More on usability issues, was Re: [linux-audio-user] VST Plugins Revisited (Again)

[Dave Phillips]

davidrclark at earthlink.net wrote:

>Speaking of distractions. Let's admit it: Linux audio is chock full of 
>distractions, including such things as: Why isn't this compiling?
>
Ordinarily I might respond to this message with some spirited defense, 
but I've just spent more than a week of heavy attention to getting 
Demudi 1.2.1 working with my laptop. Of course, my machine is old but my 
problems were new, mostly thanks to inconsistencies between the ALSA 
version and the 2.6.12 kernel. I wound up hacking ALSA sources to 
resolve a problem for which I found exactly *1* useful Google message. 
And if I hadn't known just enough C to make me dangerous I wouldn't have 
been able to resolve the problem(s) myself.

But trust me, I have a lot better things to do with my time, and after 
lo these many years I am heartily tired of this sort of "fun". 'Cause it 
ain't fun at all.

>Why is my system locking up requiring a cold reboot?
>
Yep, that's another one. God only knows why xine sometimes simply spins 
out of control, leaving me with a frozen machine. Thankfully it happens 
less with audio apps, but I like watching DVDs on Linux and I don't like 
to worry about whether I'm going to make it to the end of the movie 
without a major lock-up. It doesn't happen very often, and it's easy 
enough to reboot but it's damnably tough to debug.

>How bad is the resulting file damage from using MuSE and jackd together with a 3-D ATI driver which
>necessitated a cold reboot?
>
Happily I've never suffered a damaged file in Linux. But I'm plenty wary 
when it comes to 3D video driver support in Linux (I use nVidia's own 
driver on my desktop machine).


>  Why can't I hear anything?
>
Too many answers to this one. Which is not an especially good thing, 
indicating that system complexity is getting beyond the grasp of an 
ordinary intelligence. Again, happily the solution is often as simple as 
"Because ALSA mutes all mixer channels" or "Because you didn't save your 
settings via alsactl", but when things get stickier it seems that they 
get a *lot* stickier.

>What was the name of that damn program again?  How did I connect that up the last time?
>  
>
Time for some nmemonic therapy... or maybe it's time to learn how to use 
QJackCtl's patchbay profiles ?  ;-)

More to the point: We need LADCCA/LASH...

Just two pesos from one guy in NW Ohio with 'way too much to do on an 
overcast Sunday afternoon...

Best,

dp