Installing Linux & Ardour/using midi controllers?

@GMaq I didn’t keep a record of the issues I came across but I was using it late into version 2 and gradually came across stuff that borked. I was hanging on for v3 (I remember some of my issues were to be fixed with that release) but eventually abandoned it, partly because there was no clear indication as to when v3 was going to come out.

Ironically, it is the steady release timetable of Ubuntu that I find attractive. I really like the process. What with the regular updates, moving from say Jaunty to Karmic was a breeze; there was no impact except for improvement when I did this. As an end user, I don’t see the six monthly thing as a whole new OS, I see it as a marginal step up. I can sense the whole Ubuntu momentum is aggravating Linux developers but for end users, the predictability coupled with the huge support base for Ubuntu really works well.

I started with Unix stuff back in the 90s with an old SGI Indigo running Irix. I’ve never been deep into *nix, I’ve focused on it as a tool to get things done. I ran Vector (slackware) for a while on an old lappy and then started the total shift away from MS to Linux. That was with Ubuntu around Edgy/Feisty era. Like others, I started with letting Ubuntu do all the upgrades and sticking with packages in the repos. I then learnt to leave the OS upgrades behind until they settled a while. At the same time I got used to compiling the odd package when needs must. But I prefer to let Ubuntu manage most things. I now run Karmic, with most bits from Ubuntu Studio plus a small rack of things I’ve compiled myself. I don’t even know when Lucid is set for release; I’ll most likely be leaving it alone until 4 or 5 months in. And at least test it on my netbook first.

I’m all for diversity in the Linux environment. But at the end of the day, I’ve got paid work to do so I will stick with the distro that takes least effort. For now, that’s Ubuntu for better or worse.

Personally, I’ve been running Ubuntu as a main distro for about three years now, and the only time I’ve had problems with distribution upgrade was way back from Gutsy-Hardy (or maybe Hardy-Intrepid). The last two releases have been easy as pie to upgrade. I have 6 systems in my house running Ubuntu and like I said, no problems for the last couple years.

That having been said, the limits.conf/Pulseaudio issue is a PITA on stock Ubuntu, which is why I’ve spent the last year putting together packages that set things like this up automatically. Expect a custom distro (Dream) by June or July (based on Karmic). I have already hosted some of my packages on my site dickmacinnis.com/DreamOS, but I have several more ready to go up as soon as I have some free time again, but this time in a proper repository. The packages I’ve created not only set limits.conf for realtime work, but also include a Pulseaudio-Jack module which disconnects Pulse and reconnects once Jack is up and running. I’ve been using this setup at home for quite some time, and it works fantastically. The main reason I’m waiting for Karmic is that the libjack0 and jackd packages in Karmic include Netjack (which is currently not in the standard packages), and the excellent softsynth Bristol is broken in Jaunty. Rather than fix these now, I’d rather base my distro on Karmic, as its release is only a month away.

you mean Lucid

Yes I’m sure he meant Lucid…
I’ll probably give it a go, but if I see too much pain on the road I’ll probably just go full debian.

but back to jazzman: you might just want to play arround a bit to get used to linux,
so you could download some live linux CD from the net, there are some distros made for multimedia production like dyne:bolic and pure dyne, and sure there are some more. It will be very slow running it from your cd-rom drive but for getting a first flavour its not bad! and you dont have to change your running system…

I thought I’d mention I don’t run stock Ardour from the Ubuntu repos; I use macinnisrr’s Ardour packages from dickmacinnis.com/DreamOS and it’s running great for me in Karmic.

oops! I did mean Lucid. I have the flu pretty terrible right now and was operating on about an hour’s sleep when I wrote that :wink: