[LAU] jack/firewire block apps from using buildin soundcard

[Ng Oon-Ee]

On Tue, 2009-12-15 at 09:04 +0100, Atte André Jensen wrote:
> Hi
> 
> When I have qjackctl open (doesn't matter if jack is started or not), 
> applications (for instance firefox, vlc, what-have-you) cannot use the 
> buildin soundcard. Vlc doesn't print any error in the terminal, it just 
> sits there patiently waiting for me to close qjackctl. As soon as I quit 
> qjackctl it starts.
> 
> Anyone experienced this, and have a cure?
> 
> NB: I'm running ubuntu 9.10 with standard kernel and qjackctl (and 
> actually almost everything else) from the ubuntu repos.
> 
When qjackctl opens, jack is usually started (AFAIK). Pulseaudio, for
better integration with JACK, gives up control of the soundcard to JACK
whenever JACK starts. This is not an error, its by design. The idea is,
if you're using JACK, you want it to have the soundcard, not pulse.

AFAIK, however, pulse only gives up a soundcard if jack takes it. This
should not happen if qjackctl doesn't start jack (I believe it does
start jack though).