Hello
How do I play amarok through jack?
With openSUSE 12.1 I could do this through xine. For some reasons this did not work anymore with openSUSE 12.3. Then I achieved this through the VLC backend for phonon. But now for some reasons this do not work anymore too (the readable client does not appear in the connections window of QJackCtl). Is it even possible to play amarok through jack at the moment?
Routing GStreamer audio via JACK | JACK
I would expect that that should work with the phonon-gstreamer backend
You could also try ‘alsa-plugin-jack’: How do I route audio to/from generic ALSA-using applications? | JACK
With the phonon-gstreamer backend, like described under the link above, it does not work. Is something missing in this description?
How should it work with alsa-plugin-jack, if amarok 2 outputs only to phonon?
How should it work with alsa-plugin-jack, if amarok 2 outputs only to phonon?
You may have a point; but shouldn’t gstreamer, which phonon uses in this example, as any other ALSA ‘application’ also be able to hook into a virtual pcm port instead of ALSA?
I don’t know too much about ALSA I must confess.
But the gstreamer approach should definitely work. I have a computer running OS 12.3 with gstreamer 0.10 and Clementine installed, this set-up plays fine running under JACK. And although AmaroK is controlled through Phonon it is gstreamer which route the sound either directly to ALSA or via JACK.
Is the gstreamer jack plugin for version 0.10 installed (gstreamer-plugins-good)? As phonon uses 0.10 this is the one you need, not gstreamer 1.x plugin.
BTW, is pulseaudio running on your system?
I have both installed, version 0.10 and version 1.0.10. Could that be the problem?
Pulseaudio is not running. Should it run?
Pulseaudio is not running. Should it run?
No, if you wish to use JACK it should be easier without PulseAudio.
I have both installed, version 0.10 and version 1.0.10. Could that be the problem?
You may have both versions of gstreamer installed, but you have to use the 0.10 version when you set-up AmaroK/Phonon to use JACK.
Just for a test, you could try install Clementine and see if that runs fine with JACK?
PS
With Clementine you select the audio output to JACK from the preferences menu inside the player; Clementine does not use Phonon and you do not have to follow the GStreamer to JACK guide.
Yes, phonon-backend-gstreamer uses gstreamer-0.10. And it’s no problem to have installed both versions, in fact right now it’s not even really possible to have only one version.
I have no idea about using jack, but phonon-backend-vlc should work as well.
At least it offers me an explicit jack playback device, although I don’t even have jackd running. I have no idea if or how good that would work though.
But maybe that’s because I’m using the version from KDE:Distro:Factory (0.6.80).
Which version do you have installed?
Or maybe your problem is more related to jack itself? There was an update to 1.9.9.5 a while ago. Maybe that caused your breakage with vlc?
Yes, phonon-backend-gstreamer uses gstreamer-0.10. And it’s no problem to have installed both versions, in fact right now it’s not even really possible to have only one version.
I do in fact have my OS 12.3 KDE machine running with only gstreamer 0.10. I stripped it down a bit though but it has all the ‘prime’ functions available and installed for a normal desktop computer (a subjective declaration).
I installed VLC and it also runs fine with JACK (on OS 12.3).
I suppose the problematic, and the actual obstacle, bit with AmaroK/Phonon/gstreamer under JACK is that the option to select jack -ao isn’t available from neither the player nor Phonon, thus you need to do it ‘manually’ using gconf-edit, or possibly you could write a script. With Clementine you just select audio sink jack (or auto detect) as AO.
I wrote above:
I suppose the problematic, and the actual obstacle, bit with AmaroK/Phonon/gstreamer under JACK is that the option to select jack -ao isn’t available from neither the player nor Phonon, thus you need to do it ‘manually’ using gconf-edit, or possibly you could write a script.
And similar with the phonon-vlc-backend as the jack plugin for VLC does work; you need to know which parameters to pass.
Clementine runs fine with JACK.
With JACK 1.9.8 it does not work too.
With phonon-backend-vlc 0.6.80 from openSUSE Factory it works.
Many thanks for your help.
Did you manage to run AmaroK with JACK?
Yes, with phonon-backend-vlc 0.6.80 from openSUSE Factory.
Now the phonon-backend-vlc 0.6.80 from openSUSE Factory is broken too.
What do you mean by that?
Broken, as in it doesn’t work at all, or does just jack not work?
And what do you mean exactly with openSUSE Factory?
Please show the output of “rpm -qi phonon-backend-vlc”.
If you really are using the version from openSUSE Factory (which you shouldn’t, don’t ever mix a released openSUSE version with Factory!), then this is probably due to a version conflict.
VLC has been updated to 2.1.0 this week (in Packman and VLC repos), whereas phonon-backend-vlc from Factory is still compiled against 2.0.8.
The version in KDE:Distro:Factory (which I am using) works fine with VLC 2.1.0.
And which VLC packages do you have, btw?
rpm -qa | grep vlc
The phonon-backend-vlc does not run at all. The error message is:
Phonon’s VLC backend failed to start. This usually means a problem with your VLC installation, please report a bug with your distributor.
With openSUSE Factory I mean:
The output of rpm -qi phonon-backend-vlc is:
Name : phonon-backend-vlc
Version : 0.6.80~git20130930
Release : 1.1
Architecture: i586
Install Date: Sa 05 Okt 2013 12:42:02 CEST
Group : Development/Libraries/KDE
Size : 286136
License : LGPL-2.1+
Signature : RSA/SHA256, Di 01 Okt 2013 11:34:05 CEST, Key ID b88b2fd43dbdc284
Source RPM : phonon-backend-vlc-0.6.80~git20130930-1.1.src.rpm
Build Date : Di 01 Okt 2013 11:33:50 CEST
Build Host : build05
Relocations : (not relocatable)
Packager : openSUSE:Submitting bug reports - openSUSE
Vendor : openSUSE
URL : Phonon, the Qt Multimedia Solution
Summary : Phonon VLC Backend
Description :
Phonon is a cross-platform portable Multimedia Support Abstraction,
which allows you to play multiple audio or video formats with the same
quality on all platforms, no matter which underlying architecture is
used.
This is the VLC backend for Phonon
Distribution: openSUSE Factory
This is the output of rpm -qa | grep vlc:
libvlccore7-2.1.0-174.1.i586
vlc-2.1.0-174.1.i586
vlc-aout-pulse-2.1.0-174.1.i586
vlc-gnome-2.1.0-174.1.i586
vlc-qt-2.1.0-174.1.i586
vlc-codecs-2.1.0-174.1.i586
phonon-backend-vlc-0.6.80~git20130930-1.1.i586
libvlc5-2.1.0-174.1.i586
vlc-noX-2.1.0-174.1.i586
libvlccore5-2.0.8a-7.2.i586
Right, that’s openSUSE Factory ;), i.e. where the next openSUSE version is developped.
And you’re running 12.3? I hope you didn’t add that repo to your repo list then, because your system may have been upgraded to Factory already (which is highly unstable!).
As I said, that phonon-backend-vlc is compiled against vlc-2.0.8 and therefore doesn’t work with vlc-2.1.0. (2.1.0 has been submitted to Factory a week ago, but is still in legal review, that may take time…)
Better take phonon-backend-vlc from here, that one is even compiled against 12.3:
Index of /repositories/KDE:/Release:/410/openSUSE_12.3
You may have to install libphonon4 from there as well, I don’t know if it works with the one you have installed (which one is it? “rpm -qi libphonon4”).
But in that case better add that repo and upgrade your KDE to 4.11 (or did you do that already?), because that libphonon4 then needs a newer libqt4 as well.
Oops, I pasted the wrong link, sorry!
It’s available here:
Index of /repositories/KDE:/Distro:/Factory/openSUSE_12.3
And maybe post your repo list as well:
zypper lr -d
Yes. I am running 12.3.
The output of rpm -qi libphonon4:
Name : libphonon4
Version : 4.6.0
Release : 7.4.1
Architecture: i586
Install Date: Sa 05 Okt 2013 13:07:09 CEST
Group : System/Libraries
Size : 489160
License : LGPL-2.0+
Signature : RSA/SHA256, Mo 27 Mai 2013 16:01:15 CEST, Key ID b88b2fd43dbdc284
Source RPM : phonon-4.6.0-7.4.1.src.rpm
Build Date : Mi 22 Mai 2013 10:34:59 CEST
Build Host : cloud101
Relocations : (not relocatable)
Packager : openSUSE:Submitting bug reports - openSUSE
Vendor : openSUSE
URL : Phonon, the Qt Multimedia Solution
Summary : Phonon Multimedia Platform Abstraction
Description :
Phonon is a cross-platform portable Multimedia Support Abstraction,
which allows you to play multiple audio or video formats with the same
quality on all platforms, no matter which underlying architecture is
used.
Distribution: openSUSE 12.3
Now, after changing to Index of /repositories/KDE:/Distro:/Factory/openSUSE_12.3 phonon-backend-vlc works again.
Now the output of zypper lr -d is:
—±-----------------------------±-----------------------------------±----------±--------------±----------±-------±------------------------------------------------------------------------------±------
1 | KDE_1 | KDE | Ja | Ja | 99 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/Distro:/Factory/openSUSE_12.3/ |
2 | Packman-Essentials | Packman-Essentials | Ja | Ja | 99 | rpm-md | http://packman.inode.at/suse/openSUSE_12.3/Essentials/ |
3 | Packman-Multimedia | Packman-Multimedia | Ja | Ja | 99 | rpm-md | http://packman.inode.at/suse/openSUSE_12.3/Multimedia/ |
4 | download.opensuse.org-Kernel | Kernel | Ja | Ja | 99 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Kernel:/stable/standard |
5 | openSUSE-12.3-1.7 | openSUSE-12.3-1.7 | Nein | Nein | 99 | yast2 | cd:///?devices=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-LITE-ON_DVDRW_LDW-851S_2004011900030623 |
6 | repo-debug | openSUSE-12.3-Debug | Nein | Ja | 99 | NONE | http://download.opensuse.org/debug/distribution/12.3/repo/oss/ |
7 | repo-debug-update | openSUSE-12.3-Update-Debug | Nein | Ja | 99 | NONE | http://download.opensuse.org/debug/update/12.3/ |
8 | repo-debug-update-non-oss | openSUSE-12.3-Update-Debug-Non-Oss | Nein | Ja | 99 | NONE | http://download.opensuse.org/debug/update/12.3-non-oss/ |
9 | repo-non-oss | openSUSE-12.3-Non-Oss | Ja | Ja | 99 | yast2 | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/12.3/repo/non-oss/ |
10 | repo-oss | openSUSE-12.3-Oss | Ja | Ja | 99 | yast2 | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/12.3/repo/oss/ |
11 | repo-source | openSUSE-12.3-Source | Nein | Ja | 99 | NONE | http://download.opensuse.org/source/distribution/12.3/repo/oss/ |
12 | repo-update | openSUSE-12.3-Update | Ja | Ja | 99 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/update/12.3/ |
13 | repo-update-non-oss | openSUSE-12.3-Update-Non-Oss | Ja | Ja | 99 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/update/12.3-non-oss/
Thank you very much
OK, so I guess you installed libqt4 and libphonon4 from there as well because of dependencies, but that should be ok.
I wasn’t sure which packages will be needed from there, the whole KDE4.11 could have been necessary but apparently that isn’t the case.
If you do want to upgrade KDE to 4.11, you could run “sudo zypper dup --from KDE_1”, but you don’t have to of course (maybe you better shouldn’t, that’s not the most stable repo, as it’s where the Factory packages are developed… 
). The older 4.10 should run fine with libqt4-4.8.5 as well as that’s only a bugfix update.
I upgraded to KDE 4.11, clicked on “switch system packages” in yast, because updating only phonon-backend-vlc did not work.