Critical error. Could not boot Sonic Pi Server

[Iryn-e]

Sonic Pi Boot Error Report
==================


System Information
----------------

* Sonic Pi version: 3.3.1
* OS: Windows 10 Version 2009


GUI Log
-------

**`C:\Users\Joey.Joey-PC\.sonic-pi\log\gui.log`**

[GUI] -
[GUI] -
[GUI] -
[GUI] - Welcome to the Sonic Pi GUI
[GUI] - ===========================
[GUI] -
[GUI] - {1c2eff99-8bb2-43c7-ae22-7c96a2b599ec}
[GUI] - ui locale: fr-FR
[GUI] - sys locale: fr_FR
[GUI] - translations available
[GUI] - Discovering port numbers...
[GUI] - Port entry server-listen-to-gui : 51235 : 51235
[GUI] - Port entry gui-send-to-server : 51235 : 51235
[GUI] - Port entry gui-listen-to-server : 51236 : 51236
[GUI] - Port entry server-send-to-gui : 51236 : 51236
[GUI] - Port entry scsynth : 51237 : 51237
[GUI] - Port entry scsynth-send : 51237 : 51237
[GUI] - Port entry server-osc-cues : 4560 : 4560
[GUI] - Port entry erlang-router : 51238 : 51238
[GUI] - Port entry websocket : 51239 : 51239
[GUI] - Detecting port numbers...
[GUI] - GUI listen to server port 51236
[GUI] - port: 51236 [OK]
[GUI] - Server listen to gui port 51235
[GUI] - port: 51235 [OK]
[GUI] - Server incoming OSC cues port 4560
[GUI] - port: 4560 [OK]
[GUI] - Scsynth port 51237
[GUI] - port: 51237 [OK]
[GUI] - Server send to GUI port 51236
[GUI] - port: 51236 [OK]
[GUI] - GUI send to server port 51235
[GUI] - port: 51235 [OK]
[GUI] - Scsynth send port 51237
[GUI] - port: 51237 [OK]
[GUI] - Erlang router port 51238
[GUI] - port: 51238 [OK]
[GUI] - Websocket port 51239
[GUI] - port: 51239 [OK]
[GUI] - All ports OK
[GUI] - hiding main window
[GUI] - initialising toolbar icons
[GUI] - setting up window structure
[GUI] - restoring scope states
[GUI] - creating status bar
[GUI] - creating info panel
[GUI] - creating shortcuts
[GUI] - creating tool bar
[GUI] - initialising documentation window
[GUI] - launching Sonic Pi Runtime Server:
[GUI] - starting UDP OSC Server on port 51236...
[GUI] - UDP OSC Server ready and listening
[GUI] - Ruby server pid registered: 8744
[GUI] - wait for sync
[GUI] - waiting for Sonic Pi Server to boot...
............................................................
[GUI] - Critical error! Could not boot Sonic Pi Server.
[GUI] - stopping UDP OSC Server...
[GUI] - Critical Error. Unable to connect to server..
[GUI] - UDP OSC Server no longer listening

Server Errors
-------------

**`C:\Users\Joey.Joey-PC\.sonic-pi\log\server-errors.log`**

Server Output
-------------

**`C:\Users\Joey.Joey-PC\.sonic-pi\log\server-output.log`**

Sonic Pi server booting...
The time is 2021-10-18 20:37:12 +0200
Using primary protocol: udp
Detecting port numbers...
Listen port: 51235

• OK
  Scsynth port: 51237
• OK
  Scsynth send port: 51237
• OK
  OSC cues port: 4560
• OK
  Erlang port: 51238
• OK
  Websocket port: 4562
• OK
  Opening UDP Server to listen to GUI on port: 51235
  ERROR: Unable to write information for PID 3168 to path C:/Users/JOEY~1.JOE/AppData/Local/Temp/sonic-pi-pids/3168!
  undefined method `cmdline' for nil:NilClass

Scsynth Output
--------------

**`C:\Users\Joey.Joey-PC\.sonic-pi\log\scsynth.log`**

Starting SuperCollider 2021-10-18 20:37:13

Device options:

• MME : Microsoft Sound Mapper - Input (device #0 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• MME : Microphone (Avnex Virtual Audio (device play_pads not stopping #1 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• MME : Microphone (Screaming Bee Audio (device Thread sync/drift #2 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• MME : Microsoft Sound Mapper - Output (device Note lengths vs BPM #3 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• MME : Speakers (Realtek High Definiti (device Auto stop after about 4 minutes #4 with 0 ins 8 outs)
• MME : Speakers (Avnex Virtual Audio D (device Removes binaries from source tree. #5 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• MME : Realtek Digital Output (Realtek (device Use $HOME rather than /home/pi #6 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• Windows DirectSound : Pilote de capture audio principal (device Add facility to select sound output #7 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• Windows DirectSound : Microphone (Avnex Virtual Audio Device) (device current_tempo not working? #8 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• Windows DirectSound : Microphone (Screaming Bee Audio) (device Ten possible development requests #9 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• Windows DirectSound : Périphérique audio principal (device Add modified play_pattern_timed command #10 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• Windows DirectSound : Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio) (device Improve chord commands #11 with 0 ins 8 outs)
• Windows DirectSound : Speakers (Avnex Virtual Audio Device) (device Add tempo command to work with timed notes #12 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• Windows DirectSound : Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio) (device Add global feature for with_synth command #13 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• ASIO : Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver (device Allow for first time/second time bars #14 with 2 ins 2 outs)
• Windows WASAPI : Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio) (device Function Keys (?programmable) for keyword input #15 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• Windows WASAPI : Speakers (Avnex Virtual Audio Device) (device Add ability to put in note values from keyboard #16 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• Windows WASAPI : Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio) (device Add defined way to enter rests into note sequence #17 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• Windows WASAPI : Microphone (Screaming Bee Audio) (device Improve loading and saving tunes to and from workspace #18 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• Windows WASAPI : Microphone (Avnex Virtual Audio Device) (device Add ability to play from command line #19 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• Windows WDM-KS : Speakers (Realtek HD Audio output) (device Add ability for play lists #20 with 0 ins 8 outs)
• Windows WDM-KS : Microphone (Realtek HD Audio Mic input) (device deleted #21 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• Windows WDM-KS : Line In (Realtek HD Audio Line input) (device Make print command more useful. Ability to suppress normal text output #22 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• Windows WDM-KS : Stereo Mix (Realtek HD Audio Stereo input) (device Add variable font size in Sonic-PI #23 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• Windows WDM-KS : SPDIF Out (Realtek HDA SPDIF Out) (device Workspace temporary file uses same name for all users #24 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• Windows WDM-KS : MIDI (Avnex Virtual Audio Device) (device CPU usage #25 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• Windows WDM-KS : Speakers (Avnex Virtual Audio Device) (device Using sonic pi remotely #26 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• Windows WDM-KS : Microphone (Screaming Bee Wave) (device Usage of QProcess #27 with 2 ins 0 outs)

Requested devices:
In:

• (default)
  Out:
• (default)

Selecting default system input/output devices

Booting with:
In: MME : Microphone (Avnex Virtual Audio
Out: MME : Speakers (Realtek High Definiti
SC_PortAudioDriver: PortAudio failed at Pa_OpenStream with error: 'Unanticipated host error'
could not initialize audio.

Process Log
--------------

**`C:\Users\Joey.Joey-PC\.sonic-pi\log\processes.log`**

ask-clear.rb

Clearing pids: []
No pids to clear :-)
Started [8744] [-] "C:\Program Files\Sonic Pi\app\gui\qt\build\Release..........\app\server\native\ruby\bin\ruby.exe" --enable-frozen-string-literal -E utf-8 "C:\Program Files\Sonic Pi\app\gui\qt\build\Release..........\app\server\ruby\bin\sonic-pi-server.rb" -u 51235 51236 51237 51237 4560 51238 51239 [-] C:/Users/JOEY1.JOE/AppData/Local/Temp/sonic-pi-pids/8744
ERROR: Unable to write information for PID 3168 to path C:/Users/JOEY1.JOE/AppData/Local/Temp/sonic-pi-pids/3168!
undefined method `cmdline' for nil:NilClass

How do I fix this problem? What's this 'cmdline' method I'm supposed to have, how can I fix this?

Edit: If there is additional information you require, please let me know so I can provide them. all I did is copy-paste the logs, not sure if that's all that was needed to be done, nonetheless I really appreciate the help!

[ethancrawford]

Hey @Iryn-e,

The cmdline error is a side effect of some of our code for handling the Sonic Pi boot up process, only vaguely related to your particular problem. It is generally harmless. (Thankfully also, it will no longer be a problem in the upcoming v4.0 release of Sonic Pi, as we have completely rewritten that part of the system 😄 )

Looking at the log files above, it seems that PortAudio (the audio driver that Windows is using) is unable to successfully open the mentioned devices for input and output.
Unfortunately PortAudio is not always smart enough to work with diverse combinations of devices like this... and it doesn't really provide very helpful error messages either!
There is something that you can try: if you are willing to test booting Sonic Pi with alternate input/output devices - you can edit a config file we have, which will tell Sonic Pi to try to connect to specific audio devices.
See an example of the config file here:
https://github.com/sonic-pi-net/sonic-pi/blob/dev/app/config/user-examples/audio-settings.toml
(The real version belongs in your .sonic-pi\config folder, found from your home folder).

You could try changing this line:

sonic-pi/app/config/user-examples/audio-settings.toml

Line 89 in 710107f

# sound_card_name = ""

to say:

 sound_card_name = "ASIO"

Which would tell Sonic Pi to attempt to boot up and connect to your sound hardware via the generic ASIO interface.

Let us know how it goes if you try this - or if you have any further questions 👍

[samaaron]

We have completely overhauled the process with which we boot the system, and it would still be really great to know if this has somehow not resolved your situation.

Therefore, please feel free to re-open if this is still an issue with the recently released v4 of Sonic Pi - https://github.com/sonic-pi-net/sonic-pi/releases