[Blink] Blink for Linux hangs on second call when using PulseAudio input device

[Jeff Pyle]

Michael,

My case is likely different, as my goal was to use a JACK-connected audio
device in Blink.  JACK and PA play reasonably well together, but since PA
and Blink don't sometimes, I created an ALSA loopback, integrated it into
my JACK flow, and use it exclusively for connectivity with Blink.  I've
attached my asound.conf.

Once I have JACK started, I run a script called loop2jack, also attached.
This creates two JACK devices, cloop and ploop, the "capture" loop and
"playback" loop devices, respectively.  In Blink the devices appear as
"Loopback, Loopback PCM" for input and output devices.  Blink does support
JACK natively, but Blink's capture and playback connectors only appear when
the audio device is actively in use.  I don't have any auto-patching
mechanisms running in my JACK environment so this wasn't compatible.  I
find the ALSA loopback approach very good for my needs.

I also have trouble keeping the loopback PCM device playback level at 100%
in alsamixer.  I haven't spent much time on it.

All that said...  if you can configure Blink to use your audio device with
ALSA directly, rather than PA, you should be okay, no?  PA will release it,
and you won't have any of the Blink+PA problems we've seen.


- Jeff


On Sun, May 5, 2019 at 1:48 PM juleg.ch at gmail.com <juleg.ch at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hello
>
> It seams, that I'm experiencing the same problems here (Debian Stretch,
> Blink 3.2.0)
> After doing or receiving a call, Blink's cpu usage goes up to almost
> 100%. Also the application hangs afterward and I have to kill the
> process and start again to continue.
> PulseAudio shows a device "ALSA plug-in [python2.7]" in the recording
> section of pavucontrol which is not released until the killing of the
> process manually.
>
> Jeff, apparently you managed to find a workaround for this problem. I've
> read about ALSA-loopback devices under your posted link
> https://alsa.opensrc.org/Jack_and_Loopback_device_as_Alsa-to-Jack_bridge
> but I have no clue how this could help bypassing PA and solving the
> problem in Blink. May be you could elaborate a little bit more how you
> installed this virtual device (example section of .asoundrc?) and what
> device one have to select in Blink for input/output? Can this
> workaround coexist with installed PA?
>
> Any help on this would be highly appreciated because I like the
> application a lot, especially because it's written in Python and it's
> possible for me to understand the source code an to do little
> adjustments if needed.
>
> Regards
> Michael
>
>
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