Ubuntu Studio Vs. 64 Studio

[nathan]

So, I am currently running Ubuntu Jaunty, which I love...except that getting a real-time kernel up and running a bit problematic...installed via synaptic, tried to boot up, and I can't get an X server run. I made sure I had the corresponding driver, etc, going, but it's just annoying.

So I'm thinking about installing Ubuntu Studio (since it comes with a RT kernel by default), however I'm now hearing that kernel stability on the latest version can be an issue (see this thread.)

This brings me to 64 Studio, which is now based on Ubuntu. I'd love to give it a shot, but I think many of the packages are outdated since it is based on Ubuntu LTS. I'd like to use the most recent stable versions of Ardour, MuseScore, Lilypond, etc.

What do you think...should I install Ubuntu Studio or 64 Studio??

[kaimerra]

I personally went through this about a year and a half ago. I had Ubuntu Studio on my laptops which worked alright. But I seemed to spend more time chasing xruns than making music. I put my old laptop on 64 Studio 2.1 that I use for live performance and it hasn't crashed ever. I don't record with that one, but do samples and synth with a MIDI keyboard. My newer laptop I have 64 Studio 3.0 beta 3 on right now and I have recorded some stuff and found it to be very solid and performing well. It is based on Hardy which means it does have an older package base, but the 64 Studio crew is working on backporting good applications through their repo. Also, it runs on a 2.6.29 kernel which has great hardware support. I always had wifi and cdrom issues with <2.6.28.
I would highly recomend giving beta 3 a whirl, it is very usable. If you have the hard drive space, I think the best route is to have a Studio distro and a desktop distro. A studio distro can perform very well at what it is customized for, but can suck elsewhere. Plus, you want your studio to be very stable and not changing often. Leave your desktop distro for cool graphics, playing games, cutting edge packages.

Thats just my 2 cents worth of 64 studio experience for 2 years. Hope your trials prove fruitful nathan.

[nathan]

Thats just my 2 cents worth of 64 studio experience for 2 years. Hope your trials prove fruitful nathan.

Thanks! This seems like really good advice...I hadn't even thought of using two distros!I may keep Ubuntu as my "desktop" and throw 64 Studio 3.0 on there as my "studio" distro. I wonder if I could share a home folder partition between the two, or if the differing GNOME versions would throw a fit?

[kaimerra]

I share a home folder for 64 Studio 2.1 and Ubuntu 9.04 and it works okay. The first time I went from one to the other, all my panels were messed up, but once I set them up again, they were okay.
Depending on how many apps you use on both distros of different versions, it may or may not be a good idea.

[spm_gl]

If you run into problems with program settings, usually due to the hidden files in the home folder, you could set up one distro to use different configs by changing the value in the default config, usually (always?) in /etc. 64studio's Hardy-base is rather easy to configure that way, not sure about Jaunty, far too much has changed there.

[StudioDave]

As you might already know, I'm running 64 Studio in version 2.1 and the beta 3.0. I'm also running Ubuntu Jaunty with a heavily customized Ubuntu Studio.

I'll recommend 64 Studio 2.1 for its rock-solid performance. I can't recall the last time I had any performance issues with it. The 3.0 version is somewhat more current, but it's Hardy-based, so don't look for cutting edge components.

My Jaunty installation is a mixed affair. I'm using it more often, but I need to customize it even further for best performance. Anyone know how to ditch the default desktop in favor of Fluxbox in an Ubuntu 9.04 system ? Anyway, I like it for its currency, I can build the latest & greatest everything on it, and I have its JACK latency down to ~5 msecs. Alas, I can't use it with my notebook without disabling APCI, which has the unfortunate effect of running the machine too hot. Further, the rt kernel is no good for 64-bit systems, so I'm running a 32-bit Jaunty on the notebook and on one of the desktop boxes.

Btw, I also use JAD 1.0. It's one the best media-optimized distros I've used. Even though it's no longer maintained I still recommend it. Very stable system, equal to 64 Studio.

Also btw: I wrote a review of my experience with Ubuntu Studio, you might find it useful:

http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/jud ... studio-904

Best,

dp

[spm_gl]

I'm afraind you can't really change the window manager without losing 90% of your installation. If you want to get rid of gnome, perhaps install xubuntu instead, at least the xfwm is a lot lighter. But you'll end up installing half of gnome anyway, due to dependencies. All you can really do to have a stable system is to leave gnome on your box, install fluxbox and set it as default in gdm.

[nathan]

Thanks for that article, StudioDave! I had Ubuntu Studio on my machine a couple releases back, and I had the same issues, and had to do a lot of tweaking to get things really usable. I've also run into that installer bug (it's on the LiveCD too) in stock Ubuntu (FWIW, I had to do an "alternate" install from USB media to get the thing to work). The thought of dealing with all of these issues kind of makes my heart sink...

64 Studio 3.0beta seems better configured than US, and more stable too. I'm really leaning toward installing that on another partition as my "studio" distro...I probably won't be needing the very latest packages of anything but MuseScore, but I can install that from their PPA, I believe.

[raboof]

All you can really do to have a stable system is to leave gnome on your box, install fluxbox and set it as default in gdm.

This works fine for me (ion3 instead of fluxbox, but anyway)

[angelsguitar]

Hi all!

Maybe I'm a little late; I see this post is a couple of months old, but wanted to share my experience anyway.

I currently have 64Studio 3 Beta 3, Ubuntu Studio 8.04-3, Musix 2 Beta and AV Linux 2r2 in my machine. So far, the best performing distro has been 64Studio 3, even though is a Beta version. The rt kernel is really solid and stable (by the way, I'm using the kernel from Quentin's repo, which is not included by default on the install. You have to manually add that repo to be able to install it)

Also, I wanted to say that, although 64Studio is based on Ubuntu 8.04, the main audio and MIDI apps come from 64Studio's repos and not from Ubuntu's, so they are not so outdated as many may think. The just use Ubuntu Hardy as a starting base, but they practically build all the critical audio & MIDI apps (Ardour, Rosegarden, etc.) themselves. For example, Ubuntu Hardy includes Rosegarden 1.6 by default, but the 64Studio 3 repos have Rosegarden 1.7.3.

I'm really looking forward to the final version of 64Studio 3; it looks promising.

[nathan]

Thanks for the insight, Angelsguitar! I too am looking forward the 64Studio 3 final release.

[Capoeira]

what i did is:

i installed ubuntu hardy minimal; added the 64studio repros, installed kdm and kde 3 and fluxbox.....and it works great

[angelsguitar]

hi there...

switched from Windows to LINUX about a year ago through trying an Ubuntu distro and have been an Ubuntu user since. Having tried the original Ubuntu I tried Kubuntu for a while and actually liked it better, it was somehow more responsive. But after the long awaited Ubuntu Studio came out I switched to this flavor. I was not really that impressed and have to admit that this version of Ubuntu does not seem to run as smoothly as I was used to.

Which Ubuntu Studio version are you using? What problems are you having?

[Jan]

I tried Ubuntu Studio and Fedora before installing 64 Studio as my audio distro. In the first two distros I had issues with the RT-Kernel which wasn't working when I ran the NVidia driver (which I need, because I like a bit of eyecandy with my KDE). But even with the RT-Kernel running I had xruns, I don't know why. So I installed 64 Studio and it was rock solid right from the start. I had exactly one xrun so far and everything works smoothly. And I didn't even have to fiddle around with configurations, 64 Studio did everything I want.

[angelsguitar]

...So I installed 64 Studio and it was rock solid right from the start... everything works smoothly. And I didn't even have to fiddle around with configurations, 64 Studio did everything I want.

Yeah, I have the same impression of 64Studio. Just install it and get to work - no time lost in configuring/customizing to get better performance. It just works out of the box.