Request for help testing before 6.7 release

As mentioned elsewhere we’re getting read to release version 6.7, which will be the last version compatible with older platforms: Windows (XP), macOS (Snow Leopard) and Linux systems built with gcc4.

Things are just about ready to go, but there have been some fairly radical changes in the last week to some parts of the code. We’re already fairly confident that things are still working correctly, but we’d appreciate some more testing - this will be the last version for these old platforms and it would be nice to make sure it’s as solid as we can make it.

So please consider downloading from the nightly website and give that version a spin with whatever your workflow tends to be. We’re particularly interested in making sure that all aspects of transport control are working correctly. That includes syncing with LTC and MTC/MMC and JACK Transport.

Positive feedback will be as valuable here as negative. We’re not looking for reports on new bugs per se (though those are always welcome over on the bug tracker ). We’d just like to be sure that none of the recent changes have broken stuff before we move on towards the future.

Remember that you can parallel install builds from ardour.org with each other, and with any Linux-distro provided versions of the program. They will not interfere with each other.

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hi, I’m still on Ubuntu 18.04. I don’t know if that’s with gcc4. Will I need to upgrade for 6.8 etc, please?
Good luck for the release!
Andrew

If all goes to plan, 6.7 will be the last release before 7.0.

As for compatibility, you’ll be fine. Relevant C++11 is available since libstdc++.so.5 (g++ 5.1, April 2015). Only Ubuntu 14.04, debian/wheezy (and similar 6+ year old systems) will not be directly supported anymore.

You can also go into your terminal, type: gcc -v

Near the bottom of the text that spits out it should tell you which version you’re running.

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A user may not have gcc installed. A better test would be to determine if libstdc++ supports C++11, and specifically the recent gcc 5 or later version of it. perhaps

grep -q cxx1112basic_string /usr/lib/*/libstdc++.so.* && echo OK

You can run the latest Ardour on Linux in terminal through gdb for easier debugging wit this one-liner:

echo -e "run\ncont\ncont" | /opt/Ardour-6.6.479-dbg/bin/ardour6 --gdb

Otherwise you’d need to type in run, and then cont twice yourself.
If your version or installation directory is different - substitute.

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Odd, I don’t need to do this here. Are you running Arch or recent Ubuntu and there is a SIG32 RT break after start?

If so see Debugging Ardour.

echo "handle SIG32 noprint nostop" >> ~/.gdbrc

I do run Manjaro Linux, and I do need to type cont twice to make Ardour start in GDB.

Where does gdb break so that you need to continue? Could you post the output? That would be helpful.

Sure!

$ /opt/Ardour-6.6.479-dbg/bin/ardour6 --gdb                             
gdb: /opt/Ardour-6.6.479-dbg/lib/libcurl.so.4: no version information available (required by /usr/lib/libdebuginfod.so.1)
GNU gdb (GDB) 10.1
Copyright (C) 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
Type "show copying" and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "x86_64-pc-linux-gnu".
Type "show configuration" for configuration details.
For bug reporting instructions, please see:
<https://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>.
Find the GDB manual and other documentation resources online at:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/documentation/>.

For help, type "help".
Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word"...
Registered pretty printers for UE4 classes
Reading symbols from /opt/Ardour-6.6.479-dbg/bin/ardour-6.6.479...
(gdb) run
Starting program: /opt/Ardour-6.6.479-dbg/bin/ardour-6.6.479
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
Using host libthread_db library "/usr/lib/libthread_db.so.1".
bind txt domain [gtk2_ardour6] to /opt/Ardour-6.6.479-dbg/share/locale
Ardour6.6.479 (built using 6.6-479-g166ac63924 and GCC version 6.3.0 20170516)
Ardour: [INFO]: Your system is configured to limit Ardour to 524288 open files
Ardour: [INFO]: Loading system configuration file /opt/Ardour-6.6.479-dbg/etc/system_config
Ardour: [INFO]: Loading user configuration file /home/unfa/.config/ardour6/config
[New Thread 0x7fffe817c640 (LWP 47638)]
Ardour: [INFO]: CPU vendor: AuthenticAMD
Ardour: [INFO]: AVX-capable processor
Ardour: [INFO]: AVX with FMA capable processor
Ardour: [INFO]: CPU brand: AMD Ryzen 7 1700 Eight-Core Processor
Ardour: [INFO]: Using AVX and FMA optimized routines
[New Thread 0x7fffe797b640 (LWP 47639)]
[New Thread 0x7fffe717a640 (LWP 47640)]
[New Thread 0x7fffe6979640 (LWP 47641)]
Ardour: [INFO]: Loading plugin meta data file /opt/Ardour-6.6.479-dbg/share/plugin_metadata/plugin_tags
Ardour: [INFO]: Loading plugin statistics file /home/unfa/.config/ardour6/plugin_metadata/plugin_stats
[New Thread 0x7fffd2fc7640 (LWP 47644)]
[Thread 0x7fffd2fc7640 (LWP 47644) exited]
[New Thread 0x7fffd2fc7640 (LWP 47645)]
[New Thread 0x7fffd162c640 (LWP 47646)]
*** WEAK-JACK: initializing
*** WEAK-JACK: OK. (0)
[New Thread 0x7fffcb976640 (LWP 47647)]
Cannot xinstall SIGPIPE error handler
Ardour: [INFO]: Loading default ui configuration file /opt/Ardour-6.6.479-dbg/etc/default_ui_config
Ardour: [INFO]: Loading user ui configuration file /home/unfa/.config/ardour6/ui_config
Ardour: [INFO]: Loading 451 MIDI patches from /opt/Ardour-6.6.479-dbg/share/patchfiles
Ardour: [INFO]: Loading color file /opt/Ardour-6.6.479-dbg/share/themes/dark-ardour.colors
Ardour: [INFO]: Loading ui configuration file /opt/Ardour-6.6.479-dbg/etc/clearlooks.rc
Ardour: [INFO]: Loading bindings from /opt/Ardour-6.6.479-dbg/etc/ardour.keys
Loading ui configuration file /opt/Ardour-6.6.479-dbg/etc/clearlooks.rc
[New Thread 0x7fffcae89640 (LWP 47648)]
[New Thread 0x7fffcae08640 (LWP 47649)]
[New Thread 0x7fffca56a640 (LWP 47650)]
[New Thread 0x7fffca3bb640 (LWP 47651)]

Thread 13 "ArdourGUI" received signal SIG32, Real-time event 32.
[Switching to Thread 0x7fffca3bb640 (LWP 47651)]
0x00007fffef02b87c in read () from /usr/lib/libpthread.so.0

After that I need to type “cont” and press enter. Here’s what follows:

(gdb) cont
Continuing.
[Thread 0x7fffca3bb640 (LWP 47651) exited]
[Thread 0x7fffca56a640 (LWP 47650) exited]
[New Thread 0x7fffca56a640 (LWP 47718)]
[New Thread 0x7fffca3bb640 (LWP 47719)]

Thread 15 "ArdourGUI" received signal SIG32, Real-time event 32.
[Switching to Thread 0x7fffca3bb640 (LWP 47719)]
0x00007fffef02b87c in read () from /usr/lib/libpthread.so.0

I type “cont” once again and Ardour continues and soon shows the Session Setup dialog.

See above: Request for help testing before 6.7 release - #8 by x42

echo "handle SIG32 noprint nostop" >> ~/.gdbrc

I’ve tested and provided the example output after doing this - for some reason it didn’t make any difference. Should I logout/log-in or reboot for it to take effect?

$ cat ~/.gdbrc 
handle SIG32 noprint nostop

Does executing handle SIG32 noprint nostop on the gdb commandline before run help?

Is this thread the best place for positive feedback? I’ve just downloaded and tried this nightly version

Ardour-6.6.489-dbg-x86_64-gcc5

running on Ubuntu 21.04 and it’s working perfectly as far as I can see, other than the DSP load being at around 50-55% instead of 30% which I’m going to assume is because it’s a debug build. Running this optimised nightly:

Ardour-6.6.493-x86_64-gcc5

and the DSP is back to 30% or so. This is mostly because I have a convolution reverb and a long IR which sucks up CPU. Let me know if you need any more details about the system but as far as I can see, it’s all working fine for me :slight_smile:

1 Like

That’s good to hear.

We’re mostly interested that it works for you.
Every user has a different workflow and uses a different subset of Ardour’s features.

Fedora mock build for rpm from git (rev 6.6-493-ga01377f168), Intel 64-bit) okay with just a few minor tweaks.
Installed and used it a couple of times and noticed some nice improvements, but no problems.

Great job!

Yes is does! Not sure why the .gdbrc file isn’t having an effect then.

I noticed that with Linux/ALSA I can use an USB audio interface (e.g. Zoom H2n) for input, the system soundcard for output, and Zoom R24 as Mackie control surface. Simultaneously. Wow, I didn’t know that was possible…

That was a new feature in 6.0. It is also possible to use more than 2 devices, but there is no GUI for it yet.

One can specify more additional device using the “ARDOUR_ALSA_EXT” environment variable, semicolon separated with optional additional parameters such as sample-rate and buffersize if they differ from the main settings. e.g.
ARDOUR_ALSA_EXT="hw:2@48000/512*3;hw:3@44100" Ardour6

PS. If you only use 2 devices, the output (playback device) is resampled. This is so that recording quality is not affected.

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