Dave's questions

I've been trying to get this back all night but I've failed so I thought I'd come here and ask.

I was moving my machine (HP Z240 with standard Intel graphics) running Ubuntu Studio 21.10 that was running at 2K resolution. Had a mishap with the DisplayPort cable. Plugged another in and the highest resolution I'm offered is 1080p. Used another cable bought only a month ago, still 1080p.

I did some fiddling with xrandr and for a short while I had 4K running at a very low refresh rate (the original reason for choosing 2K), so at least i know the cable's not the problem. Where have the other resolutions gone? And how can I get them back?

HDMI-1 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 1872mm x 1053mm
   1920x1080     60.00    50.00    59.94    30.00    25.00    24.00    29.97    23.98  
   1920x1080i    60.00*   50.00    59.94  
   1680x1050     59.88  
   1600x900      60.00  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1440x900      59.90  
   1280x800      59.91  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1280x720      60.00    50.00    59.94  
   1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00  
   832x624       74.55  
   800x600       72.19    75.00    60.32  
   720x576       50.00  
   720x576i      50.00  
   720x480       60.00    59.94  
   720x480i      60.00    59.94  
   640x480       75.00    72.81    66.67    60.00    59.94  
   720x400       70.08  

EDIT:

After I did some searching I found a way to decode the display's EDID file using read-edid. This gave me all the modes available for the display. I still don't understand why these are not being read by the system.

Anyway, I found the mode:

"Mode 1" 241.50 2560 2608 2640 2720 1440 1443 1448 1481 +hsync -vsync

which looked very similar to what I had been using. I renamed this mode and then created it as a new one using xrandr. It appeared in settings and allowed me to switch to it.

To make these changes permanent the only suggestion i've found is to run my xrandr script as a batchfile at startup. Is this the only way? And I still have no idea why the original settings are no longer shown.

I did have JACK, Carla and Qtractor all working together a few weeks months ago. I wanted to use the configuration I set up again on the same machine, but now no sound is produced.

I think I originally had to change an output setting in JACK for it to recognise the HDMI audio out (HDMI 2) - I found JACK had everything set to default. I've tried all the options under Parameters and the Advanced tab one by one and no sound is produced on any of them.

I use JACK exclusively with Carla. During my tinkering, Carla started refusing to recognise that JACK was running unless I started jackd from the console. In frustration, I removed jack and purged it and then reinstalled. Carla seems back to recognising JACK, but still no audio. I've checked that outputs from the instruments are going to system playback.

Any pointers to help me fix this from the music gurus?

I'm running Ubuntu Studio (Kubuntu 21.10 x86_64) and my audio hardware is very basic as below:

$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC221 Analog [ALC221 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 10: HDMI 4 [HDMI 4]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
```

I've been using a Bluetooth keyboard for over a year on the same system (Ubuntu Studio-Kubuntu 21.10).

A few days ago, I noticed that the " (Shift+2) and @ (Shift+') keys suddenly became reversed. I'm using UK English, so I tried adding US English, because it would be correct with that layout. The layout remained the same, except I was unable to type £ (Shift+3), as expected. But removing the US layout changed nothing. I tried other UK layout variants and they were of no help.I soldiered on with the problem until suddenly the 4 key was outputting 2.

I assumed a broken keyboard and have a brand new one now, similar model but updated version. In UK English I still have the swapped @ and ", but now the # key produces arg:3 in Konsole, blank everywhere else.

This is driving me insane, as these are my most used symbols in my daily work. Any pointers as to what I can do about it much appreciated.

I've been trying to get a simple recording setup working with Ardour 5 on UbuntuStudio 20.04. I first faced an issue with HDMI being the default and unable to capture through the mic port. I solved that by changing the sound card to PCH and was successfully recording guitar.

Then I tried syncing Hydrogen for drums, so I set the syncing in Ardour from Int to JACK. However now everything that Ardour plays sounds like some kind of digitally scrambled noise (the time code?) and no setting in ardour changes that. I've tried disconnecting everything in JACK and reconnecting everything individually, but that does nothing either. If I set the sound back to HDMI Ardour plays the audio fine, but of course I have no capture devices. The PCH card plays audio from other applications as normal when Jack is disabled. Can anyone give me any pointers on where to look to solve this?

I'm very new to music on Linux so be gentle with me :-)