Ubuntu Studio 9.10

Shortly after I burned my first ISO of PCLinuxOS, I configured my first serious desktop with a dual boot of Ubuntu Studio 8.04 and XP. As I recall I had many growing pains configuring my audio with UbuStu, however, at some point I was successful and was able to recompose a song I wrote in high-school using Rosegarden.

At some point, I decided to upgrade to UbuStu-9.04 as I had been enjoying the usability of Ubuntu-9.04 (Jaunty) and 9.10 (Karmic) at school. Sadly, I had some major issues with this install that forced me to move to Ubuntu-9.10. I knew I would probably try UbuStu-9.10 when it was released with the hope that the earlier incompatibility would be corrected. It seemed to work okay, however I could not get it to work with my Ralink Wirless card. Also, I was frustrated that the UbuStu developers didn't include some of the slick upgrades (namely the Ubuntu Software Center) that is steadily improving the usability of Ubuntu. I had no way of accessing the web without "ruining my life" so I moved on to 9.10 and decided to go on a significant "shopping spree." I installed loads of science, education and music apps from the Software Center, as well as the kernel-rt from synaptic.

The most significant challenge was getting the JACK audio server to run and I eventually found that I had to add my user to the "audio" and "pulse" groups under System -> Administration -> Users and Groups. The follwing URLs were helpful for me:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=600626
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1336078
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=453486

and most significantly:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1143784

I still get the following error from Rosegarden however:

System timer resolution is too low
Rosegarden was unable to find a high-resolution timing source for MIDI performance.
You may be able to solve this problem by loading the RTC timer kernel module. To do this, try running sudo modprobe snd-rtctimer in a terminal window and then restarting Rosegarden.
Alternatively, check whether your Linux distributor provides a multimedia-optimized kernel. See http://rosegarden.wiki.sourceforge.net/Low+latency+kernels for notes about this.

Puplets: NOP, TEENPup, UPup

Since my review of "Pup-It-Up" Puppy Linux Music Lab, I have tested a number of other puplets. I will give my best recollection and overall impressions of each.

NOP:
Probably my favorite puplet for general use would be Nearly Office Pup (NOP). Although I find it runs a little slower on my hp pavilion ze5600 laptop, that is probably due to a number of useful changes to the base Puppy, specifically xfce as a window manager and Opera for the browser. However, it is these two additions that make it a slick, user friendly system. Once adding the openoffice.sfs to the boot-up options, NOP is a clear winner for a desktop environment that even Grandma could use.

TEENPup:
My second favorite puplet as an all-purpose desktop would be TeenPup-legacy2009. Although about as "fat" as they come, this distro has a tremendous amount of applications with a "windows-like" feel and usability. I would keep it off of most old laptops, but it is a great choice to get the most out of an older desktop.

UPup:
Perhaps the most cutting edge of the puplets is UPup which is the current "pet" project of Barry Kauler (Puppy Linux originator). It is listed as "experimental" and in fact I remember finding some basic applications were broken. Simply put, UPup is a Puppy platform which readily installs debian (.deb) packages from Ubuntu repos. This makes it one of the most extensible, flexible of any puplets for a linux newbie like myself. My guess is this will be the future of Puppy Linux.

64 Studio: A solid DAW Desktop....almost

After the failure that was ubuntu studio 9.04, I thought I would look into any other possible solutions to my ultimate DAW desktop.  Reading about the different choices, I settled on 64 Studio to try next, due in part to the fact that it is very similar to ubuntu with its debian roots.  My first attempt at installation failed on one of the install steps, likely due to a bad burn/image download.  I tried again, unscientifically adjusting all the variables: I downloaded the latest beta instead of the pronounced stable release (2.1) and I burned to a DVD-R instead of a DVD+R.  The install completed.  

One of the key comparisons made between 64 Studio and Ubuntu Studio is that the 64 Studio team was more selective in the applications added, and overall have worked harder at optimizing the "real-time" (RT) kernel to produce the lowest latencies in audio work. One of the problems I had recently with Ubuntu was the sound stopped working and sound is pretty critical for an audio studio. So far, the sound drivers are all working fine with 64 Studio, I just had to adjust the ALSAMixer the first go to get the correct channel unmuted.

But 64 Studio has yet to be completely trouble-free.  For whatever reason, the latest kernel build 2.6.29 was not picking up my Ralink wireless network card. I did a little research and found someone else had this same problem but fixed it by rolling back the kernel to 2.6.26-1. I had to get creative with the network cables in the house to get them to stretch, but once connected to the WEB, I found that the commands: apt-get install kernel did not work right away, but somehow I eventually got it to work after running the update manager and installing a couple hundred other packages first.

I rebooted into the new kernel and sure enough, a wireless network option was now present in the network configuration dialog. Then in the course of an hour, I somehow picked up the wireless signal (rather quickly as I recall) and then later lost it and could not retrieve it. Somehow having success initially and then ending up back where you were feels worse then just failing at the outset!

Up(down)grade to Ubuntu Studio 9.04

I have been running UbuStu 8.10 since may 2009 and with the exception of having some trouble with the initial setup of sound, I have been very happy with it. Recently, after (I believe) a kernel update, the sound stopped working...and I haven't figured out the fix yet. I knew that eventually I would have to update/upgrade my system, and that when I did I would want to repartition my hard drive in a more logical fashion. So I figured now was as good a time as ever.

I decided to upgrade to UbuStu 9.04 and I set up the following partition table:
12 GB: /
2 GB: swap
6 GB: /opt
60 GB: /home

Anyway, I was excited to try out my new UbuStu system but after just a few minutes of uptime the screen went black and the system could not be revived! In fact, I had to kill the power-supply to shutdown as the power switch was even unresponsive. This has happened 3 times in a row now and needless to say, I'm somewhat discouraged. Now I face the choice of reinstalling UbuStu 8.04 or otherwise testing out a different "DAW optimized" linux distro. Giving some consideration to the latter, I started doing a little research and found there are a few serious contenders: 64 Studio being one of the top recommended. Another that I came across is called AVLinux which (like 64 Studio) seems to be fairly stripped down and specialized just for audio work. Either way, this approach may be the best if I want to get serious about a DAW. I can use a different OS (probably a Puppy variant) for my more standard workstation.

ChemPup-0.2.6 Released at ChemToolBox.com

So I have a functioning web site (www.chemtoolbox.com) with a download manager called remository that is pretty easy to use and tracks download totals. To date, ChemPup-0.2.6 has been downloaded 8 times since its release on 10.7.09 (2 days). I posted a forum thread at the official puppy linux forum (http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/) and have 85 views in just 2 days. I am hoping for feedback and may ask for some when my downloads total reaches ~20.

ChemPup-0.3.0 is bothersome. I am very excited that I got Avogadro to work!!! However, at a bit of a cost. First the success story. I downloaded a copy of Barry K's UPup which includes the ubuntu-debian repositories in his powerful new package manager. This was accomplished through project "Woof" which is essentially a project aimed at making puppy buildable/extendable with any existing linux repo. Very cool! I used UPup to download Avogadro, analyze it's dependencies and add them as obtainable and install everything automatically. I had to deal with one "lib" problem (I wish I had documented it earlier) and then had Avogadro running in UPup in about an hour. Then I had an idea....prompted from some research at the forums. I saved my UPup session and then renamed the .2fs save-file to the standard pup_save* format so ChemPup (based on Puppy 4.2.1) would read it. I then booted ChemPup-0.2.5 (the devx version) and loaded the new save-file and voila! I had a new version of ChemPup with Avogadro working.

However, after testing several other programs, I found everything worked except one: BKChem. Grrrr. This is not an acceptable trade-off in my view as BKChem is by far the best 2D structure editor I have found for linux. I believe the problem lies in the python libs added with Avogadro, since BKChem runs with python. I spent a couple hours trouble-shooting this but since I am not a trained CS-guy (i.e. self-taught) I have yet to correct the problem. In the mean time I am thinking of offering both versions and explain the deficiencies in each. Essentially, the addition of Avogadro is very beneficial for people that want to do computational chemistry and JChemPaint is still available as a 2D structure editor. However, for those who want to produce higher quality 2D structures for use in documents or publication, the BKChem version is better.

TO DO:

1. Fix the BKChem/Avogadro incompatibility issue
2. Find a silk-screen CD package
3. Find/Buy 3D glasses
4. Work on a multi-session DVD
5. Assemble packages and make sell-able on chemtoolbox.com
6. Make donations page on chemtoolbox.com (remember to show $flow)

ChemPup-0.1.3

I have temporarily abandoned implementation of Avogadro in my ChemPup project. I was wasting too much time for a "proof-of-concept" product. Now I am thinking of dividing the project into a ChemPup "full" and ChemPup "lite" set. The difference will be that ChemPup "lite " will be released as a downloadable puplet (hopefully under 400MB) that I will host on a basic descriptive website. ChemPup "full" will be at least 700MB (I think) and will be burned "open-session" to a DVD (I hope). The full version will come with extra documentation, and OpenOffice3 will be bundled in along with several other features (see below). I also am hopeful to put together a useful spreadsheet template that will have relevant (solvable) chemical equations with descriptions. I also hope to write a simple program to calculate molecular weights since I haven't found a quick-and-easy one yet. So here is the list of features for each:

ChemPup-0.1.3 "lite"

Office Productivity: (Default Puppy Linux)
Abiword - word processor
Gnumeric - spreadsheet
mtPaint - image editing
SeaMonkey - web browser

Chemistry Programs:
Periodic Table Wallpaper
Nomen - generates 2D structures from chemical names
WebMolCalc - web utility to calculate formula weight, combustion analysis, and isotopic distribution
BKChem - 2D structure editor
JMol - 3D molecular viewer
ChemPupDoc - documentation on using above programs.

ChemPup-0.1.3 "full"

Office Productivity:
OpenOffice.org-3.0 - full office productivity suite compatible with MS Office
JabRef - reference manager that syncs with OOO3
SeaMonkey - web browser

Chemistry Programs:
ChemPup-lite programs +
GElemental - periodic table packed with information on each element
Avogadro (if I can get it working some day)
OpenBabel - chemical file-type converter
SciFinder Scholar (maybe) - must have site.prf file added from school administrator
ChemTool - spreadsheet template with useful chemical equations
MassCalc (need to write) - molecular mass calculator

#!CrunchBang!#

I wanted to give crunchbang another chance and so far I'm really happy I did. What is it? It's a non-official Ubuntu distro that uses the openbox desktop manager and gtk+ apps. The install did not natively support my broadcom wireless adapter, but after connecting via eth0 wired and editing my sources list according to the list of Salimane Moustapha, I used the "restricted device manager" to identify and install the appropriate driver and crunchbang I was online with wireless! Then I spent time making several of the suggested updates and installs on Salimanes extremely helpful ubuntu blog and since then I've just been exploring what this distro has to offer. In general, it is a clean, dark-themed desktop which I like. But most important is it is actually quite fast (really rivaling Puppy so far) and comes with all the support of the ubuntu community.

Crunchbang comes stock with loads of well-chosen lightweight apps that provide a very full-featured system. Internet tools include: firefox, liferea feed reader, pidgin IM client, gpodder Podcast catcher, transmission bittorrent client, gftp client, skype, gwibber microblog client. Audio/Video tools: VLC player, rhythmbox, audacity, kino vid editor, and more. Other apps include abiword, gnumeric spreadsheet, gimp, inkscape, xfburn CD/DVD creator.

I went ahead and added a frugal install of Puppy 4.2.1 to my /home partition of crunchbang. I set it back up the way I wanted it with xmms player and I finally figured out how to get the openoffice.org .sfs file to work. I know I will keep working with puppy, but crunchbang is nipping at its heels at this point....

PCLinuxOS Phoenix Test Run

Still looking for a more complete workstation for my laptop (although if I get openoffice working on puppy I may just stick with it). I think GNOME and KDE might still be a little sluggish with only 512MB RAM (though I've ordered another 512MBs so then it should be fine). Fluxbuntu and Crunchbang were very fast desktops featuring the Fluxbox and Openbox window managers, but I could not get either to work out-of-the-box with my wireless card (BroadcomBCM94306MP).

I have tried PCLinuxOS in the past and found it quite user-friendly so I thought I would give it a go with one of it's derivatives: Phoenix (PCLOS Xfce).

Pros: Live CD works well and allowed me to test critical aspects such as wireless detection, available packages, etc. Wireless card was easily configured with a BCM ndiswrapper.

Cons: Still a bit too slow, a little faster after the installation. Very barebones on applications. Grub graphical menu only highlights the top entry by default, so on reboot I thought I would need to reinstall Grub to access my Puppy and Windows partitions...they were just hidden.

How is it PCLOS2009.1 can fit on a single CD and include many more office productivity packages, KDE, more multimedia packages, etc. Why can't this be more full-featured and use a faster window manager? I spent some time trying to get openoffice 3 to work and almost got there. I get the startup window when calling soffice from the command line, but none of the individual applications are launching, maybe they need to be installed individually.

What the Flux Ubuntu...

My journey for "optimizing" the performance of laptops I have on hand is nearly over. So far I have been happy with my choices for the Dell Latitude CPi (Puppy 2.16.1: 233MHz, 128MB SDRAM) and Panasonic Toughbook CF-37 (Puppy 4.21: ~300MHz, 192MB SDRAM).

My principle laptop is an hp pavilion ze5600 running a 2.8GHz Intel Celeron and 512MB RAM and although I am sure that any flavor of ubuntu should run fine on it, I wanted to try some medium sized distros out. So far the only one I have found/tried is Fluxbuntu. The idea here is your basic ubuntu install + fluxbox window manager - several non-critical daemons to give a very fast OS. It's true, this distro ran lightning-fast, but I was quite surprised to see I could not get either network adapters to work. I was mostly looking forward to having the support of a synaptic package manager added. Puppy doesn't have this, but I've read that the Puppy team (Barry really) is working on 'woof' which will be a basic package manager that gives you apt-get functionality.

So for now, I am running Pup 4.2 on the hp ze5600 alongside XP for my wife. I am considering a xubuntu install, but I will probably do some more digging around first.

Pupdate: Back to 2.16 on Dell Latitude

Okay, so it is true what they say..."it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all." Unfortunately I was unable to solve the problem of getting sound on my Dell Lat. CPi with Puppy 4.21. I probably spent close to 6 hours on dealing with this set-back, and was a bit disappointed when I couldn't figure it out. I need to remember that I am still very new to linux and to cut myself a little slack. It's not like I have nothing else going on...3 kids in diapers under age 2, writing a dissertation...blah, blah, blah. I need to remain somewhat practical and focus on my discrete goals: I wanted to revive this ancient machine with a fast, light, practical OS that lets me surf the web, blog, listen to music, make simple edits to images and other light-duty work. Puppy 2.16 seems to manage this fine and should give me a bit more life out of this machine.

I recently handed off a Panasonic Toughbook to my 11 year old nephew and today swapped out DSL-N for Puppy 4.21. With only 64MB RAM it is a bit too sluggish, but I have a $15 128MB module on its way in the mail which should give it the boost it needs. Fortunately, the sound module worked immediately, requiring no configuration so he should be in good shape. My goal here is to catch him early to get positive exposure to linux in general. DSL-N was a little too challenging with its basic configuration to navigate the file-system and run progrmas so for him Puppy should be much more enabling...I definitely want to keep him excited about his new toy and not get overwhelmed or discouraged.

I Think I'm in Puppy Love

Puppy 4.2.1 is rocking my world!! I had originally chosen 2.16 based on a review that suggested it would be easier on a low-spec laptop. My Dell Lat. CPi definitely qualifies with 233MHz Pentium 2 and only 128MB RAM. However, I was struggling with getting my Linksys WPC55ag wireless network adapter running and thought, maybe its drivers would be included with Puppy 4.2. Well not only is this true, but this install is only slightly lagging in speed compared to the previous version.

Overall the benefits are far out-weighing the marginal slow-down. The desktop manager is enhanced by a widget toolbar, a useful 'disappearing' top toolbar and a menu refresher that manages newly installed apps. I suspect when Puppy 5.0 comes out with 'woof' package manager that will supposedly rival mature managers like synaptic, this light-weight portable distro will really start to make waves. I already can't wait and I don't really know anything about linux!

How Much Is that Puppy in the Windows?

Impressive...Very Impressive...

I'm of course making reference to 'Puppy Linux.' Right now I am posting this blog from an old refurbished Dell Lattitude CPi with a 233 MHz Pentium 2 and 128MB RAM. My wife bought it "refurbished" for $300 way back in 2004 and it was preloaded with Windows 2000. She could only use it for about 2 years before she couldn't stand its speeds any longer and has mostly sat by the wayside until I recently started tinkering with linux and computers in general. In my hunt for a lightweight OS I found only a few contenders. Obviously DSL and DSL-N were among the first I discovered. Although I liked both of them, they were not without their troubles. First, I couldn't get DSL to work with an 'acx' driven pcmcia network adapter that I had or a WCA55ag Linksys adapter. It had plenty of features to what I wanted out of a basic portable setup, but I don't even have a network adapter of any kind on the Dell and didn't want to shell out $$ on a new pcmcia just yet. Second, I had lots of difficulty getting it set up to save my desktop configuration and install to the hard drive. It was pretty fast however. DSL-N has a more mature 2.6 kernel with better driver recognition and sure enough the Linksys ran right away. I found the system to be just as fast and the boot times better once I did a HD install. I still had a bit of trouble saving my desktop configuration and although the MyDSL apps installer is a great idea and has a few gems, the lack of a proper package manager is a significant downside. Furthermore, it seemed like it would be a chore to install synaptic.

Then I discovered Puppy and so far it is a big winner...and I'm mostly talking about speed here. Barring boot times, it is much faster than the DSLs. I'm completely amazed, especially since it is running entirely from RAM. Right now I am running 2.16.1 which came with loads of network adapter drivers including the acx series. Strangely, where DSL worked with my Linksys adapter immediately, Puppy will not, and so far, I'm struggling a bit to get it functioning.

Puppy's desktop is nicely configured. Slick graphics for icons, a very fast desktop manager, and loads of useful apps. I have just started with it so I am sure I'll have a follow up on functionality soon. My final thought is that...oh yeah, it saves a configuration file to a location you specify and then searches for it on boot so everything is just as you left it. The only trouble so far is I haven't been able to install it to the hard drive, but it moves so fast, I'm not sure I should bother...so what if I need to keep a cd in it to boot?