Go Back   Cockos Incorporated Forums > REAPER Forums > REAPER for Linux

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 08-25-2018, 01:39 AM   #1
Unkle Bonehead
Human being with feelings
 
Unkle Bonehead's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: St Johns, MI
Posts: 36
Default If only someone could make a distro for Reaper

I seem to remember not too long ago that someone made a distro based on Arch (I think) that was basically one app. Mixxx dj software. It was meant to be on a usb that one could plug into any laptop and be a dj at a gig. I remember installing it on an old Thinkpad I had and using it for one of the radio stations I was on back in the day. It was pretty cool booting into an app.

If only someone had enough chops to do the same with Reaper. One could essentially turn an old desktop into a Reaper "appliance". Imagine the response with a lean, mean audio production machine, lol.

I'm guessing you probably need a some kind of de for all the vst and vsti's.

Found it http://didjix.blogspot.com/
Yes it was Arch! I do have a memory still!
__________________
Just a truck drivin, guitar playin, dad that loves indie music.
Unkle Bonehead is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-25-2018, 10:31 AM   #2
brainwreck
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 20,859
Default

Maybe Justin could chime in, but I think Reaper's dependency for gui stuff is GDK (gimp development kit). And I think that a fullblown desktop environment might not be needed to run Reaper on linux. I don't know what Wine dependencies might be for gui stuff.

Edit: Seeing Jack's wiki page on Reaper/linux, it looks like the gui dependency is GTK+.

So I'm wondering if Reaper can run directly on the framebuffer or X. I guess it would still need a window manager of some sort.
__________________
It's time to take a stand against the synthesizer.

Last edited by brainwreck; 08-25-2018 at 11:11 AM.
brainwreck is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-25-2018, 12:37 PM   #3
Jason Lyon
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 720
Default

I think it could be done, and Arch would be the way to do it - a total ground up specific build, but you'd really have be a terminal god. You'd also have to be very canny with automating driver detection and installation.

Bear in mind also that Linux REAPER is, to my understanding, still rather a work in progress. There are a ton of issues here - not least the fact that while you can run many programs through a compatibility layer, you really wouldn't want to do it with a DAW. Latency.

Personally, I'm treating it as beta in a virtual machine for testing purposes for now. When I'm working, I'm in W10 "at the metal".
Jason Lyon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-25-2018, 01:43 PM   #4
Lokasenna
Human being with feelings
 
Lokasenna's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Calgary, AB, Canada
Posts: 6,551
Default

By the time you added everything it would need to be useable, you'd probably be getting close to a "real" distro anyway. Probably better off taking something like AVLinux and stripping out anything that isn't directly relevant.

I'm reminded of the frequent request for Reaper to support OMF - they'd be effectively rewriting a product that already exists, so the effort might be better spent elsewhere.

That said, most (any?) distros support live installs on a USB stick. I had to make one in order to install Ubuntu anyway, so you could just gut that and use it.
__________________
I'm no longer using Reaper or working on scripts for it. Sorry. :(
Default 5.0 Nitpicky Edition / GUI library for Lua scripts / Theory Helper / Radial Menu / Donate
Lokasenna is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-25-2018, 03:38 PM   #5
4duhwinnn
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 859
Default

It may be easier
to start at a barebones distro,
than to strip a packed avlinux, with the immense
dependency load to doubble and trippple check on.
Bodhi, and Anti-X are in the 800 meg range,
there are puppy linux iso's like music-to-go
that are under 400 meg before wine...

The commercial rt Studio 1337 usbstick or iso,
a puppy-buntu hybrid, has wine and a Reaper demo,
plus a lot of other apps, a 1.6 gig iso

If you don't want anything but audio,
the base install can be pretty small.
Cheers
4duhwinnn is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-25-2018, 03:45 PM   #6
shosty
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 249
Default

I don't really see the point. If it's possible then you can do it with arch or gentoo, possibly others, a new distro isn't necessary.
shosty is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-25-2018, 04:01 PM   #7
Garrick
Human being with feelings
 
Garrick's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Wellington
Posts: 4,622
Default

I wonder what a setup script would look like if you got some minimal distro


curl https://www.reaper.fm/files/5.x/reaper${latest}_linux_x86_64.tar.xz && tar -xz && cd "to the folder" && ./install.sh

I don't know much about these things but is there a way to query the latest version from reapers servers?

and then package manager specific installs and just uncomment the one you use

#sudo apt install jackd2 -y
#sudo pacman --ditto
#sudo dnf --ditto again

and then echo "what ever config you want" >> ~/jackdrc

I suppose it could get unwealdy if you're targeting many flavours of distro
Garrick is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-25-2018, 04:28 PM   #8
Jason Lyon
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 720
Default

It's hardly the lightweight one-shot job the OP is after, but Ubuntu Studio might be worth a look. I currently have it VMed for trying out and it's pretty good.
If you really wanted to, I suppose you could de-engineer it down to only the facts ma'am.
But why bother? What's a GB or two between friends these days - even on a stick? And those of us in this game always have to get involved in other things like graphics design and video editing anyway.
Jason Lyon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-26-2018, 02:12 PM   #9
4duhwinnn
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 859
Default

If your DE has a menu editor, it can really lower your stress level
to remove all the menu clutter, just leaving things you'll use every week.

Every-day items will likely go on a panel somewhere. Enlightenment
has a great 2-click utility to add/remove panel icons, system modules,
anything not superglued in its tracks.
Cheers
4duhwinnn is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-27-2018, 12:29 PM   #10
rothchild
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 784
Default

I'm a big fan of DietPi, whilst it started out as an SBC distro they do have an x86 version available too - it's so light as a basic install it could make an excellent platform for a 'I just want reaper' install.

Big + for me is that it's Debian based too.

https://dietpi.com/
rothchild is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 08-27-2018, 12:41 PM   #11
cyrano
Human being with feelings
 
cyrano's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Belgium
Posts: 5,246
Default

Dietpi looks good. 85 MB download...

Thanks!
__________________
In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
George Orwell
cyrano is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-27-2018, 12:57 PM   #12
Jack Winter
Human being with feelings
 
Jack Winter's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Luxembourg/Spain
Posts: 1,922
Default

This isn't free, but maybe cool. Have never tried it though..
https://studio1337.pro/
__________________
Reaper for Linux Documentation (WIP). Software: Archlinux/KDE, Fabfilter FX, Komplete 8, Nebula, Schwa/Stillwell, T-racks Max/Amplitube/SVX, etc. Gear: i7-2600k/4700HQ/16GB, RME Multiface/Babyface, Behringer X32, Genelec 8040, etc. :)
Jack Winter is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-27-2018, 03:20 PM   #13
4duhwinnn
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 859
Default

I've used 1337 and it's several earlier versions for years.
You can do a full, or Puppy-Linux 'frugal' install, which saves a growable/bootable squash filesystem where your boot dvd will find it.
Encrypted if desired. The current version uses ubuntu repositories.
The RT kernel is excellent, wine is in place, with typical
linux audio apps, so it's quick to get recording.
The dev has a forum in the distro section of
www.linuxquestions.org

You can grow the frugal file 4 meg at a a time from a
utility in the menus, the growth kicks in at next boot.
You can add new frugal files, as the muse excites.
My largest one is 2.4 gig, many vsts, and room for 24 bit recording.

The boot dvd is also a handy recovery tool, in capable hands.
The iso is 1.6 gig. Quite a full-featured Puppy linux,
and worth the small learning curve.
Cheers
4duhwinnn is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-27-2018, 03:58 PM   #14
brainwreck
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 20,859
Default

Studio 13.37 sounds somewhat interesting, but I have found nothing from the developer on what optimizations have been made (not even in general) or how those optimizations benefit audio performance other than a vague description of lower latency. He does show a reported latency figure of 2.67 ms in a screenshot of Jack that is usable for recording the output of Hydrogen to a single track in Ardour (at fairly high cpu use): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHZMW1n2AOc <---- "Contains advanced technology".

But that doesn't tell us what the actual roundtrip latency is for running a real-world project. And it doesn't tell us which audio device was used (for fair comparison to other distros).

And... We can't try before buying. We aren't guaranteed any type of support if there are problems. I.e., we don't really know what we would be getting, what troubles we might have, whether we could work out any possible issues.
__________________
It's time to take a stand against the synthesizer.
brainwreck is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-27-2018, 05:14 PM   #15
4duhwinnn
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 859
Default

I've had many emails and forum contacts, and the usb-stick version
has a money-back guarantee, but not the iso download.
That said, it's not a big business,
just someone who enjoys making a fast linux studio for several years now.
The apps were always compiled using the same RT kernel running the system,
I doubt that's changed. I usually use 1337 to record output from reaper and
stand-alones, using Timemachine recorder, very reliable,
and as portable as it gets. Put your frugal file on Grandmas
24core 8 ghz i9 screamer, for use at Christmas and Thanksgiving etc

There is an RT puppy linux you can use for free, discussed at

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/vie...30fd9424158351 (CD sized)

Those devs are also puppy lifers, and the forum is quite helpful.
Puppy can use .pet files, containing an app and all it's dependencies,
for example, jackd, Guitarix or Hydrogen or Yoshimi can be installed
that way, in a non-audiocentric puppy distro.

There are also .sfs files that can be loaded after startup,
to load a larger linux componant...for example, you have
a couple of killer KDE based apps
you only use on tuesdays, load a kde.sfs when ready,
reboot when done... (sfs = squash file system)

The 'puppy way', is partly, to do in megabytes, what most
distros do in gigabytes, and provide the base to easily make
ones own custom versions, or find them, be it for need or desire.
Cheers
4duhwinnn is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-27-2018, 05:28 PM   #16
4duhwinnn
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 859
Default

One 'problem' is the actual speed. If you doubleclick to open a folder
in the filemanager, you may have accidentally hit an icon
beneath the pointer in that new folder, and an app like audacity
or a text editor or vlc is already
being launched, almost before you've
let go of the mouse button.
Hard times!
4duhwinnn is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-28-2018, 12:50 AM   #17
rothchild
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 784
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by cyrano View Post
Dietpi looks good. 85 MB download...

Thanks!
Nice one.

It's not just a small install, the last time I looked (which was a while ago) the basic install floats in about 30meg of RAM.
rothchild is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 08-28-2018, 06:01 AM   #18
cyrano
Human being with feelings
 
cyrano's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Belgium
Posts: 5,246
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by rothchild View Post
Nice one.

It's not just a small install, the last time I looked (which was a while ago) the basic install floats in about 30meg of RAM.
Well, what I also like about it, is that it is available for a lot of other SBC's, beside the Raspberry. I'm looking at other SBC's because, for me, the mediocre network performance of the Pi is it's biggest hurdle. That new Odroid looks very good...
__________________
In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
George Orwell
cyrano is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-28-2018, 10:04 AM   #19
Mr. PC
Human being with feelings
 
Mr. PC's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Cloud 37
Posts: 1,071
Default

Would be interested if 13.37 really supported all VST(3) plugins; if so then it could also be done with Reaper.



Reaper + Arch + XFCE would be super light, full desktop. A setup with VST working would be perfect.


Maybe if someone could figure out all the audio/VST stuff, and then work with the Antergos team to create an "audio PC" option/sub distro. Antergos is amazing.
__________________
AlbertMcKay.com
SoundCloud BandCamp
ReaNote Hotkeys to make Reaper notation easy/fast
Mr. PC is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-28-2018, 11:25 AM   #20
Jack Winter
Human being with feelings
 
Jack Winter's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Luxembourg/Spain
Posts: 1,922
Default

AFAIK there is no program that can run windows vst3 on linux yet. There are however some linux vst3 plugins from u-he in public beta though.
__________________
Reaper for Linux Documentation (WIP). Software: Archlinux/KDE, Fabfilter FX, Komplete 8, Nebula, Schwa/Stillwell, T-racks Max/Amplitube/SVX, etc. Gear: i7-2600k/4700HQ/16GB, RME Multiface/Babyface, Behringer X32, Genelec 8040, etc. :)
Jack Winter is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-02-2018, 11:49 PM   #21
Mr. PC
Human being with feelings
 
Mr. PC's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Cloud 37
Posts: 1,071
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack Winter View Post
AFAIK there is no program that can run windows vst3 on linux yet. There are however some linux vst3 plugins from u-he in public beta though.
Oh, thanks for that!! You just saved me many hours of fruitless labour.
__________________
AlbertMcKay.com
SoundCloud BandCamp
ReaNote Hotkeys to make Reaper notation easy/fast
Mr. PC is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-03-2018, 12:19 AM   #22
Jack Winter
Human being with feelings
 
Jack Winter's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Luxembourg/Spain
Posts: 1,922
Default

You are welcome, I had the impression that this was the case!

My advice to anyone considering moving to Linux is to install Linux on a separate partition (dual boot), another harddisk or USB stick and just test. Take it slow and easy and determine if it's for you, or follow the development as it is still a beta and not yet of production quality.

Regarding Windows VSTs on Linux, this also still very much a work in progress, yes a lot of them work, and maybe all of them can be made to work in the future. I suppose that at some point in the future we will also see a VST3 wrapper.

But I think that they will never run as well in Linux as the do in Windows for the simple reason that they run bridged in another process with all that this implies. My take on this is that it will be possible to use them for mixing at high latency, but that running full mixes at low latency while recording through live monitored Windows VST will probably be a struggle.

That said I do use Reaper in Linux to record my band, I also mix in Linux using Windows VSTs, but I do all this at high latency. If I would want to overdub my bass monitoring through Windows VSTs at low latency, I would render a stereo track of my mix and track to this, and finally import the new bass track back into the full mix.

Your mileage might wary and all that
__________________
Reaper for Linux Documentation (WIP). Software: Archlinux/KDE, Fabfilter FX, Komplete 8, Nebula, Schwa/Stillwell, T-racks Max/Amplitube/SVX, etc. Gear: i7-2600k/4700HQ/16GB, RME Multiface/Babyface, Behringer X32, Genelec 8040, etc. :)
Jack Winter is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 03:36 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.