Goodness, I'm so frustrated...

Finally I managed to get the LFE channel to show up as a pulseaudio sink.  Now I have all 6 (5.1) channels there, and last night I managed to get it all started and watch a movie, and it sounded good.  My Pianoteq didn't work (notes played from the app, but not from the actual keyboard), but I thought I would be able to figure that out soon.   But then I came home from work and now I'm stuck again.  Can't get anything to work!! I don't really know what I'm doing, so I spend hours trying different combinations, but I'm not getting anywhere.  Here are the pieces of my puzzle:

1. qjackctl and hdspmixer.  I know I have to run hdspmixer to get driver loaded for the RME 9652 card, but now I cannot get Jack Audio Connection Kit to show the 26 system input and outputs for the RME.  It shows just 2 inputs and 2 outputs.  Just last night I had it showing the 26 inputs and 26 outputs, but no more; no matter what I do, just 2 and 2.  I put snd_hdsp in my modules.conf, which changed the RME to be at the top of the modules list, and that seemed to be OK last night.  When I include "hdspmixer &"  (OR, hdsploader &) in the "run at startup" here's the messages I see in Jack when I let it autostart:

20:19:49.410 Statistics reset.

20:20:07.892 ALSA connection change.

20:20:07.902 Startup script...

20:20:07.902 /usr/bin/hdspmixer &

Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory

Cannot connect to server request channel

jack server is not running or cannot be started

JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock

JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock

Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory

Cannot connect to server request channel

jack server is not running or cannot be started

JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock

JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock

20:20:07.914 ALSA connection graph change.

20:20:08.304 Startup script terminated successfully.

20:20:08.304 JACK is starting...

20:20:08.305 /usr/bin/jackd -t2000 -dalsa -r48000 -p64 -n2 -D -Cplughw:DSP,0 -Pplughw:DSP,0 -o26

20:20:08.309 JACK was started with PID=2918.

20:20:10.520 Could not connect to JACK server as client. - Overall operation failed. - Unable to connect to server. Please check the messages window for more info.

20:20:10.576 JACK is stopping...

Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory

Cannot connect to server request channel

jack server is not running or cannot be started

JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock

JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock

20:20:10.605 JACK was stopped

20:20:10.605 JACK has crashed.


When I don't use autostart, and just run it manually after restarting Linux, Jack doesn't crash, but I still only see 2 input and 2 outputs.  Doesn't matter if I run hdspmixer before or after qjackctl; always the same result...


2. Ecasound - I have an ecasound script that implements my DSP ladspa crossovers and it works fine.  It processes the LFE channel fine. But I can't get far enough to run it anymore.

3. pulseaudio -k.  I use this command to start or reset pulseaudio.  I don't seem to have much problem anymore with PA; the LFE channel always shows up now in the list of pa-jack-sinks.  My big problem is #1 above.  But even after I figure out #1, I still have #4 to understand, so I can get all this work work automatically and don't have to manually run a bunch of scripts and commands every time I want to play the piano.

4. What to put where.  I am just at a loss to understand so much about Linux.  I have AV Linux, by the way.  Jack Audio Connection (qjackctl) has a startup script, and an "after startup" scrip, and 2 shutdown scripts.  I don't know what to put on each.  I thought I should put hdspmixer & on the startup, but that doesn't work anymore.  Then there's Sessions and Startup - Autostart.  I don't know what to run there, in the autostart tab.  There are so many possible ways to do all this.  Then, there's where to put my scripts - either in usr/bin, or under my home directory.  I don't understand the difference; it seems it matters, what gets started and from where, but I don't understand how it matters.  I do understand about chmod a+x.

I had this working fine for months (after much struggle), then I decided to change from 5.0 to 5.1 and process the LFE channel and BOOM, I've lost it all.  I'm almost ready to go to J. Rivers.  Can anybody help me calm down and learn the many things I need to learn to solve these problems?  I need some detailed, step-by-step help; I have a child and a family I'm kind of neglecting, I can't spend my life studying this and trying different things...  I would really, really appreciate it...  or maybe I'm just not smart enough for Linux; just tell me if you think I should go back to Windows... :(

Thanks so much...
John

On Mon, Nov 27, 2017 at 7:47 PM, john gibby <johnalan.gibby@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
Have beat my head against the wall long enough...  I have AV Linux, Hammerfall DSP card, am using Ecasound with ladspa plugins for DSP crossover, Pianoteq piano model, and Jack to glue things together.  I built 2 nice large subwoofers (4 ft3 each) with 12" SBAcoustics drivers.  Just realized the other day that my 5.1 surround sound is missing the .1; the LFE channel.  I want to get it to appear in my PulseAudio sink, map it in the my Ecasound logic, and split the LFE signal between the 2 subs.  Since I use them for 20 to 80hz, maybe this will sometimes detract from accuracy of movie music, but still I at least want to learn how to do it and see how I like it.  Problem is, no matter what I do with /etc/pulse/daemon.conf, default.pa etc. (setting channels=6, channel order, no LFE mixing, etc.), I can't seem to get the LFE channel to work.  I've searched the Internet over and over, read everything I could find and tried setting things like the articles say, but still the LFE channel just won't show up.  Alsamixer shows front, rear and center master volume controls only; no LFE.  pulsevumeter, etc., show only 5 channels, nothing shows the LFE channel.  Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks!!
John