Playback button
I have been using Musescore occasionally for a while and have never had a problem with it. I recently had to re-install my operating system which is now Linux Kubuntu 14.04. Since then I have not been able to use the playback button in Musescore. When I press it nothing happens. I got Musescore through the Ubuntu Software Centre. It is version 1.34, revision 5702. My computer is a 64BIT system.
I then tried loading Musescore onto a small Netbook which I have. Its operating system is LXLE 14.04 which is based on Lubuntu. Musescore was again obtained from the Software Centre and is version 1.3 revision 5702. Again the playback button doesn't work. The netbook is also 64BIT.
I can see from the forums that other people seem to have had a similar problem, but I can't see any resolution of it. I'd be grateful for any help that can be offered.
Thank you,
David.
Comments
Most liekly something is preventing the synthesizer from loading / initializing. I'm no expert in such things, but I can tell you to look at Edit / Preferences / I/O and see if any ettings there seem "off" to you - eg, it is saying to use ALSA but you don't have ALSA installed on your system, etc. If you don't know what makes sense, just take a screenshot and post it here, and maybe someone will be able to make suggestions. You could of course also just try randomly changing settings there :-)
In reply to Most liekly something is by Marc Sabatella
Thanks for the response. Much appreciated. As suggested I've played around with the I/O settings, but to no avail.
Attached is a screenshot of what they look like now. Having messed around with them I'm not sure if that's how they were originally I'm afraid. I assume I have ALSA installed as it is part of the Linux kernel. I'm afraid I don't know how to verify.
As ever, grateful for any assistance.
![IO preferences.png]( "IO preferences.png")
In reply to Playback button by dhowdle
I guess another thing to try is to go to Display / Sythesizer and make sure you have a soundfont installed, although since these are two brand new installations (?) I can't imagine why you wouldn't (one comes pre-installed).
In reply to I guess another thing to try by Marc Sabatella
Marc, thank you for taking an interest. I do seem to have a sound font installed (whatefer that is). It is /usr/share/sounds/sf2/TimGM6mb.sf2.
I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling, but it's just the same after that. All very irritating.
Regards,
David.
I suspect an OS setting rather than MuseScore problem. Running 1.2 in Xubuntu 12.04 I have Internal Synthesizer, ALSA checked but Jack unchecked. Running 2.0 Beta 1 I have Pulseaudio checked and the others unchecked and they both work on the same system (and at the same time if desired). ALSA is generally installed by default. I have Pulseaudio set in my applications startup preferences.
If you open a terminal and enter
sudo apt-get install alsa
alsamixer
you should see both if ALSA is installed (and install it if it isn't) and what the settings are for various inputs and outputs.
Your best bet is probably to look to the various sound troubleshooting guides for ubuntu etc. if this doesn't help.
In reply to I suspect an OS setting by underquark
Thank you so much. Here is what came up on my terminal:
david@david-Inspiron-1545:~$ sudo apt-get install alsa
[sudo] password for david:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'alsa-base' instead of 'alsa'
alsa-base is already the newest version.
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
gambas3-gb-form gambas3-gb-gtk gambas3-gb-gui gambas3-gb-image
gambas3-gb-qt4 gambas3-gb-settings gambas3-runtime
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 0 not to upgrade.
david@david-Inspiron-1545:~$
It means nothing to me, but when I re-opened Musescore the sound was working fine. I'm very grateful.
In reply to Playback button by dhowdle
I spoke too soon! I've tried it again this morning and it's not working once more. Here is what's in my I/O Preferences. I'm stumped and would once again be grateful for help.
In reply to Playback button. by dhowdle
Try unchecking ALSA audio, leaving the PortAudio box checked.
Then restart MuseScore
In reply to Try unchecking ALSA audio, by ChurchOrganist
Thanks for that. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be the answer either. I'll keep looking, but still grateful for any advice.
In reply to Playback button by dhowdle
That is the default setting in my installation of Ubuntu Studio 14.10, which works fine.
There is obviously something else at play here.
Have you checked MuseScore's file permissions?
I know when I was running Mint I had to establish permissions for some applications to use the audio system manually.
In reply to That is the default setting by ChurchOrganist
Thank you for taking the time to help. I'm sorry, but I don't know how to check the file permissions...
In reply to Playback button by dhowdle
Are you particularly attached to the Kubuntu variant??
Why not try installing the latest LTS release of Ubuntu Studio (Trusty Tahr), which IME works out of the box with MuseScore.
Ubuntu Studio is specifically geared up for those of us working in media production.
In reply to Are you particularly attached by ChurchOrganist
I guess I am quite attached to it. I'm not a very knowledgeable computer person. I installed Kubuntu on the advice of my son and I am used to it and like it. I never had a problem with Musescore playback until recently and haven't a clue what has happened to break it.
Also I'm not a media specialist. I sing in a small a capella group and occasionally put my line of music into musescore to help me learn it!
I guess I could attempt to install Studio on a dual boot system though I've not tried that before.
Anyhow, thanks for trying to help.
In reply to Playback button. by dhowdle
Somewhere I got the idea of running Musescore from a terminal to see what error messages come up. Here is what I got:
david@david-Inspiron-1545:~$ musescore
/usr/bin/musescore: 11: /usr/bin/musescore: gawk: not found
Suspending PulseAudio
ALSA lib pcm.c:2239:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.rear
ALSA lib pcm.c:2239:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.center_lfe
ALSA lib pcm.c:2239:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.side
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
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
registerPlugin: add action idx 2
Load plugin: no menu property
preferences.checkUpdateStartup: 24
lastupdate: 23.09.2014 16:57:28.615
Bus::open: Can not get ibus-daemon's address.
IBusInputContext::createInputContext: no connection to ibus-daemon
Does this mean anything to anyone?
Thanks.
David.
In reply to Playback button. by dhowdle
Yes, indeed, see #22727: Musescore mistakenly suspends pulseaudio on Ubuntu
In reply to Yes, indeed, see #22727: by Jojo-Schmitz
Thanks. I may be missing something, but I can't see what the solution is in your link.
In reply to Playback button by dhowdle
Try installing gawk :)
In reply to Try installing gawk :) by ChurchOrganist
Thank you! I had installed it from a terminal, assuming that would be the thing to do, but it didn't make any difference.
However, this shows my ignorance, I didn't Run it. I realised that I needed to do that this morning and, lo and behold, it works in Kubuntu! Thank you so much for your help and patience. I'm most grateful.
P.S. And I've done the same in my Netbook using LXLE and it's worked there as well! Fantastic!
In reply to Playback button by dhowdle
Try 44100 under "Edit -> Preferences -> I/O -> Alsa Audio -> Sample rate" if you are still having the issue you described.