[linux-audio-user] new to linux audio

[Christophe Vescovi]

Hi everyone,
I'm quite new to linux (and linux-audio) and have some basic questions 
regarding the audio tools on linux.

I'm running Mandrake 9.0 with a patched 2.4.20 kernel and finally 
managed to install most of the applications I need (thanks to Thac's 
RPMs !!), mainly alsa, jack, ecasound, Muse, rosegarden, some 
soft-synth, did not try ardour yet ;-). I think I still need to enable 
capabilities in the kernel for jack, but I try to do things one by one.

When reading articles on low-latency linux, xruns are often mentionned 
but I can not figure what it exactly means, could someone explain me 
that -surely- simple thing ?

The other question is about jack. Does Jack enable synchronisation 
between HD recorder (ecasound, ardour) and midi sequencer (Muse for 
example) ? I saw something about the transport feature of jack, but does 
not know exactly what it does.

Many Thank,
Christophe