New PC --- avoiding the DPC Latency nightmare?

[Thad E Ginathom]

I'm not too worried about the assembly --- I've poked around in side PCs (and RS6000s!) for long enough, just never put one together from scratch before. I'm quite interested to have the experience

However, I certainly appreciate the offer. When it gets nearer the day, and I start collecting prices in earnest, I'll post them, and I'd appreciate any feedback then.

First things first... I want the car to look smart again (even though it is usually dirty) which means tinkering and a respray. It's not just cosmetics: where the scratches are metal-deep the rust must be stopped. That'll cost more than a PC would!

 

[gobble]

If you want usb3 and a little future proofing AMD's 890GX Chipset - Same Graphics, Better South Bridge - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

ASUS M4A89GTD Pro/USB3

Cheers

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Oh! I never thanked you for that! Sorry!

The new PC is still pending. At this rate, I'll soon find myself waiting for USB4!

It had just become financially on the cards --- and another commitment turned up . Anyway, it is still going to happen.

In the mean time, over the past couple of days, I have started playing with Ubuntu. Nice that it supported my old RME sound card 'out of the box', but if I stick with it then the brand new Audiofire2 might be up for sale. Haven't even plugged it in yet, and who knows, despite it not appearing to be supported, I just might get a nice surprise.

Whilst most of my harware is happy, my scanner looks like it might provide difficulties.

Anyway... it's fun so far: I have a dual-boot system, and have already succeeded in screwing up the MBR! --- it was surprisingly easy to fix too

As a one-time Unix admin, I'm not sure if this experience is a Welcome-Back, or if it looks a bit too much like work!

I'm really messing it about at the moment; installing packages all over, and strongly suspect that it won't be many days before I scrap it and go for a clean install.

Have yet to check out the squeezebox server, but I think there's a linux version. Of course, I don't get to run my beloved CoolEdit Pro, which I am so comfortable with; I guess Audacity will have to do, as it would have if and when I Win-7 it.

Anyway, despite being a bit like work, its interesting to spend a few days doing PC stuff, instead of just browsing all day!

 

[alcy]

^^ Good to know that, Thad ! Somehow I have always stuck with Audacity, from my Windows days (that was a good 4-5 years ago) till now.

Now that you have started having fun with linux again, and seeing that you do have a certain inclination towards audio stuff, I suggest giving Ubuntu Studio a try. Its filled with multimedia production related software and looks good too (well, it is a multimedia production-centric distribution)! And there's a chance you will have support for new(er) audio cards as well, but I can't be sure of that. Also, a few years back when I was fiddling with the distribution, there were talks of (and fixes for) reducing kernel latency in consideration of the needs of audio production & recording, so that's another good thing.

 

[gobble]

Oh! I never thanked you for that! Sorry!

The new PC is still pending. At this rate, I'll soon find myself waiting for USB4!

It had just become financially on the cards --- and another commitment turned up . Anyway, it is still going to happen.

In the mean time, over the past couple of days, I have started playing with Ubuntu. Nice that it supported my old RME sound card 'out of the box', but if I stick with it then the brand new Audiofire2 might be up for sale. Haven't even plugged it in yet, and who knows, despite it not appearing to be supported, I just might get a nice surprise.

Whilst most of my harware is happy, my scanner looks like it might provide difficulties.

Anyway... it's fun so far: I have a dual-boot system, and have already succeeded in screwing up the MBR! --- it was surprisingly easy to fix too

As a one-time Unix admin, I'm not sure if this experience is a Welcome-Back, or if it looks a bit too much like work!

I'm really messing it about at the moment; installing packages all over, and strongly suspect that it won't be many days before I scrap it and go for a clean install.

Have yet to check out the squeezebox server, but I think there's a linux version. Of course, I don't get to run my beloved CoolEdit Pro, which I am so comfortable with; I guess Audacity will have to do, as it would have if and when I Win-7 it.

Anyway, despite being a bit like work, its interesting to spend a few days doing PC stuff, instead of just browsing all day!

Good luck on the mini project. I just installed KUbuntu 10.0.4 last sunday and its a treat compared to all earlier versions of Ubuntu I've used. Finally I found a desktop I can live with!! Remember to backup your MBR to be safe.

Cheers

Edit: good one about usb4!

 

[thevortex]

Glad you are trying Ubuntu, Thad.

For music purposes - reproduction as well as production, Musix is a wonderful distribution. Do give it a whirl. It is a Live CD so you need not do an install.

Any of the distributions out there with a real time kernel will do very good things with your latency (reduce it) and that can only be good for music production - I am given to understand.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Haven't heard of Musix before now. Having stated on Ubunto U/Studio, I'd better stick with it for a while. Nothing need be permanent

Ubunto Studio: yes, I'm getting into that. Maybe a bit of a mess at the moment: installed plain Ubuntu and then all the Studio packages as far as I could see. I wanted to copy from the CD, but it still downloaded it: nearly 3Gb . I'm thinking I might be able to "rationalise" it by using my Studio install and telling it to do a repair install. At this stage of experimentation, a complete mess doesn't matter, and even removing the linux partitions and starting from scratch is acceptable! I just must not loose my XP install! Heck... even that could be re-installed of course; important data is backed up to an external disk.

At the moment, although it is a lot slicker than when I last looked, about seven years ago, it reminds me a bit of earlier days with windows, when installs would fail for no obvious reason, programs would run on one machine, but not another identical, and there seemed no reason to it. We used to cry, "why doesn't stuff just work, like on Unix, and if not, then at least have text config files we can suss out...". Well, these days (XP and on, although 2000 was an improvement), Windows stuff tends to just work. Today, I installed Ubuntu Google Earth --- and it crashes!

 

[thevortex]

The reason I did not give Ubuntu Studio a run is because it does not come in the Live CD version.

That is precisely why I suggested Musix. You could try before you buy - so to speak. Even with your current Ubuntu system you could still download the Musix ISO and give it a run - without any problems for your data.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Interesting. I did that to take a look at the standard Ubuntu edition. I also installed it because the live-cd install is a lot easy, says that it has noticed Windows, and do you want to keep it. In fact, it defaults to a dual boot if you have Win on the machine.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Oh what fun it is, dashingly deleting partitions, resizing others, determining all sorts of things that cannot be undone, whilst skirting around one's precious WinXP installation! It makes me feel quite young again, doing installations just for the fun of it!

(It'll wear off in a few days )

So, I completely scrapped my Ubuntu installation, and started from scratch with Ubuntu Studio. Can't say much about it yet... the install took quite a long time, and, almost at the very end it told me that Windows was fine by Grub still. It is not as snappy as the vanilla was. Odd things... installed GoogleEarth, for instance; went through the whole procedure, but where is it? God knows! Makes me think quite fondly of window sticking icons all over the desktop! Tried configuring the tcp/ip (it is working, with DHCP, but don't want that)... nope.

Anyway: it's taken this much of the night, including an hour enforced power-cut break, to install. Tomorrow I'll actually try it!

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Have been working in Ubuntu every day now for everything except my e-mail. One thing that is great is the boot speed.

Have not, as yet, tried to record anything. So far as the basic listening software, even my favourite VLC, goes, it seems to be fine. My card is recognised, at least the analogue side is, the digital ports are not, but that maybe because nothing is attached to them.

Trying to go any further, though is tough. I haven't made any real progress with the Audiofire because the firewire support is largely absent or hit and miss. Much of the major studio stuff seems dependent on a server called Jack. I got a glimmer of life on the firewire side once, but I haven't made it work with my internal card at all! All this stuff is major geekery --- and the various forums show how some of the struggles have gone on for years!

I've been brushing up on vi and basic shell stuff. How I wish that I had my home directory and the scripts I wrote in my last job to jog my memory!

I've installed the 64-bit version. Might have a go with the 32 bit version and see if any more stuff works.

 

[gobble]

Have been working in Ubuntu every day now for everything except my e-mail. One thing that is great is the boot speed.

Have not, as yet, tried to record anything. So far as the basic listening software, even my favourite VLC, goes, it seems to be fine. My card is recognised, at least the analogue side is, the digital ports are not, but that maybe because nothing is attached to them.

Trying to go any further, though is tough. I haven't made any real progress with the Audiofire because the firewire support is largely absent or hit and miss. Much of the major studio stuff seems dependent on a server called Jack. I got a glimmer of life on the firewire side once, but I haven't made it work with my internal card at all! All this stuff is major geekery --- and the various forums show how some of the struggles have gone on for years!

I've been brushing up on vi and basic shell stuff. How I wish that I had my home directory and the scripts I wrote in my last job to jog my memory!

I've installed the 64-bit version. Might have a go with the 32 bit version and see if any more stuff works.

Yes it can be a challenge when you simply want to get on with life. Linux can be fun to those who like tinkering for tinkering's sake!! I used to be like that ... not anymore.

Try googling to see if anyone else has successfully setup your hardware on linux. Run "sudo lspci -vvv | less " and check if your hardware is listed?

Cheers

 

[thevortex]

Thad - yes, working with Jack is going to be very important for you if you are intending to play with Linux for a longer time.

The two best implementations and integrations of Jack with the OS I have seen are with PureDyne and Musix. Do try them out as Live distributions first and see how it goes. They are definitely worth a go, in my opinion.

However please do not expect that these distributions will magically understand all the functions of your Audiofire card. The latest Ubuntu comes with the latest ALSA drivers and if they dont address your card then I dont think any Linux will. But hey, wonders happen all the time with computers and Linux.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Having done it for a living, I gave up "tinkering for tinkering's sake". After a few years off, I'm now enjoying it again --- so it's fine by me to carry on with this for a while.

I haven't heard of PureDyne before. I looked at the Musix site, which suffers somewhat, for me, in that Spanish is its mother tongue. Ubuntu is very, very well documented, and also.

I need to get on to my next PC. Latency in Windows, I think, is translated to xruns in Jack. Maybe. Anyway, I'm sure that I still have hardware problems in Linux as well as windows, although, by and large, it seems to cope better.

It is way more usable to the non-geek than it was seven years ago, but there are still limitations to hardware support. It likes my printer, but won't have anything to do with my scanner. On the other hand, my RME card is supported, whereas RME will not update the drivers for Vista, 7 and the future.

 

[thevortex]

If I remember right, Musix also has an English site. And dont worry - the distribution per se is in English with all the menus and options. As far as support is concerned, the forums are pretty active. But yes, it is a much, much smaller distribution than a giant like Ubuntu is. Do give it a test ride if you get time. It is a whole different animal than Ubuntu.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Yes, there is an English option --- but nothing like the extent of documentation that Ubuntu has. I guess it is like comparing cottage industry with an MNC?

Well, I should take note of your enthusiasm and give it look, at least running from the CD.

My monthly download has never before even approached double figures: this month I might have to worry about the cap!

 

[alcy]

Was getting myself the Ubuntu Studio, and its great to see that they are offering low(er) latency kernels (and real time kernels too)...but not by default. For the lower latency kernel, there's a PPA, while the real time kernel is available in the repository.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

What version, Alcy? I've been downloading 10.4, and I believe the kernel is real-time.

<pause while google reminds me the command to find out what veriosn is running...>

$ uname -a
Linux hostname 2.6.32-22-preempt #33-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT Wed Apr 28 15:41:26 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

 

[thevortex]

A few months back when I was running riot with these systems, the RT version of Ubuntu Studio was far from stable.

In that respect I found both PureDyne as well as Musix better balanced. All of them were able to recognize my ASUS Xonar D2X card right out of the box. Ah the joy. The only thing was that the gain in sound was not as much as with Windows. Not sure why that was the case. Need not be a problem. But this was my experience.

 

[alcy]

I was talking about 10.04 only.

From the release notes for 10.04 from Ubuntu Studio's website:

Kernels

* Amd64
-generic will be installed if ubuntustudio-audio meta is NOT selected during installation process
-preempt kernel will be installed if ubuntustudo-audio meta IS selected during installation process
-lowlatency kernel is also available in Abogani's PPA - https://launchpad.net/~abogani/+archive/ppa
-realtime kernel will be available in Ubuntu Studio PPA
* I386
-generic kernel will be installed as default
-lowlatency kernel is also available in Abogani's PPA - https://launchpad.net/~abogani/+archive/ppa
-realtime kernel will be available in Ubuntu Studio PPA