Finished setting up my new @system76 Leopard system. Easy to install my own hardware, gorgeous, and a rocket even with a modest load out. Whisper quiet too, important for podcast recording.
Tag: Linux
Hours
Before installing cpufreqd and laptop-mode-tools, struggled to get thru 1hr meeting. powertop now shows 2.5+ hrs on battery.
Power Saving
Frustrated by poor battery life, recently spent some time optimizing my lappie–laptop-mode-tools FTW.
Hibernation
I love my @system76 laptop but running KDE, I still have all kinds of woes with video crapping out when suspending then resuming.
Bleeding Edge
I love my new @System76, but irked at quirks of latest Nvidia hardware + KDE’s kompositor. Hoping 16.10 improve things.
Finally
Not sure why it took so long to install Linux on $employer provided Mac. Had enough this AM.
2016-01-16 The Command Line Podcast
This is an episode of The Command Line Podcast.
This time, I chat about some recent news stories that caught my attention, including:
- EFF Confirms: T-Mobile’s Binge On Optimization is Just Throttling, Applies Indiscriminately to All Video
- T-Mobile chief: Video throttling claim ‘bullshit’
- As Its CEO Continues To Claim It Doesn’t Throttle, T-Mobile Spokesperson Confirms Company Throttles
- John Legere apologizes to EFF for mocking group in throttling debate
- Clarifying The Bullshit From John Legere: What T-Mobile Is Really Doing And Why It Violates Net Neutrality
- In 2016, The Coding Bootcamp Bubble Is Bound to Burst
- I Moved to Linux and It’s Even Better Than I Expected
- The Father of Online Anonymity Has a Plan to End the Crypto War
- Why I Carry a Newton
- The SuperSuit
- Resilience over rigidity: how to solve tomorrow’s computer problems today
- You Can’t Destroy the Village to Save It: W3C vs DRM, Round Two
You can subscribe to a feed of articles I am reading for more. You can follow my random podcast items on HuffDuffer too.
You can directly download the MP3 or Ogg Vorbis audio files. You can grab additional formats and audio source files from the Internet Archive.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
2015-10-10 The Command Line Podcast
This is an episode of The Command Line Podcast.
This time, I chat about some recent news stories that caught my attention.
- Code Smells, Ethical Smells
- A cartoon guide to Flux
- Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal Is Reached
- The Final Leaked TPP Text is All That We Feared
- Matthew Garrett Forks the Linux Kernel
You can subscribe to a feed of articles I am reading for more.
You can directly download the MP3 or Ogg Vorbis audio files. You can grab additional formats and audio source files from the Internet Archive.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
OS X Frustration
So tired of OS X’s command line tools being slightly off so that a standard recipe on any other *nix fails for no good reason.
Hiccup with My Mixer under Linux
A problem being mysteriously fixed through no clear action of my own bugs me. A problem this weekend with my mixer is just such a case. After upgrading to the latest version of my operating system, a flavor of Linux that I prefer called Kubuntu, I could not get the software driver I had been using with my mixer working. I could get close but not to the point where my audio workstation would see my mixer. Of course I discovered this right when I sat down to record. Last night, last thing, when there wasn’t time or will left for extensive research and troubleshooting left in the weekend. When else would I discover a problem resulting from upgrading my OS? Not when it would be more convenient to investigate and fix.
The break bugged me so much, especially losing an opportunity to record when I had the will to do so, that I spent some time this morning before work to see if I could get things working again. I installed the latest version of my audio workstation, Ardour 4, because I had been meaning to, anyway. Through some experimentation, I stumbled upon the fact that letting Ardour directly drive my mixer, rather than using an external software controller worked. Doing so only worked using an option I didn’t think had a chance in hell, just using the basic audio stack that comes with Linux.
I was simultaneously relieved to have my mixer back but vexed as to why something that previously did not work, suddenly did. I dislike mysterious fixes almost as much as random breakages. If I don’t understand why something suddenly starts working, I feel helpless to deal with any subsequent breakage. This situation is usually a recipe for cascading frustration.
I did a bit more searching, just now, and I think I found the explanation.
Very current versions of the Linux kernel will support most of the same devices that FFADO can support, directly via the normal ALSA audio device driver layer.
That is from Ardour’s own documentation, specifically on its requirements. FFADO is the separate driver I used to use for my mixer since it is a Firewire mixer, an increasingly less common way to connect peripherals to a computer but one still very well suited to the demands of audio. ALSA is basically the core sound handling component of Linux. As a consequence of my operating system upgrade, I indeed do have a very new kernel.
Mystery solved. Of course, I have only done several seconds worth of testing. In past versions of ALSA, it hasn’t done well with the demands of high quality audio, such as working with a prosumer mixer. It is entirely likely there are frustrations still yet ahead but at least they won’t be entirely mysterious. And I will hopefully get some new recording in soon, regardless.