Sox on RPI doesn't work

Add-Ons
1

SoX crashes at RPI (aarch64), it cannot be started…

[root@rpifire ~]# pakfire info sox
Name: sox
Summary: Sound Conversion Tools
Version: 14.4.2-2
Size: 260.00 KB
Dependencies: libvorbis
Pakfile: sox-14.4.2-2.ipfire
Service InitScripts: 
Installed: yes
Status: up-to-date

[root@rpifire ~]# pakfire status
Core-Version: 2.27-aarch64
Core-Update-Level: 176
Last update: 17d 1h 12m 4s ago
Last core-list update: 19h 30m 24s ago
Last server-list update: 19h 30m 28s ago
Last packages-list update: 25m 19s ago
Core-Update available: no
Package-Updates available: 0
Reboot required: no

[root@rpifire ~]# file /usr/bin/sox
/usr/bin/sox: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, ARM aarch64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib/ld-linux-aarch64.so.1, for GNU/Linux 4.14.0, stripped

crash

[root@rpifire ~]# sox --version
Segmentation fault

BTW, there is no info related to sox at Wiki…

sox on AMD64 doesn’t work too, it just hangs, I have to “kill” it with CTRL-C

[root@ipfire ~]# file /usr/bin/sox
/usr/bin/sox: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for GNU/Linux 4.14.0, stripped

Version is not printed, like sox runs in infinite loop, maybe it is waiting for some event; I have to exit with CTRL-C:

[root@ipfire ~]# sox --version
[root@ipfire ~]#
2

Do you have SOXR installed? I believe it is a library needed by SOX.

3

I have had a look through the build log etc

soxr is a library that can be used by sox but I don’t believe it has to have it. soxr is built in the build tree after sox and if sox required soxr it would complain during the build that the library was not available. soxr can also be used in a standalone mode.

I tried installing sox and running it and got a sequence of libraries that were needed and installed each of them then ran sox again and found the next and so on.

the needed addons are
alsa
flac
libvorbis which is defined as a dependency and it required libogg. These therefore are installed by default.
libmad
libid3tag
lame

After installing all of those then sox just hung as previously noted.

Basically the .configure has no disable commands in it so when sox is built it looks for all the optional file formats it can find and then links itself to those libraries. Therefore all of those are now built in and should be listed as dependencies so that they are automatically installed when sox is installed.

sox is not listed as a dependency in any other addon.

sox was originally added to IPFire bback in 2008 and since then no real major change has occurred to it other than a package update in 2020 to the most up to date version of this package from 2015.
That , together with no wiki page on this addon makes me think that it was originally installed but then forgotten about.

sox is described as the Swiss Army knife of sound processing programs. It can convert audio files to other popular audio file types and also apply sound effects and filters during the conversion.

I will check with the dev mailing list to see if anyone remembers what this was originally intended for and if it is still required.

4

The feedback I have got is that sox was used for the asterix addon for music-on-hold and encoding the voice prompts.

The asterix addon was removed from IPFire in Core Update 158 and therefore the sox addon is no longer required and will be removed.

3 Likes