I use the KXStudio distribution based on the latest Ubuntu 12.04
LTS (Long Term Support). Two installation methods are proposed with a
live-dvd (easiest) or a small netboot iso (prefered). It's also
possible to use the kxstudio packages with a normal Ubuntu (my method).
http://kxstudio.sourceforge.net/

In any case, I much prefer the classic XFCE desktop to the weird
Unity/Gnome3 desktops. There's the KDE4 desktop, but it's also
bloated with useless eye candies and package dependencies. XFCE
is simple, stable and friendly. I disable all desktop (2D and/or 3D)
effects for a more responsive system.

KKstudio can be installed with a realtime kernel version 3.2; I don't
use it yet because the (evil proprietary) NVidia drivers are
incompatible, so I might use the GPL "nouveau" driver to avoid this
problem. But audio works well enough with the low latency kernel.

I use Jackd2 instead of Jackd1, and I use the new Pulse Audio 2.0.
To use PA 2.0 with Jackd2, install Pulse 2.0 from this PPA:
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-audio-dev/+archive/ppa
then follow these instructions:
http://trac.jackaudio.org/wiki/WalkThrough/User/PulseOnJack

This perl script helps *a lot* to configure realtime audio on Linux:
http://code.google.com/p/realtimeconfigquickscan/

For basic sound troubleshooting on Ubuntu, here's a good resource:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshootingProcedure

For extra multimedia goodies (especially for proprietary codecs), I
complement my system with the Medibuntu packages: http://medibuntu.org/

The Planet CCRMA distribution is also ideal for sound, and it's very
well maintained. But I much prefer Debian based distributions (like
Ubuntu) for their APT packaging system (instead of RPM on Fedora based
distributions).

--
Marc

Fons Adriaensen <f...@linuxaudio.org> a écrit :

> On Wed, Jul 04, 2012 at 11:41:53AM +0100, Dave Malham wrote:
> 
> >    I'm looking for recommendations on a preferred (small) Linux
> > distro for surround work. To start with, I'd like to run on a Asus
> > 35 M1-M Pro motherboard as I have one handy. Unfortunately, my
> > current Ubuntu distro seems to have difficulties picking up its
> > built-in 8 channel audio but my relatively poor knowledge/experience
> > of Linux means I can't be sure if I'm doing something wrong (most
> > probable scenario) or if it's a distro or hardware limitation. As I
> > only went for Ubuntu because I had some experience with it already,
> > I thought it would make sense, before going further, to seek advice
> > about optimum-for-audio distros and concentrate on one of those and
> > preferably one without much bloat.
> 
> Ubuntu comes with the Gnome desktop which uses PulseAudio as its
> 'audio server'. PA has many qualities for the typical desktop user
> but is completely unsuitable for any serious audio work, for one it
> doesn't handle real multichannel interfaces (because the underlying
> ALSA layer doesn't provide any info that would enable PA to find out
> 'standard' channel mappings). For anything serious you need to run
> Jack as the sound server. It's not possible to 'uninstall' PA on
> a system with Gnome (it's a hard dependency) but you can tell PA
> to get out of the way when Jack needs access to the sound card, and
> you can even configure PA to become a Jack client so your 'desktop
> sounds' continue to work. I can't provide any reliable help on how
> exactly to do this (since none of my systems have PA installed), but
> you could ask on the Linux Audio Users or Developers mailing lists,
> see 
> 
> http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user/
> http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-dev/
> 
> for how to subscribe etc.
> 
> If you want a 'lean and mean' and generally unbloated linux distro
> I could recommend ArchLinux (used on >10 systems here). Compared to
> e.g. Ubuntu it has a rather steep learning curve, you will need to
> learn a lot about system administration (the docs on the Arch Wiki
> are quite good), but you'll be rewarded with actually knowing how
> your system works and remaining in control of it. But I admit it
> can be a bit hard the first time.
> 
> Ciao,
> 

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