on KDE4 startup knotify call "/usr/local/bin/jackd -l" which is meaningless because it only prints the default dir of jackd and does not start any service; the same is true for kbiff when mail arrives in the INBOX; to nail this down (or at least to proof it), I substituted /usr/local/bin/jackd with the following shell script: #!/bin/sh printf "new jackd call:\n" >> /tmp/jackd echo $0 $* >> /tmp/jackd /usr/local/bin/jackd.bin $* & echo $! >> /tmp/jackd and on KDE start or when a mail arrives the file /tmp/jackd shows: new jackd call: /usr/local/bin/jackd -l 39343 new jackd call: /usr/local/bin/jackd -l 39345 new jackd call: /usr/local/bin/jackd -l 39347 the PIDs of the zombies are always -1: 39342 2 Z 0:00,01 <defunct> 39344 2 Z 0:00,01 <defunct> 39346 2 Z 0:00,01 <defunct> i.e. belong to the caller knotify or kbiff. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: see above this is with KDE 4.14.2 on FreeBSD 11-CURRENT
Please ask in a forum of your distribution why jackd is started. KDE does not know anything about jackd.
it is not true the kdelibs does not know anything about jackd: # find kde-runtime-4.14.2 -exec fgrep -H -C3 jackd {} \; kde-runtime-4.14.2/phonon/kded-module/phononserver.cpp- case PS::DeviceAccess::OssDriver: kde-runtime-4.14.2/phonon/kded-module/phononserver.cpp- return "oss"; kde-runtime-4.14.2/phonon/kded-module/phononserver.cpp- case PS::DeviceAccess::JackdDriver: kde-runtime-4.14.2/phonon/kded-module/phononserver.cpp: return "jackd"; kde-runtime-4.14.2/phonon/kded-module/phononserver.cpp- case PS::DeviceAccess::Video4LinuxDriver: kde-runtime-4.14.2/phonon/kded-module/phononserver.cpp- return "v4l2"; kde-runtime-4.14.2/phonon/kded-module/phononserver.cpp- case PS::DeviceAccess::InvalidDriver:
> it is not true the kdelibs does not know anything about jackd You did notice that you're grepping in kde-runtime and *not* in kdelibs, right? ;) I'll save you some time and tell you that grepping kdelibs indeed comes out empty. Nevertheless, just because there is one single string found in your grep does not actually say that it's being started or anything. It is entirely possible that your pulseaudio and/or alsa and/or gstreamer is configured to use jack. See this http://jackaudio.org/faq/gstreamer_via_jack.html for example and try it in reverse. If you don't need jack at all, just install it. Otherwise yes, you should seek support from your distro, this is a configuration issue.
Additionally, run "kcmshell4 kcmnotify" and check Player Settings tab. It may be that you have jackd set as custom command there.