low-latency kernel

[eltuno]

Hi

I wonder if there's an easy way to install a low-latency/RT kernel in MX or maybe antiX ?

I didn't find one in the repos

thx

[Stevo]

The Liquorix kernels are low-latency, and we do also have a number of Debian "rt" (realtime) kernels in the main and test repositories. I disabled the rt kernels for the 4.17 builds, though...they'll be back when I backport one directly from upstream Debian.

Just search for "realtime" in Synaptic, and the rt kernels will show up among other results. The Liquorix kernel can be installed easily with the Package Installer.

[eltuno]

Just search for "realtime" in Synaptic, and the rt kernels will show up among other results. The Liquorix kernel can be installed easily with the Package Installer.

Thx that's what I was about to ask

These Liquorix kernels seem very versatile. So why not making them default in MX ?

[sunrat]

+1 for Liquorix. I'm using it for my audio production system and it runs nicely with no xruns (unless I do something stupid but it usually forgives me :D ).

[Stevo]

Just search for "realtime" in Synaptic, and the rt kernels will show up among other results. The Liquorix kernel can be installed easily with the Package Installer.

Thx that's what I was about to ask

These Liquorix kernels seem very versatile. So why not making them default in MX ?

I think they would shorten battery life by some amount on mobile devices, and good battery life is one of MX's selling points. Maybe we don't advertise the availability and ease of installation enough for Liquorix, but there are some other features of MX that also don't get enough recognition, IMO.

[eltuno]

+1 for Liquorix. I'm using it for my audio production system and it runs nicely with no xruns (unless I do something stupid but it usually forgives me :D ).

Good to know cause that's what I'm trying to do. But I hesitate in creating a new MX live dedicated to music or just building it in the one I have.

I remember having trouble with jack/pulseaudio when having to alternate between different audio apps. But maybe that's not such a big deal.

[eltuno]

I think they would shorten battery life by some amount on mobile devices, and good battery life is one of MX's selling points. Maybe we don't advertise the availability and ease of installation enough for Liquorix, but there are some other features of MX that also don't get enough recognition, IMO.

OK, I hope it won't shorten mine too much then.

In BIOS settings there's an option limiting max full charge to 80% to that effect too

[sunrat]

Good to know cause that's what I'm trying to do. But I hesitate in creating a new MX live dedicated to music or just building it in the one I have.

I remember having trouble with jack/pulseaudio when having to alternate between different audio apps. But maybe that's not such a big deal.

Seriously, as much as I like MX, I use AVLinux (with Liquorix kernel) for music production. Things that can be tricky like setting up Pulse to JACK bridge are already set up out of the box.

[eltuno]

Good to know cause that's what I'm trying to do. But I hesitate in creating a new MX live dedicated to music or just building it in the one I have.

I remember having trouble with jack/pulseaudio when having to alternate between different audio apps. But maybe that's not such a big deal.

Seriously, as much as I like MX, I use AVLinux (with Liquorix kernel) for music production. Things that can be tricky like setting up Pulse to JACK bridge are already set up out of the box.

Too bad, I thought I had found someone who could give me pro tips already ...

AVlinux looks fine, but it isn't shipped with Ardour installed. ANd I don't need all the video stuff.

Are you using it live ?

[sunrat]

I'm not saying MX is not a good base for audio production, it actually is! I have one install set up and it works well. It's just that I kept on finding extra things I wanted to install and tweak. I mainly tried AVL because it's there, and because most of the things I did to MX were already done plus it included a few surprises such as full versions of plugins that cost money to get separately. I mainly use Mixbus 32C, but AVL does include Ardour 5.12. It's installed, not live.
The main things to set up in MX would be the Liquorix kernel and run the Realtime Quick Config scan script and follow its advice - https://github.com/raboof/realtimeconfigquickscan (some of the recommendations are a bit redundant). There are a bunch of helpful hints at https://wiki.linuxaudio.org/wiki/system_configuration .
You can almost get away with default settings but once you push it such as lower latency or higher track number, the main things are:
- set CPU frequency scaling to performance
- noatime for filesystems
- disable unneeded services, particularly wireless
- swappiness
- limits.conf/audio.conf
- use an SSD
As I said most of these won't matter, until they do. The Liquorix kernel has the most important configurations already done.

I'm happy to help out if you have other questions but I'm not really a pro or even an armchair expert, but I have been doing audio for quite a while.