Jamulus Icon. Links to homepage
Open navigation

Installation for Linux

Make sure you read the Getting Started page.

Upgrading? You may want to back up your configuration first.

Installing a server? Read the guide for server adminstrators first.

Debian and Ubuntu

We provide a repository for Debian and Ubuntu based distributions that allows automatic updates alongside your other system updates. To use the repository:

  1. Open your Terminal (CTRL+ALT+T should work)
  2. Ubuntu only - Enable the Ubuntu “universe” repository (you can use the GUI-based approach or CLI-based approach).
  3. Download the repository setup script:
    curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jamulussoftware/jamulus/main/linux/setup_repo.sh > setup_repo.sh
  4. Make the script executable:
    chmod +x setup_repo.sh
  5. Run the setup script and install Jamulus:
    sudo ./setup_repo.sh && sudo apt install jamulus

Installing the .deb files manually

  1. Download Jamulus for your architecture: amd64, armf or arm64
  2. Ubuntu only - Enable the Ubuntu “universe” repository (you can use the GUI-based approach or CLI-based approach).
  3. Update apt by opening a console window (CTRL+ALT+T should work) and type: sudo apt-get update
  4. Go to where you downloaded the installer and either double-click on it, or use the command line: sudo apt install ./jamulus_3.11.0_ubuntu_amd64.deb (or for Raspberry Pi etc. as above)
  5. Once installed, you can delete the file and close any console windows.

Upgrades: If you need to upgrade Jamulus to a newer version and install Jamulus manually, just download the new .deb file and re-install as above.

Other distributions

For installers on other distributions, see their package managers and Repology. If an up-to-date version of Jamulus is not included in your distribution, you can compile Jamulus from source. Note also the contributed installation scripts.

Set up your hardware

The Jamulus Client needs to connect to a running JACK server in order to start. You need to find out which is the low-latency sound server for your distribution.

Configure JACK with QjackCtl

To run a JACK server, the recommended method is to use QjackCtl.

  1. Launch QjackCtl. You will see the Qt JACK Control utility main page.
  2. Configure your sound hardware as follows:
  • Set the audio Interface to the one you want (there may be several in the list - choose the correct one as this cannot be changed without stopping Jamulus and JACK).
  • Set the Sample Rate to 48000.
  • Set the Frames/Period to 128 and Periods/Buffer at 2 at first.

Restart JACK for the new settings to take effect and continue from the Start Jamulus section below.

Configure PipeWire

PipeWire provides its own JACK server. When you launch the Jamulus Client, PipeWire automatically runs a JACK server. However, there are a few parameters to adjust. You need to set your audio interface to the “pro-audio” profile and define PipeWire’s “rate” and “quantum” parameters beforehand. You can find more information about the configuration in the PipeWire wiki.

To set up your system:

  1. Open pavucontrol (the audio mixer) and choose the “pro-audio” profile for your sound hardware in the configuration tab.
  2. In a terminal use the following two commands to force PipeWire’s rate and quantum: 
    pw-metadata -n settings 0 clock.force-rate 48000
pw-metadata -n settings 0 clock.force-quantum 128

    After this, continue from the Start Jamulus section below.

Start Jamulus

With JACK or PipeWire configured, launch Jamulus.

If you have any problems, first check the troubleshooting page.

All installed?

Take a look at the

Getting Started page