Well… sometimes things don’t go exactly as planned and in the software world that is often the case, now that AV Linux 2020 has been out for a while some known issues have come to light so here is some information in case you’re affected..

Issue 1: Some Users have reported PulseAudio doesn’t connect to the Audio hardware or takes its sweet time to connect.. A Google search of this problem yields quite a few hits especially with Ubuntu users so this seems to be a known PulseAudio problem affecting some systems and not necessarily specific to AV Linux.. What happens is, if you boot into a session the PulseAudio applet on the panel displays with an ‘X’ which means it’s muted and a notification tells you “Establishing connection to PulseAudio. Please wait…”. Some people report that it doesn’t connect at all, some report that after a minute or two it connects and others report that on a reboot it works as expected with no further issues.. The problem seems to be with PulseAudio writing it’s config files in $HOME/.config/pulse and since it occurs elsewhere and doesn’t affect everyone the only ‘fix’ I can suggest is to try rewriting the pulse folder and files by opening a regular Terminal and using this command:

mv ~/.config/pulse ~/.config/pulse.old

Then restart PulseAudio’s sound server manually with this command:

pulseaudio --start

Issue 2: This is a big one…literally! AV Linux uses Systemback to create it’s bootable ISO files and to copy (install) and uncompress the Live ISO filesystem to your hard drive. The original developer of Systemback ceased development almost 4 years ago and as time has gone on more and more people with newer computer systems are needing support to install to NVMe SSD drives which Systemback didn’t support… just before AV Linux 2020 was released a User tipped me off to a fork of Systemback that now supports NVMe drives, of course I was ecstatic to see the NVMe problem solved just like that! Well… the good news is NVMe installs work, the bad news is that this fork of Systemback has a bug that seems to install AV Linux to NVMe and all types of hard drives as expected but it installs both the usual way to the User selected HDD partitions and it also additionally seems to retain the Live filesystem in a “/lib/live/mount” folder and copy it to the Users hard drive. Now “/lib/live/mount” is a necessary folder on the Live ISO but it is not necessary at all on the installed system so in effect Systemback is double-installing the AV Linux filesystem in 2 different locations which is not harmful or detrimental in any way to performance but it makes an install take up much more hard drive space than it should with a copied over useless folder containing the entire filesystem! A few Users had reported surprise at how large the installed filesystem was and one User did the homework necessary to identify the problem (thanks Dan!) So despite this annoying new issue let me reiterate it does no harm to your system and is quite unnoticeable in daily use but of course who wants Gb of wasted space on their HDD!? The solution is brutal but simple, we simply need to remove the useless /lib/live/mount folder which can be done in 2 ways… The simplest way is to open a Root Terminal and issue the following command:

*NOTE! THIS IS FOR INSTALLS OF AV LINUX ONLY, DO NOT DO THIS ON A LIVE ISO!!

rm -rf /lib/live/mount

Deleting the mount folder and contents may take several seconds…For those who don’t feel comfortable issuing a Root command and want to click a button I have made an updated AV Linux Assistant that will do this with a button, this updated Assistant also will install “winetricks” and provide a button to run it for those who want to further customize Wine-Staging as a newly added feature as well.

The updated AVL Assistant is here:

http://bandshed.net/packages/AVL-2020/avl-controlpanel/avlinux-assistant_12.0-buster1-3_all.deb

*ADDENDUM: An updated 1.9.4 version of Systemback which fixes this issue has been provided (Thanks Franco Conidi!). If you’ve deleted the folder referred to above and wish to use Systemback to make your own customized ISO or for it’s backup capabilities then you will want grab it and install it. Download the ‘tar.gz’ folder and extract it, run the ‘install.sh’ script as Root and follow the terminal prompts and it will upgrade Systemback to 1.9.4.

Find it here: http://bandshed.net/packages/AVL-2020/systemback/systemback-install_pack-1.9.4.tar.gz

Issue 3: The ‘EQ10Q’ plugins don’t display their GUI’s in Ardour… Ugh, this is a long running issue that results from the EQ10Q Plugins being compiled with a different GTK2 version than the one in Ardour.. This type of persistent issue is the reason that many developers of Linux Audio plugins are abandoning Desktop toolkits (GTK 2,3 and QT) and using much more compatible X11 libs to create Plugin GUI’s. To obtain a set of these plugins that will work with Ardour is is necessary to uninstall the existing ‘eq10q’ package with Synaptic Package Manager and then go to the EQ10Q Website here:

Home

These may not be the only issues in AV Linux 2020 but these are the most currently prominent ones, more may be added to this post in the future…

——————————————————————>
AV Linux 2020.4.10 RELEASE NOTES!
——————————————————————>
AV LINUX 2020.4.10 IS RELEASED!

AV Linux 2020 DesktopAV Linux Software DemosCinelerra-GG Video Editor

  Shortly after the Christmas holidays some time opened up for me to work on an AV Linux update and as time went on the rumours about a new respiratory virus started to permeate the mainstream media and now here we are in the middle of a worldwide pandemic! So it is with mixed feelings but much gratitude I release the latest ISO of AV Linux 2020. I am very thankful for the multitudes of talented developers and collaborators from all over the world whose incredible work I get to present and share on this little DVD-sized serving platter, my compliments to the chefs!! It occured to me recently that with the exception of Ubuntu Studio and perhaps the CCRMA project AV Linux is the longest running Linux Audio Distribution out there, As with many DIY spare time projects there have been times of ebb and flow and even a few times when continuing seemed to be impossible but I have to say the odds were never great for a Canadian farmer to pull this off in the first place and it’s still here!

  Unlike older versions of AV Linux this LiveISO is not aiming to provide an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink experience, running Linux Distros live off thumbdrives is fun but in the real world nobody is going to spend a sustained amount of time using any Operating System to it’s full potential from a USB Key… what’s possible isn’t necessarily practical. The idea here is to focus on a fast, efficient and attractive base and complement it with strong front-running applications to showcase good performance and reliable software with an eye toward practicality and economy. Ardour and Mixbus32C are great included DAW examples but what makes AV Linux a good platform for Ardour also makes it a good platform for Qtractor, Reaper, Bitwig, Renoise, Waveform or whatever DAW you prefer. For those not experienced with Linux Audio the intention is to answer your questions before you know to ask them and provide most of the laborious ‘next steps’ that would be required if you were to start with a basic vanilla Linux Distribution and configure it for the best Audio performance.

  For those who may doubt the seriousness or potential of such an independent homespun DIY project to be of any value I ask you to to simply try it and see, download it, copy it to a USB Key with Unetbootin and boot it. Read the User Manual (the only one of its kind in Linux Audio) and hopefully you will see that the countless hours invested in curating, compiling, maintaining and ‘fixing problems you didn’t know you had yet’ since 2007 have some merit and will provide you with a fast, productive and powerful platform to create top shelf multimedia content that can go toe to toe with any platform out there…

Now go create a masterpiece!

*WHAT’S NEW!?

Moved to Debian 10 “Buster”
New 5.4.28 RT and lowlatency Kernels (Thanks Trulan Martin!)
New Systemback fork with NVMe support – *not tested here, plz give feedback!
Added Pulseaudio Bluetooth module and BT support frontends
Disabled Automounting of External drives on LiveISO, it can be re-enabled post-install
*Some Users viewed automount as a security intrusion..*shrugs
Removed all KDE libs and Kdenlive, too much bulk and ISO space for one application
*Kdenlive can easily be installed from Debian or Flatpak post-install
Added latest KXStudio Repositories compliant with Debian Buster
Added New Thunar Custom Actions including Sample editing and Image manipulation
Completely rewritten ‘AV Linux Assistant’ with many new features
Consolidation of many small AVL scripts and apps into AV Linux Assistant
Consolidation of extra Plugins into a single ‘avlinux-extra-plugins’ Package
Added many new Fonts for Graphics projects
Added new feature to update 3rd Party Repo GPG Keys from ‘Quick Update’
Added new extended software platforms ‘Flatpak and Docker’ and their Repos
Now featuring the Demo Version of Mixbus 32C 6.0.652
Added Applied Computer Music Technologies Demo Plugins
Added Auburn Sounds Demo Plugins
Added Cut Through Recordings Demo Plugins
Added OvertoneDSP Demo Plugins
It’s SFZ Heaven! added SFizz and LiquidSFZ to complement SFZero and linuxsampler
Added Surge Synthesizer *gui doesn’t work in Ardour/Mixbus
Added Tunefish4 Synthesizer *gui doesnt work in Ardour/Mixbus
Added Sitala Drum sampler
Added “B” Plugins
Added Airwindows VST Plugins
Added Flameshot Screenshot editor to replace deprecated ‘Shutter”
Added FAudio packages and repository to support Wine Staging 5+

*WHAT’S UPDATED!?

Updated AV Linux User Manual for latest Release
Updated Theme and Icons to recent Numix GIT
Synced to latest KXStudio Updates
Synced to latest Cinelerra-GG build
Synced to latest Wine-Staging version
Updated linvst to 2.8
Updated pajackconnect script to 1.0
Updated Hydrogen Drum Machine to 1.0.0 beta
Updated Polyphone to 2.0.1
Updated Yoshimi to 1.7.0.1
Updated Dragonfly Reverb Plugins to 3.0
Updated Ninjas2 Plugins
Updated Noise-Repellent to 0.1.5
Probably much more… I didn’t write it all down.. 😳

*GO GET IT!

Download (and please only) download from the mirrors on the AV Linux Webpage. If you find AV Linux useful after a reasonable evaluation period please consider supporting my time invested by using the PayPal Donate button. Any amount is very much appreciated and to those who have donated in the past you have my sincere gratitude, I’m not always available to send a personal thanks but please know your donations are very important to support upstream applications and Kernel development and they let me know that you think this work is worth continuing!

Hold on! Please RTFM First: http://www.bandshed.net/pdf/AVL2020UserManual.pdf
AV Linux Web Page: http://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/

For tech support issues please post in this thread at linuxmusicians.com:

https://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=21286

Pleas see this post containing some important known issues in AV Linux 2020.4.10

AV Linux 2020.4.10 Known Issues:

AV Linux 2019.4.10 has been released (8 days early!) 😉

This release is basically an update of the ISO that fixes a couple of annoying bugs from the 2018.6.25 release with some notable updates and additions. It will mark the last release based on Debian Stretch and sadly it will also be the last release of the 32bit version. Future AVL development will focus on Debian ‘Buster’ and 64bit only. In the meantime I think this 2019.4.10 version will provide a fast, stable well prepared platform for AV Content creation for quite some time.

CHANGELOG:

Refreshed expired Repository Keys for WineHQ and Spotify.
Updated and Fixed Repositories for New Cinelerra-GG site.
Updated and Synced all Debian and 3rd Party Repos (including KXStudio).
Fixed VBox Guest Additions removal script to allow /etc/rc.local to remain executable and enable Automount of external drives. (thanks korakios)
Fixed missing ‘linvstconverttree’ in LinVST.
Removed some obsoleted udev rules.
Installed and configured new Numix Circle Theme with AVL Customizations.
Updated Mixbus Demo to 5.2.191.
Updated LSP Plugins to 1.1.9.
Updated LinVST to 2.4.3 (now provided and working on 32bit and 64bit ISOs).
Removed redundant ‘ArdourVST’ build on 32bit ISO.
Updated Dragonfly Reverb Plugins to 1.1.2.
Added KPP-Plugins 1.0+GIT
Added AViDemux (very handy Video tool)

New to AV Linux?

Please RTFM: http://bandshed.net/pdf/AVL2019UserManual.pdf

Find it here: http://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/

Best Regards and Enjoy!
Glen

AV Linux 2018.4.12 has been Released!!

*BUGFIXES

-Updated 4.9.76 RT Kernel with KPTI ‘Meltdown’ security patch (64bit AVL Only) – Thanks Trulan Martin!
*KPTI can be disabled at boot, see Manual page 76, Be aware no 32bit KPTI patch exists!
-Numerous important fixes to compatibility with KXStudio Repos – Thanks falkTX!
-Updated and fixed outdated Cin 5.1 and Spotify Repositories.
-WineASIO now works properly.
-Removed Grub-Customizer because it doesn’t work on UEFI installs.

*NEW ADDITIONS

-ISO files now have accompanying MD5 and SHA256 files, verify your downloads! (Manual page 5)
-Optional ‘lowlatency’ Kernels (Required for Proprietary Video Drivers) – Thanks Trulan Martin!
-Optional ‘SGFXI’ Proprietary Video Driver Install (Requires ‘lowlatency’ Kernel).
-UEFI install (64bit AVL only) *So far only tested in VBox! – Thanks korakios and arjepsen!
-Wine-Staging replaces Debian’s Wine packaging and WineHQ Repos have been added.
-Added firmware for Echo Audio devices
-Dynamic CPU Frequency adjustment (in ‘Settings’ menu) – Thanks korakios!
-Realtime Quick Config scan to check system tuning – Thanks raboof!
-Standalone AV Linux DD LiveUSB Writer to create ISOHybrid LiveUSB keys – Thanks Tony Brijeski!
-Simple Killswitch Utility to shut down unwanted processes.
-Kdenlive is back on the menu!
-Yoshimi comes back! – Thanks Will Godfrey!
-Xhip Synth and Plugins http://xhip.net/ – Thanks acidose!
-LinVST (64bit AVL only) – Thanks osxmidi!
-SFZero SFZ Instrument Plugin – Thanks osxmidi!
-Noise Repellent Noise Reduction Plugin – Thanks lucianodato!
-Added new Shuriken Beat Slicer Repositories – Thanks rockhopper!
-Added Dragonfly Reverb plugins – Thanks Michael Willis, rghvdberg!
-Cool Retro Terminal… it’s just for fun!

*NOTEWORTHY UPDATES

-AVL User Manual is now 130 pages with numerous additions, expanded content and clarifications.
-Official bundled builds of Ardour 5.12, ArdourVST 5.12 (32bit AVL only) – Thanks Paul Davis, Robin Gareus et al!
-Harrison Mixbus 4.3 and Plugin Demos- Thanks Ben Loftis, Robin Gareus!
-All Applications and Plugins from the KXStudio Repos are synced and updated – Thanks falkTX and all FOSS developers!
-AVL Drumkits LV2 0.2.3 – Thanks Robin Gareus!
-Cinelerra ‘Cin 5.1’ Video Editor (SO many improvements!!) – Thanks Goodguy, Phyllis!
-LSP Plugins 1.1.1 – Thanks sadko4u!
-Shuriken Beat Slicer 0.5.1 – Thanks rockhopper!
-Polyphone 1.8.
-Quick Updater Utility cleaned up.

*THANKS!

anahata, ByteMark, and Jeremy Jongepier at linuxaudio.org for Download facilities!
rockhopper, NUMAflex, drwhat – ISO Testing
jjfro, drwhat, ufug, magicalex and all other Manual Proofreaders!

*KNOWN ISSUES

-KPTI will introduce a performance hit, it’s debatable how much it will impact Audio work but it does have an impact.
*KPTI can be disabled which will restore performance but leave your machine vulnerable to the ‘Meltdown’ exploit.
-Booting is slower on UEFI computers and getting to login takes longer.
-A recent update of Unetbootin no longer works to create bootable LiveUSB Keys of AV Linux 2018.
-AV Linux contains a new AV Linux DD LiveUSB Writer to write LiveUSB Keys with DD
-For those on other Deb-based Distros this is packaged here:
http://www.bandshed.net/packages/avl2usb/avl2usb_0.1.1-avlinux8-1_all.deb
-Otherwise writing to USB Key with DD from commandline will also work.

*NOT SO FAST!!

If you’re new to AV Linux or Linux Audio in general you NEED to RTFM!
http://bandshed.net/pdf/AVL2018UserManual.pdf

*OK, GET AV Linux 2018 HERE!:

http://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/

*PLEASE DONATE IF YOU CAN…

The documentation for AV Linux alone is a time investment of many hours not to mention curating an entire OS that is convenient to use and ready for professional grade Audio and Video production at your fingertips. My sincere and heartfelt thanks to those who have already donated and supported the project. It is my own choice to share my time and efforts on making AV Linux available but I think in the bigger picture communities work best when when there is engagement by both sides. I would also ask that that people consider donating to falkTX’s KXStudio project which has greatly enriched not only AV Linux but also all Debian/Ubuntu derivatives..

Please consider hitting the yellow Paypal button on the AV Linux website, ANY amount is welcomed and appreciated thanks!

Glen MacArthur – AV Linux Maintainer

Admittedly as a middle-ager I’m still getting my head wrapped around how music is shared and promoted now, certainly it’s no secret that you need to be seen as much as heard, marketing your band without a Social Media and Youtube presence today is becoming increasingly difficult. When we built our new studio in 2014 I realized we would need to be able to handle both Audio recording and Video production, we didn’t have much of a budget left for the Video side of things so I figured if and when we got around to putting something together it would have to be ‘low rent’. After a couple of half-hearted and decidedly ‘meh’ attempts I decided we better give this a try for real and below is what we came up with…

As expected we used AV Linux, with Ardour and Cinelerra as the main software tools, I’ll try not to get too elaborate with the details but I’m sure some folks will want to know about the nuts and bolts. We recorded 8 tracks live to Ardour 5.5 through a Presonus 1818VSL Audio interface while simultaneously recording with 4 Video cameras. The cameras were a dog’s breakfast of 2 aging Zoom Q4HD’s, a Sony HD Camcorder belonging to our bass player Pete (sorry can’t remember the model) and lastly a Samsung Note 4 Smartphone (which actually had the best video quality!?). I used the custom build of Cinelerra-CVA included in AV Linux to edit the video, I know Cinelerra is a very maligned and misunderstood application in the Linux world but I love it, I worked on editing this for many hours juggling a very full arrangement consisting of 4 separate Audio and Video streams from each camera as well as the multitrack export from Ardour and it didn’t crash once. All the Audio and Video streams had to be synced manually and then I added some graphic overlays I made in GIMP. To push my luck I did a screen capture of the Ardour session and then added it as a synced Picture in Picture track just cuz…

Dual-head editing with Cinelerra:

It was a bit of a long night by the time we got the sound and video equipment all set up and then we blew a few takes, by the time we nailed it we were getting tired and grumpy which injected a little extra fire into the final result. 😛

OK, ’nuff said, here’s the video:

Hi,

I often forget WordPress is a blog platform as well as a great CMS system, I have been quite slack in posting and there are a few things of note over the past few months so in case you didn’t see these items elsewhere:

AV Linux 2016.8.30 was released

AVL Drumkits 1.1 were released

I produced an EP in our ‘Bandshed Records’ studio for my son’s band:

Rated Blue is in the studio now working on our next release hopefully out before the end of 2016, we now have a Facebook page (if it wasn’t absolutely necessary for promotion I probably wouldn’t). Be that as it may, if you are on Facebook and would feel generous enough to give us a like we would really appreciate it!

Thanks so much to the folks who have been supportive of AV Linux, AVL Drumkits, Rated Blue and the other facets of our little Bandshed world. I hope to add a studio page in the new year detailing our setup and services we can offer in the studio.

Sorry for the brevity, hopefully I’ve caught the main events…

Hi AVL’ers!!

My heartfelt thanks for your patience and support, After more than a year of simmering on the back burner AV Linux 2016 is here!

AVL 2016 is so completely different from it’s predecessor that I hesitate to call this an Alpha or Beta release, it is simply an ‘Initial’ release, and there will be much to be learned from it. I’m hoping as users you will be patient and tolerant as the new version finds it’s legs and I will be depending on your feedback and sharing your experiences to help others.

RTFM!

If you haven’t seen the new AV Linux User Manual yet I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to read it first. There are 84 illustrated pages of FAQ’s and important Operational details that have taken many hours of my time in an effort to save many hours of yours… The User Manual is also a part of AV Linux and can be found in the ‘Accessories’ Menu. So please take the time to read it! Many thanks to all of the volunteer proofreaders who invested their precious time for corrections, the existing manual is a snapshot and will see further review and correction in the future.

User Manual: http://bandshed.net/pdf/AVL2016.3UserManual.pdf

HEY, THANKS A LOT!

First of all there have been some pre-release donations in anticipation of AV Linux 2016, my sincere thanks to those who donated for your generosity, confidence and support!

These people and organizations have been very helpful in the development of AV Linux 2016:

The Debian/GNU Linux Testing Distribution
Krisztian Kende – Systemback
Trulan Martin – RT Kernels
Allen Tate – Torrents
Anahata, James Lawrie – Bytemark Mirror
Robin Gareus – linuxaudio.org Mirror
Tony Brijeski – Yad/Zenity Scripts
RockHopper – H2 and SFZ Thunar Custom Actions
XFCE4 Team
Filipe Coelho – KXStudio Repositories
Paul Davis, Robin Gareus, Ben Loftis – Ardour/Mixbus
Conor McCormack – libremusicproduction.com
Proofreaders and Torrent Seeders

KNOWN ISSUES:

Nobody’s perfect and that goes double for me 😀 . Since I uploaded AVL 2016 a couple of minor issues have caught my attention:

Google dropped 32bit support for Chrome so AVL 32bit users can use the latest version included as long as they feel safe doing so and after that you will probably want to use Synaptic to uninstall Chrome and use the AV Linux Assistant ‘Repositories’ button to remove or disable the Google Chrome repository. Thanks Google for being so lame to such a large and still relevant userbase of Linux especially in developing countries… 👿

The optional Liquorix kernel Repository points to a Mirror that has been removed, this will matter only if you want to use Liquorix kernels instead of the default AV Linux RT Kernel. To fix this you will need to edit /etc/apt/sources.list as Root and change the Liquorix repo URL to the one shown here: https://liquorix.net/#install

Probably thousands more to be added…

HELP NEEDED!:

This project is in need of donations to help out-of-pocket costs and more importantly to offset at least a small portion of the time I’ve invested in both maintaining AVL and documenting it. Donations do not have to be a large amount of money, many people donating a few dollars can make a huge difference. Donations beyond a certain level are shared upstream for kernel development and to help KXStudio as well as other projects AVL relies on. Help is desperately needed on the forum to support users, my daily time is often limited and being the only person to answer user queries is an impossible task, if you are experienced with Debian SysAdmin or with Linux Audio your help is needed, as with donations a small amount of experienced AVL users willing to answer a question or two everyday can make a huge difference and make the forum a valuable resource.

DOWNLOADS:

Ok, first you need to be aware that AVL 2016 requires a Login, so make note of this… Hint… the Login info is hidden in the ISO Filename as well.

64bit – Username: isotester Password: avl64
32bit – Username: isotester Password: avl32
*Root Accounts are not accessible on the LiveISO for security reasons.

All download links are found on the AV Linux site, PLEASE prefer torrents and Mirrors whenever possible and be aware that the Bandshed ISO FTP has very limited bandwidth, if there is too much sudden traffic they will disable the server which will not only kill downloads it will take the website and forum offline as well!

GO GET IT! : http://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/