Hi guys, I'm new to this list so please be gentle! :-)
Apologies in advance if this has been covered before but despite endless searching I've still not found a way forward
I've recently bought a Nektar MIDI keyboard controller to allow me to learn to play while keeping a link to my 50+ years experience in computers. I can plug the keyboard into my laptop and can use <insert software name here> to listen, via PC speakers, headphones, whatever.
To avoid having to use my laptop every time I just want to practice on the keyboard for 20 mins or so I have used an RPi3b from my parts box, loaded up raspbian, fluidsynth and such and if I connect with SSH from my laptop I can start fluidsynth with the appropriate settings and it all works.
My problem is that I want fluidsynth to start at boot time so that the RPi becomes a simple 'black box' between my keyboard and headphones, and I am failing miserably when it comes to getting fluidsynth to start without manual intervention.
My command line to start fluidsynth is:
/home/george/fluidsynth -s -i -m alsa_seq -o midi.autoconnect=1 -a alsa -g 4 /home/george/GeneralUser_GS_v1.471.sf2
[fluidsynth is only in my home directory as it is a local compile because the repository version is too old]
I have tried using [/etc/rc.local], [cron and @reboot] but I can't make the *$£*&% thing work as I need it to. Cron/@reboot would be my preferred way and when I do this, I can log in after booting, see from 'ps waux' that fluidsynth is running yet there is no audio output. Stopping and starting fluidsynth manually from a command prompt gets it working fine and the 'ps' output looks identical!!
=======
$ps waux | grep fluid
george 1115 11.8 5.5 89472 52460 pts/1 SLl+ 14:00 0:00 /home/george/fluidsynth -s -i -m alsa_seq -o midi.autoconnect 1 -a alsa -g 4 /home/george/GeneralUser_GS_v1.471.sf2
=======
I'm thinking that it perhaps could be because the audio connection (alsa) isn't being made when fluidsynth is run without a shell, but with little or no verbose logging from fluidsynth or alsa I am totally stumped!
Please can someone try to help me shed some light on this? I can obviously provide more diagnostic info if anyone here feels that they can help.
Thanks in anticipation.
George