Probably just to add to the confusion, I admit to not having followed this thread in detail and this comment may be totally superfluous...I'll throw this out there:

I found when I was using AVLinux that it was a really stable and great for upgrading when the time came. And the RT kernel it uses was great even on slower PC's.

(Full disclosure: I use Ubuntu Studio almost exclusively at the moment. Nothing against AVL, just switched temporarily a while back and haven't gotten around to going back.)

http://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/

On Mon, Jan 8, 2018 at 11:45 AM, Peter Lutek <peter@peterlutek.com> wrote:
thanks, len!

i'm used to that whole drill, having done it many times with various distributions. i'm more interested in specifics of achieving a stable, low-latency audio workstation * within the Arch ecology * -- i.e. are there any particular caveats or helpful configuration tools to be aware of in that distribution?

cheers!
.pltk.

On 2018-01-08 11:23 AM, Len Ovens wrote:
On Mon, 8 Jan 2018, Peter Lutek wrote:

would you be kind enough to outline your "conversion" procedure?

In general, this means back up what you have, install new OS, restore at least your home directories, then install any binaries you have of specific software (Ardour, plugins, synths) if you choose (though I think Arch has most things you would need as packages) and go. Be aware that you would either choose to install the same DE as you were using before or get used to another. XFCE is quite a stable and versitile DE (Gnome2 like) that doesn't get in the way of audio or video production. If you happened to be using Unity as your DE (what were you thinking!?) you would have to learn to use a new DE (but then Ubuntu has given up on Unity too so the same either way)

A common method in Linux is to use two partitions (or more), One small one 40G for the OS and a big partition for /home. I actually have a number of 20G partitions to try various OS but in the last while have been finding that cramped which is why I am suggesting 40G :) This makes it easy to install a new OS to try out without disturbing your data.

On 2018-01-08 08:01 AM, Jonathan E. Brickman wrote:
...  I just converted a heavily-used Manjaro/XFCE4 desktop, two years in
use and regularly updated, into a Linux audio testing machine, without glitches.


--
peter lutek - improvising musician
http://peterlutek.com
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