Unable to add user to audio group

I’m trying to add myself to the audio group so I can start audio production on my desktop.

I used : sudo usermod -a -G audio $USER

I logged out and back in again, but when I use groups I just get: no audio group

sys network power lp disk wheel seilkor

I used : less /etc/group

And found: audio:x:995:seilkor

But when I try to start a JACK session with Cadence the system checks says:

“User in audio group : Yes, but needs relogin” despite having logged in multiple times.

Whilst looking for an alternative I tried:

sudo gpasswd -a audio $USER

But this also hasn’t worked. My understanding of groups is thin. I’ve undoubtedly made a mistake with my newbie sausage fingers somewhere along the way. I’ve tried to read Users and groups - ArchWiki , but can’t see where I’m going wrong. Any help is much appreciated! :slightly_smiling_face:

Try a full reboot.

Even the mighty “turning it off and on again” hasn’t worked.

Shouldn’t that have been:

$ sudo usermod -a -G audio $USER

see Users and groups - ArchWiki

Yup that’s correct. Thanks for noticing. I’ll edit the original post

Weird. I cannot reproduce this: adding (and removing) users to (from) audio group using usermod works reliably here :man_shrugging:

I just made a new group and added myself with the above method and it works fine. It seems the issue lies with the audio group.

I edited /etc/security/limits.conf to allow the audio group real-time priority and memlock unlimited. I’ve tried it with these edits in and commented out of the file. Could this be the cause?

Is there a way I could remove the audio group and then recreate it?

To remove the group:

sudo groupdel groupname

If you install realtime-privileges it will reconfigure system for pro audio production and create group realtime instead of making changes for audio group

pamac install realtime-privileges && sudo gpasswd -a realtime $USER`

and “turn it off and on again” to ensure group changes are loaded

I also suggest installing rtcqs to check if the realtime configuration is working