The official linux distro that works with Waveform13

[edrickblade]

Hi Tracktion Team, I would like to know which is the official or most compatible linux distro for Waveform13-13BETA and also if you Team are planning to stay in that distro or planning to develop for the latest Ubuntu distro 20.04.1lts?

[audiojunkie]

I'm not a member of the Tracktion team, but I do have a little knowledge in Linux that might help. Tracktion uses and has tested on Ubuntu 20.04 64-bit. It's on their web site. So, Ubuntu 20.04 64-bit or higher would almost certainly be the official Linux distro/version that works with Waveform13. That said, if you wanted to, you could pick any distro you want, and then use Toolbx or Distrobox and run it from an Ubuntu container. There is so much flexibility these days, while still being able to stay 100% compatible with whatever distro the developer uses.

[talby]

To slightly correct the answer from member audiojunkie, you want to use at least Ubuntu 22, or better right away current Ubuntu 24. The reason is, in each release of a Linux distribution there are in use certain basic code libraries, which apps expect to be present and use the functionality provided by them. One of the most basic code library expected by usual apps to be available is the so called "glibc" and while you can install or update most other libraries as needed, this one you do not want to touch in your Linux installation. This one shall only be updated by your Linux distribution update procedure itself, but not otherwise become lifted by yourself to a newer version if you are interested to prevent easily breaking your Linux.
Waveform13 expects at least the glibc version to be present, which is in use in Ubuntu 22. Newer versions, like found in Ubuntu 24, will also work. But older versions would not be sufficient for running Waveform 13. So, as Ubuntu 22 inherited its glibc version from Debian 12, you should be fine with all Linux distributions which are somehow derived from Debian 12, like Ubuntu 22, and then of course other Linux distros (like a Linux Mint version) which are based on Ubuntu 22, and so on. Other Linux distros not based on such Debian12 or Ubuntu22, like Fedora, Suse or Arch derivatives, should also work, as long as their used glibc version is the sufficiently high version.
To my knowledge, I am not speaking for Tracktion or the Waveform developers, the Waveform developers picked Ubuntu as their reference Linux distribution, using a version which is actively supported by the Canonical company (Ubuntu 22 LTS, Ubuntu 24 LTS) and assumed to still be widely in use (not Ubuntu 20 LTS anymore).

If you are not sure about Linux distributions, then using the current Ubuntu 24.04 LTS would be a generally good choice to keep you out of extraordinary Linux trouble and app compatibility problems, in my opinion.

[audiojunkie]

Ah, yes. It looks like Tracktion needs to update their requirements page if they are indeed now basing off of Ubuntu 22 as Talby says, and not Ubuntu 20 as the website states. I don’t use Tracktion, and don’t keep up with it. It sounds like Talby is better uptodate on what Tracktion development is really using. Good catch, Talby!

[talby]

I wrote something wrong and want to apologize for it. Actually I was myself running recent Waveform13 beta versions still on old Debian 11 until I recently upgrade to Debian 12 only a month ago. Ubuntu 20 can be assumed to work the same like Debian 11, so Waveform13 on Ubuntu 20 should still work fine.
However, as the OP is asking "also if you Team are planning to stay in that distro or planning to develop for the latest Ubuntu distro" I would assume the official answer of Tracktion to be something like yes, we continue testing with Ubuntu as our Linux test distro, as stated on our Website, but we are more and more into testing with Ubuntu 22 and Ubuntu 24 as Ubuntu 20 will soon run out of support by Canonical and become obsolete.

I confused the situation with another product being sold by Tracktion, with BioTek3. It is BioTek3 which is now expecting the minimum glibc version to be one not delivered with Debian 11 / Ubuntu 20 / ... but available in those distributions only since Debian 12 / Ubuntu 22 / ... .
BioTek3 not running on Debian 11 no more was actually the reason for me to eventually upgrade to Debain 12. I wouldn't be surprised if other Tacktion products follow this path and compatibility to old Debian 11 / Ubuntu 20 might become dropped for more of the new product versions in favor of using updated glibc functionality only available in newer Debian 12 / Ubuntu 22 / ... or even newer versions.

[edrickblade]

Thanks all for your advice!, I ask because I'm trying to use WF13.3.6 beta in Ubuntu 24.04.1 lts but although the software opens, it crashes when try to make a project or open it.

[audiojunkie]

What is the error you get? One of the most common causes for immediate crashes when first starting out comes from not knowing that you have to set memlimits to allow your software to get the RAM it needs. Otherwise, the OOM Killer can kill your program.

[Kott]

Thanks all for your advice!, I ask because I'm trying to use WF13.2.6 beta in Ubuntu 24.04.1 lts but although the software opens, it crashes when try to make a project or open it.

I got the same with recent betas. What is your CPU model?

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

I'm a nobody running Linux Mint 22 on my Ryzen system and WF Pro 13 runs quite well, even with my craptastic Sound Blaster Play 3. PENGUINS RULE!

[Kott]

I'm a nobody running Linux Mint 22 on my Ryzen system and WF Pro 13 runs quite well, even with my craptastic Sound Blaster Play 3. PENGUINS RULE!

What Ryzen exactly?

[edrickblade]

Thanks all for your advice!, I ask because I'm trying to use WF13.2.6 beta in Ubuntu 24.04.1 lts but although the software opens, it crashes when try to make a project or open it.

I got the same with recent betas. What is your CPU model?

AMD Athlon Gold 3150U with Radeon™ Graphics × 4, 12gb DDR4, Samsung SSD

This crashing problem doesn't happen with Waveform 13.2.0, only in beta version 13.3.6

[edrickblade]

What is the error you get? One of the most common causes for immediate crashes when first starting out comes from not knowing that you have to set memlimits to allow your software to get the RAM it needs. Otherwise, the OOM Killer can kill your program.

Can I set memlimit to "unlimited" in Pipewire 1.0.5?

[Kott]

Thanks all for your advice!, I ask because I'm trying to use WF13.2.6 beta in Ubuntu 24.04.1 lts but although the software opens, it crashes when try to make a project or open it.

I got the same with recent betas. What is your CPU model?

AMD Athlon Gold 3150U with Radeon™ Graphics × 4, 12gb DDR4, Samsung SSD

This crashing problem doesn't happen with Waveform 13.2.0, only in beta version 13.3.6

Thanks. It really seems to be a CPU related and was introduced in 13.2.2. I have such results:

Works on:
AMD Ryzen 3 3100
Intel i5-1240p

Crashes on:
AMD FX 8320E
Intel i5-2410M
Intel i7-8700
Intel E3-1220L v3

[edrickblade]

Thanks all for your advice!, I ask because I'm trying to use WF13.2.6 beta in Ubuntu 24.04.1 lts but although the software opens, it crashes when try to make a project or open it.

I got the same with recent betas. What is your CPU model?

AMD Athlon Gold 3150U with Radeon™ Graphics × 4, 12gb DDR4, Samsung SSD

This crashing problem doesn't happen with Waveform 13.2.0, only in beta version 13.3.6

Thanks. It really seems to be a CPU related and was introduced in 13.2.2. I have such results:

Works on:
AMD Ryzen 3 3100
Intel i5-1240p

Crashes on:
AMD FX 8320E
Intel i5-2410M
Intel i7-8700
Intel E3-1220L v3

Tracktion Team need to review and test before compiling because they have several years in the same problem, they update but they break something in the code

[audiojunkie]

What is the error you get? One of the most common causes for immediate crashes when first starting out comes from not knowing that you have to set memlimits to allow your software to get the RAM it needs. Otherwise, the OOM Killer can kill your program.

Can I set memlimit to "unlimited" in Pipewire 1.0.5?

I believe so. I don’t see why not.