Snakeoil Installer - 1.2.0 (Gear Isolation)

[vinaymoturi]

I wonder, between stock Ubuntu and Ubuntu Studio, will it be better to install Ubuntu Studio as it claims using low latency kernel for its generic AV purpose?

Ubuntu Studio – A free and open operating system for creative people.

It should be better. Ubuntu Server edition is optimised for server loads and not music. Reason why Snakeoil has custom kernels that's optimised for music...

You can install Studio straight on, another way is to just add the studio kernel into your existing OS and reboot and that should work.

How to do this?

[agent_kith]

How to do this?

Installation will be same as before. This doesn't apply to Raspberry Pi though, so it's PC only.

Steps are:
1. Download Ubuntu Studio from this link.
2. Then follow these instructions from step 4.4 onwards.

[hkphantomgtr]

RT kernel of Ubuntu is coming, I hope it won't take too long.  Or will SnakeOil's kernel builder come earlier？
Ubuntu Outlines How To Use Its Real-Time Kernel Beta - It Requires Ubuntu Advantage - Phoronix

[Snoopy8]

RT kernel of Ubuntu is coming, I hope it won't take too long.  Or will SnakeOil's kernel builder come earlier？
Ubuntu Outlines How To Use Its Real-Time Kernel Beta - It Requires Ubuntu Advantage - Phoronix

It may make AK's development effort and maintenance simpler but work is still required to remove the bloat from Ubuntu. Ubuntu has to cover many things for many people and SnakeOil only uses a subset.

[hkphantomgtr]

RT kernel of Ubuntu is coming, I hope it won't take too long.  Or will SnakeOil's kernel builder come earlier？
Ubuntu Outlines How To Use Its Real-Time Kernel Beta - It Requires Ubuntu Advantage - Phoronix

It may make AK's development effort and maintenance simpler but work is still required to remove the bloat from Ubuntu. Ubuntu has to cover many things for many people and SnakeOil only uses a subset.

Sure, I just hope it will produce better sound than current stock Ubuntu kernel.  I'm really looking forward for AK's custom kernel builder which can cut all these hassles.  That'd be the best, and ultimate solution.

[agent_kith]

Back in the day when Snakeoil was first released, there's only 1 distro doing real time kernel. And that's Snakeoil. Now everybody's doing RT kernels.

[hkphantomgtr]

Back in the day when Snakeoil was first released, there's only 1 distro doing real time kernel. And that's Snakeoil. Now everybody's doing RT kernels.

Also Voyage MPD used RT kernel.  And it used RT kernel even earlier.  Yet so far your SnakeOil OS is the best, far better than the rest. 
Voyage MPD | Voyage Linux

[hkphantomgtr]

Maybe we can try the RT kernel with our PC.
Real-time Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Beta – Now Available | Ubuntu

[agent_kith]

Also Voyage MPD used RT kernel.  And it used RT kernel even earlier.  Yet so far your SnakeOil OS is the best, far better than the rest. 
Voyage MPD | Voyage Linux

Wow. And he did it before me by six years. Well done on him, and I stand corrected .
 

Maybe we can try the RT kernel with our PC.
Real-time Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Beta – Now Available | Ubuntu

I'll seriously give that a go. RT kernel does make a lot of difference IMHO, although I don't exactly understand the reason why.

[hkphantomgtr]

Also Voyage MPD used RT kernel.  And it used RT kernel even earlier.  Yet so far your SnakeOil OS is the best, far better than the rest. 
Voyage MPD | Voyage Linux

Wow. And he did it before me by six years. Well done on him, and I stand corrected .
 

Maybe we can try the RT kernel with our PC.
Real-time Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Beta – Now Available | Ubuntu

I'll seriously give that a go. RT kernel does make a lot of difference IMHO, although I don't exactly understand the reason why.

Hi, morning, AK!

I used that Voyage MPD for some years before I discovered your SnakeOil.  Voyage MPD produced the best sound among other similar softwares.  Until, I found your superb good sound SnakeOil.  It's far better than other so far!  (a bit side track here, the Voyage MPD author once used RT kernel in some early yrs for this MPD OS. Yet he said sound was not that wonderful but the system became unstable.  So he switched to "ordinary" kernel for another some years until last few release, as someone requested him to try again.  To me, changing to RT really can produce the sound closer to live music.)

Look, in last few days, so happen a friend sent me a 11th Gen i7 small fanless pc to install Snakeoil urgently.  I took this chance in that long weekend for my 1st time using the 1.2.0 installer, and found several issues may be interesting to you:

1) 1.2.0 Installer (.sh) works perfectly with Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu Studio 20.04 (this low latency kernel is a RT kernel);

2) Ubuntu Studio 20.04 can be converted from Ubuntu 20.04 (using the official Ubuntu Studio Installer, because Ubuntu 20.04 takes about 10G in space with minimal installation while Studio 20.04 takes ~40G, got no minimal installation to choose), but the network function will be gone after reboot. 

3) 1.2.0 Installer (.sh) doesn't work on Ubuntu 22.04 (neither fresh installation nor upgraded from 20.04).  Installer said it's completed but after reboot OS not working.  It happens on both stock kernel and the RT kernel mentioned in previous post.  From the webui, I found the OS is very busy for something so it kept saying the server is not responding, yet with a few seconds normal and then it kept saying it's not responding.


4) Ubuntu Studio 22.04, I don't know why that PC can't recognise the installation USB drive.   I've tried different USB drives (fingers) with different ISO burning tools, yet got no luck.

5) After installed SnakeOil successfully in stock Ubuntu 20.04, with command "TOP", it shows some processes become "RT" to those processes I've set priority in SnakeOil webiu.  Even Ubuntu didn't mention this is a RT kernel.

6) Last but not least, this  <HK$3K 11gen i7 small fanless PC, the latency is wonderfully low.  In comparing to mine, which is same brand but with lower config and 8th or 7th i5 CPU, my fd's got so much lower latency and the sound is so much much better.  (To be fair, my fanless PC used the "old" way to install Snakeoil in 1.5 yrs ago and keep updating both FW and OS.  I'll reinstall it with new SO installer to see what happen to the latency in coming weekend).  And "strangely", the latency from SO in Ubuntu 20.04, and Ubuntu Studio 20.04 is the "same", I've ran several times to generate the latency for comparison.
   

7) And after the 1.2.0 installer, in the clock source options of the SnakeOil OS, "hpet" is gone.  Either being a player or NAS, I prefer the sound using "hpet" clock source.

In view of this, before there is any new idea from you guys, I'll get one more SSD for Ubuntu Studio 20.04 OS installation alongside with my current SSD for storage in my coming new NUC.  Just because it claims it's RT kernel powered.  And this extra OS SSD is convenient in future OS rolling, too.