Isn't having both JACK and Pipewire installed redundant, assuming that pipewire-jack is included in one's Pipewire setup and prelinked to take system calls for JACK?
Why would it be redundant? I use Jack for production audio, not Pipewire.
The purpose of Pipewire (for me) is to provide consumer audio, for example "let's hear that Britney Spears track on youtube" or "let's make a zoom call", with or without Jack running.
With Jack running Pipewire replaces Pulseaudio for consumer audio.
Having JACK + Pipewire seems like a recipe for configuration headaches and confusion when trying to sort out why something isn't working as expected.
Why would you say that? Getting it working is easy. Less CPU overhead than with Pulse as well.
I use it all the time, works OK for my purposes and hardly complicated and no surprises and endless troubleshooting either. It just works.
I have seen some posts on the Ardour forum where users were having issues when both JACK and Pipewire were installed because the applications were utilizing one while the user was expecting them to use the other, as well as package managers pulling in dependecies that have the potential to alter audio setups. As you point out, they can peacefully co-exist (I assume by simply not installing "pipewire-jack" or starting programs via "pw-jack"), but I was curious why you aren't using Pipewire's JACK capabilities. I wanted to understand if there are significant reasons to hold back from going all-in on Pipewire.
When the next Debian stable comes out it will have a version of Pipewire that is 1.2.7 or higher by default, and this will permeate across its derivatives. I think the time is apporaching when the general advice given for audio configuration on Linux will focus on Pipewire as the only sound server in use. There will always be users who stick with setups they prefer and offer advice in that direction, but having consensus on the basics of Linux audio configuration would reduce confusion for new users looking to make music on Linux, in my opinion. If Pipewire can now do it all as it initially set out to do, it seems to be the way to go. If the original author of JACK thinks Pipewire is good enough to use in place of JACK, that compels me to believe it is ready for primetime as the underlying program handling all audio. As Paul Davis recently said on the Ardour forum:
"I don’t see any reason not to use Pipewire at present."
and
"I had to do a bit of text file configuration when I switched to PW, and that took some figuring out because pro-audio is still a niche case. Once I did that, it has been generally simpler to use than JACK, and broadly speaking, equally reliable."
I understand there will always be users documenting alternative setups, and that is a good thing. Personally, I find understanding and managing Pipewire's configuration a bit bewildering at present, but I am hopeful that as usage and advice coalesces around it, setup guides and tools will be written that makes its configuration simpler.
Statistics: Posted by GuntherT — Mon Feb 10, 2025 6:46 pm
