Best way to set LV2_PATH

Installation & Configuration Linux
#1

Debian 12 installs its LV2 plugins in /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/lv2 but this path is not in LV2_PATH that Ardour 8 uses. What would be the best way to add it? I’m now using ~/.xsessionrc:

# Source ~/.profile if it exists
if [ -f ~/.profile ]; then
    . ~/.profile
fi

And my ~/.profile contains this line:

export LV2_PATH="/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/lv2:$HOME/.lv2:/usr/local/lib/lv2:/usr/local/lib64/lv2:/usr/lib/lv2:/usr/lib64/lv2"

But I was wondering if there is better way. If something changes in the LV2_PATH that Ardour uses my system won’t pick that up now. Debian 12 with XFCE. Official Ardour 8.0:

$ Ardour8 -v
Ardour8.0.0 (built using 8.0 and GCC version 6.3.0 20170516)

Thanks!

Jeremy

#2

Why would the LV2 path that Ardour uses change? It takes its value directly from LV2_PATH AFAIK. So your method should be good.

#3

We do set the default LV2 search path for our own builds, and it does not include the (new) debian default.

However it is correct that it can be overridden easily by setting LV2_PATH

#4

Please file a bug report with debian and point them to Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

Looks like they have a new LV2 packager who needs a reminder.

I managed to convince debian packagers in the past to follow the official FHS and can chime in on the bug report, but I don’t have an affected system to run reportbug to file the report.

#5

Hi runiq, it probably won’t change no but since a default LV2_PATH doesn’t seem to be set anywhere I can’t do something like export LV2_PATH="/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/lv2:$LV2_PATH" which I would prefer.

#6

Thanks Robin, I’ll do that.

#7

I have just checked. They changed lilv to include DEB_HOST_MULTIARCH.

--default-lv2-path='~/.lv2:/usr/lib/$(DEB_HOST_MULTIARCH)/lv2:/usr/lib/lv2:/usr/local/lib/lv2'

https://deb.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/lilv/lilv_0.24.14-1.debian.tar.xz rules:21
That should go away as well.

Oh well. I was really fond of debian getting things right, until today :frowning:

1 Like
#8

Debian’s multimedia folks should know better, this is a ridiculous breakage of backward compatibility, do they not use or test Ardour? Have they really changed the path for all LV2 within Debian repos!?

#9

I dare say it’s unlikely that they test official binaries.

#10

That’s not directly relevant, since the established paths have been in place for years regardless of the source of the Ardour build… Surely some of the team members actually use Ardour and would know that changing a path like that should never be done lightly… :thinking:

#11

They changed the path used by lilv as a default. It only needs to be changed in one place. Its the same thing we do in our own build stack.

#12

They will also need to change where plugins are deployed to. The ones using libdir will need to be moved back to lv2dir /usr/lib/lv2

1 Like
#13

Thanks for the heads up. I am on debian 10 and I am about to install debian 12 so to check I installed Ardour 8 on my 10 system and the method I use for deciding myself what lv2 folder Ardour loads still works on Ardour 8.

I have described it in this post
“Disable plugin GUIs by default - #4 by studioinabox”

Scroll down to AN ASIDE

I have messed around with the profile path settings to see if I could get it to choose the LV2 path but either it is not possible or it is beyond my current knowledge level. I got success with making a script to start Ardour and then before the line that point to Ardour putting in the line with the desired path, something about being in the the same thread or terminal that makes it work, but work it does so I’ll be upgrading.

#14

Would it work to put a link from the new debian default lv2 folder and put it in /usr/lib/ and rename it to lv2?

#15

@x42 @autostatic

In the meantime is a valid solution also to put Jeremy’s export line in .bashrc? I’ve just started test ISO builds on Bookworm and I want to get ahead of this nonsense…

#16

…or you can wait for Ardour 8.1 (should be out before the weekend) or use today’s nightly build (8.0.46).

#17

Well, that is good news but I have to consider Reaper, Mixbus32C and any other DAW a User may potentially install… MuSE, Qtractor… etc. etc.

#18

Ok, there we go: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1054233
Hope I did it right, I’ve actually never filed a bug against Debian before :roll_eyes:

3 Likes
#19

Thanks so much for doing that!

#20

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