[LAU] Until now Debian seems to be the right decision :), better performance than Ubuntu

Ralf Mardorf ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net
Tue May 31 11:40:57 UTC 2011


On Tue, 2011-05-31 at 12:26 +0800, Simon Wise wrote:
> > What repositories should I use to set up a stable DAW? Btw. my list is
> > attached and I will compare it with your suggestions I already received
> > later.
> > Is there a repository including JACK2 from svn?
> 
> To use jack2 you should be using sid or perhaps testing, not stable.

I only can use Jack2 from svn, if it shouldn't be available, than I'll
build it myself. This is regarding to hw MIDI jitter. Only Jack2 is hard
real-time capable regarding to this issue.

> Debian installs with only the 'main' archives enabled. First thing to do is add 
> 'non-free' and 'contrib' archives to your sources.list.  You will note that 
> there is quite a few documentation packages in non-free, as well as the various 
> distributable but not open-source firmware blobs for important bits of hardware.

Ok.

> The inclusion of jack2 was done in such a way that you can switch between them, 
> without changing anything else. It was decided that they are alternative 
> versions which will each remain available, along with any other implementation 
> with a compatible API. Packages may also depend on one or the other if this is 
> really required. This was tricky and wasn't fully ready before the freeze for 
> squeeze several months ago. A mixed stable/testing system will be asking for 
> trouble here.

Ok. Might be the same style as for Ubuntu, hence I'll build dummy
packages and install Jack2 from svn. No big deal.

> So - if you want to use the current DAW packages that are part of debian, 
> especially if you want to run jack2, you need to be using sid and not using 
> stable. Then they are part of debian main, no other repositories required.

*?* I don't need Jack from a repository, I just asked, because this
would be less work.

> Definitely DO NOT use http://www.debian-multimedia.org, the changes it makes to 
> the various libraries and mplayer etc will give you mp3 encoding and a bunch of 
> codecs that are not in debian, but the cost is it will often break the DAW 
> packages that are not maintained in this repository ... they rely on those 
> libraries in the debian form.

This is the list Robin did post:

# SQUEEZE
deb http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib
non-free
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org squeeze main
deb-src http://www.debian-multimedia.org squeeze main

# WHEEZY
deb http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org wheezy main
deb-src http://www.debian-multimedia.org wheezy main

# SID
deb http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/ sid main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/ sid main contrib non-free
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org sid main
deb-src http://www.debian-multimedia.org sid main

> For using those codecs install an alternative distribution like Mint and chroot 
> or reboot when you need them.
> 
> >
> > Until now it's an upgraded, minimal system, just a stable install,
> > excepted of Evolution and dependencies, those are from testing.
> 
> See above, to use jack2, and the huge amount of work done in the last 9 months 
> by debian multimedia maintainers you can't be using stable, and a mixed system 
> will get you into trouble sooner rather than later. This work is continuing very 
> quickly, but will not be in stable until wheezy becomes the new stable in 2013. 
> In debian terms "stable" means unchanging, frozen, fully predictable, security 
> related fixes only ... for a three year lifespan while "unstable" means 
> changing, volatile, updated with new work, versions and such like and "testing" 
> means the candidate for the next stable.
> 
> I can't help with evolution.
> 
> >
> > For Debian I still need to set up a xorg.conf, hopefully it will keep in
> > good shape ;). I suspect many issues regarding to the way X is handled
> > today.
> 
> This is where I find aptosid is useful to install my minimal debian. Not quite 
> minimal, but there isn't much extra if you use the 1 cd xfce version, then add 
> gnome or KDE if you prefer them. It is almost entirely pure debian except their 
> kernel (you can use the debian one if you prefer), a few bugfixes and a few 
> scripts to hold back broken versions of updates so a dist upgrade brings you 
> fully up to date

And here they are, the issues:

-------- Forwarded Message --------
From: Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net>
To: debian-user at lists.debian.org
Cc: Andrei Popescu <andreimpopescu at gmail.com>
Subject: XORG.CONF or a solution without xorg.conf needed
Date: Tue, 31 May 2011 13:18:15 +0200

-------- Was --------
        From: Andrei Popescu <andreimpopescu at gmail.com>
        To: debian-user at lists.debian.org
        Subject: Re: Until now Debian seems to be the right decision :),
        better performance than Ubuntu
        Date: Tue, 31 May 2011 09:00:43 +0300
        
        On Lu, 30 mai 11, 19:14:58, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
        > 
        > For Debian I still need to set up a xorg.conf, 
        
        Why do you think so?
        
        Regards,
        Andrei
        
Hi Andrei :)

I  don't think so, it's a declarative statement.
I guess nobody wish to have a vertically frequency of 60Hz ;), it's not
very pleasant to look into a stroboscope. In addition I wish to be able
to select the screen resolution I like, 1152x864 @ 90Hz.

Then I have several needs and need several drivers. I'm used to switch
the drivers automatically at startup, by adding

rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
case $(uname -r) in
    *rt*)
        cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.nv /etc/X11/xorg.conf
        ;;
    *)
	cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.nvidia /etc/X11/xorg.conf
        ;;
esac

to /etc/rcS.d.

At the moment I urgently need help regarding to xorg.conf or any other
solution that enables me to select the driver, and to get 1152x864 @
90Hz.

The graphics is a NVIDIA GeForce 7200 GS aka 7300 SE. The CRT monitor is
an Lifetec/Medion MD1998JB J91B.

I never had issues with old Debian/Ubuntu and Suse installs. I ordered
some new gear, a RME HDSPe AIO sound card + a 8 analog IO ADAT device
and some other stuff. It was delivered yesterday, but it's still
packaged, because I'm unable to set up a new Linux DAW. Old Linux DAWs
are still available by backup archives ;).

At the moment for my Debian install, the mouse wheel isn't working, as
soon as I add a xorg.conf. Without an xorg.conf the mouse wheel seems to
work all the times. I stopped trying to use old xorg.confs.

I run Xorg -configure in recovery mode.

The mouse is a wired Trekker Wheel Mouse 2.0A PS/2.

This is what Xorg -configure generated

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "auto"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

While for Ubuntu at least the frequency and resolution can be set by an
old xorg.conf, for Debian frequency and resolution are still not set :(.

Any help is very much appreciated.

Best,

Ralf






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