Debian-based Distro Audio Fix when self building

[Konradrundfunk]

Unfortunatly the default librtaudio-dev library on the apt is outdated and falsely configured. Therefore you most probably will experience audio problems on linux mint. There is a fix but it requires a bit of manual work for you to do.

1. You need to clone the repo for a manual install of rtaudio. git clone https://github.com/thestk/rtaudio && cd rtaudio
2. Create a build folder and cd into it. mkdir build && cd build
3. Checkout to a working branch git checkout 5.1.0
4. Cmake the project without alsa support cause that is what actually breaks it . cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH="/usr" -DRTAUDIO_API_JACK=OFF -DRTAUDIO_API_ALSA=OFF ..
5. Remove the outdated dependency. apt remove librtaudio-dev or your rtaudio version
6. Install the new dependency sudo make install
7. Done! Start Sdrpp and enjoy clear sound.

Thanks to cropinghigh for the cmakeflag.

[jaymot123]

That fixed my fluttery audio in Debian Buster too. Thanks!

[blacksmock]

I had the same problem with SDR++ v 1.0.1 installed using sdrpp_ubuntu_focal_amd64.deb package on Lubuntu 20.04. This fix cured the problem. Thanks.

[wa2zkd]

I am running Linux Mint with Focal ubuntu, runs fine except no audio. Doesn't appear in the pulse vol ctrl system. I installed from a .deb, do I need to build from src?

[shuyuan-liu]

Could you check the Sinks tab and see if you have selected a sink other than "Null"?

[wa2zkd]

yes, that was it. Thank You

[aso824]

On Linux Mint 20 also libpulse-dev need to be installed, and switch -DRTAUDIO_API_PULSE=ON to be added to compile it correctly

[mbott001]

On Linux Mint 20 also libpulse-dev need to be installed, and switch -DRTAUDIO_API_PULSE=ON to be added to compile it correctly

Not being the sharpest crayon in the Linux box, can you list exactly what the entry should be? More than likely, there will be followup questions later. :)

[NicolasGagne]

Question, do you have acces to the sample rate 11025?
I don't and want to know is that normal?

[noman-land]

Thanks for the help. This fixed my problem. I would also like to point out that there is now a 5.2.0 version of rtaudio so step 3 of @Konradrundfunk's instructions can be amended.

[Konradrundfunk]

With the latest 5.2 version there seams to be an error so i added the checkout to the earlier version but glad that that helped.

[noman-land]

After following your instructions and rebuilding rtaudio, I just re-installed SDR++ and it started working great. I didn't even need to build SDR++ myself.

[Konradrundfunk]

Yeah CPP is using some libraries from your system guess that libaudio is one of them so quick fix I guess.

[gbeyer3]

@Konradrundfunk

Thanks for the instructions on building a new librtaudio-dev. Everything worked as advertised in steps 1-6, (I changed step 3 to 5.2.0) but at step 6 I got an errors, don't know how to resolve. I searched the code repo for error.h, not found.

sudo make install
[ 5%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/rtaudio.dir/RtAudio.cpp.o
/home/greg/rtaudio/RtAudio.cpp:8525:10: fatal error: pulse/error.h: No such file or directory
8525 | #include <pulse/error.h>
| ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.
make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/rtaudio.dir/build.make:63: CMakeFiles/rtaudio.dir/RtAudio.cpp.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:355: CMakeFiles/rtaudio.dir/all] Error 2
make: *** [Makefile:141: all] Error 2

[Konradrundfunk]

Do you have pulseaudio installed?

[gbeyer3]

@Konradrundfunk Yes, I do: pulseaudio (1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3.13)

[gbeyer3]

I found the post: "With the latest 5.2 version there seams to be an error so i added the checkout to the earlier version but glad that that helped."

So, I started over again - deleted contents of /build, then followed all steps again, but checked out 5.1.0. This time, no error!

But SDR++ is not starting. I'm going to try re-installing it. I may have accidentally borked it with a sudo apt autoremove that was suggested when I was doing the steps. Lesson -- stick to the plan, LOL.

[HemiBob]

I did that too and messed it all up :-(

[gbeyer3]

Hmm, it wants to install librtaudio-dev . . . hope it does not overwrite the new version I have . . .

[gbeyer3]

@Konradrundfunk rebuilding from the top seems to have resolved the problem. IMO your audio fix needs to be added to the README, but it's not my project, so I hesitate to horn in.

One thing I noticed reinstalling SDR++ from the .deb file, one of the files that it installs (downloads) is librtaudio-dev. So the new librtaudio-dev I just built is overwritten by the old, defective one. Meaning I had to run step 5 & 6 one more time. I think this will happen every time a new SDR++ is released. So it seems this issue needs to be fixed.

Again, thanks very much for documenting this fix.

[AlexandreRouma]

Well first reinstalling SDR++ does nothing, so don't waste your time with that. Just install the latest nightly for your OS. You haven't said which version of Mint you have (XFCE is just the desktop environment, no impact on the software). When you know what exact version you're using, looking which version of ubuntu it's based on (focal = 20.04, jammy = 22.04, etc).

What they meant by "librtaudio-dev or your rtaudio version" is just to remove whatever rtaudio package you have installed. The name of the package is not always the same so use apt search rtaudio | grep installed to figure out what you have.

[HemiBob]

Thanks for your patience Alexandra, it would appear I have OS Linux Mint 21.1 Vera - Kernel: Linux 5.15.0-72-generic Architecture: x86-64.
"sudo apt search rtaudio | grep installed" returned nothing.
I did spot that librtaudio6 Ver 5.2.0~ds1-1 is showing as installed in Synaptic PM
Don't know about nightly builds for the OS but I did an update & upgrade.
It's nearly 1:00am here so I'll sleep on it. You've been very helpful, I'm determined to get this working, been on it solid for days now.
Regards, Bob

[AlexandreRouma]

"sudo apt search rtaudio | grep installed" returned nothing.

That's good, means it's not installed yet

it would appear I have OS Linux Mint 21.1 Vera
Don't know about nightly builds for the OS but I did an update & upgrade.

I'm talking about the SDR++ nightly, not the OS. Download the "jammy" deb from here: https://github.com/AlexandreRouma/SDRPlusPlus/releases/tag/nightly

[HemiBob]

Yes, it's the same deb I installed before (1.1.0-1018)
It says "Same version is already installed" so I clicked on re-install.
I'm back to where sdrpp starts, controls the RSPdx and is controlled by gpredict but the audio is completely broken into 1/2 second bursts.
wxtoimg obviously can't decode that, do I now run the above 7 steps again, as step 5 breaks sdrpp?
Definitely off to bed now, will resume in the morning.

[HemiBob]

I didn't get any further with this yesterday, running step 5 above always removes sdrpp. Since you pointed out that rtaudio is not installed I ran steps 1 to 4 and 6 leaving out step 5
This time sdrpp didn't get removed but the sound is still choppy and unusable.

So, I wondering if I removed sdrpp (with Synaptic PM) and then re-installed but this time running:

sudo apt install libfftw3-dev libglfw3-dev libglew-dev libvolk2-dev ibsoapysdr-dev libairspyhf-dev libiio-dev libad9361-dev librtaudio-dev
libhackrf-dev zstd
BUT OMITTING "librtaudio-dev"

Then I wouldn't need to run step 5, just step 1 to 4 and 6 - would that work or is this just the same as I already did?

alternatively, if the problem is with Mint, should I rebuild the computer with a different distribution, and if so what would you suggest? It's a fairly old machine and not very powerful so a lightweight distro like Bodhi would be best maybe?

[nemanjan00]

This issue also exists on Arch Linux and I have reported it there

https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/packaging/packages/rtaudio/-/issues/1

[MatiasSaibene]

Here is a custom PKGBUILD (to build rtaudio) for Arch and derivatives.
Just remove the .txt extension to use it with makepkg.
PKGBUILD.txt

[BenLand100]

Hit this issue on gentoo; disabling ALSA support in rtaudio does indeed fix the problem. This is not a misconfiguration or version issue -- the ALSA support in rtaudio simply has limitations and should not be enabled.

[AlexandreRouma]

it's a limitation of ALSA itself which does not do adaptive resampling (required since the clock of the SDR isn't synced to the clock of the sound card), not really RtAudio. The problem is why RtAudio defaults to ALSA over any audio server.

[LexiTree]

I'm about to 'try the fix' - until now I've just found that toggling on/off/on/off the source will ultimately eventually one time produce good results. Reading now that "SDR isn't synched to the clock ..." leads me to think the reasons my on/off/on/again sometimes works is that sometimes I just happenstance/luckily line up good enough for the clocks to match ... does that make any sense? Regardless I'm going to rebuild rtaudio without alsa and (hopefully) hear things working correctly all the time ...

[LexiTree]

Worked like a charm - except for one detail I was surprised by ... now in the Sinks section, under Audio, I only have listed "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo". I expected to see only PulseAudio listed - so this is the opposite to my believed understanding of things ...

Buuuut , it works! so - I'm only irked at not quite knowing what is going on - even as I'm delighted that the sound output is chop-free!

[jseyfert3]

I am running Mint 22.1. The deb package of SDR++ had no audio (no audio output seen in Sinks). I removed it, then I cloned the SDR++ repo and built SDR++ from source. The audio worked.

I did not have to build rtaudio from source. I have librtaudio-dev and librtaudio6 installed via apt, both 5.2.0, exactly the same as were installed as dependencies when I installed SDR++ from source. So building SDR++ from source on my computer is doing something different than the nightly build is doing?

To build I followed the instructions on the main repo page. Clone repo, cd into folder, mkdir build. But instead of installing modules and deps manually, I just did cmake .., saw what library was missing, installed with apt, and repeat until it built. Then make -j12 and sudo make install. Opened the newly built and installed SDR++ and audio worked.

[wamayumi]

If you are using arch linux, install alsa-plugins and change the sinks' default alsa device to pulseaudio sound server.
For debian, install the libasound2-plugins package and do the same as above.

[zt64]

On Fedora 42 I'm using the sdr++ package from https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/rezso/SDR/. v5.1.0 was building librtaudio.so.6 but sdr++ expects librtaudio.so.7. Checking out rtaudio v6.0.1 built and seems to work fine so far.