[PD] pd unable to connect to JACK server

[Dix]

Good evening,

I am trying to get pd to work on my eeepc 1000H netbook, which is 
running Ubuntu 12.04 and using an HDA Intel sound card. pd keeps giving 
me this message when I try to connect to jack:

JACK: unable to connect to JACK server
JACK: server returned status 17


I tried qjackctl: in the gui, I started jack and pressed play. Still pd 
was unable to connect to jack. I also tried 1) changing sample rate to 
48000, 2) unchecking realtime in jack settings. Finally I got tired of 
googling and thus decided to send out this cry for help before going to bed.

looking forward to some answers/questions/ideas,
thanks,
Dix