You can now try installing jammr for Linux as a Flatpak:

https://flathub.org/apps/details/net.jammr.jammr

Information on setting up Flatpak is available here: https://flatpak.org/setup/

jammr has only been available for Ubuntu so far and we don't want to leave out
users of other Linux distributions. Flatpak is a way of publishing applications
so they run on any Linux distribution. Future releases of jammr will only be
available as Flatpaks.

If you use the JACK audio system Flatpak 1.6.1 or later is required.

Linux users, please let us know what you think and whether installing jammr as
a Flatpak worked for you!

I know Ubuntu is not your target distro list, and I won't go off on a tangent on how 20.04 seems to have broken flatpak in the Software Center, but I'll post this as an FYI.

After some finagling with flatpak I was able to install the Jammr flatpak from the command line - never did get it to install from the Software Center. I blame Canonical, not Jammr, for that experience though.

I probably should have used –verbose so I'd have more info for you (perfectly willing to do that if you want) but the (command line) install went without incident and Jammr is running smoothly. I'll install the flatpak on Studio 19.10 a little laer today and give you that info as well.

julian_vickers
I know Ubuntu is not your target distro list, and I won't go off on a tangent on how 20.04 seems to have broken flatpak in the Software Center, but I'll post this as an FYI.

Thanks, that is very useful info! If the installation experience is worse on Ubuntu with Flatpak then jammr might continue to be available as Ubuntu packages alongside the Flatpak.

I will test Ubuntu 20.04 Flatpak installation before the next release and see if anything can be done.

Update for Ubuntu Studio 19.10. Unfortunately this is the oldest version of Ubuntu I have, and I think by this point Canonical was already busy breaking flatpak installs in the Software Center, so my experience was pretty much the same as 20.04 above. Software Center didn't cooperate even after installing the required flatpak packages for it, so a command line install had to be done. I will say again I am relatively certain this is an Ubuntu issue.

I did do a –verbose this time, and it was absolutely without any incident - no errors, no warnings, and Jammr runs on both my installs… so your flatpak works for both GNOME and KDE… at least on my setup.

Good job, stefanha

Thanks for testing it, julian_vickers!

Hi friends
I've installed the flatpak package on Archlinux. I can't set with JACK.
Flatpak version is 1.10.2-1

Saludos amigos.

stefanha
Linux users, please let us know what you think and whether installing jammr as
a Flatpak worked for you!

I made a test with Linux Mint 20 OS installed on an older laptop and jammr flatpak was installed automatically. It worked nice with an usb sound card with normal audio settings but I didn't succeed to use my midi controller with linux vst plugin. The scan button did not give any result. I found for testing a vst file with .so extension but it was not recognized.
It was very nice to test an open source OS and jammr app and Linux Mint is friendly enough, very good for an affordable second computer in the house!

abnervous
I've installed the flatpak package on Archlinux. I can't set with JACK.Flatpak version is 1.10.2-1

Hi abnervous,
JACK does not support Flatpak. In some cases it may work but fundamentally JACK is not designed to support Flatpak.

I recommend using ALSA if you are not using other JACK programs at the same time as jammr. Remember to disable the sound card in PulseAudio so there is no conflict (launch pavucontrol, go to Configuration, and disable the sound card).

In the longer term Linux audio is migrating from PulseAudio and JACK to PipeWire (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pipewire ). I haven't tested PipeWire yet so I can't give specific advice but future versions of the jammr flatpak will support ALSA and PipeWire. PipeWire has a JACK-compatible interface so in theory the jammr flatpak might already work with PipeWire today.

If you need JACK, here are some more details:

The jammr flatpak is built with jack2 1.9.14. If your system uses the same version of jackd then it will work. There is more discussion here: https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/issues/3622

The reason why JACK does not support Flatpak is because applications running inside a Flatpak container may be built against a different version of the JACK library than the jackd running on your system. JACK does not support multiple versions. It assumes all components of the system are using the same JACK version.

You can either build jack2 1.9.14 from source so it is compatible with the jammr flatpak or you can build jammr from source without Flatpak. You can build jammr as follows:

The dependencies are libogg, libvorbis, PortAudio, PortMIDI, Qt 5, and qtkeychain. The jammr binary is located in qtclient/jammr after the build finishes.

adi
I didn't succeed to use my midi controller with linux vst plugin. The scan button did not give any result. I found for testing a vst file with .so extension but it was not recognized.

Please try running the jammr flatpak like this:

The reason why VSTs are tricky to get working inside Flatpak is because the application is isolated from your computer to a degree. This improves security because jammr cannot access everything on your computer, but it makes sharing files, devices, and programs more challenging.

1. jammr needs to be able to see the VST .so file itself. Were you able to add the directory where the .so file is located in jammr's Effect Plugins scan dialog?

2. The VST plugin may depend on other libraries or files that are not accessible from within the Flatpak environment. You can check if the VST plugin's dependencies are available by launching the jammr flatpak and then running the following commands:

I used “flatpak ps” to determine the Instance ID of the running jammr application. Then I used “flatpak enter” with that Instance ID to launch a bash shell inside the Flatpak environment. The “ldd” command shows the library dependencies of a program or .so file. In this example I used the TAL-NoiseMaker.so VST plugin.

If there are libraries that are missing from the Flatpak environment then the ldd output will say “library_name.so => not found”. In that case it's possible to copy the missing libraries into the Flatpak environment but it's messy and I don't recommend doing it unless you are comfortable figuring out the dependencies yourself.

Flatpak for Linux is now available for testing, offering a universal packaging format that simplifies app distribution across different Linux distributions. It allows developers to package their best internet providers applications with all dependencies, ensuring compatibility across various systems. Users can easily install and update apps without worrying about system libraries, making software management more efficient and seamless for Linux users.