Issue and workaround: Critical error Mac mini macOS Mojave: Could not boot Sonic Pi Server

[Swissmorgy]

Hi insiders Hello Sam Aaron

I am trying to install Sonic Pi on 25 brandnew Mac mini (2018) for a school. Unfortunately, it cannot be booted.

I see the issue has already been reported here. However, I still post my details of the error as it might help solving the issue.

Yours, Swissmorgy

Sonic Pi Boot Error Report

System Information

• Sonic Pi version: 3.1.0
• OS: macOS 10.14

GUI Log

/Users/oszt/.sonic-pi/log/gui.log

[GUI] - Detecting port numbers...
[GUI] - GUI OSC listen port 4558
[GUI] -    port: 4558 [OK]
[GUI] - Server OSC listen port 4557
[GUI] -    port: 4557 [OK]
[GUI] - Server incoming OSC cues port 4559
[GUI] -    port: 4559 [OK]
[GUI] - Scsynth port 4556
[GUI] -    port: 4556 [OK]
[GUI] - Server OSC out port 4558
[GUI] - GUI OSC out port 4557
[GUI] - Scsynth send port 4556
[GUI] - Erlang router port 4560
[GUI] -    port: 4560 [OK]
[GUI] - OSC MIDI out port 4561
[GUI] -    port: 4561 [OK]
[GUI] - OSC MIDI in port 4562
[GUI] -    port: 4562 [OK]
[GUI] - Init script completed
[GUI] - using default editor colours
[GUI] - launching Sonic Pi Server:
[GUI] - starting UDP OSC Server on port 4558...
[GUI] - UDP OSC Server ready and listening
[GUI] - Ruby server pid registered: 1757
[GUI] - waiting for Sonic Pi Server to boot...
............................................................
[GUI] - Critical error! Could not boot Sonic Pi Server.
[GUI] - stopping UDP OSC Server...

Server Errors

/Users/oszt/.sonic-pi/log/server-errors.log

libc++abi.dylib: terminating
/Applications/Sonic Pi.app/app/server/ruby/vendor/sys-proctable-1.1.3/lib/darwin/sys/proctable.rb:163: warning: constant ::Fixnum is deprecated

Server Output

/Users/oszt/.sonic-pi/log/server-output.log

Sonic Pi server booting...
Using protocol: udp
Detecting port numbers...
Send port: 4558
Listen port: 4557
  - OK
Scsynth port: 4556
  - OK
Scsynth send port: 4556
  - OK
OSC cues port: 4559
  - OK
Erlang port: 4560
  - OK
OSC MIDI out port: 4561
  - OK
OSC MIDI in port: 4562
  - OK
Booting server...


Booting Sonic Pi
----------------

Boot - Booting on OS X
Boot - Checkout audio rates on OSX:
Boot - Input audio rate: 48000.0
Boot - Output audio rate: 48000.0
Boot - Sample rates match, we may continue to boot...
Boot - Starting the SuperCollider server...
Boot - /Applications/Sonic Pi.app/app/server/native/scsynth -u 4556 -a 1024 -m 131072 -D 0 -R 0 -l 1 -i 16 -o 16 -U /Applications/Sonic Pi.app/app/server/native/supercollider/plugins/ -b 4096 -B 127.0.0.1

Scsynth Output

/Users/oszt/.sonic-pi/log/scsynth.log

# Starting SuperCollider 2018-12-11 10:55:59
Found 0 LADSPA plugins
Number of Devices: 1
   0 : "Mac mini Lautsprecher"

get kAudioDevicePropertyStreamFormat error on input ?ohw
could not initialize audio.

Process Log

/Users/oszt/.sonic-pi/log/processes.log

Clearing pids: []
No pids to clear :-)
Started [1757] [-] /Applications/Sonic Pi.app/Contents/MacOS/../../app/server/native/ruby/bin/ruby --enable-frozen-string-literal -E utf-8 /Applications/Sonic Pi.app/Contents/MacOS/../../app/server/ruby/bin/sonic-pi-server.rb -u 4557 4558 4556 4556 4559 4560 4561 4562 [-] /var/folders/m7/s006plh55p9dzvl0w6lqtd0h0000gn/T/sonic-pi-pids/1757

[Swissmorgy]

I found the following workaround which might help finding a permanent solution:

We have a Behringer USB audio-interface in house. When I plug it to the mac Mini, the system has an input-device (Which can be seen in Preferences) once it is plugged. Then, Sonic Pi starts and can be used. Even if the interface is unplugged once it is up and running. With the USB interface not plugged, I get the same error and SonicPi can't start. Plugging phones or an external speaker has no effect on SonicPi boot behaviour on my system.

Any ideas how I can prevent SonicPi from waiting for an input source? (I don't need it) Or any ideas how I could add a permanent "dummy input" source to my system that would make SonicPi start?

[ethancrawford]

A quick search for the get kAudioDevicePropertyStreamFormat error on input ?ohw error on Google doesn't turn up much, but there are a few (quite old) error reports that mention it. Does the suggestion mentioned at https://narkive.com/WT3pCrGV.8 help at all?

[Swissmorgy]

Hello Ethan Thanks for posting. Indeed this post seems to be about input and output ports on Macs. However, I don't know how the information helps me with my questions above.

[ohag]

Same problem with MacBook Pro Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014. Find the log attached.

[Sonic Pi Boot Error Report - MacBook Pro Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014.txt] (https://github.com/samaaron/sonic-pi/files/2723989/Sonic.Pi.Boot.Error.Report.-.MacBook.Pro.Retina.13-inch.Mid.2014.txt)

[ohag]

I now noticed that it only seems to happen, when my Airpods are connected via bluetooth. Otherwise the app starts up fine.

[ethancrawford]

@ohag - yours is a slightly separate issue to the original post. You are correct that it appears when your airpods are connected via bluetooth: this is a well known issue, due to a limitation of Sonic Pi's underlying sound synthesis engine, SuperCollider - the input and output sample rates need to match. (See Sam's comment on #1856 for a work around). This should be fixed in the next release of Sonic Pi, which hopefully will be released some time in the near future.

[ohag]

@ethancrawford Thanks for clarifying.

[gstory20]

I am having the same problem that is reported here. Unfortunately I don't have some USB input device that I can connect to my Mac Mini.

[ilpredo]

I now noticed that it only seems to happen, when my Airpods are connected via bluetooth. Otherwise the app starts up fine.

Same thing to me, thanks!

[ethancrawford]

@ohag, @ilpredo - the upcoming 3.2 release later this month will contain the fix for the Bluetooth issue you were experiencing. (Already available in the beta builds Sam is providing, or you can compile it yourself also)