8 Nov
2011
8 Nov
'11
2:18 a.m.
Hi,
I think that I've mentioned this is the
past, but I'm happy with what I'm doing, and I
wanted to share.
Some of you may have felt at some time, a
difficulty with sticking with only Windows, or
only Linux for use as an audio workstation. I've
tried two machines with a kvm switch, and the
dual-boot thing. Finally I came to a quite happy
solution using "virtualization", running Linux in a
Vmware virtual machine on a Windows 7 host.
One thing that's nice is that I can try out all
sorts of distributions, audio centric or
otherwise, by just making ad hoc installations
under VMware. I can even light more than one up
at a time, to move files around between the
'machines'. Love Gentoo, but hate the down time?
Install in a window somewhere in the background.
Even if it won't boot, your main machine is
still running.
Where it comes to audio, I really want to run
Reaper and Finale native on the native Windows
machine. What's nice is that it is painless to
get your sound hardware working under Linux, no
matter what sort it is. Just make it work in
Windows whether it be PCI, USB or Firewire, and
it will appear to your Linux box as an Ensoniq
AudioPCI card, which has an old friendship with
Linux. I'm pretty sure that you only get one
stereo card from Linux, so if that won't work for
you then this idea is out (although you could run
Windows 7 in a VM from a Linux host!).
I have a keyboard with a USB midi interface, and
I can pass that through to Linux just fine.
For X applications, I just install and run Xming,
a great light X server for windows. My Linux
apps run in their own windows next to my windows
apps, and I can cut and paste between them. I
have a ~/vmshare file under Linux that is shared
with a folder on my Windows desktop, so I can
shuttle files between Windows and Linux easily.
I have a robust machine, so I can give two cores
to the VM, two to the native OS, and 4Gig ram to
each. One must keep in mind that the VM does not
run for free. 2Gig ram total in your box is
probably a fair minimum. Also, make sure your
bios supports the VT extensions and that they are
turned on (they usually default to off).
This made my computer music world a great deal
nicer. I recommend it.
Tobiah
8 Nov
8 Nov
3:36 a.m.
On Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 8:18 PM, Tobiah <toby(a)tobiah.org> wrote:
I think that I've mentioned this is the
past, but I'm happy with what I'm doing, and I
wanted to share.
Some of you may have felt at some time, a
difficulty with sticking with only Windows, or
only Linux for use as an audio workstation. I've
tried two machines with a kvm switch, and the
dual-boot thing. Finally I came to a quite happy
solution using "virtualization", running Linux in a
Vmware virtual machine on a Windows 7 host.
I'll share what my setup is also, using Linux and Windows 7
side-by-side. I have them running on separate machines, each with its
own monitor. I have a single mouse & keyboard, connected to my Linux
box.
Now here's the cool part: on the Windows box, I run VNC server. On the
Linux side, I use a utility called x2vnc. I start x2vnc up and connect
to the VNC server on Windows and voila! It's like having a twin
monitor setup, I can easily move the mouse between monitors now, and
the keyboard follows the mouse, no KVM needed (I have the keyboard &
mouse going into a KVM switch, actually, but that's only for
emergencies).
All of my sequencing, recording & mixing is done on Linux, Windows is
for hosting samplers. I send MIDI over IP from Linux to Windows (using
QMidiNet on Linux and IpMIDI on Windows) to playback Kontakt or EWQL
or whatever (hosted in Reaper), and audio comes back into Linux via
SPDIF and Lightpipe (ADAT), so all of the audio plays back through
Linux and my monitoring system, regardless of the source.
--
Brett W. McCoy -- http://www.electricminstrel.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"In the rhythm of music a secret is hidden; If I were to divulge it,
it would overturn the world."
-- Jelaleddin Rumi
4:03 a.m.
I'll share what my setup is also, using Linux and
Windows 7
side-by-side. I have them running on separate machines, each with its
own monitor. I have a single mouse& keyboard, connected to my Linux
box.
Now here's the cool part: on the Windows box, I run VNC server. On the
Linux side, I use a utility called x2vnc. I start x2vnc up and connect
to the VNC server on Windows and voila! It's like having a twin
monitor setup, I can easily move the mouse between monitors now, and
the keyboard follows the mouse, no KVM needed (I have the keyboard&
mouse going into a KVM switch, actually, but that's only for
emergencies).
Nice solution, and you have both running native on hardware.
Tobiah
8:56 a.m.
tisdagen den 8 november 2011 03.35.37 skrev Brett McCoy:
Now here's the cool part: on the Windows box, I
run VNC server. On the
Linux side, I use a utility called x2vnc. I start x2vnc up and connect
to the VNC server on Windows and voila! It's like having a twin
monitor setup, I can easily move the mouse between monitors now, and
the keyboard follows the mouse, no KVM needed (I have the keyboard &
mouse going into a KVM switch, actually, but that's only for
emergencies).
If you just want keyboard and mouse working on two or more boxes. I use
(several computers but for other reasons than making music) synergy on windows
and Linux. It's lightweitght but needs a working network.
http://synergy-foss.org/
/bengan
12:26 p.m.
On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 2:56 AM, Bengt Gördén <bengan(a)bag.org> wrote:
tisdagen den 8 november 2011 03.35.37 skrev Brett
McCoy:
Yeah, basically the same kind of thing, although synergy looks slicker
(I mean that in a good way)
--
Brett W. McCoy -- http://www.electricminstrel.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"In the rhythm of music a secret is hidden; If I were to divulge it,
it would overturn the world."
-- Jelaleddin Rumi
Now here's the cool part: on the Windows box,
I run VNC server. On the
Linux side, I use a utility called x2vnc. I start x2vnc up and connect
to the VNC server on Windows and voila! It's like having a twin
monitor setup, I can easily move the mouse between monitors now, and
the keyboard follows the mouse, no KVM needed (I have the keyboard &
mouse going into a KVM switch, actually, but that's only for
emergencies).
If you just want keyboard and mouse working on two or more boxes. I use
(several computers but for other reasons than making music) synergy on windows
and Linux. It's lightweitght but needs a working network.
http://synergy-foss.org/
12:47 p.m.
tisdagen den 8 november 2011 12.25.41 skrev Brett McCoy:
On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 2:56 AM, Bengt Gördén
<bengan(a)bag.org> wrote:
Yes. As you say, basically the same. The good thing is you don't need X on
your windows box to use it and it works for more than 2 boxes. But as the FAQ
on synergy says, "the right tool for the job is whatever tool works best for
you".
http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/faq.html#faq3
PS. I use synergy on my HTPC (xbmc) at home and it seems to eat some memory
over time. DS.
/bengan
tisdagen den 8 november 2011 03.35.37 skrev
Brett McCoy:
Yeah, basically the same kind of thing, although synergy looks slicker
(I mean that in a good way) Now here's the cool part: on the Windows box,
I run VNC server. On the
Linux side, I use a utility called x2vnc. I start x2vnc up and connect
to the VNC server on Windows and voila! It's like having a twin
monitor setup, I can easily move the mouse between monitors now, and
the keyboard follows the mouse, no KVM needed (I have the keyboard &
mouse going into a KVM switch, actually, but that's only for
emergencies).
If you just want keyboard and mouse working on two or more boxes. I use
(several computers but for other reasons than making music) synergy on
windows and Linux. It's lightweitght but needs a working network.
http://synergy-foss.org/ 
2:07 p.m.
On Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:18:49 -0800
Tobiah <toby(a)tobiah.org> wrote:
Hi,
I think that I've mentioned this is the
past, but I'm happy with what I'm doing, and I
wanted to share.
Some of you may have felt at some time, a
difficulty with sticking with only Windows, or
only Linux for use as an audio workstation. I've
tried two machines with a kvm switch, and the
dual-boot thing. Finally I came to a quite happy
solution using "virtualization", running Linux in a
Vmware virtual machine on a Windows 7 host.
One thing that's nice is that I can try out all
sorts of distributions, audio centric or
otherwise, by just making ad hoc installations
under VMware. I can even light more than one up
at a time, to move files around between the
'machines'. Love Gentoo, but hate the down time?
Install in a window somewhere in the background.
Even if it won't boot, your main machine is
still running.
Where it comes to audio, I really want to run
Reaper and Finale native on the native Windows
machine. What's nice is that it is painless to
get your sound hardware working under Linux, no
matter what sort it is. Just make it work in
Windows whether it be PCI, USB or Firewire, and
it will appear to your Linux box as an Ensoniq
AudioPCI card, which has an old friendship with
Linux. I'm pretty sure that you only get one
stereo card from Linux, so if that won't work for
you then this idea is out (although you could run
Windows 7 in a VM from a Linux host!).
I have a keyboard with a USB midi interface, and
I can pass that through to Linux just fine.
For X applications, I just install and run Xming,
a great light X server for windows. My Linux
apps run in their own windows next to my windows
apps, and I can cut and paste between them. I
have a ~/vmshare file under Linux that is shared
with a folder on my Windows desktop, so I can
shuttle files between Windows and Linux easily.
I have a robust machine, so I can give two cores
to the VM, two to the native OS, and 4Gig ram to
each. One must keep in mind that the VM does not
run for free. 2Gig ram total in your box is
probably a fair minimum. Also, make sure your
bios supports the VT extensions and that they are
turned on (they usually default to off).
This made my computer music world a great deal
nicer. I recommend it.
Tobiah
that's an interesting setup. Also because the guest system is a single
file in the host (at least with VirtualBox it's like this, don't know
about Vmware), so you copying over the whole system to a new machine or
whatever is as simple as copying a file.
One could even consider having a linux host for experimenting new
software and day-to-day work, and as a guest have a minimalistic and
stable distro with little/no updates for production.
renato
4768
days inactive
4768
days old
linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org
6 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
-
Bengt Gördén -
Brett McCoy -
Renato -
Tobiah