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Thread: The Free Studio Project - part 3 Preparing Debian and upgrading to "testing"

  1. #1

    Default The Free Studio Project - part 3 Preparing Debian and upgrading to "testing"

    Warning !
    If you have a videocard with an ATI (AMD) or NVidia GPU (like ATI Radeon or NVidia Geforce) DO NOT install the "official" drivers fron ATI or NVidia

    the NVidia driver (at least at this moment) is NOT complatible with the Realtime kernel we will be using and from experience the ATI drivers also cause problems.

    Having that said let's start with the setup and upgrade of Debian
    note: you can skip the upgrade by downloading the Debian testing ISO and install with that instead of the stable netinstall ISO but that setup process is a bit different from the stable one and it's a bit harder if you don't know what to do.

    1. since we don't use the root account we will need root permissions to install software or do some more maintenance tasks. so the first thing we are going to do is to setup sudo (note, if you've installed Ubuntu or a Ubuntu based distro sudo is already setup)

    to do this we do the following :
    - press <Control> + >Alt> + <F1> (you can use F1 through F6)
    -- this should give you a black screen with white tekst.

    - login with the username "root"
    - enter the password you have setup during installation

    - type the command : "visudo"
    -- scroll down with the arrow keys until you see : "
    root ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL"
    -- Just add a new row and replace root with your username so it looks like
    root ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
    user ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
    -- press <Control> + O (and press <Enter> to confirm
    -- press
    <Control> + X

    now verify if it's working
    -- type : "exit"
    -- login with your "regular" username and password
    -- type : "sudo apt-get update"
    -- enter your password
    -- you should see APT updating the repositories

    with this done we can perform maintenance tasks without needing to switch users every time

    Now we are going to upgrade from Weezy to Jessie (my system doesn't recognize my USB-Interface in Weezy so I need to upgrade to Jessie)

    - Press <Control> + <Alt> + >F7>
    -- This should return you to Gnome (the GUI or Graphical User Interface)
    -- Look in the menu for a program called "Terminal")
    --this should open a window with a CLI (command-line interface)
    -- enter the following commands :
    -- "sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list" (this should ask your password and then opens Gedit to open the file "sources.list"
    -- sources.list contains the repository information where Debian downloads it's sofrware from.
    -- just replace the name weezy into jessie (for all entries) you can also use testing instead of Jessie but let's just use testing.
    -- save and close

    now go back to the CLI by pressing <Control> + >Alt> + <F1> (you can also edit /etc/apt/sources.list without going to the GUI but that requires the use of an editor like VI and while VI or Vim are very powerfull they are also not easy to use without knowing how they work.

    next we'll be closing the running GUI (I prefer to do this when doing a major upgrade like this).
    -- type : "sudo /etc/init.d/gdm3 stop" (you should see a message that gdm3 is stopped)
    -- type : "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade && sudo apt-get autoremove && sudo apt-get clean" this will update the package list -> Install the new upgrades -> remove programs that are no longer needed -> clean the apt folder (to get some free space).

    this process will take a long time
    when you get a message about restarting services let it do this automatically
    when you get a list of changes press "q" to quit and continue

    if there are no errors you are now running Debian 8.0 codename Jessie
    now reboot by typing : "sudo reboot;"

    After the reboot you should get the GDM3 login screen and Gnome after entering the correct username/password combination.

    Congratulations.
    Play around a bit to get to learn how Gnome works (this is a newer version that works a bit different compared to the version that comes with Wheezy).

    Next tutorial will be installing a new kernel and optimizing for Realtime Low Latency
    Fender 2012 American Standard Precision Bass (Left-handed)
    Fender '59 Bassman LTD.









  2. #2

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    Thanks for the article, and the warning. I play games, so every desktop I have is equipped with either AMD ( which is what ATI is now) or Nvidia. Sigh.

  3. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by kimgee View Post
    Thanks for the article, and the warning. I play games, so every desktop I have is equipped with either AMD ( which is what ATI is now) or Nvidia. Sigh.
    Well I'm not a gamer and unless something changed over the last few years Linux is not a Gaming platform, but the number of games available for gaming is growing and there is a Steam client for Linux.

    But the good news is that you do NOT need to use my Realtime kernel, as I understand this kernel should give some better performance for using software like Ardour, but the stock kernel that's installed should also work. Also my kernel is set "tickless" which makes it better for systems running 1 program (ardour) and not multiple programs (which is a common advantage of Linux over Windows).

    As for the Graphics cards:
    - NVidia : as I understand the nouveau drivers should support 3D and OpenGL so that should work out-of-the-box but as long as you install new kernels through APT you should be able to install the "Official" non-free drivers from NVidia.
    If you want I can provide some more information on howto do this.

    - ATI/AMD : In the past we would say that NVIdia was the better option since ATI hd no real support for Linux. The now offer an official driver which they didn't do then but I cannot say more on it.

    Bottom line
    It is possible to use Ardour and Games on the same system, there is only a limited number of games (you can try Wine or the commercial crossover office from codeweavers to get some more games to work).

    In the past the people from Bioware released a Linux Client and Server for NeverWinterNights and that worked verry well, I even completed the original game, unfortunatly there was no Linux client for NeverWinterNighs 2 and many people were upset).

    My personal view on the subject is that for Gaming the dedicated consoles (X-Box PlayStation, Wii...) are the better options over a PC/Mac
    Fender 2012 American Standard Precision Bass (Left-handed)
    Fender '59 Bassman LTD.









  4. #4

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    "My personal view on the subject is that for Gaming the dedicated consoles (X-Box PlayStation, Wii...) are the better options over a PC/Mac"

    While consoles certainly simplify the gaming process, they do not have the horses under the hood for the "immersive" graphics I prefer. My favorite game is Skyrim by Bethesda Softworks. The PC version of this game has the ability through it's built in menu system and user created mods to achieve a near "photorealistic" level of graphics.......if you have the right hardware. I have 2 Radeon HD 6850 cards running in crossfire mode in my Intel i7 desktop system. A console can't even approach this level of performance. Also, the game controllers on the consoles are very limited compared to a computer's keyboard and mouse/trackball. That's why I use a PC for gaming. Well, that and the fact that I started playing computer games in the early '80s on an Atari 400, which I still own and still works beautifully. Back then the only consoles available were quite awful graphics wise. So, maybe it's a habit as much as a choice. I guess if I want to really get into recording and manipulating audio I will need to set up a dedicated system for that purpose. Which is clearly the best way to go based on your posts. Thanks again Patrick.

  5. #5

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    You have some valid arguments.
    I mentioned the Consoles as a good platform because I assume their games are made for that platform and therefore provide the best "experience" (game speed and graphics).
    The downside of PC games is IMHO the "problem" that this platform evolves too much. What I'm trying to say is that to keep up with the new games you'll frequently need to "upgrade" your system to keep up with the performance demand. Or as you mentioned as a con for the console suffer low graphic details or a decreased game speed.

    As for Skyrim a Goth at work actually mentioned it as a good game for me since I liked NeverWinter but I have the impression that Skyrim is more First Personal and for these games I prefer a different camera view.

    I like The Witcher (from the same people behind Good Old Games) on PC but my system lacks the performance to make it comfortable to play.

    Anyway,
    The major consensus on Linux is that you should not purchase "cutting-edge" hardware and brand hardware.
    the reason for this is that most companies still don't provide support for Linux so cutting-edge hardware or hardware for unknown brands might not work at first.

    If the hardware is popular with the Linux crown more changes are that it will become supported in the future (when someone will provide a driver for it) if it's not popular hardware you might never find support for it, so for linux it's important to do some more research before purchasing new hardware.
    Fender 2012 American Standard Precision Bass (Left-handed)
    Fender '59 Bassman LTD.









  6. #6

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    You should give Skyrim a try Patrick. I have played a number of Bioware games. I played, and completed, Baldur's Gate, a predecessor to Neverwinter Nights, one summer with my daughter when she was about 14, with each of us controlling half of the 4 member party from side by side computers on my home network. It was a blast for both of us. I like Skyrim, and games like it, for it's open world and unscripted gameplay. You can go wherever you want and do whatever you want. If you don't want to follow the main quest line, or any quest line, that is fine. You are free to explore and follow your own path. I like that. All of the Elderscrolls series games are like that, so if you don't have the system to power Skyrim nicely, try Oblivion. It is a little long in the tooth, but still a great game. Even Morrowind, which is ancient, is still fun to play, with an awesome storyline and open world. All of these games can be played in first or third person, but seem to be more first person oriented, which I prefer personally. Also,Bethesda designed these games to be user modifiable. So, by installing user created mods, available from many sites and easily installed, you can transform the game into whatever you want it to be. Pretty cool. I enjoy first person shooters as well. The Half-Life series by Valve is still the best example of the genre in my opinion. But I definitely prefer open world RPGs.

    As far the the home recording setup goes, I think I will convert my secondary desktop, a 6 year old AMD quad core based system into a Linux box. I have long desired an alternative to Windows, but the time required to get up to speed on a new OS has been deterring me. I guess it is time to bite the bullet.

  7. #7

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    If there is no Linux version for those games I'm not going to play them.
    The reason is simple : I have no system that runs Windows so I cannot play them.
    I've seen a few games over on Good Old Games (gog.com) but those seem to be running under DosBOX (or maybe Wine for the newer ones) so no native client.
    There is still Steam for linux but I doubt it will work well without OpenGL.

    As for switching to Linux, there are some researchers who claim that Linux is easier to learn than Windows. But they are not talking about converting, the study is based on people who never used a computer before and Linux seems to be more logical I guess.
    Fender 2012 American Standard Precision Bass (Left-handed)
    Fender '59 Bassman LTD.









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