Ok, so the client segfaults here: Thread 1 "jack_simple_cli" received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault. Jack::JackLinuxFutex::BuildName (this=this@entry=0xfffffffdd03f4218, client_name=client_name@entry=0x7fffffffd7b0 "jack_simple_client", server_name=server_name@entry=0x423f10 "default", res=res@entry=0xfffffffdd03f4218 <error: Cannot access memory at address 0xfffffffdd03f4218>, size=256) at ../linux/JackLinuxFutex.cpp:46 46 if (fPromiscuous) { (gdb) bt #0 Jack::JackLinuxFutex::BuildName (this=this@entry=0xfffffffdd03f4218, client_name=client_name@entry=0x7fffffffd7b0 "jack_simple_client", server_name=server_name@entry=0x423f10 "default", res=res@entry=0xfffffffdd03f4218 <error: Cannot access memory at address 0xfffffffdd03f4218>, size=256) at ../linux/JackLinuxFutex.cpp:46 #1 0x00007ffff7da1475 in Jack::JackLinuxFutex::Connect (this=0xfffffffdd03f4218, name=name@entry=0x7fffffffd7b0 "jack_simple_client", server_name=server_name@entry=0x423f10 "default") at ../linux/JackLinuxFutex.cpp:174 #2 0x00007ffff7da8617 in Jack::JackLibClient::Open (this=0x423de0, server_name=<optimized out>, name=<optimized out>, uuid=<optimized out>, options=<optimized out>, status=<optimized out>) at ../common/JackLibClient.cpp:196 #3 0x00007ffff7daa5b5 in jack_client_open_aux (ap=0x7fffffffd870, status=0x7fffffffd97c, options=JackNullOption, client_name=0x7fffffffe202 "jack_simple_client") at ../common/JackLibAPI.cpp:155 #4 jack_client_open (ext_client_name=ext_client_name@entry=0x7fffffffe202 "jack_simple_client", options=options@entry=JackNullOption, status=status@entry=0x7fffffffd97c) at ../common/JackLibAPI.cpp:176 #5 0x0000000000401224 in main (argc=<optimized out>, argv=<optimized out>) at ../example-clients/simple_client.c:118 which is a string manipulation function. I bet it's related to warnings seen in the package: -Wformat-truncation= I would recommend fixing all these warnings first.