What do I have to install?

Binary Packages

If you install a binary package from your distribution you should install the package that contains ‘libffado’. The exact name of the package is dependent on the naming scheme of the distribution. It might be wise to also install any other packages related to FFADO. (Hint: most package managers have a search function).

Aside from libffado, you also have to install a ‘FFADO client’. This is the application that will bridge between FFADO and the applications you would like to use. This is necessary since FFADO is not a complete audio server (like jack) nor a full audio API (like ALSA or PulseAudio). FFADO’s main workhorse, libffado, contains the minimal functionality to access and control the FireWire audio devices. All advanced audio manipulation is done by the “FFADO client”.

At this time, the only FFADO client is jack, both in its standard and multiprocessor variant.

Building from source

When building from source, you have to make sure that you compile and install FFADO before you compile the FFADO clients. This because the clients detect the presence of FFADO and configure themselves to include FFADO support depending on that. If libffado is not installed correctly, the clients will not include FFADO support.

How about FreeBoB?

There is no need to install anything related to FreeBoB in order to use FFADO. FreeBoB is obsoleted by FFADO.