[ SOLVED ] Audacity suddenly wont start

[buteman]

I have been using audacity for many years and suddenly it wont run.

Mint 17.3 3.19.0-32-generic #37~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP

audacity 2.05

If I try to launch it from a terminal i get

(process:5626): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: Attempt to add property GnomeProgram::sm-connect after class was initialised

(process:5626): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: Attempt to add property GnomeProgram::show-crash-dialog after class was initialised

(process:5626): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: Attempt to add property GnomeProgram::display after class was initialised

(process:5626): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: Attempt to add property GnomeProgram::default-icon after class was initialised
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
audacity: symbol lookup error: audacity: undefined symbol: Pa_GetStreamHostApiType

It will run if I launch it from a terminal this way:

Code: Select all

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ audacity

Does anyone know how I can fix it please?

[buteman]

After getting a number of suggestions on linuxquestions forum this solved it.
I just looked in /usr/local/lib and this is what I get.

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ll
total 1732
drwxr-xr-x  5 root root     4096 Jul 16 20:10 ./
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root     4096 Mar 24 15:58 ../
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1168322 Jul 16 20:10 libportaudio.a
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root      998 Jul 16 20:10 libportaudio.la*
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root       21 Jul 16 20:10 libportaudio.so -> libportaudio.so.2.0.0*
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root       21 Jul 16 20:10 libportaudio.so.2 -> libportaudio.so.2.0.0*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root   573641 Jul 16 20:10 libportaudio.so.2.0.0*
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root     4096 Jul 16 20:10 pkgconfig/
drwxrwsr-x  4 root staff    4096 Nov 28  2015 python2.7/
drwxrwsr-x  3 root staff    4096 Nov 28  2015 python3.4/

So it looks like all the libportaudio files were modified on July 16 and that seems to be the problem.

So I looked in /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu

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ll libportaudio*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root     21 Feb  3 19:40 libportaudio.so.2 -> libportaudio.so.2.0.0
-rw-r--r-- 2 root root 188656 Feb 25  2014 libportaudio.so.2.0.0

so I renamed libportaudio.so.2.0.0 to oldlibportaudio.so.2.0.0 in /usr/local/lib
and created a new soft link to the one in /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu

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ln /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libportaudio.so.2.0.0 libportaudio.so.2.0.0

Now audacity works again.
Checked if vlc still runs with sound and it does. Don't know if there will be problems with other programs but no doubt I will find out eventually.

[zenephi]

Thanks for this info.
I, too, have been having problems with Audacity and it's consoling to find that it's not just me "struggling" - and that it may well be part of a "broken" update/change of the system files. I have Audacity on Mint 17.3 & Mint 18 + Cinnamon, i5 chips,6Gb & 16GB memory installed, Toshiba Hybrid HD & Samsung SSD.

Over the past couple of weeks or so I have experienced a number of niggling problems.
First Audacity started to record or playback "slow" ... problems with bitrate settings & readings etc. .. I seemed to have solved that BUT then
Secondly; it only "sees" it own files now! No oog / wav / mp3 etc. show up when selecting files to import. Strangely it will export oog files BUT you have to change the extension to .oog manually, even though the oog option is set.

Given your experience I can now stop worrying and just get on with using Ocenaudio / PulseAudio Volume Control / Audio Recorder until the "powers that be" get it sorted. Thanks again.