I start timidity with Jack output enabled (-Oj), and (under qjackctl) I see the timidity audio output device for a second and then it disappears...: media-sound/jack-audio-connection-kit 0.98.1-r1 media-sound/qjackctl 0.2.8 media-sound/timidity 2.13.0-r1 Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1.Start jack 2.Start timidity with timidity -iA -B2,8 -Oj -EFreverb=0 3.Watch qjackctl (connections) while starting timidity - see it appear for a moment, then disappear Actual Results: Expected Results: Please note that this has been reported as a bug with timidity at: http://timidity-docs.sourceforge.jp/cgi-bin/kagemai-en/guest.cgi?project=timidity-bugs-en&action=view_report&id=28 but I have a feeling that this is a gentoo problem? It's hard to tell - only that the other person reporting the bug was using gentoo, as well..
Judging from the problem description on timidity-docs.sourceforge.jp it seems that this is a 'feature' caused by the Timidity engine. I'll have a look into it since this renders the jack interface virtually useless. "As Stuart Allie has asked on http://www.music.columbia.edu/pipermail/linux-audio-user/2004-April/011540.html TiMidity Audio output (with port_1 and port_2) is visible for a second and then disappears if rosegarden is not started. As long as rosegarden is running, TiMidity audio out remains visible. It seems to expose itself to jackd only when a midi source is actually connected to it. Perhaps this should be mentioned in the man-page, as it seems only intuitive to me after having found out."
I verified the behaviour on my systems: - jack running - timidity launched with 'timidity -iA -B2,8 -Oj -EFreverb=0' - timidity creates 4 alsa-sequencer midi ports; shown in qjackctl midi tab or using 'aconnect -o -l' - immediately after startup the jack audio sources for timidity are created, but vanish after 2 seconds because nothing is connected to the midi inputs - connecting *something* to the midi inputs causes the audio engine to go back to work and create the jack ports, which remain active as long as the midi inputs remain connected. - the connect/disconnect can be repeated over and over again. So to recap: timidity works fine on my systems (tested both on p4 and amd64), but one needs to be aware that the jack ports are created dynamically when the midi ports are connected. A simple workaround around the disappearing jack ports issue could be to simply connect a vkeybd to one of it's inputs, or connect the system:announce port to it (eg, 'aconnect 0:0 131:0' where the 131:0 is the 1st midi port registered by timidity, as mentioned during it's start-up message) You might want to talk to the upstream developers (http://timidity.sourceforge.net/) to find out if they can/want to do something to change the behaviour for this synth-engine use-case.
