[PlanetCCRMA] 32 & 64 bit FC

[joey.a]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fernando Lopez-Lezcano" <nando@ccrma.Stanford.EDU>
To: "joey.a" <joey.a@accelerators.co.uk>
Cc: <planetccrma@ccrma.Stanford.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2007 6:24 PM
Subject: Re: [PlanetCCRMA] 32 & 64 bit FC


> On Sun, 2007-10-28 at 11:09 +0000, joey.a wrote:
> > Consequently, since I can't even open most of the programs, it would be
> > helpful if you could indicate precisely which ones should open in a 64
bit
> > environment (under what conditions), and which ones shouldn't, so that I
can
> > work out what (if anything) I am doing wrong.
>
> The ones that got installed should work. Anything that does not work
> (AFAIK) is not available at all for the 64 bit versions of FC.

Makes sense SuperCollider is not displayed. Neither is  the Scheme version
of Snd (AFAICT)

> Most of the useful programs need Jack to be up and running before they
> are able to start. Some are polite and tell you something is missing
> (like Rosegarden), some will silently fail to start. In those cases you
> can open a terminal ("Applications" -> "System Tools" -> "Terminal")

Yes, that is one of the few things I managed to write down in my accelerated
Linux crash course. (Aarghhh)

>  and type the command that starts the program.

errrmmm..... how? What command? (Run don't work)

>It may tell you things about what's wrong as it fails.
>
> > In addition, he has pointed out that FC 5 is no longer supported
(suggesting
> > that the 32 bit version of FC 6 also might not be, for much longer), and
has
> > suggested that I might be better off installing the longer term
supported
> > Ubuntu, which he is confident Planet CCRMA should run on.
>
> Ubuntu is based on Debian as the core distribution and so is basically
> incompatible with Planet CCRMA (which is built on top of Fedora).
>
> > I would appreciate your comments on that, too.
>
> Planet CCRMA packages will not install on top of Ubuntu. There an
> initiative that is part of Ubuntu called Ubuntu Studio that provides the
> same type of stuff that Planet CCRMA provides.
>
> Fedora is fast paced, new releases every 6 months or so. So it has the
> advantage of having newer software available and the disadvantage of a
> fast release cycle. It would be fine to skip every other release, for
> example, but sooner or later you'll have to update to a newer one.
>
> > At this stage, the main thing I need is help files.
> >
> > I did manage to open Rosegarden, which was considerate enough to tell me
it
> > needed JACK server to function. Although I could not find that in the
> > software list, I did manage to find, by trial & error that Qjackctl,
> > followed by start did the trick for that (cryptic, or not?)
>
> Yes, Qjackctl is the first thing you start (if you want to work with
> jack). Probably you want to go to preferences and change - in the Setup
> dialog - the interface from "Default" to "hw:0" which points directly to
> your first soundcard (or "hw:1" which is the second, etc).
> "Frames/Period" and "Periods/Buffer" will define the latency of Jack, or
> in other words how small the buffers it uses are. The smaller, the more
> responsive a soft synth will be to real time commands. I normally use
> 128 and 2 with good results.
>
> > I also managed to open Snd whose basic help did work. However, none of
the
> > related help did, giving e.g. Firefox cannot find the file at
> > file:///snd.html#etc . (Surely that must be a bug which can be easily
fixed,
> > if you know where these files are supposed to be located?)
>
> You should be able to get to its manual in a browser by pointing to:
>   file:///usr/share/doc/snd-9.1/snd.html

Unfortunately I had to reboot to Windows XP to get to remote desktop to get
to emails on server, to respond to this, so will have to check this out on
next reboot. Sounds promisingb though.

> This is probably a packaging problem, I have to take a look at it.
>
> > I do now have some pretty good help files for SuperCollider (which is
what I
> > think I need most). Unfortunately, however, as we already know now, this
> > does not work with 64 bit Linux. I did eventually find a Windows (beta
> > version) link which wasn't empty, and so downloaded that onto the other
> > partition, but that doesn't work either (not even a response to 2+2,
enter).
>
> Psycollider? Hmm, I think that should work, unless your version of
> Windows is 64 bit as well.

I don't have a clue whether it is or not. All I know is the hardware is 1.83
Ghz Duo core Intel  with 64 kilobyte primary memory cache, 2048 kilobyte
secondary memory cache, and 1 GB RAM.

> > I don't think I am completely useless when it comes to computers and
music.
> > I did, after all, manage to design, build, program, & debug, a pyramid
> > computer music system based on refinements of a digitally controlled
analog
> > flight simulation computer, with one of the first 16 bit
microprocesssors at
> > the (lower end) man-macine interface, over a quarter of a century ago.
>
> Wow...
>
> > However, my initial attempt to interface with Planet CCRMA have left me
> > feeling a bit like Homer Simpson, when he can't fin d the ANY key.
>
> You will need a bit of patience I'm afraid. You are tackling a new
> operating system, new applications, etc, etc. It can drive you into
> overload very easily :-) It does that to me from time to time.
>
> Usually the home web pages for most Linux applications have links to
> documentation on how to use the program. Some are good, some are bad and
> on somes you have to learn by doing. When there's documentation
> available in the original software package I install it. The location is
> not necessarily the same for everything. Sometimes it is available from
> the menus of the app itself, sometimes you have to do a little digging
> to find it. For example, most packages come with a README file that
> tells you what they do, and it is usually installed in the doc
> directory, which is here:
>
>   /usr/share/doc/
>
> You will see docs for most of the installed programs there.
>
> You can also see what files the program has installed and see if there's
> anything documentation related. In a terminal type:
>
>   rpm -q -l package_name | more
>
> That will list all files in a given package. Pretty long and useless
> list sometimes. But:
>
>   rpm -q -l package_name | grep README
>
> will list anything that has README in its name (a better clue). Or
>
>   rpm -q -l package_name | grep doc
>
> will list anything that has doc in its name.
>
>   rpm -q -i package_name
>
> will also list more details for the package, including the URL of the
> home page of the software, which may have docs available. Most packages
> are listed in the Planet CCRMA home page with links to the home site as
> well.
>
> Hope this helps a little bit...
> Perhaps others can chime in with good online resources...
> -- Fernando

Thanks. Your response has been most encouraging. I was almost at the point
of completely giving up!