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#1 2008-07-25 00:31:05

pyramind
Member
Registered: 2008-07-25
Posts: 12
Website

Arch for audio

Hiya all... I'm new here. : )

This is just another "is archlinux right for me" topic. So let me give you some background info.

I've used Ubuntu Linux for making music for 1.5-2 years and then switched to MacOSX Tiger for another year and I'm on OsX Leopard for a couple of months(this is on a pc, I'm using a hackintosh). I DO love OsX but I find it bloated, and since this lappy is not a real mac, I have some little problems with compatibility. I want to go back to using linux, but not back to ubuntu, as I find it easy to use but again overbloated with many stuff that I won't ever use.

I use supercollider and pd for making music, and I usually program my own stuff for the task. So I usually know what I'm doing.

My main motivation is to assemble a linux system myself but not with the "gentoo" way. I see that Arch uses binaries and a simpler install system, so I think I'm on the right track.

Basically I want a simple system with: an rt-kernel(important for audio stuff, jack, high resolution timers blabla), gnome, thunar, compiz fusion.

My laptop has an Ati radeon mobility x1600 graphics card which was working fine with ubuntu closed source fglrx drivers. (vsync was not working, window tearing drives me mad but I think there is no solution for it on ati side).

I want to try ArchLinux. I've never compiled a kernel myself before, Ubuntu had the rt kernel in their repos so it was a matter of apt-getting it. I had a quick glance over the wiki on kernel compilation but am not clear on it yet. I'm sure its not that hard though.

Are there any other musicans working on a similar setup with Arch?

Comments and any sort of directions(especially for installing the graphics card  and recompiling an rt kernel) from the more experienced users will be appreciated.

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#2 2008-07-25 00:55:17

OneEyedPimp
Member
Registered: 2008-05-02
Posts: 103

Re: Arch for audio

Well for what youre asking, arch linux is probably the best bet that you can get for what you need.

I dont know about the Video driver, but from what I read it would be pretty easy to get an RT-kernel.

If you cant download a prepatched kernel you just need to download the patch and kernel and patch the kernel with

patch -p0 < patch-file-name-here

a guide that I follow is: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ker … rom_Source and the only tweak you have to do is before you run make config, you do the patch from above.

you may want to look at ABS as well: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cus … n_with_ABS Ive never used that though...

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#3 2008-07-25 00:59:16

finferflu
Forum Fellow
From: Manchester, UK
Registered: 2007-06-21
Posts: 1,899
Website

Re: Arch for audio

You might find this thread useful as well wink


Have you Syued today?
Free music for free people! | Earthlings

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." -- A. de Saint-Exupery

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#4 2008-07-25 01:01:24

toofishes
Developer
From: Chicago, IL
Registered: 2006-06-06
Posts: 602
Website

Re: Arch for audio

There is a realtime kernel PKGBUILD in the AUR:
http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=11364

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#5 2008-07-25 15:09:09

btartsa
Member
Registered: 2004-07-26
Posts: 222

Re: Arch for audio

Hello!

http://code.google.com/p/proaudio/ (community maintained audio repo)

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ProAudio (needs updates badly, but a good start)

#archlinux-proaudio on freenode (pretty quiet, but hang around and someone will pop in)

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#6 2008-07-25 18:51:31

pyramind
Member
Registered: 2008-07-25
Posts: 12
Website

Re: Arch for audio

Thanks for the quick responses! I'm writing these from a new Arch installation(in a virtual machine for now though). I'll now try to see how far I can go with compiling an rt kernel. The room for customization is just great. I'm already loving it.

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#7 2008-07-25 21:19:24

pyramind
Member
Registered: 2008-07-25
Posts: 12
Website

Re: Arch for audio

I'm not really sure if I should be asking this here instead of a different topic but here it is:

I followed the guides in arch wiki in conjuction with the guide in here: http://rt.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/RT_PREEMPT_HOWTO

My first problem was, when I ran "make oldconfig", the script asked me many questions whose meaning I had little idea about. (enable this? (experimental) stuff) I answered them quite randomly... Anyways.

Then the kernel compiled fine.

I issued the install, copied the kernel, built a ramdisk and configured grub.

When I boot with this kernel the system gives an error saying things like "'Failed to parse block device name for '/dev/disk/by-uuid/... ... ..." and says try adding rootdelay=8 to see if the device becomes ready upon waiting. I tried it also but it gives the same error.

So I made a search, found out that a similar error was caused by editing the grub settings file with ms wordpad, but I used vi and checked and rechecked hte menu entry and I'm pretty sure it is correct. Because if I leave the root dvice intact but change the kernel and img in the entry, the system boots fine, so it must be something with the kernel itself, I thought.

Then I surrendered and checked the AUR database for the rtkernel and found it here:
http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=11364

I'm going to try it, but one recent comment there kept me thinking:

Hi,

Thanks for bringing the real-time kernel, but there are many problems with the latest kernel26rt:

---snip---

2/ kernel does not boot. I have a message saying something like 'Failed to parse block device /dev/sda3'. This device exists for the official 2.6.25-ARCH kernel build.

This is the same error I'm facing so I wanted to ask... If this is a known and unsolved issue or not?

Any pointers before I try?

Thanks...

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#8 2008-07-25 21:47:15

btartsa
Member
Registered: 2004-07-26
Posts: 222

Re: Arch for audio

svn checkout http://proaudio.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ proaudio-read-only


cd proaudio/kernel of choice 
makepkg
pacman -U kernel of choice

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#9 2008-07-26 00:15:36

pyramind
Member
Registered: 2008-07-25
Posts: 12
Website

Re: Arch for audio

btartsa, thank you very much. For geeky reasons I wanted to try building a kernel by myself first, seemingly ignoring your post about the proaudio repo.

Compiling and installing the kernel from the repo worked out just great. I just needed to edit the grub file by hand manually. The repo is just great so thanks.

Mmmm, I'm doing quite well with arch in a virtual machine, I think I'll wipe leopard from my hd soon. : )

Thanks all!

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