After an extended time mastering with Audacity, I returned to some projects recorded and mixed in Ardour...and it would not work. Neither would JACK.
I had upgraded to Ubuntu Studio version 8.10 (from 8.04) since my last Ardour session, and have, since then, found a web announcement from Ubuntu stating that version 8.10 was released without a functional real-time kernel, and "for those of you who need a real-time kernel, please remain with version 8.04 until a functional kernel is made available".
Now I have to back up all my files, wipe the drive, and re-format with the old operating system.
I'm thinking I should have gone with 64 Studio,,,,