[PlanetCCRMA] Questions that might be able to be added to the FAQs

[Fernando Lopez-Lezcano]

On Tue, 2010-01-26 at 09:28 -0500, Robert Vogel wrote:
> On Thu, 2010-01-21 at 13:02 -0800, Fernando Lopez-Lezcano wrote:
> > On Mon, 2009-12-28 at 00:13 -0500, William M. Quarles wrote:
> > > On 12/27/2009 2:42 PM, Fernando Lopez-Lezcano wrote:
> > > > On Thu, 2009-12-24 at 22:21 -0500, William M. Quarles wrote:
> > > >> On 12/21/2009 6:59 PM, Fernando Lopez-Lezcano wrote:
> > > >>> On Mon, 2009-12-21 at 08:59 -0500, William M. Quarles wrote:
> > > >>> Fedora 11 is complete (and has been for a while). Fedora 12 is also in
> > > >>> pretty good shape, I think only missing the planetccrma-apps package
> > > >>> which I need to rework. I seem to never find time to update the web
> > > >>> site...
> > > >>
> > > >> Well, I guess what I am getting at here is that other open-source
> > > >> projects/repositories out there seem to have multiple people working on
> > > >> them. You are pretty much tackling the whole thing here by yourself
> > > >> while you also have all of those machines at Stanford to worry about too
> > > >> maintaining, too, so I'm trying to see how we can help you in the
> > > >> interest of reducing your burnout while enhancing the production of the
> > > >> software and documentation.
> > > >
> > > > Thanks...
> > > >
> > > 
> > > Wow, those ellipses worry me. I hope I didn't offend?
> > 
> > Not at all!
> > 
> Looking at the CCRMA website a couple of months ago, it appeared that
> Fedora 10 was the bet initial install for CCRMA. That's how I installed
> it on my quad core AMD 64 machine. But now it keeps reminding me that
> Fedora 11 upgrades are available. Should I let it do the upgrade ? or
> would it be better to do a fresh install ? 

I have done both. If you do an upgrade you can either use preupgrade or
upgrade from a dvd. There will be some left over packages after the
upgrade, you should use package-cleanup --problems and package-cleanup
--orphans for help on that (there are guides online for upgrades and
their gotchas). It is not as hard as it used to be. A clean install is
of course, well, cleaner :-)

> I'm about to try assembling a new machine and I am having trouble
> figuring out which soundcard would be best for a PlanetCCRMA install. It
> seems like the ones best supported by alsa are no longer available
> readily. Do you have a preference ?

I can only tell you about the ones we have at ccrma. The Midiman Delta
PCI line is good (most of our workstations use the Delta 66 + OmniIO
combination but those are no longer manufactured). I also have had good
experiences with the Echo Layla 3G and Gina 3G. In the studios we have
the RME line of cards, expensive but very nice. 

> Your paper on 'noiseless computers' is excellent. Could you recommend a
> parts list that you would prefer to use if you were configuring a new
> machine today ?

Sigh, no, not really. Things change way too fast for me to have a list I
could share. Out last upgrade was at the end of 2008[*] so anything I
might have chosen at the time is now officially obsolete :-)

-- Fernando

[*] hmmm, I'd stay away from Gigabyte mobos, the specs are usually great
but we've had long term problems twice.