Sonic Pi on Ubuntu 16.04

Yet another "how to make a Sam Aaron project on the current ubuntu version"

first add the following two lines at the end of /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/sonic-pi/ppa/ubuntu xenial main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/sonic-pi/ppa/ubuntu xenial main

Update packages:

sudo apt update

Install Sonic Pi:

sudo apt install sonic-pi

We need to kill pulseaudio and start jack, it sounds easier than it is because pulseaudio just won't stay dead :(

The way I found to make it work was to edit pulseadio client.conf:

sudo vim /etc/pulse/client.conf

Uncomment the line (remove the semicolon):

; autospawn = yes

And leaving it like this:

autospawn = no

I added myself to the audio group, not sure if it's required but just in case:

sudo adduser $USER audio

For this to take effect you need to logout and login again, to make sure you have the group, open a terminal and run:

groups

You should see audio between some other groups, if you can't see it try rebooting or replacing $USER with your actual username in the adduser command.

Now stop pulseaudio:

pulseaudio --kill

Then start jackd, I tried all the combinations I could find on the internet without success, this is the one that worked for me:

jackd -R -d alsa -d hw:1

If that doesn't work try:

jackd -R -d alsa

Or try the versions that are recommended on the overtone wiki:

jackd -r -d alsa -r 44100

Or:

jackd -r -d alsa -r 44100 -P

You can also try running qjackctl and play with the settings to see if you have luck.

If that doesn't work read /usr/share/doc/sonic-pi/README-JACKD to see if the instructions there help.

Now you should be able to run sonic-pi:

sonic-pi

Have fun!