Re: [LAU] new laptop redux

Dave, Tips for getting Ubuntu audio going would include: Preparation: Huge supply of favourite beverage and a few days put aside. It's quite a task, but worth the effort. 1) Add the Medibuntu repositories to get all your codecs 2) Add the ubuntu-studio repos, but don't just install the entire set; pick and choose the bits and pieces that you want - or you'll be wasting more time and cursing and swearing and fixing things later. 2b) DON'T USE these from ubuntu-studio repos: ardour, rosegarden, bristol, hydrogen or jamin as the versions supplied are outdated. Build them yourself (except ardour and jamin) from cvs/svn. Easy way: use 'apt-get build-dep <package-name>' to install build dependencies, then compile your source from there. 2b) Get jack SVN. Maybe the easiest way is to leave the ubuntu version of jack intact and build and install over the top of it. That way your dependencies won't break. Make sure you install to '/usr' NOT '/usr/local' or things can go haywire with two versions of jack laying around. 3) Nice versions of ardour (built with LV2 support), jamin and LV2 itself can be found by adding the EMA Tech. repos. Cut-n-paste the following into '/etc/apt/sources.list' ## EMA Tech. APT repository (bleeding-edge ubuntu-studio compatible) # Binaries deb http://archive.ematech.fr intrepid all deb-src http://archive.ematech.fr intrepid all 4) Get a copy of rncbc's rt_irq script. It's a good basis to get all your audio timing right. (Oh, once it's installed, run jack at priority 70) 5) You can remove "pulse" and "arts" packages, but the libraries will remain. (For the life of me I can't understand why removing libraries for a sound daemon means you have to uninstall half your system, but that's how it is, I'm afraid (Although maybe with fluxbox it won't bother you - I'm on KDE4) I also removed lashd as it seems to make audio apps use much more processing power - I can't fathom why. But your cpu will max-out much faster with lashd running in th bg. As I read on a list somewhere: "replace lash with bash!". 6) My personal kernel of choice would be the 2.6.24-rt. The later kernels haven't been very successful for *me*, with regards to audio. DO NOT EVEN TRY the 2.6.26 series - I lost months of composition time with that beast. 7) If you're running NVIDIA drivers, browse through the NVIDIA forums as there's still plenty of fiddly xorg.conf stuff to do, especially if you want openGL AND audio stability. There's more, but that's a good start.