Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

Durhammer · 2025-07-26 03:11

Seems like artsd (from the old aRTs system) is not really needed anymore, but it starts up anyway. I did a killall artsd and my music stuff still works, so why would I need it? And how do I prevent it from starting at boot time?

Last edited by Durhammer (2025-07-29 15:26)

crosscourt · 2025-07-26 04:32

Why are you using aRts/aRtsd as it hasnt been supported since 2008. It was replaced by Phonon which was able to work with apps like VLC and GStreamer. Phonon is still supported.
I see that aRts 4.14 is installed as a Trinity package in Synaptic, so if you dont need it, uninstall it.

The package is, libarts1 c2a-trinity or just do a search for aRtsd and it will come up.

Last edited by crosscourt (2025-07-26 04:55)

Durhammer · 2025-07-26 14:04

Yep, @crosscourt, I saw that, but didn't know if it was used for something else. It just comes up on its own when my Q4OS starts up. Wonder why the devs kept it around?

EDIT: So yeah, TRY to remove it....

~$ sudo apt remove libarts1c2a-trinity
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 q4os-desktop : Depends: tdelibs14-trinity but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: tdebase-trinity-bin but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: tdesudo-trinity but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: tde-style-q4oststyle02-trinity but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: twin-trinity but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: q4os-api but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: q4os-setup but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: q4os-sw-profiler but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: q4os-swcentre but it is not going to be installed
                Recommends: nvidia-detect but it is not going to be installed
                Recommends: network-manager-tde but it is not going to be installed
                Recommends: firmware-intelwimax but it is not installable
E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages.

What now?

Last edited by Durhammer (2025-07-26 14:07)

Durhammer · 2025-07-26 14:30

SHEESH! Wish I could find out where it's being started so I can kill it. It's not a service. It's being run under my id, so I CAN run "killall artsd" and it goes away.

So I tried putting that command into the Q4OS TDE startup script and my JWM startup code, and neither work. SIGH....

EDIT: UN-sigh. Figured this situation might be like another issue I had with a script that ran inxi and only worked in a terminal session, which the startup scripts are not. So I put that "killall arts" command into the same code used to run and parse inxi output, and it works. No more artsd running!

(And woo-hoo! -- now my startup memory profile is ~311 MB, about the smallest footprint of any of my distros!)

Last edited by Durhammer (2025-07-26 14:43)

Durhammer · 2025-07-26 16:24

Aaaaarrrrrrgggghhhhh. So that "solution" of doing the killall artsd in a terminal environment worked all of ONCE.

Whack-a-mole.

So can't un-install it, can't automagically kill it, what to do?

Durhammer · 2025-07-26 17:10

Okay, had to program it out by putting this code into .jwmrc:

artsd=`pidof artsd`
if [[ "X$artsd" != "X" ]]; then kill -9 $artsd ; fi

q4osteam · 2025-07-26 17:36

More simply:
$ pkill artsd

crosscourt · 2025-07-26 18:51

@Durhammer, certainly surprised me in post #3, that TDE really seems to need aRtsd in some respects. Why they are using this, I have no idea, as Im not a developer. Given its a sound server, you would think Pulseaudio/ALSA would take over most aspects of this.

Glad you found an answer.

Durhammer · 2025-07-26 19:00

Okay, @q4osteam (and @crosscourt, since you're following, it seems ), I've again had to UN-solve this post.

That "artsd" thing will NOT go away! I've tried a "killall artsd" at the end of .jwmrc startup code. I've tried my above code, I've tried your pkill command, and none of them work, or at least consistently. So the real question is -- WHERE IS IT GETTING STARTED?

I've looked in /etc/xdg/autostart -- not there, no files with "artsd" in the name or in the contents. Dunno where else to look. This is frustrating!

crosscourt · 2025-07-26 19:04

Try pkill artsd without the $

Last edited by crosscourt (2025-07-26 19:06)

Durhammer · 2025-07-26 19:07

Well, yes, I figured that was just telling me it was for my environment, not root (#).

crosscourt · 2025-07-26 19:16

With $ standard non-root user, without $ root user. Its one of those situations where it may be best to take a deep breath and live with it, if they have it that intertwined into TDE.

Last edited by crosscourt (2025-07-26 19:18)

q4osteam · 2025-07-26 19:25

Try:
$ /opt/trinity/bin/artsshell -q terminate

q4osteam · 2025-07-26 19:29

It may be started by TDM display manager too.

Durhammer · 2025-07-26 20:18

q4osteam wrote:

Try:
$ /opt/trinity/bin/artsshell -q terminate

Thanks, but nope, nada, nyet. Didn't work.

I think I remember seeing TDM display manager stuff somewhere along this long and strange trip. I'll look for it again, but will welcome any interventions!

q4osteam · 2025-07-26 22:26

We will take a look at it and post back later.

q4osteam · 2025-07-27 11:12

The issue unfurls to be more complex. The Artsd daemon is integral part of Trinity libraries, so any binary, that uses Trinity libs may, but doesn't have to, fire up new artsd daemon, if it doesn't find an existing running instance. This is so that the application can play any kind of sound.

So, the conclusion is, you cannot simply get rid of artsd as it may be fired up anytime later on the app level.

Nonetheless, it's possible to disable it globally, but you will disable the complete audio system in the Trinity session and for all Trinity lib based applications. To do that, write configuration to files:
"$HOME/.trinity/share/config/kcmartsrc" --group "Arts" --key "StartServer" "false"
"$HOME/.trinity/share/config/knotifyrc" --group "StartProgress" --key "Arts Init" "false"
"$HOME/.trinity/share/config/knotifyrc" --group "StartProgress" --key "Use Arts" "false"
or:
Login to Trinity desktop > control panel > sound and multimedia > sound system > uncheck enable sound system

josek · 2025-07-27 11:45

That's why it's always advisable to apply a "dry-run" before performing an operation because it has its dependencies with Trinity and it becomes complex.
The same thing happened to me, because when I started using pipewire as my default sound manager, artsd gave me problems and the only way to cancel it was through the trinity sound system.

Last edited by josek (2025-07-27 11:49)

q4osteam · 2025-07-27 12:48

@josek
Artsd is just a Trinity apps dependency and even it's possible to turn it globally off. Other applications similarly use frameworks and libraries with their own dependencies. So we don't see it as a bug or some kind of problem, it's just matter of design. If you dislike artsd for some reason, the way is to use other then Trinity applications.

Durhammer · 2025-07-27 22:24

Thanks for that detailed writeup, @q4osteam! I certainly will have to give it a try.

Of course, I'm just curious as to what actual use is made by those Trinity apps -- is it primarily just notification sounds or similar?

EDIT: It seems to have worked. I don't see "artsd" in my ps_mem output anymore.

I took the route of fiddling with the sound system in the TDE Control Panel* by unchecking the Trinity Sound System enable box, but I also tweaked the "System Bell" instead of system notifications, and tweaked the System Notifications that had any musical note mark for playing a sound to UN-check that action. And for grins, I opened the Player Settings and set the Audio Player Settings to use (hopefully) VLC (it seemed to want to use /usr/bin/vlc-wrapper, and I didn't care at that point).

We shall see if anything baaad happens. I'm betting not! Thanks again!

*Also found out that I didn't have to log into TDE to do this, just run /opt/trinity/bin/kcontrol .

Last edited by Durhammer (2025-07-27 22:57)

q4osteam · 2025-07-27 22:29

It depends on the apptlication, notification sounds, autido players .. just all the sound capability. Trinity apps commonly play sound through artsd.

q4osteam · 2025-07-28 10:01

Well, we see one more and better option to disable Artsd in JWM session, while keeping it independent for Trinitty session. You would need to export environment variables for JWM session only:
export TDEHOME="$HOME/.trinity_jwm"
export TDEDIR="/opt/trinity"
export PATH="$PATH:/opt/trinity/bin"
export TDE_DEBUG="1"
You need to export variables above on JWM user session startup, but we are not sure where to place it at the moment.

As exported, just create configuration files:
"$HOME/.trinity_jwm/share/config/kcmartsrc" --group "Arts" --key "StartServer" "false"
"$HOME/.trinity_jwm/share/config/knotifyrc" --group "StartProgress" --key "Arts Init" "false"
"$HOME/.trinity_jwm/share/config/knotifyrc" --group "StartProgress" --key "Use Arts" "false"

Now you can enable sound in kcontrol audio module for Trinity desktop.

All TDE apps started from JWM session should honor $HOME/.trinity_jwm/ configurations while Trinity session $HOME/.trinity/

We are not sure, if it will work flawlessly, but it may be worth trying.

Durhammer · 2025-07-28 15:45

Thanks, @q4osteam!

I put the environment variable export stuff into my .jwmrc "<startup>" code section, and it worked fine! Now I can just enter "kcontrol &" and Control Center comes up just fine (and I can change the code to launch the TDE Network Manager to just use that short name now -- wish I had been smart enough to try that earlier!).

Once I figured out the actual file syntax for the two config files, it worked perfectly on JWM. No artsd is launched! Even better, my initial RAM footprint is down to 318 MB. Woo-hoo!

So now I'm off to log in to TDE to see if re-enabling Arts has any carry-over effect on the JWM environment (I suspect I can't just log back in to JWM, however, but I'll try and see if even that works).

Thanks for all your help!!!

Durhammer · 2025-07-28 17:20

So I first tried logging out of JWM and then into TDE and something made it so it never went into the TDE. I had to reboot. Once I got in to TDE, it was interesting to see VLC fire up with the startup sound. However, it sticks around, which is a bit annoying. However, it makes me wonder if it could somehow be configured to be minimized and still provide the sounds rather than artsd? I might have to try that! It's just in the Player configuration, so why not?

I then logged out of TDE and into JWM and lo and behold, no artsd! Yay! Thanks again, @q4osteam!

Durhammer · 2025-07-28 20:37

Hi @q4osteam, I might have found a solution that works for TDE as well. I still have the notification sounds, and it doesn''t require vlc to fire up (firing up audacious was atrocious! -- the sound kept repeating in the gui!).

In Control Panel -> Sound and Multimedia -> Sound System, you still uncheck "Enable Sound System". Close that, and go to Notifications, and set the Player to use an external player -- /usr/bin/paplay . Apply/OK/etc., and exit.

You get the sounds without artsd. Now I'm wondering if that's possible in JWM. Probably not unless I fire up a "K" command, but who knows?

Oh yeah, with the environment variable changes, I can no longer use Control Panel in JWM. It comes up but there's no "innards" to it. Maybe that's a good thing?

EDIT: I also tried aplay (ALSA play command) and HORRIBLE noises came out!!!

Last edited by Durhammer (2025-07-28 20:39)

Q4OS Forum

#1 2025-07-26 03:11

Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#2 2025-07-26 04:32

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#3 2025-07-26 14:04

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#4 2025-07-26 14:30

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#5 2025-07-26 16:24

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#6 2025-07-26 17:10

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#7 2025-07-26 17:36

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#8 2025-07-26 18:51

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#9 2025-07-26 19:00

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#10 2025-07-26 19:04

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#11 2025-07-26 19:07

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#12 2025-07-26 19:16

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#13 2025-07-26 19:25

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#14 2025-07-26 19:29

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#15 2025-07-26 20:18

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#16 2025-07-26 22:26

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#17 2025-07-27 11:12

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#18 2025-07-27 11:45

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#19 2025-07-27 12:48

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#20 2025-07-27 22:24

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#21 2025-07-27 22:29

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#22 2025-07-28 10:01

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#23 2025-07-28 15:45

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#24 2025-07-28 17:20

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

#25 2025-07-28 20:37

Re: Prevent artsd from starting [SOLVED]

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