Hello list, I've been experimenting with using jack.plumbing instead of jack_connect to make connections for Nama/Ecasound. As I understand it, Ecasound behaves differently than most other JACK clients. Ecasound registers its ports with JACK when the engine is launched, and de-registers its ports when the engine is disconnected. Nama configures Ecasound by writing a chain setup, loading it, (re)writing the .jack.plumbing config file, and allowing time for jack.plumbing to connect the desired ports. However if jack.plumbing happens to poll while ecasound is not connected to jack, j.p dies with errors. Connect: 'system:capture_1' -> 'ecasound:brass_in_1'. jack_connect() failed: 'system:capture_1' -> 'ecasound:brass_in_1' Jackd reports: Cannot connect ports owned by inactive clients: "ecasound" is not active I've found that rapidly connecting and disconnecting ecasound is a reliable way to kill jack.plumbing. I am trying to work around this by killing and restarting jack.plumbing each time Nama reconfigures Ecasound, however my code's still not reliable. It would be nice if jack.plumbing could handle Ecasound's routine behaviors more robustly. Although ignorant about many things JACKish, I would expect that it's fair for a JACK client manage its ports as allowed under JACK's API. I'd appreciate any suggestions, as I'm about at the end of rope (at least without plunging into jack.plumbing and Ecasound's sources.) Regards, Joel -- Joel Roth