Ubuntu LINUX + RAM Disk
- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 2686 posts since 5 Feb, 2004 from Nevada City, California
Hey,
I've been playing around with this today.
I installed Ubuntu freshly and trimmed it down. Then, installing only a few packages I used this script - here - to turn the installed OS into a 'squashfs' file-system file that gets loaded into RAM at boot thereby booting LINUX instantaneously and running everything at lightning speed!
I have gotten way better performance out of every software loaded in that environment. Just now I managed to turn all other running processes to 'very low' priority as well, leaving one or two at 'very high.'
This proves to me my own concept that it is possible to run an audio host as the only running application without a window manager. Booting directly into the DAW to save resources.
I have not yet been lucky with VST plugins in LINUX, but I will certainly try again now. I don't even know of a good host install the u-he LINUX public versions.. But, I am hoping that some of you will try this and have some pretty intense fun musically..
The whole process only takes a couple of hours to set up. You just need to keep your entire /root folder under your amount of physical RAM and then let the squashfs make it's entire copy of it somewhere. I can even boot from this old, very slow 200gb laptop drive and run everything incredibly fast.
I've been playing around with this today.
I installed Ubuntu freshly and trimmed it down. Then, installing only a few packages I used this script - here - to turn the installed OS into a 'squashfs' file-system file that gets loaded into RAM at boot thereby booting LINUX instantaneously and running everything at lightning speed!
I have gotten way better performance out of every software loaded in that environment. Just now I managed to turn all other running processes to 'very low' priority as well, leaving one or two at 'very high.'
This proves to me my own concept that it is possible to run an audio host as the only running application without a window manager. Booting directly into the DAW to save resources.
I have not yet been lucky with VST plugins in LINUX, but I will certainly try again now. I don't even know of a good host install the u-he LINUX public versions.. But, I am hoping that some of you will try this and have some pretty intense fun musically..
The whole process only takes a couple of hours to set up. You just need to keep your entire /root folder under your amount of physical RAM and then let the squashfs make it's entire copy of it somewhere. I can even boot from this old, very slow 200gb laptop drive and run everything incredibly fast.
- KVRAF
- 4129 posts since 11 Aug, 2006 from Texas
You might be interested in this write-up I did about turning a ChromeBox into a standalone player for u-he's Zebra. It should get you going on the VST+Audio+MIDI part of the build.
http://rzycki.blogspot.com/2015/04/usin ... layer.html
http://rzycki.blogspot.com/2015/04/usin ... layer.html
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- KVRAF
- 1929 posts since 4 Nov, 2004 from Manchester
I used to do this with windows boxes and V-Stack and Cantabile later on, once V-Stack disappeared.
The's a list here that offers options, but I can't see any standalone hosts for Linux on it :-/
http://bedroomproducersblog.com/2011/05 ... lications/
The's a list here that offers options, but I can't see any standalone hosts for Linux on it :-/
http://bedroomproducersblog.com/2011/05 ... lications/
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- KVRAF
- 9118 posts since 6 Oct, 2004
install the u-he LINUX public versions
the u-he tarballs include a script to install them, that will end you up with
two folders, .u-he and .vst/u-he.
.u-he holds the plugin and content, .vst/u-he holds links pointing to .u-he,
so various linux vst hosts can have paths configured to find them.
I've had good luck using qtractor to host, the dev
has several versions to download, with a very recent one,
qtractor-0.6.6-16.rncbc.suse132.x86_64.rpm (or 32 bit)
kx repository also has it, in ubuntu flavor.
http://www.rncbc.org/drupal/
http://qtractor.sourceforge.net/qtracto ... #Downloads
Radium, Carla, Renoise, Traction, Bitwig, and Ardour4 are other native-linux
vst host options.
Thanks for sharing the tips! With so people many having 8 or more gig ram,
a lot of people could use this. I use a Puppy Studio that uses squashfs,
and it is fast, and portable. But I still waddle about with 2 gig ram
which the Puppy still fits in to.
Cheers
the u-he tarballs include a script to install them, that will end you up with
two folders, .u-he and .vst/u-he.
.u-he holds the plugin and content, .vst/u-he holds links pointing to .u-he,
so various linux vst hosts can have paths configured to find them.
I've had good luck using qtractor to host, the dev
has several versions to download, with a very recent one,
qtractor-0.6.6-16.rncbc.suse132.x86_64.rpm (or 32 bit)
kx repository also has it, in ubuntu flavor.
http://www.rncbc.org/drupal/
http://qtractor.sourceforge.net/qtracto ... #Downloads
Radium, Carla, Renoise, Traction, Bitwig, and Ardour4 are other native-linux
vst host options.
Thanks for sharing the tips! With so people many having 8 or more gig ram,
a lot of people could use this. I use a Puppy Studio that uses squashfs,
and it is fast, and portable. But I still waddle about with 2 gig ram
which the Puppy still fits in to.
Cheers