[LAU] Live CDs

[david]

Leslie P. Polzer wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> I'm looking for a good Live CD/DVD for music production.
> 
> Some of the things I'd like to see:
> 
>   * preferably based on Ubuntu
> 
>   * decent hardware detection
> 
>   * recent versions of ZynAddSubFx, Guitarix, Bristol,
>     QJackCtl, Rosegarden, Seq24, Hydrogen, QAMix, QSynth
>     (but see the next point)
> 
>   * ability to add custom packages after booting;
>     a build environment that lets me compile stuff
>     residing on an USB stick would probably be
>     the best solution
> 
> There seem to be quite a few well-maintained Live distributions
> geared towards audio production out there, but I don't really
> want to download and test each one, so I'd like to hear about
> your experiences with them.

Don't know how recent it is, but I have ArtistX 0.7 on my 
synthesizer/effects box laptop. I think it's based on Ubuntu (maybe 
UbuntuStudio, even) but packs in practically everything. I'm not sure it 
comes with everything properly configured out-of-the-box - if it has a 
realtime kernel, it doesn't seem to be working as one.

I couldn't get 64Studio v2.x to install. I initially thought it was a 
bad burn, but reburning didn't fix it. Then I thought it was a bad 
download, and redownloaded, but that didn't fix it, either. Then I 
noticed somewhere that there was a bug about installing it from DVD ... 
so I stopped bothering. I might try v3 when it comes out of beta.

I had UbuntuStudio on the laptop, but it hosed itself when when it tried 
to update itself to whatever the next newer version of Ubuntu was.

I'm thinking of trying Gentoo on it, it's supposed to be very very 
configurable and optimizable. The synth/effects laptop doesn't have a 
lot of memory and only a 2.8GHz Celeron. (Of course, someone on the list 
is using an EEEPC 1000 for the same purposes, so maybe the hardware 
shouldn't matter!)

I found a utility that can turn live Linux ISOs into bootable flash 
drives, it works effectively, but not very useful if you need to install 
from the flash drive. If the Live Linux CD/DVD is setup to install, it 
will look for the CD/DVD in the machine's CD drive and never even sees 
the install files sitting there on the flash drive.

My present main music/audio work system is running Debian Lenny without 
real time kernel, but I do mostly MIDI work with it and let the outboard 
equipment generate the sounds.

-- 
David
gnome at hawaii.rr.com
authenticity, honesty, community