[JACK AUDIO] Cannot setup Buffer Size and Sample Rate using QJackCTL or Cadence

[yauhenbarysik]

Hello, Long story short - I used Pop_OS! 20.04 as my main distro for 1 year for work (working as programmer/qa automation engineer+have experience as Linux DevOps/Oracle DBA in the past), games and for another hobby - music production. In 20.04 you still had PulseAudio, which gives you a brilliant posibility to use Ubuntu Studio Installer for easy and straight-forward setup for JACK Audio (it was really about few clicks and bam! - you have lots of instruments, plugins and easy-to-use GUI software for controlling JACK and setting it up).

Now to the problem - its in Pop_OS! 22.04 and to be exact, in replacement of PulseAudio with Pipewire+Wireplumber. I tried installing Ubuntu Studio Installer, but Pop_Shop! just crashed. I tried installing it via terminal but no luck, because it requires removing pipewire and in your case pipewire depends on pop-desktop. And pop-desktop cannot be removed as well (I tried so use gnome-session instead and remove pop-deskop).

Ubuntu Studio Installer output: Pipewire removing output: Pop-Desktop removing output:

I started searching for workarounds and found this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/pop_os/comments/ubvln6/next_update_in_2204_will_enabled_jack_audio/ As well as checked your github and found this Pull Request: https://github.com/pop-os/pop/commit/4d11d0171b930bac711cc8c699c724ed68d91b2c

So I give it a go again proceed with testing. I installed fresh copy of Pop_OS 22.04, plugged my Focusrite 2i2 3rd Gen and tried using QJackCTL directly, but no luck:

1. It is always in Active state (yes, you can stop it and restart but that doesn't have any effect)
2. Changing Buffer Size and Sample Rate doesn't have any effect, it always refferes I guess to the default setting of pipewire - 2048/48000
3. Cadence (alternative to the QJackCTL) even doesn't allow you to configure Jack and not working at all
4. As a workarround I tried using Bitwig Studio as Buffer Size and Sample Rate changer but as I understood pipewire+wireplumber has individual settings for each app so closing Bitwig Studio can cause revent to 2048/48000 settings (which is no option for those, who have exernal sound interface because me and others get used to posibility to add effects even for skype/zoom calls via Jack or record some software audio by routing its output to DAW or Audacity i.e.)

So, I have couple of questions and suggestions :) Lests start with questions.

Questions.

1. Do these adjustments to use pipewire+alsa+jack already in updates section? because I tried updating system - it didn't work.
2. Is there any way to remove pipewire and replace with pulseaudio because without it you cannot install Ubuntu Studio Installer which became some sort of standard for linux musicians on debian-based distros (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop_OS! in the past). I.e. Fedora also comes with Pipewire+Wireplumber, BUT they have posibility to install PulseAudio by installing packages from JAM spin: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_jam#Installing_the_Fedora_Jam_audio_packages
3. If its not possible how can I use Jack audio on Pop_OS! to do basic and necessary things? Pipewire+Wireplumber doesn't have many documentation, info, manuals, video tutorials. So its really tricky thing for understanding and usage. FYI, Pipewire still doesn't have any GUI application which can change Buffer Size or Sample Rate, it was called as "replacer for Jack and PulseAudio", but its not - it doesn't have even half of its functionality and posibilities. I've seen several attempts to use Jack with Pipewire on youtube channel Unfa, but even this guy then revented to Jack+Alsa+Pulse.

Suggestions

You have a really brilliant distro which is perfect for daily driving, work, office, gaming ... but not music production! I see few ways to solve this issue

1. Allow users to revert to PulseAudio. I know that is tricky and not ideal and can cause problems with bluetooth, so its not the best one suggestion
2. Make a detailed manual for setupping and using Jack Audio with Pipewire+Wireplumber. Some webpage with commands+video tutorials of common usercases for Linux Musicians, using Bitwig Studio, Reaper, Ardour, QJackCTL, Carla, Calf Plugins will work.

P.S.: Will be appriciate any advice or suggestions to solve that issue because I don't want to drop Pop_OS! and install other distros as well as other Linux musicians, which used Pop_OS! in the past.

[yauhenbarysik]

I also tried to workaround this using configs but no luck. Here is issue report on Pipewire/Wireplumber gitlab. https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/wireplumber/-/issues/340

So maybe if you can suggest something as well as pipewire/wireplumber devs then some sort of manual can be created. I was thinking about recording a Youtube video with must-have and basic audio/music production setup and explanation on the example of Pop_OS! so once solution will be found I can record it and give it to you so you can reference it on your webpage. Just trust me, that will save MAAAANY time for musicians and sound producers. I know at least 3 people, looking with interest on Linux and Pipewire and they have high hopes on my success in setting everything, lol :)

[yauhenbarysik]

Don't mind it. I found solution and even better - soon (need couple of days) I will upload terminal utility for easy setup of Pipewire+Wireplumber for Linux Musicians. I will add a link on it here+will do manual on Reddit and possibly video tutorial as well.