LinuxMusicians

Can I run one distro for general computer use on one harddrive setup to use the onboard audio only and then run a different distro(like kxstudio for example)on another harddrive setup to use my maudio 2496 only?

yes, but that sounds like a bit of a hassle. I switch between my onboard and usb audio interfaces a lot and only use one installation, it works fine and I think is much more convenient than what you're thinking of doing.

I should have specified that I have a pci card, maudio 2496 that i like and a nice preamp. I've thought about doing what you've done just didn't want to have to get new equipment but i might need to at some point.

I just use my usb for everything. One set up to rule them all.

Why not? i.e. "What am I doing wrong now?"

nobody's doing anything wrong, just was trying to get my current stuff to work without having to buy anything.................but willing to if i need to

you shouldn't need to buy anything else. With audio distros like avlinux and kxstudio it's pretty easy to swap soundcards and such, and you could also just use your maudio for everything like anthonycfox suggested.

I might mention it is quite easy to do both multi-boot setups and to configure for multiple soundcards. I also use multiple soundcards. My method is configure presets for each soundcard in QJackCtl (onboard, firewire [Focusrite Saffire Pro24]). I also have a "launcher" script attached to an icon which detects which soundcard is attached and starts QJackCtl with the appropriate preset with the logic of using the firewire if it is attached and otherwise using the onboard card. Here is that script:

• #!/bin/bash
  preset=alsa
  # If firewire device present use that
  if [[ -e /dev/fw1 ]]; then
  preset=firewire
  fi
  # Start Qjackctl if not started
  if [[ `ps -o pid= -C qjackctl` == "" ]]; then
  qjackctl -s -p $preset &
  fi

So I just double click my launcher icon to start jack with my preferred device. Clicking the launcher a second time does nothing (i.e. does not run qjackctl a second time which would be pointless). In your case of USB audio you'd have to figure out some way of detecting if it is plugged in. Perhaps something like:

# grep for the <ID> (some unique string) of the USB audio device,
#ie. run lsub and look for your device and figure out some string to use to identify it
# <preset for USB> is the preset you've defined in qjackctl
if [[ `lsusb | grep "<ID>"` != "" ]]; then
qjackctl -s -p <preset for USB>
fi

For multi-boot I have configured several 20 GB partitions which I use for distro installations, and the rest of my disk is used music and everything else and is mounted identically by whatever distro I boot to. I put home on the distro partition so the individual user configs do not conflict between distros, and do not put a lot of big files on the home partition. I use the same username/id/passwords and mount points (of the data partition on all installations so switching between distros is nearly transparent. This way I can try different distros or experiment with them without disrupting a previous installation. For example currently I run Windows (original OS on my laptop), AVLinux, and kxstudio. Note that I also use the above qjackctl script in kxstudio rather than cadence to start jack. Perhaps you could use cadence if it can configured to use presets.

Thanks for all the help. Well, I just figured out part of the reason I was having so many problems. Once I install the m audio card the onboard sound card completely disappears in linux........it's not there.......nothing, nada, not recognized. If I pull it out, then the onboard sound works fine. More troubleshooting!
and i did go through all the troubleshooting on the alsa project etc........using any of the terminal line commands shows nothing but the m audio card when it's installed.

Sounds a bit like a bios problem. Is there some sort of auto-detect setting for sound cards as there is for video cards?

Ur right, I disabled the auto detect on the bios. Put the onboard to On all the time, will retest and let you know how it works. Thanks for all the help. Somehow I missed that when I built the computer.