk.

That sounds as if you re-installed the whole OS to change to Cinnamon. You don’t have to do that!

Just as you can have multiple browsers or DAWs installed, you can have multiple DEs, and choose the one you want at login.

merlyn wrote:That sounds as if you re-installed the whole OS to change to Cinnamon. You don’t have to do that!

That’s exactly what I did

merlyn wrote:
Just as you can have multiple browsers or DAWs installed, you can have multiple DEs, and choose the one you want at login.

Yes, I tried that first. Perhaps I followed wrong instructions… but the environment didn’t look like the Cinnamon I was used to work with, and I couldn’t choose the environment at login. Perhaps something went wrong or I didn’t install the other environment the right way.
But in my head, it doesn’t seem a good idea to mess up a system by installing multiple environments. I just need one stable one, and from scratch if possible. So yes, I reïnstalled the OS, took me 15 minutes or so on an SSD.

bulevardi wrote:But in my head, it doesn’t seem a good idea to mess up a system by installing multiple environments

For the benefit of anyone reading this thread in my experience multiple DEs don’t mess up the system.

Re-installing the OS is the sort of thing you have to do with Windows.