Error message when launching audacity and no sound devices listed under playback/recording preferences

Please kill esd (or another application hogging /dev/dsp and /dev/mixer) and try again.

killing esd has done the trick (and also made the segfault bug go away :S) . But is the error message really appropriate?

This still exists on Breezy with alsa-dmix

Audacity requires exclusive /dev/dsp access, and esd is still configured to grab ALSA's OSS emulation nodes. Disable sound server start up in System> Preferences> Sound, and change System> Preferences> Multimedia Systems Selector> Default Audio Sink> customsink> alsasink device=plug:dmix

It works with alsa-mix.

on Dapper still the same problem.

Can't that really be handled another way?
It's really not user-friendly this way....

It's generally a poor idea to try to record whilst also using software mixing. Furthermore, many onboard sound modules are half-duplex, in that whatever is being recorded will also be played, and vice-versa, possibly causing unwanted noise in the recording. esound 0.2.36-3ubuntu3 changed the timeout to 1 second, so if all other audio-using applications are quit, esd should exit sharply, allowing initialisation of audacity.

The real fix is to have audacity use ALSA, and while this is underway upstream, it is not yet complete.

   I am using a HP Pavillion computer with no sound card--- audacity complained about no i/o so I plugged in a new sound card just now and the complaints about no i/o disappeared !!!

is it possible to compile + package it with alsa support? see http://audacityteam.org/forum/post/966;?unb553sess=5587e4a7b69bcd3a9b157e980fb71fe7

For anyone else getting this message, also make sure you do not have any other sound applications open. I was trying to launch Audacity after killing esd, but it was still failing because Rhythmbox was open on another workspace.

This is probably due to other apps using your sound system.Close your
programs that use sound, like amarok and try again.

+ Upon launching audacity, the following message appears in a dialog box:
 "There was an error initializing the audio i/o layer. You will not be able
to play or record audio.
 Error: Host error"

On 12/20/06, Chris Wagner <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> For anyone else getting this message, also make sure you do not have any
> other sound applications open. I was trying to launch Audacity after
> killing esd, but it was still failing because Rhythmbox was open on
> another workspace.
>
> ** Summary changed:
>
> - Can't find sound devices
> + Error message when launching audacity and no sound devices listed under
> playback/recording preferences
>
> ** Description changed:
>
> - No device show up
> -
> - No device show up. pop-up at startup:
> -
> + Upon launching audacity, the following message appears in a dialog box:
> "There was an error initializing the audio i/o layer. You will not be
> able to play or record audio.
> Error: Host error"
>
> - No device are showing in the Playback or Recording preferences.
> + No devices show up in the Playback or Recording preferences.
>
> All other sound applications work fine, but audacity.
>
> strace file available.
>
> --
> Error message when launching audacity and no sound devices listed under
> playback/recording preferences
> https://launchpad.net/bugs/337
>

--
--
-Freddy Martinez-
Kubuntu. GNU / Linux for human beings.
www.chi.ubuntu-us.org
</message>

Audacity can be compiled with alsa support. It needs to be compiled with v19 of the portaudio library. Can this be done for feisty?

Audacity 1.2.6-0ubuntu1, released in feisty, includes ALSA support.

I believe this bug to have been fixed with the release of audacity 1.2.6, which fix still applies in audacity 1.3.2. I cannot reproduce with any version of audacity compiled against portaudiov19. Please reopen this bug if the error can be reproduced.