Found on flatpak, downloaded. Whole UI works and everything, guys. Just not getting any kind of sound! :’(
Pls help
1 Like
bitwo
September 17, 2025, 2:40pm
2
I had this problem as well and there was a very long thread about this problem started Mar 2024
As far as I remember, pipewire was one problem.
Let me ask positive: On which Linux brand does the new version of SP work? For me (may be for some others) it’s not a problem to install any Linux version to run SP with.
I just found threads with … not working …
I think to remember I followed this recipe:
opened 01:15PM - 27 Apr 24 UTC
(Apologies in advance, wasn't sure whether to put this in issues, or community, … but it does highlight fixes for some issues if you try to do a build on Linux Mint)
These fixes for building **Sonic Pi v4.50** that work on a brand new, vanilla install of **Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia** (the xfce version)
**TL;DR**
If you just want to install all the requirements, do the other prep and build:
`sudo apt-get install -y build-essential git libssl-dev ruby-dev erlang-dev erlang-xmerl qt6-tools-dev qt6-tools-dev-tools libqt6svg6-dev libqt6opengl6-dev supercollider-server sc3-plugins-server alsa-utils libasound2-dev cmake ninja-build libspa-0.2-jack qt6-wayland libwayland-dev libxkbcommon-dev libegl1-mesa-dev libx11-dev libxft-dev libxext-dev qt5-qmake compton wireplumber qt6-l10n-tools libspa-0.2-bluetooth libtool python3-pip pipewire-audio-client-libraries libibus-1.0-dev`
answer "yes" if asked about enabling realtime priority
Edit `/etc/security/limits.d/audio.conf` and uncomment the final line:
`@audio - nice -19`
Install jinja2 with pip3:
`pip3 install jinja2
`
Install qpwgraph from Flatpak:
`sudo flatpak install flathub org.rncbc.qpwgraph`
Add the Elixir repositories and get a later version of Elixir - minimum is 1.14, currently this gets 1.15
`sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rabbitmq/rabbitmq-erlang`
`sudo apt update`
`sudo apt install elixir erlang-dev erlang-xmerl`
Add yourself to the "audio" group
` sudo usermod -aG audio $USER`
Disable pulseaudio:
`systemctl --user disable pulseaudio pulseaudio.socket`
Fix qmake to use qt6 not qt5:
`sudo qtchooser -install qmake6 /usr/lib/qt6/bin/qmake`
`sudo qtchooser -install qt6 /usr/lib/qt6/bin/qmake`
**Reboot**
Clone the sonic-pi git repo:
`git clone https://github.com/sonic-pi-net/sonic-pi.git ~/Development/sonic-pi`
Change into the app folder:
`cd ~/Development/sonic-pi/app`
Run the linux prebuild script - this will find any problems that I have missed, or have changed since I posted this
`./linux-prebuild.sh
`
If this completes, do the full build:
`./linux-build-all.sh`
Run sonic-pi:
` ~/Development/sonic-pi/bin/sonic-pi`
This should run, and you should have sound!
**The Explanations:**
There are a few differences and difficulties you will find if you try to follow the instructions for building on Debian Bookworm
https://github.com/sonic-pi-net/sonic-pi/blob/dev/BUILD-LINUX.md
Firstly there are some packages on that page that do not exist in Linux Mint, namely
qpwgraph - you need to install from FlatPak
pipewire-jack - this is in pipewire-audio-client-libraries, not an individual package
You will also need to install a later version of Elixir as Sonic-Pi v4.50 needs at least Elixir v1.14, not 1.12.
You need to fix a couple of problems to switch over to using Qt6 and fix a missing Qt6 program that is no longer there by default.
This Qt6 missing package is qt6-l10n-tools which adds lconvert. It's in the big apt-get below
And the biggest problem I found was swapping my sound input and output to Pipepwire, but more of that later.
So let us fix some of those problems in advance before we even start building Sonic Pi
Lets do the major, modified, apt get first, including that qt6-l10n-tools, python3-pip, libtool, and also wireplumber - installing this latter program at the start might fix all the issues I had getting sound out of Sonic Pi with Pipewire.
`sudo apt-get install -y build-essential git libssl-dev ruby-dev erlang-dev erlang-xmerl qt6-tools-dev qt6-tools-dev-tools libqt6svg6-dev libqt6opengl6-dev supercollider-server sc3-plugins-server alsa-utils libasound2-dev cmake ninja-build libspa-0.2-jack qt6-wayland libwayland-dev libxkbcommon-dev libegl1-mesa-dev libx11-dev libxft-dev libxext-dev qt5-qmake compton wireplumber qt6-l10n-tools libspa-0.2-bluetooth libtool python3-pip pipewire-audio-client-libraries libibus-1.0-dev`
One part of the above will ask if you wish to enable Realtime (RT) in your kernel, you should answer yes
This will create the file /etc/security/limits.d/audio.conf
and you need to edit that file and uncomment the final line (the nice line) so that it reads:
```
@audio - rtprio 95
@audio - memlock unlimited
@audio - nice -19
```
You also need to add yourself to the audio group
` sudo usermod -aG audio $USER`
It's probably best to do a pip3 install of jinja2 at this point, or the linux-prebuild will fail
` pip3 install jinja2`
Now let's use Elixir's own PPA repositories to get a later version of Elixir (at time of posting this is 1.15)
See https://elixir-lang.org/install.html
```
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rabbitmq/rabbitmq-erlang
sudo apt update
sudo apt install elixir erlang-dev erlang-xmerl
```
You also need to make sure you are using the Qt6 qmake
This involves using qtchooser
```
sudo qtchooser -install qmake6 /usr/lib/qt6/bin/qmake
sudo qtchooser -install qt6 /usr/lib/qt6/bin/qmake
```
You can then use qtchooser to list versions to see what you've just done:
`qtchooser --list-versions`
and you should see something like this
```
4
5
default
qmake
qmake6
qt4-x86_64-linux-gnu
qt4
qt5-x86_64-linux-gnu
qt5
qt6
```
```
qmake6 --version
QMake version 3.1
Using Qt version 6.2.4 in /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu
```
Lets sort out qpwgraph now. I had to install this via a flatpak, otherwise you run into dependency issues if you search for the various .deb. packages that are available for Debian Bookworm or Ubuntu
This will install it:
`sudo flatpak install flathub org.rncbc.qpwgraph`
I don't think qpwgraph is necessary for the actual build, but it is useful if you have sound problems with Pipewire after the successful build.
You also need to set up Pipewire as your audio, not pulseaudio. Pulseaudio is a user level service, so to disable it:
`systemctl --user disable pulseaudio pulseaudio.socket`
This is all the prep done, and at this point, you have to logout to make yourself a member of the audio group, but a reboot is probably best, as that will also give you all the Realtime benefits.
So that's all the prep and fixes to the issues that will crop up if you just follow the instructions for building on Debian Bookworm on the sonic Pi GitHub site on a brand new Linux Mint 21.3 install
**The Build**
So lets do the git clone, now, and the build
` git clone https://github.com/sonic-pi-net/sonic-pi.git ~/Development/sonic-pi`
`cd ~/Development/sonic-pi/app`
and to build, now we've fixed all the potential problems. Personally, I would run the prebuild script first, if that fails, either I've missed a step, or something has changed (since April 2024), or you've missed a step... for example I found I needed to install libtool, and python-pip3 and then use pip3 to install jinja2, and a couple of other little things
` ./linux-prebuild.sh`
If this completes, then run the linux-build-all.sh script
`./linux-build-all.sh`
This could take a 10 or more minutes, it also downloads any extras it requires for the build, so you do need internet access to do the build, and if you have a slow connection it will take longer...
This should now complete the build without error
To run Sonic Pi, you can run
~/Development/sonic-pi/bin/sonic-pi
So this is where you could run into issues between Pipewire vs Puluseaudio
I found that I had to disable pulseaudio and make sure that pipewire was running, and this is where you find you need to have uncommented that "nice" rule in /etc/security/limits.d/audio.conf (and need to be a member of group "audio")
pulseaudio runs as a user session, so to disable it
` systemctl --user disable pulseaudio pulseaudio.socket`
Then I rebooted again
In a VirtualBox VM running LinuxMint I found I had to install the libspa-0.2-bluetooth package as it was not there by default on a "Virtual" VM, so the pipewire-media-session was not running. I've included this in the big apt-get at the start of this guide.
However I also found that installing pipewire-media-session clashes with wireplumber - installing either one removes the other.
So I stuck with wireplumber
You should have sound output now with Sonic-Pi v4.50
If you don't use qpwgraph to check that your inputs and outputs in pipewire are getting connected. wireplumber seemed to sort this out for me by default, on a Linux Mint install on hardware. I had more problems with Pipewire on a VirtualBox one...
Sorry for the length of this, and it's not an issue in itself, it's an issue with the Documentation, specifically the
`BUILD-LINUX.md
`
but I hope I have addressed all the problems in that file specifically in reference to building on Linux Mint 21.3 and hopefully sorting out sound output
Actually I prefer using sonic-pi on Raspberry 500, a raspberry built in a keyboard.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-500/
bitwo
September 17, 2025, 2:43pm
3
Another thread about sound issue
SC does install but does not provide sound on Linux Mint 21/22. Well known.
One audio tool in the linux world was jack, not longer used.
After some long trials and experiments I argue that the reasion is the change of the sound architecture to pipewire?
I came to this conclusion when I needed supercollider for something else and couldn’t get any sound! It is well known that CP uses Supercollider for sound production. My brother, an audio engineer, told me he uses pipewire-jack (pw-jack).
Af…
bitwo
September 22, 2025, 1:49pm
4
triggered by your post ,out of curiosity I tried an installation via flathub https://flathub.org/en/apps/net.sonic_pi.SonicPi on an one of my older PCs without Sonic-Pi previously installed. flathub not flatpak!
Sonic-pi v4.6.0
Mint 22 installation (from 2024 Mate 1.26.2, permanently updated).
flatpak install flathub net.sonic_pi.SonicPi
flatpak run net.sonic_pi.SonicPi
It worked with sound straight away.
