Updated packages for A/V Linux 1.0r1

Installation & Configuration Linux
#1

Hello,

Here’s a link to some updated packages for A/V Linux, They are Checkinstall debs built on and for A/V Linux 1.0r1, they are not intended for other Debian/Ubuntu versions so try them at your own risk.

I would strongly suggest uninstalling the existing packages on your system with Synaptic before installing these updated ones.

PACKAGES:

ArdourVST 2.8 w/ VST, LV2, FREESOUND and FFT Analysis. Note Users will need to modify the launcher exec command from “ardour2” to “ardourvst” in order to use the existing menu launcher

Hydrogen 0.9.4rc3 SVN 935, I’ve also included a Hydrogen Drumkit made from my own Pearl Kit for those who are interested.

Jamin 0.97 from CVS

Wine 1.1.17 to complement the new Ardour release.

Get em’ here: http://www.bandshed.net/packages/

For those interested A/V Linux 2.0 should be released in late April, It will feature a light and fast LXDE desktop running Debian Squeeze and will feature the latest Ardour…maybe even Ardour 3 (right Paul?). Other new additions will include Mike Start’s linuxDSP JACK Client plugins and more…Stay tuned,

At this time I am not yet taking donations…If you are one of the 1500+ people that have downloaded A/V Linux for the time being please consider making a donation to Paul for the phenomenal “Definitive Linux D.A.W” that we all gather here to celebrate…(and sometimes complain about).

What’s A/V Linux? http://www.bandshed.net/AVLinux.html

#2

Thanks Philip,

A/V 2 will come with the stock Debian vanilla Kernel (2.6.26 with ALSA 1.0.19 and ALSA Firmware 1.0.17) because remastering requires a kernel with full squashfs and aufs module support. The ISO image will contain a folder with a “Multimedia” Kernel image and headers which can be installed later if users want. Since -rt Kernels have been a real mess since 2.6.26 or so what I’m testing right now is a custom rolled 2.6.28-7 with low-latency preemption,1000hz timer and the PAM -rt hack. I don’t get too concerned about super low latency and this kernel runs well at 512fpp and is very stable with the rest of the system including Virtualbox. If 2.6.29 shows -rt promise once again I will consider including it, I’m sure there will be many changes before the end of April.

@Thorgal,

I have been playing around with building Kernels…like you said before it’s not too big a deal. I haven’t built an -rt one yet though. Could you link me to the patch you are using and advise me of any other issues you can think of pertaining to -rt patching? Unfortunately I have to consider a broad range of hardware needs and wireless support etc, which makes the kernel a bit flabby but I’d appreciate any advice you could offer.

Thanks

#3

GMaq, tha patch is there:

http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/rt/patch-2.6.29-rt1.bz2

all official RT patches are in http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/rt

You can fetch the 2.6.29 kernel from kernel.org or from debian unstable.

The debian kernel source has 2 or 3 differences from vanilla but nothing critical. You can use the vanilla.

Of course, 2.6.29 has quite a few changes since 2.6.26, in particular regarding the wireless stack. Since I am not using wireless, I don’t really care. But I enabled it nonetheless for my laptop with which I use a PCMCIA card (broadcom chip, a potential PITA …) in some occasions. I noticed some weird rate fluctuations when the wireless chip is brought up. About 50% of the time, the rate is what I expect it to be, the rest of the time it is 10 times lower. No need to say, I dislike everything wireless and avoid it as much as i can.

For the rest, if you use the rtirq init stuff, softirq-timer and softirq-hrtimer changed to sirq-timer and sirq-hrtimer so you’ll have to change /etc/default/rtirq.

Apart from that, nothing particular. For me, the real change has been the use of the HR timer by ALSA. But it does not seem to be there yet as rosegarden freezes completely when choosing the HR timer (instead of the System timer).

Another oddity: if you start jackd with the ‘-c h’ option (grabs the HR timer) from the terminal, you won’t see any warning. But if you do from qjackctl, you will get a warning in the message window stating that hpet is already in use or you don’t have the permission.

If you check /proc/asound/seq/timer, you will see that it is used OK. I don’t understand this qjackctl message.

Last thing: you may need to ‘echo 1024 > /proc/sys/dev/hpet/max-user-freq’ and change the group ownership of /dev/hpet : ‘chgrp audio /dev/hpet’ at boot time (/etc/rc.local or udev rule).

Yeah, I don’t know for sure whether all this is necessary, but there’s very little info about it.

EDIT: I forgot to add, my laptop uses an Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 (an oldie by all accounts!) and I had to fetch the nvidia binary driver from nvidia.com (173.14.18, see more at http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=122606).

#4

Great to hear GMaq!

What kernel will A/V 2.0 have?

And will “squeeze” be able to handle my new hardware?

I really miss A/V. I got my new system just to run it on and later found out my hardware was to new.

Thanks for moving forward!

Philip

#5

Hi GMaq,

I suggest you try out kernel 2.6.29-rt1. I installed it on both my DAW and old laptop, and it works a treat!! I can use my laptop for something audio now, at even very low latency! and it sleeps and resumes correctly “despite” the RT patch. I will try netjack for sure since I gained some processing power.

#6

Thanks Thorgal,

Building 2.6.29-rt now, If it doesn’t set anything on fire I’ll test it on my machines and post it here for my Debian brethren. I even set up the Tascam US-122(L) driver…I’ve used a regular US-122 with my laptop for years but supposedly there was no Linux support for the lesser known “L” Model…Cool

As far a Nvidia drivers the sgfxi script works very nicely with Squeeze/Sid: http://techpatterns.com/forums/about933.html

EDIT

Thorgal you weren’t kidding! Very nice, this kernel is killer. My Wifi is cool and everything is running nicely. I’ve cut my fpp in half without anything but the PAM Hack, I haven’t even done anything with the other rtirq mods yet, now to test on my laptop and it’s Wifi… so far I think we have a winner!

#7

WARNING: I forgot one thing sort of important. If you had irqbalance started at boot time, disable it. I had random lockups with it, sometimes after not only 10 secs of jackd running …

So, once you have irqbalance out of the way, set your rtirq as you should (this still is cool to have!), and use the latest jack1 svn. You’ll be happy :slight_smile:

I also started a thread here http://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=972&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
at linuxmusicians.com

#8

Thorgal,

Thanks for the tips!

If anyone likes Russian Roulette here is my Debian -rt Kernel packages among others. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

http://www.bandshed.net/AVLinux2/

#9

GMaq?
Thorgal?

Is or can PAE “Physical Address Extension” be enabled in this kernel?

Thanks Philip

#10

Philip,

I’m not sure…I would think so, it is basically a stock kernel with the Debian Vanilla Config + -rt patch, a change of the timer to 1000hz and some extra Audio card support.

#11

philip, you want to use more than 4G of RAM ? If you h/w supports it (most modern intel CPUs do), just enable the option in the kernel config before you compile. Whether GMaq provides a bigmem kernel, I don’t know, he will have to tell.

#12

It’s not a bigmem Kernel, just normal

#13

Hi thorgal,

Yes, I want to use more than 4g of RAM.

You mention “most modern INTEL CPUs”.

Does the PAE option not apply for an AMD?

More specifically the AMD PHENOM QUAD CORE 9850+.

Thanks

Philip

#14

AMD, is that 64bit ? then even more so :slight_smile:

#15

Understood…

Thanks:-}

#16

Glen,
Great work!