root/trunk/ardour.txt

AUTHOR: Alex Kloss <alex@22-music.com>

DATE: 2003-08-20

LICENSE: GNU Free Documentation License

SYNOPSIS:       Ardour is a multitrack sound recorder/editor/mixer.

DESCRIPTION:
Ardour is somewhat like ProTools(tm), high quality multitracker. It's
pretty easy to install, but needs a lot of additional fiddling 
(RT-Kernel patch, Jack Server and Ladspa).

PREREQUISITES:

Downloads:
==========

ardour          http://ardour.sourceforge.net -> release or CVS version
JACK            http://jackit.sourceforge.net -> release version
glib/gtk+       http://www.gtk.org -> 1.2.8 or newer, but not 1.3 or 2.0!
libxml2         http://www.xmlsoft.org -> 2.5.X
libart_lgpl     on your local GNOME mirror, see BLFS section
libsndfile      http://www.zip.com.au/~erikd/libsndfile -> 1.0 or higher
libsamplerate   http://www.mega-nerd.com/SRC/ -> 0.0.13 or newer
LADSPA SDK      http://www.ladspa.org -> SDK and plugins of your liking
raptor          http://www.redland.opensource.ac.uk/raptor -> release
liblrdf         http://plugin.org.uk/lrdf/ -> 0.3.1 or higher

and the RT-Scheduling-Patch for your kernel version:
                http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/schedlat.html

Ardour requires to use ALSA as sounddriver.

HINT:

Installation order:
===================

 - Kernel Patch for RealTime Scheduling
 - ALSA sounddriver (if not already available, remember that the
   reinstallation of the kernel removes everything in the modules
   directory, so you may have to reinstall the driver)
 - glib
 - gtk+
 - libxml2
 - libsndfile
 - libsamplerate
 - LADSPA SDK (plus the plugins you want)
 - JACK
 - raptor
 - liblrdf
 - ardour

There are already hints and/or BLFS sections for ALSA, glib, gtk,
libxml2, so these packages will not be discussed again. Please refer to
their instructions.

Discussion: Starting Jack/Ardour as root or patching the kernel:
================================================================

If your system is faster than the average (and even a slow hdd can
kill that advantage) or you don't think you need Realtime scheduling,
you can leave all following instructions about the kernel undone.

There are 2 ways of starting JACK (and thusly ardour) with realtime
latency, once your kernel is patched:

 - start jack as root (need to start ardour as root, too; insecure)
 - apply givertcap patch:

   edit /usr/src/linux/include/linux/capability.h:

   where it says:

#define CAP_INIT_EFF_SET    to_cap_t(~0 & ~CAP_TO_MASK(CAP_SETPCAP))
#define CAP_INIT_INH_SET    to_cap_t(0)

   change the lines so it will read:

#define CAP_INIT_EFF_SET    to_cap_t(~0)
#define CAP_INIT_INH_SET    to_cap_t(~0)

   and go on with patching your kernel for RT scheduling.

I myself prefer the last way, but you may choose yourself.

Patching your kernel:
=====================

cd /usr/src/linux # (or wherever you have your kernel sources)
bzcat <patch> | patch -Np1 # fill in the appropriate name for "<patch>"
make menuconfig # and select real time scheduling
make dep
make clean
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install

now copy the bzImage in arch/<arch*>/boot/ to /boot, edit your
/etc/lilo.conf to your needs and run lilo [*fill in whatever is
appropriate, this will be i386 in most cases]. Now restart your system.


Install ALSA, glib, gtk+ and libxml2 (when in doubt, look at the related
BLFS section/hints).

Installing every other package:
===============================

all those packages are easy enough installed with

./configure --prefix=/usr &&
make &&
make install

Starting ardour:
================

To start ardour, you need to ensure no other process is holding the
sound devices, start the jack server and then ardour and don't forget to
remove the jack server afterwards. Because we're a lazy bunch, well do
that with a script. You'll have to edit it to your needs

--snip
#!/bin/bash
#
# Ardour Startscript
#
# Variable declarations
JACKD=jackstart
JACKOPTS="-a -R -d alsa -d ice1712 -p 512"
# replace "ice1712" with your soundcard's identifier!
JACKD_ALREADY_RUNNING=0

# find out whether jackd is already running
for i in /proc/*/cmdline; do
 CMDLINE=$(<$i)
 if [ "$CMDLINE" != "${CMDLINE#$JACKD}" ]; then
  JACKD_ALREADY_RUNNING=1
 fi
done

# if jackd isn't yet running, we start it
if [ "$JACKD_ALREADY_RUNNING" = "0" ]; then
# but first we need to kill all processes that locks sound devices
 fuser -k /dev/admmidi? /dev/adsp? /dev/amidi? /dev/audio* /dev/dmfm* \
  /dev/dmmidi? /dev/dsp* /dev/dspW* /dev/midi0? /dev/mixer? /dev/music \
  /dev/patmgr? /dev/sequencer* /dev/sndstat >/dev/null 2>&1
 if [ -d /proc/asound/dev ]; then
  fuser -k /proc/asound/dev/* >/dev/null 2>&1
 fi
 if [ -d /dev/snd ]; then
  fuser -k /dev/snd/* >/dev/null 2>&1
 fi
# and now start jack
 $JACKD $JACKOPTS &> /dev/null &
fi

# now we are ready to start ardour with all options we were called with
ardour -n "$@"

# afterwards, if jack wasn't already running (we presume that would be
# for a reason), kill the jackd.

if [ "$JACKD_ALREADY_RUNNING" = "0" ]; then
 for i in /proc/*/cmdline; do
  if [ "$(<$i)" = "$JACKD$(echo $JACKOPTS | sed s/\ //g)" ]; then
   pidbackup=${i#/proc/}
   pid=${pidbackup%/cmdline}
   kill -9 $pid
  fi
 done
fi

# end of ardour-start

--snap

copy that script to /usr/bin/ardour-start and run

chmod 755 /usr/bin/ardour-start

CHANGELOG:
[2003-08-20]
  * Initial hint.