LinuxMusicians

I'm seriously considering switching distros for my audio systems, from Ubuntustudio to Arch. Mainly because of configuration issues. I'm so sick of this hal/udev/whatever thingy, and things breaking on update. I really don't want to keep searching for config files. Especially now that I need a rather complicated multiscreen setup.
Are there any gotchas to watch out for?

well said man... I've been using Arch and I really don't see the hype on Ubuntu.. I've tried it. I've given it an honest shot but it frustrates the living daylight out of me... Even as a regular desktop, Deb based distros drove me nuts. It was dependency hell.... Honestly, I've tried to use them but couldn't...

DISCLAIMER: This is just my opinion and experience with Deb based distros.
Judging by Ubuntu's popularity, I'm in the minority but I read somewhere to observe the masses and do the opposite.
I've got full respect for the users because they're showing the have great self control...and understanding of how the deb system works.
AGAIN: MHO..

some starters:
It's simple to install but not as easy as Ubuntu, Mandriva, etc.
you configure it to what you want, not what the devs of other distros want.
fast...
it took me a while to get use to it as I went between it and Gentoo but settled for Arch.

http://forums.archaudio.org/
also, this thread at the community forum is very helpful.:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=30547

only thing to be careful of is that Arch is bleeding edge so it's way ahead of the majority of distros.
did I say fast and light weight???

Well, what can I say. After having had to sacrifice my first Arch installation (needed the system for Cubase ) I've finally had the time to get it up and running.

Two moments really made my day:
1. Setting up Nvidias proprietary driver, with separate X screens, was so easy I actually had to double-check.
2. Installing Ardour. First pacman wanted to install Jack. There I was screaming "no, I want jack2!"
So first installed jack2, ran "pacman -S ardour" again, and Ardour happily installed without jack1. This is not Ubuntu

Jack runs on realtime (installed kernel26rt) without problems, my rme card shows up with all in- and outputs.

TODO:
- Find hdspconf. Haven't set up AUR yet, so I'm still hoping to find it there.
- Get the touchscreen set up again. And then get it to run on one screen only...

sweet... that's great to hear man. for the hdspconf, you may wanna check the archaudio repos or ask at that forum.

For anyone reading this in a hundred year's time, the hdspconf is in the alsa-tools package, which is available from the AUR...

I've also managed to get my onboard graphics card to work together with the PCI-E Geforce, now I can use 4 x-screens simultaneously, and even configure them through nvidia-settings. Makes me one happy bugger all right.

like I said, I've tried almost every distro out there and I still don't understand the Ubuntu craze. Arch did it all for me but I think folks are beginning to notice that now.
All apps seem to be made for Deb because most users are using them and once we have a package for Arch, you just either pacman, yaourt, aurget or whatever and it's installed. no *-dev etc needed. Like the Jack package when I installed it on my kid's Ubuntu box... so many packages were needed.(she ain't on ubuntu anymore) worse, XP and she was given a pc pre-installed with it but as soon as that crashes, Arch will be installed.

Now you two guys have made me extremely curious about Arch...just when I thought I'd finally settled with - yeah, you guessed it - Ubuntustudio. Oh well, being a beginner in this field, so far I've spent a lot more time installing and configuring than creating anything musical (and even for that I don't find enough time (joined the forum 3 months ago and this is my 2nd post or so)).
Do I understand correctly that there's no special audio distro of Arch? Is it a question of the repos used?
I guess I'll take a look at it some time soon. Thanks for mentioning it anyway.
Regards,
Patrick

yeah man... I love the distro. light, fast, install apps and small amount of configuration and you're set.
arch has www.archaudio.org where you can get the repos but also AUR(community where users builds apps) that can be installed via aurget, yaourt, pkgman, etc.
the apps can be customize for you your hardware etc.
Arch can be built for audio/video only without the extra baggage or as a full desktop like the bigger distros but just it runs faster and it's at the cutting edge.
may not be for everyone but I love and I'm speaking from a person who've tried most dirstos out.

PatS wrote:Oh well, being a beginner in this field

Might be better to switch early. I've been using debian-based systems for around 5 years now (not only for music), and now, everytime I want to install something on Arch, I type apt-ge<bksp><bksp><bksp><bksp>pacman

spm_gl wrote:everytime I want to install something on Arch, I type apt-ge<bksp><bksp><bksp><bksp>pacman

gotta love ctrl-u

spm_gl wrote: I've also managed to get my onboard graphics card to work together with the PCI-E Geforce, now I can use 4 x-screens simultaneously, and even configure them through nvidia-settings. Makes me one happy bugger all right.

how did you manage that ? my BIOS will only recognize one GPU at a time (either onboard, PCI or PCI-E, which is a setting in the BIOS menu). Which MOBO are you using that allows you to see both onboard and PCI-E GPUs ?

I think it's a gigabyte board, not sure. All I did was dedicate shared memory to the onboard adapter, and suddenly it showed up on lspci, and in nvidia-settings. Perhaps it's even a cheap ASRock or something, definitely nothing high-end. Oh, but it does support "cross SLI" or so.
Sadly, I currently have problems with window managers. It works, but not as stable as I need it. I'll try a few things, but if it's still unstable, I'll go the netjack/xjadeo/kvm-switch route instead. I've tried xfce and openbox, and both sometimes crash when I get to the third screen (second card). Could be a driver problem too, I'll try updating to the latest nvidia.

try this:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=93711

dunno if it would help but it maybe a start

I strongly suspect your MOBO has an onboard nVidia chip
mine has an intel Graphics Media Crapccelator chip. If I set my nVidia PCI-E GPU as my primary graphic device, the onboard one is totally disabled. I was thinking about using xinerama in a triple screen setup when I installed my nVidia card but to my disappointment, the mobo would not allow it so I stick to a dual monitor setup. I may upgrade the mobo one of these days, if I really get bored that is, which is really not the case at the moment

Yes, it has a GeForce 8200 onboard, and a 9800GT PCI-E. So they can both use one driver. But while it does work, it's not really stable, and the last thing I want during a scoring session is an X crash.
"Normal" dual screen with 2 separate X screens (on one card) works perfectly. I don't want TwinView or xrandr or such, because I need to limit the input of the touchscreen to its screen area.
Currently I'm also fighting hdspconf, because it refuses to recognize my RME card. Probably a firmware mismatch. Once I'm done with packing stuff (moving to Berlin, me, not the studio), I'll figure it out.
One thing really positive about Arch, with all the configuration I've been doing, I haven't broken the system.