Linux OpenSuse 12.1: Synthesizer does not work

• Jan 26, 2012 - 12:27

Hello,
I'm using musescore on a Linux OpenSuse 12.1 system. Everything works well except the synthesizer. I'm not able to hear my scores. Even in the menu the synthesizer can't be chosen as this topic is greyed.

Can someone help me with this problem? Of course I could play the musik with my piano for myself, but mistakes can't be found easily this way.

I've tried to get some help in the German forum ( Linux OpenSuse 12.1: Synthesizer funktioniert nicht ) , but unfortunately only one other user with the same problem answered. And so we are both looking forward to get some help...

Best regards,
Stephan

Comments

• Feb 2, 2012 - 04:41

I just downloaded the current version for OpenSuSE 12.1 with the same trouble. Perhaps we can figure this out together.
My config under Preferences I/0 are:

Use JACK MIDI OUTPUT - unchecked.
Use internal Synthesizer - checked
JACK AUDIO SERVER - Unchecked
ALSA Audio - Checked
Device - default
Sample rate 48000, Fragments 3, Period size 1024.

My symptoms include:
1. The play button can't be pressed to play a tune.
2. The speaker and midi button are grayed out.

Additional info:
1. I had it installed previously but removed it. Looking at /var/log/zypp/history it appears only the musescore rpm get installed.

Question/comment:
I believe that I downloaded the previous version here and I didn't get a virtual keyboard package with it. It seems like the last time I installed musescore on a 11.4 box, it installed a keyboard package. I didn't see that this time around. Did I miss something with 12.1?

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• Feb 2, 2012 - 05:05

For the playback issue, do you have a Portaudio option in the Preferences -> I/O. If yes, can you check it and uncheck ALSA ?

Regarding the virtual keyboard thing, I think this should be redirect to the packager. on OpenSuse. Where did you download the package? In your package manager? on a webpage?

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• Feb 3, 2012 - 04:33

Still no luck. I didn't have port audio installed, so I ran zypper install port audio. Even after a reboot I can click on Portaudio, the dropdown menus for Api and Device do not contain any options even though they are active. If I start musescore from a shell I get the following:

rhamilton@linux-48vp:~> mscore
JackAudio()::init(): failed
no JACK server found
init audio driver failed
sequencer init failed
registerPlugin: add action idx 1
Load plugin: no menu property
preferences.checkUpdateStartup: 24
lastupdate: 02.02.2012 22:03:33.233

I don't have Jack installed so I can understand those messages. I get the same if I select ALSA or Portaudio.

I'm wondering if it could be the build I got from the repository.. I downloaded this form the Education repo. http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Education/openSUSE_12.1/ via the 1 click install. I installed hydrogen and it appears to be working fine using its default ALSA settings.

Thanks for the help so far lasconic Any other ideals?

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• Feb 3, 2012 - 07:05

First you don't need JACK. You don't need to install portaudio, except if you compile yourself.

Second, can you select portaudio only in Preferences -> I/O and *restart* MuseScore. Then go to Preferences -> I/O again, do you have something in the dropdown menu now? If yes, and still no playback, try to change these settings.

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• Feb 3, 2012 - 16:03

Hello,
with the settings mentioned in the last comment musescore now works as expected. Thank you very much!

So again: only "use internal synthesizer" and here "Portaudio" have to be checked. All other settings are unchecked. Then close musescore and restart it again. After this it works on my computer.

I'll translate this to the German forum.

Thanks again,
Stephan

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• Feb 5, 2012 - 02:07

I'm ok now. Turns out that I had to change default to hw:Intel for the Alsa Device. I'm guessing pulse audio isn't detecting the hardware properly (or is not configured properly) in Open SuSE 12.1. So you were right about going through Preferences -> I/0.... I just had to figure out what I needed to put there. Thanks for the pointer.

I found the data about setting the device to hw:Intel at http://musescore-developer.685061.n2.nabble.com/Can-t-play-with-mscore-…

I almost forgot. I wound up adding the following to my .bashrc file:
export KMIX_PULSEAUDIO_DISABLE=1

I may move it to /etc/profile though..... But either way should fix the issue.

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• Feb 7, 2012 - 08:05

Condensing the above (with thanks)...
The following works for me (SUSE 12.1, KDE, simple alsa sound system).

I have never had a system "just work", start by making sure your
alsa sound system plays movies & songs, L&R chans, etc.
In MuseScore, select Edit->Preferences...->I/O, duplicate the following:
[ ] Use JACK MIDI output
[*] Use internal synthesizer
[ ] JACK Audio Server
Left port: [ ] Right port [ ]
[*] ALSA Audio
Device: [ hw:Intel ] <--- Important - Note upper case I (eye) in "Intel"
Sample rate: [ 48000 ] Fragments [ 3 ] Period size: [ 1024 ]
[ ] Portaudio

Volume controls have a habit of setting them selves to zero%, so
* Show the MuseScore Play Panel (F11) and adjust the "Vol" sound level up.
* Note that the attenuation is savage below 100%, so push it up to full volume at first.
* Adjust the Linux KDE audio mixer volume up (near RHS of screen task bar).
Hope that is everything. One changes so many things during the hunt.

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• Jul 5, 2012 - 20:22

I had the problems discussed above with musescore version 1.1 and version 1.2
I tried all your ideas and they did not help. (the drop down was still empty)

but then I found out that the user ("ghost" who tried to use musescore) was not member of the group "audio" anymore (after updating from openSUSE 11.4 to 12.1).
so logging in as root and entering:
$ usermod ghost -A audio
(where "ghost" is the login name of the user who wants to use musescore)
was possibly the only thing needed to be done.

Now "ghost" must log out an on again so that KDE gets to know the new group of "ghost"
after that musescore 1.2 works fine (at least on my PC).

(Sometimes it can be so easy - if you know how.)

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• May 29, 2012 - 20:25

I'm using opensuse tumbleweed and using the build of musescore 1.2 for tumbleweed. I have libportaudio2 installed, and I use pulseaudio (as opensuse by default). I use KDE. I haven an intel sound card and it works fine with all other software in my system.

I've tried all the possibilities presented here: Using Internal synthesiser, with ALSA Audio and device set to hw:intel, and also with Portaudio, but the API and device comboboxes doesn't show anything (and I did an app restart). This is the output in the console when launching mscore with portaudio:

edulix@linux-msl5:~> mscore
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1018:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
ALSA lib pcm.c:2212:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.rear
ALSA lib pcm.c:2212:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.center_lfe
ALSA lib pcm.c:2212:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.side
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:957:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) The dmix plugin supports only playback stream
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1018:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory
Cannot connect to server socket
jack server is not running or cannot be started
ALSA lib seq_hw.c:457:(snd_seq_hw_open) open /dev/snd/seq failed: Permission denied
Init midi driver failed
no audio output found
init audio driver failed
sequencer init failed
Error: Unable to import qt.core: no such extension
Error: Unable to import qt.gui: no such extension
Error: Unable to import qt.xml: no such extension
Error: Unable to import qt.network: no such extension
Error: Unable to import qt.uitools: no such extension
No bp log location saved, using default.
[000:000] Browser XEmbed support present: 1
[000:000] Browser toolkit is not Gtk2 (0).
[000:001] Using Xt toolkit
ERROR: Invalid browser function table. Some functionality may be restricted.
java version "1.6.0_24"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (IcedTea6 1.11.1) (suse-3.1-x86_64)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.0-b12, mixed mode)
preferences.checkUpdateStartup: 168
lastupdate: 29.05.2012 21:15:20.350

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