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L'attenzione alla creazione di contenuti multimediali fornita da AV Linux dal 2008 è ora combinata con la potente versatilità di MX Linux! AV Linux MX Edition viene fornito con un kernel Liquorix ad alte prestazioni e l'ambiente desktop XFCE4 completo di funzionalità. Inoltre c'è tutta una serie di strumenti utili tra cui i venerabili "MX-Tools" abbinati alla comodità di utilità personalizzate specializzate. Questo sistema è ottimizzato immediatamente per prestazioni audio veloci a bassa latenza, integrazione JACK/PulseAudio perfetta e supporto opzionale per applicazioni Windows Audio e plug-in tramite Wine-Staging. Attualmente AV Linux MX Edition è riconosciuto da MX Linux e utilizza i suoi strumenti di creazione e packaging, ma non è un prodotto MX Linux ufficiale.

Tipo Sistema Operativo
Linux

Do-over! AVL-MXE 2020.12.03 Released!

Well… moving platforms is never easy and the wider exposure of the initial release ISO of AVL-MXE indicated that a few ponies got out of the corral on me… There was an internal checksum flaw in the 64bit ISO from my build environment that would prevent it from working with MX’s ‘Live USB Maker’ and this flaw could also potentially affect booting with other USB Key writing applications. If you were able to get the initial AVL-MXE installed and it is working for you there is no reason to be concerned this flaw does not affect integrity or security of the ISO. The cause of this was not easy to track down and if it were not for the tireless bulldog tenacity of MX dev ‘fehlix’ it would not be fixed. ‘dolphin_oracle’,  ‘Adrian’, ‘m_pav’ and ‘Stevo’ also deserve mention for their help behind the scenes… I can’t begin to describe the helpful generosity of the MX Developers, I’m very grateful!

So what else is fixed?

  • Updated Mixbus 32C demo to 6.2.70
  • Updated Qjackctl to 0.6.3
  • Updated Guitarix to 0.41
  • Fixed fugly QT5 number boxes.. eughhh!
  • Libreoffice updated to 7.0.3
  • Added GPG signatures to ISO files
  • Updated and synced all repos
  • Updated User Manual

Big news!

AVL-MXE gets many Multimedia applications from the included KXStudio repos, over time the focus of the KXStudio repos has shifted from General Applications to Audio Plugins.. The fallout from this has been some common Linux Audio Applications (ie Hydrogen, Qjackctl, Qtractor, Guitarix and Yoshimi) have aged to a few versions old and have fallen through the cracks.. I talked to MX Packager extraordinaire ‘Stevo’ and he agreed to package these few applications and they will soon appear in the MX Test repos! A huge thanks to Stevo and the MX packaging team, with these great apps now within MX this is a big step in helping AV Linux and MX merge together more closely in the future!

FAQ’s

Q: Where is the Installer Icon on the 32bit Openbox ISO?

A: Right-click on the Desktop and the Installer is at the top of the Openbox Menu..

Q: The initial Ardour plugin scan fails!?

A: The Ardour scan will also scan some example WindowsVST plugins and the scan can fail if Wine-Staging has not been previously initiated on the system and gets forced to initialize on-the-fly by the Plugin scan.. To avoid this run ‘Configure Wine-Staging’ from the AVL-MXE Assistant to initialize Wine-Staging’s config before running Ardour for the first time and running the plugin scan. Look at the User Manual pages 57-58 for details..

Q: Libreoffice has a dark theme and I can’t see the toolbar icons!!

A: Libreoffice 7 will reflect the default ‘Diehard’ theme, if you want the toolbar icons to appear with more contrast then go to the Libreoffice Writer ‘Tools’–>’Options’–>’Libreoffice’–>’View’ and the select ‘Breeze Dark’ icons.

Q: I hate your stupid RT kernel and I want 3rd party Video Drivers!!!

A: Ok, you’re being rude…but… The special RT Preempt kernel is not hardcoded… it is the initial offering to offer the best low-latency operating potential and it is not common at all to have an out of the box RT setup so I offer one.. AVL-MXE has almost too many optional Kernel choices… You can install an AV Linux ‘lowlatency’ Kernel, you can install the high performing Liquorix Kernel, you can install one of the MX Kernels or you can install a Debian Kernel. I do not personally maintain or support the installation of 3rd party Video drivers but MX has applications and documents explaining how to do this and you are more than welcome to take advantage of them! As we get more users doing this we will get better data as to what the most straightforward way to achieve this is..

Q: Synaptic Package Manager tells me I have held packages and doesn’t apply the changes… what’s up with that??

A: The official MX Answer is to use their excellent MX Package Installer as an alternative to Synaptic but if you’re like me and very used to Synaptic hit the ‘Apply’ button in Synaptic a second time and the changes should go through..

 

You can find the updated ISO’s on the AVL-MXE Webpage!

 

Distro

AVL-MXE 2021.05.22 ISO Update!

AVL-MXE-2021.05.22-Changelog.

Well what began as a bugfix/maintenance release has snowballed into a quasi new-features release especially in the case of the 64bit version with a move to Openbox and SLiM in an effort to put XFCE4 on Keto… As always the huge amount of helpful support and the generosity of the MX Linux developers, packagers and community have made this release possible.

32bit Version

– Fixed missing pulseaudio-module-jack.
– Fixed missing a2jmidid.
– Corrected Liquorix Repo for Buster.
– Removed now obsolete libfaudio OBS Repo.
– Changed ISO Live boot to Auto Login.
– Updated and enhanced User Manual significantly… PLEASE READ, THEN READ AGAIN!
– Updates and improvements to the AVL-MXE Assistant to make it take up less screen space.
– Tweaks to Default Diehard theming and AVL-MXE Logo and new DH Wallpapers.
– Move to a more traditional panel and taskbar from the previous Dock setup.
– Added several new Audio Plugins: Drops, MZuther Plugins, Airwindows.
– Updated SFizz to 1.0.
– Updated Dragonfly Reverbs to latest to fix random noise issue.
– Updated Ardour to 6.7.
– Updated Reaper build to 6.28 (now with LV2 Plugin support!).
– Updated Harrison Mixbus demo to 7.0.150.

Existing AVL-MXE 32bit users can obtain the updated Plugin Package here:

*Note, if you install this updated package you need to re-run LinVST!

64bit Version

– Changed Window Manager to Openbox!
– Removed xfwm and xfdesktop.
– Changed Wallpaper application to Nitrogen.
– Changed Login Manager to SliM.
– Created and added some background helper scripts for Openbox.
– Corrected Liquorix Repo for Buster.
– Removed now obsolete libfaudio OBS Repo
– Updated and enhanced User Manual significantly… PLEASE READ, THEN READ AGAIN!
– Updates and improvements to the AVL-MXE Assistant to make it take up less screen space.
– Tweaks Default Diehard theming and AVL-MXE Logo and new DH Wallpapers.
– Move to a more traditional panel and taskbar from the previous Dock setup.
– Added some new Audio Plugins: Drops, MZuther Plugins.
– Updated SFizz to 1.0.
– Updated Dragonfly Reverbs to latest to fix random noise issue.
– Updated Ardour to 6.7.
– Updated Reaper build to 6.28 (now with LV2 Plugin support!).
– Updated Harrison Mixbus demo to 7.0.150.
– Updated ACM Plugin demos to version 3.0.0.

Existing AVL-MXE 64bit users can obtain the updated Plugin Package here:

*Note, if you install this updated package you need to re-run LinVST!

**IMPORTANT!!

– Do not post tech support questions in Blog posts or my Youtube Videos, I do not check either regularly at all. Please join the MX Linux forum and post tech support questions in the ‘MX Respins‘ forum section and specify that you are using AVL-MXE in your subject.

– Installer is the top menu item in Openbox menu… right-click and installer is right there!

– Wine-Staging has broken Windows VST Plugin support over several updates..
To ensure WinVST is working OOTB in all provided DAWS I have decided to lock Wine-Staging
at version 6.2 and have kept a slightly older version of LinVST (3.1.5) because it seems to reliably work in both Ardour and Reaper. If you want to risk breaking it all that’s your choice and you can unlock Wine-Staging in a Root terminal with ‘apt-mark unhold winehq-staging’. If you have no idea what any of this all means leave it at the default setting and profit!

As usual PLEASE download from the AVL-MXE Webpage… if you find AVL-MXE useful and produce Multimedia Content with it please consider supporting the project with a Donation! Any amount helps and a portion of donations are passed upstream for Kernel development, to ardour.org and to MX Linux.

  I’ve done an example Video of how to set up Wine-Staging and Windows VST Audio plugins while running a Live boot session or for a fresh install:

Distro

AVL-MXE-2021-06-18 64bit ISO Fix!

This is an updated 64bit AVL-MXE ISO to address the following issues:

The previous ISO release had the AVL-MXE Thunar custom actions overwritten by the MX Thunar defaults.. One of the best features of AVL-MXE is the numerous useful and unique Custom Actions so this needed to be fixed as soon as I discovered it!

Fixed Logout from the XFCE4 Whisker menu to use the Custom AVL-MXE logout and not the unthemed XFCE4 one..

I’ve added libxcb-util1 in order for people who use Bitwig to be able to install and use the latest Bitwig 3.3.10. Credit for these supplemental Packages goes to Stevo!

The LinVST ‘.so’ files have been refreshed on this ISO so Windows VST Plugin scans in Ardour should go a bit more smoothly the first time. It is crucial to run ‘Configure Wine-Staging’ from the AVL-MXE Assistant before running the first Plugin scan in Ardour 6.7!

This ISO features an easter egg of the new matching ‘Diehard3’ colors theming by default in Ardour 6.7. If you prefer the Ardour default theme then go to Edit–>Preferences–>Colors

*IMPORTANT!! If you installed the previous AVL-MXE-2021.05.22-xfce4-openbox-amd64 ISO you don’t have to upgrade or reinstall to get the fixes, simply follow these instructions:

To fix the missing AVL-MXE Thunar custom actions just download and extract this zip file and replace the ‘uca.xml’ file in ~/.config/Thunar/ in your home folder. On the next start of Thunar all those AVL-MXE custom actions should be back!

To get the Whisker menu pointed to the correct logout right-click on the panel Menu button and select ‘Properties’ and then make the changes in the image below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If (and only if) you want to install Bitwig 3.3.10 on AVL-MXE then download and install both the 32bit and 64bit versions of these ‘libxcb-util1’ Debian Packages before installing Bitwig.

Lastly if you are interested in adding the ‘Diehard’ colors theme to Ardour in your existing AVL-MXE install take a look here

Get the updated and fixed AVL-MXE 2021.06.18 ISO here

This will be the last AVL-MXE on MX-19/Debian Buster, work now begins on moving to future MX-21/Debian Bullseye and there will be no release of AVL-MXE based on Bullseye until after both Debian Bullseye and MX-21 are officially released.

 

Distro

Bandshed Records 2022! “See the Moon Smiling”

  Another year is here and despite living with the ongoing pandemic much has been going on in the Studio. In the past I mostly have blogged about the releases of my Software pursuits but there is a huge amount of new stuff going on in and around the Studio that I’d like to share. 2021 saw the beginnings of a new collaborative album project of Blues, Soul, Funk and Roots music with myself,  Dave Williams, Dave Phillips, Peter Cox, Ken Foster and Connor MacArthur participating under the name of ‘Willie Mack’ and that is nearing completion. I was asked to fill in for a couple of gigs with my good friends Bill Pigram, Dave Williams, and Billy Boyington from the ‘The Incontinentals’ and found myself in a whole new band (and a new musical family) with them. The new collab is called ‘The Elder Brothers’ and we have played a couple of great gigs and been working on a set of Live Videos that we are excited to put out soon. I had the good fortune to do some recording work for bassist Larry Ernewein, vocalist Theresa Wallis and sax man Ken Foster who are all names that have been synonymous with great jazz for many years and through that experience I gained some valuable knowledge on recording techniques for acoustic bass and saxophone. My son Connor rarely lets the tubes get cold in the Studio when I’m not in his way and he has invested countless hours in working up some great new material of his own and with his two bands ‘Coparents’ and TVDog.’ His recording skills as writer, singer and arranger are improving exponentially, pretty soon I will be lucky if there is any time for me to get in there! ‘Rated Blue’ got to squeeze in a few gigs this summer and we also have an exciting new collection of Videos coming your way, the first of which will be in this post. Incidentally on the Video end my nephew Adam Caldwell has moved in close by and his talents with a camera have already been put to good use, you will be seeing his name pop up on many of our new productions. Songwriter Jake McLean (my former MGV bandmate) has just finished a retrospective compilation album of some of his finest songs that I mastered here as well. ‘The Roadies’ with Tony Straatman, Rob Blanchette, Peter and myself revived for a UWO faculty Christmas Party and that gave me an opportunity to shake the dust off my drum sticks so all in all a very busy, fun and productive year here at Bandshed Records!

  It’s been tough to decide which project to let out first but going with the flow has brought Connor’s song “See the Moon Smiling” to completion first. Connor and I often jam together and switch off on guitar and drums, a few months ago he started playing this song on his guitar and it had a really pronounced and memorable earworm of a melody and whenever we’d jam I’d say “hey play that pretty one!” He had attempted a demo of it but it needed some more development so I suggested to get our friend and bandmate Peter Cox to contribute a bass part… We guitarists think we can play bass on recordings but Peter always brings the ‘thunder magic’ to humble us and remind us what unique creatures bass players really are.. Over the holidays Connor and I put down a Live bed track and Peter came in later to add his bass and during a recent Video shoot we put it all together in front of Adam’s camera and here is the result. I’m not going to pretend I’m not a ‘proud Papa’ but I can honestly say had anyone come up with this song I would love this melody and want to hear it completed. For me to have the opportunity to play this live with Connor and Peter is a precious gift.

  For the gear nerds Connor played his Fender Jag through a TC Electronics ‘Hall of Fame 2’ reverb pedal set on shimmer straight into our beloved tweed Pro Junior amp miked with a Shure SM-57. Peter went into the board direct with his Ibanez 5 string and we miked up the Tama bop kit with shell mics and 2 overhead Aston ‘Origin’ condensers. Everything was recorded and edited using ‘Ardour’ for Audio and ‘Cinelerra-GG’ for Video in ‘AV Linux’ which is the production Operating System I develop. If you enjoy the song please gives us a comment on Youtube and subscribe to the ‘Bandshed Records’ Youtube channel!

With all that out of the way here is Connor’s “See the Moon Smiling”:

Distro

AV Linux MX-21 “Consciousness” Released!

Hello and Happy Valentine’s Day!!

  There’s so much to cover here I don’t know where to begin! AV Linux MX-21 Edition code-named “Consciousness” has been released based on MX-21 ‘Wildflower’ and Debian 11 (Bullseye). This new version has been completely built from the ground up and is the first version to not be a ‘Respin’ of an existing system and was built with same Tools that are used to build MX and antiX. Because it has moved to a whole new Debian platform (from Buster to Bullseye) there is no upgrade Path from previous versions of AV Linux and you will need to install from the ISO. Please note that the initial releases of AV Linux MX Edition based on MX-19 and Debian Buster are still receiving updates through the MX repositories so if you are happy where you are there is certainly no hurry to upgrade! The work on this release has brought AVL much closer to MX in many ways and it is hoped that both projects will benefit from serving more Users across more niches, to be clear AV Linux MX-21 Edition is still an independent project and not an official MX Version.

First… Big Thank You’s!

  • Adrian, dolphin_oracle, – MX/antiX Build system assistance
  • anticapitalista, BitJam, – MX/antiX Build System
  • SwampRabbit, Stevo, timkb4cq – MX and Liquorix Packaging
  • bhilmers – New Waveform Logo!
  • falkTX – Fixes to WineASIO with new Wine-Staging versions
  • Anahata, autostatic, – Hosting Mirrors
  • asqwerth – GTK3 Theme fixes
  • manyroads – Conky concept
  • Robbert van der Helm – Yabridge VST Bridge
  • Damentz – Liquorix kernels
  • sysrqer – New BPM Converter
  • brontosaurusrex, ceesians – New Gradient Wallpaper Generator
  • The few but MIGHTY donators and subscribers!! Thanks so much!
  • I may have forgotten someone, if so speak up!

Things Lost:

  • 32bit is discontinued… sorry, I tried… It’s time…
  • AV Linux RT Kernel Repository is now discontinued.
  • YYYY.MM.DD ISO naming changed to align with MX Releases.
  • ALL Repositories outside MX now discontinued!
  • GDebi Package installer, replaced with a Thunar Custom Action.

Things Gained:

  • New MX-21/Debian Bullseye base.
  • XFCE4 4.16
  • New default Liquorix kernel 5.15.0-10.1.
  • MX Linux ‘ahs’ (Advanced hardware support)
  • New and vastly updated User Manual.
  • New MX Multimedia Packaging… lots of great stuff!!
  • DAWs – Ardour 6.9, Mixbus32C 7.2 (demo) Reaper 6.46 (demo)
  • New ‘Flat’ Diehard XFCE4/Openbox theming with all 4K Wallpapers.
  • New Suru++/Papirus Icon themes.
  • Completely new modular AV Linux Assistant based on YAD.
  • New first-run Splash Screen.
  • New Yabridge support for Windows VST Plugins.
  • New ‘YADbridge’ graphical interface for Yabridge
  • Added Utilities: BPM Converter, Gradient Wallpaper generator
  • Expanded AVL-MXE Custom Plugins and Fonts Packages
  • New AppImage Packaging included (let’s see how it works!)

DOWNLOAD:

  1. Please RTFM!!
  2. Download links on the AV Linux MX Edition Website
  3. Donations and Tech support help wanted!

 

 

 

Distro

AV Linux Kernel Repository is discontinued.

  After some discussions over the past year with Trulan Martin the maintainer of the AV Linux Kernel Repository and with the knowledge that security exploits targeting the Linux Kernel are becoming more commonplace and require vigilance and rapid response from Kernel maintainers it has been decided with the recent release of AV Linux MX-21 Edition that the existing AV Linux Kernel Repository which was a source of both realtime (RT) and lowlatency (LL) Kernels should be shut down.

  Kernel maintenance for a distributed product comes with an inherent obligation to be mindful of the safety and security of it’s Users and that has always been done but it has become too much of a daily responsibility to be mindful of and both Trulan and myself feel it has become a task better suited to full-timers. The Liquorix project has been doing full time kernel maintaining for many years now and is well established in the Linux community as a high-performing and well supported source of Kernels. AV Linux in recent years has always provided the Liquorix Repository as an alternate source of Kernels to serve those who have new Computers and those who required the installation of proprietary AMD and nVidia Video Drivers and with the release of AV Linux MX-21 Edition Liquorix is now the default supplied Kernel. It is important to note that the Liquorix Kernel sources are also packaged by MX Packager ‘Stevo’ and are included right in the MX Linux Repositories without needing to enable the Liquorix repository itself.

  For users of previous versions of AV Linux MX Edition (AVL-MXE) based on MX-19/Debian Buster you will want to disable and/or remove the AVL Kernel Repo by editing your /etc/apt/sources.list file so when you do system upgrades you don’t get the Package Manager complaining about missing Repositories….”Huh, how do I do that!?” To do this launch the AV Linux Assistant and go to the ‘SYS-Editor’ Tab. The top button choice will be to ‘Edit APT Sources List”

  This will open the /etc/apt/sources.list file for editing in which you will see a section that looks like this:

# AV LINUX KERNEL REPOSITORY *REALTIME AND LOWLATENCY PREEMPT DEFAULT KERNELS
deb http://www.bandshed.net/kernels/apt/ buster main

To disable the Repository simply put a hash (#) before the word ‘deb’ so it looks like the example below and Save the text file:

# deb http://www.bandshed.net/kernels/apt/ buster main 

  This is all that is really required to prevent APT from looking for the missing AVL Kernel Repo and no further action is required. If you want you can also delete that line completely but merely commenting it out with the hash is sufficient.

   Lastly if you are running the MX-19/Buster version of AVL-MXE with the default 5.9 RT Kernel it came with you can safely continue to do so, that Kernel is up to date with all of the security patches that are known at the current time. I’d like to take a moment and give a heartfelt thanks on behalf of myself and AV Linux Users who have enjoyed the peppy performance of Trulan’s builds of both RT and LL Kernels over many years of the project, I will always be grateful for his help and attention to detail on our behalf!

Thanks for reading, apologies for any inconvenience!

Distro

AVL-MXE 21.1 and MXDE Release-a-palooza!

Hi!

  With the help of the MX developers Adrian, dolphin_oracle, Stevo, timkb4cq (and in a huge way… fehlix!!) I’m happy to provide an updated AV Linux MX Edition ISO synced with MX 21.1 and as a bonus I’m also debuting the new ‘MXDE’ MX + LXDE build which is new base Operating System with all the performance tweaks of AV Linux in a super lean LXDE/zzzFM formulation. These are not Respins they are built from scratch with the phenomenal antiX/MX ISO build system.

AVL-MXE 21.1:

This is NOT a new version of AVL-MXE it is simply an updated ISO with some key bugfixes mostly to the Live System and some minor cosmetic and application updates. If you are using the initial AV Linux MX 21 Edition you don’t need to update, you will get most of the important goodies through the Package Manager. This is merely to keep pace with Debian and MX point releases and to provide new users a fresh way to get on the AVL bus..

Changelog:

  • Fixed threadirqs on Live ISO.
  • Fixed ‘unknown Distro’ boot messages.
  • Fixed improper KDE frontend for Debconf.
  • Improved mimetype handling.
  • Added f2fs support to Thunar.
  • simplified /media mount paths in Thunar
  • Deb Installer in Thunar now uses ‘apt install’ and installs dependencies
  • Fixed GTK2 issues in default Diehard Theme.
  • Added new optional Light Diehard Theme and Icons.
  • Replaced XFCE4-Panel taskbar with docklike plugin
  • New improved Conky
  • Added more commonly used Apps to Openbox Menu ‘Favorites’
  • Updated Cinelerra-GG AppImage
  • Updated ACMT Plugin Demos to latest additions
  • Updated Harrison Mixbus Demo to v8

Get AV Linux 21.1 here: http://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/

 

MXDE 21.1

Driven by the need for a personalized Bullseye-based 32bit Operating System for an old Dell Inspiron laptop I still use for business and in response to numerous requests over the years for a bare version of AV Linux without all of the software and plugins installed I put together a new system based on my old D.E. flame… LXDE. After experimenting with the default config I came across zzzFM File Manager at the antiX forum and discovered it was also in the MX Test repo and I was blown away at how powerful and configurable it was and with many PM’s back and forth MX developer fehlix set his ingenuity loose and added some incredibly cool extra features obtaining OOTB exfat and f2fs filesystem support via udevil and we re-enabled Video thumbnail support and spruced it up a bit. I would like to mention that the developer of zzzFM ‘skidoo’ was facing some very serious health problems during it’s development and has been out of contact for many months. I say this to acknowledge him and send out a good thought to him and his family and also to reiterate that it is real people from all walks of life sometimes facing some very difficult situations that selflessly provide some of these wonderful applications and services that we use daily without thinking… I think the next time any of us fire up our favorite application or game we should say a quick mental thanks and send them some good vibes (or better yet a donation or some other form of encouragement!)

With all that said MXDE is not a full ready to use Desktop System like Wildflower, it is a lean and mean tuned base that is waiting for you to take it wherever you need it to go… It has it’s own project webpage at bandshed.net and whether you have old 32bit iron or the latest 64bit mobo that requires AHS support MXDE is ready to rawk!

Find it here: http://www.bandshed.net/mxde-a-custom-mx-linux-lxde-build/

Distro

AVL-MXE 21.2.1 + MXDE-EFL 21.2.2 Released!

AVL-MXE 21.2.1 + MXDE-EFL 21.2.2 Released!

Eeeeesh! What was intended as a routine ISO freshen up job went down the rabbit hole quickly but ended up in some pretty cool places and so here we are with new ISO’s of AV Linux MX Edition and MXDE-EFL. It’s usually bad form to make deep changes to a ‘within-version’ ISO and better to save such tomfoolery for new releases but there were some pretty strong motivating factors to jerk the wheel and take that left turn in Albuquerque at this point. Much to my chagrin in the live music world a persistent quirk of human nature is the old “people don’t know what they like… they like what they know” mindset.. well it affects Linux Desktop Users too.. When AVL-MXE 21 came out I wanted to trim the resource consumption of XFCE4 and also put together something a little less ‘garden-variety’ because one of the things I loved about Linux when I got onboard many years ago was how it was ‘alternative’, a different way to do the same things… I thought a Distro catering to artists should be different than your basic Office box and have some art within itself. Well it seems I was dead wrong on that one! For the most part the reviews and the User comments have not been terribly positive about Openbox, most people like how the system works, they just don’t want to look at it…lol. We have entered a time where computers have become powerful enough and RAM and storage has become plentiful and cheap enough that resource consumption is much farther down the list of concerns than it ever was. New Linux shoppers in large part want their Desktops to be big, familiar and enterprise-y, Linux Desktops that are clever, crafty and light for the sake of lightness will always have their devoted adherents as MX-Fluxbox and antiX will readily show but I feel that these types of projects are more used and tried by people that have been under the Linux tent for a while or are tireless tinkerers. It seems AV Linux is an initial point of contact for many people trying Audio and Video production on Linux for the first time so although I may have my pet opinions I’m not so stubborn that I can’t listen and change direction, the limitations and caveats imposed by Openbox were not the best decision in hindsight.

Before we get into all the juicy details I want to clarify why there are two different ISO’s being released at the same time… AVL-MXE is my main project and 90% of my spare time and focus go into it. It is the most complete, has been developed since 2008, it’s well documented and has the best prospects for support. As I have elaborated above I need to be (more) mindful of keeping it mainstream and User friendly, so what then is the ‘Distro artistic’ outlet…? This is where my new love MXDE-EFL comes in… it is designed for Artists and Content Creators as well but it is off the beaten path with the quirky but beguiling Enlightenment Desktop Environment, it is new, not documented, will never see the same level of support as AVL-MXE and is most definitely not going to be a good choice for people that are new to Linux. If you want to get off on strong footing choose AV Linux, if you want to take the scenic route with the knowledge you’re on your own then take a vacation with MXDE-EFL..

First, the gratitude! I can honestly say that had I not made the move to MX Linux AV Linux would have withered and died by now. The excellent build toolchain, the patient and generous support of the Developers and Packaging teams and the camaraderie of the User Forum are the most amazing pillars of support you could ask for. This ISO was about 99% complete when a change in the Liquorix kernel broke the build system, MX does not rely on Liquorix even though they do provide it as an alternative, the development team (notably dolphin_oracle and fehlix) dove in and made some pretty substantial changes to the build system and made it work again within a week! Pipewire which is an emerging new Audio server is not currently recommended for Distros based on Debian Bullseye and dolphin_oracle has provided a working alternative setup of it in the MX Test Repo for those who want to experiment with it. Stevo from the Packaging team has been so accommodating and helpful that MXDE-EFL is named after him! Huckleberry Finn has saved my life on the Forum more times than I can count… Thanks so much MX folks!!

OK, time for the details! I can honestly say that there has never been a more feature-complete version of AVL-MXE with such a uniformly strong lineup of Applications. In this release, Linux for Content Creators no longer can be dismissed as a backwater niche. The Apps are in top form and have matured into true professional-grade rivals for their counterparts on other platforms..

AVL-MXE 21.2.1 Features/Changes:

Things lost:
– Openbox Window Manager is gone, replaced by native xfwm.
– Nitrogen is gone replaced by native xfdesktop.
– SLiM Login Manager is gone replaced by lightDM.
– The LXDE-based ISO build of ‘MXDE’ is gone, the classic GTK2 LXDE/Openbox is fading into oblivion.
– All 32bit ISO builds are gone, I simply don’t have the time for a use-case that has dwindled down to almost nothing..
– AVL-MXE Assistant has been broken into unbranded component utilities to be shared by AVL-MXE and MXDE-EFL.
– The overly huge ‘avl-mxe-extra-plugins-dist’ Package has been broken up into individual Plugin Packages.

Things gained:
– Liquorix Kernel 6.0.0-10.
– Full XFCE4 Desktop with Compton compositing.
– Jeremy Jongepier’s Graphical RTCQS Utility.
– Added Auburn Sounds Lens Plugin (free version)
– Added Socalabs Plugins
– Added Blender from blender.org at version 3.4.0.
– special udev rules for Ardour and various devices.
– New Evolvere Icons and updated ‘Diehard’ theming.
– Guitarix GX Plugins fixed for Reaper.
– New Conky and light Conky Editor

Things renewed:
– ACMT Plugin Demos updated to 3.1.2
– Ardour 7.2 official full ardour.org bundle! thanks to Paul Davis
– Audacity 3.2.2 with VST2 Plugin support..
* If you’re not a fan of newer Audacity builds you can install Audacity 2 from MX Repos.
– Avidemux 2.8.1.
– Cinelerra-GG 20221031
– Harrison Mixbus 32C 8.1.378 Demo
– Kdenlive 22.12.0
– Musescore 3.6.2
– Reaper 6.71 Demo with new CLAP Plugin support.
– Yabridge 5.0.2
– User Manual updated with help from Alex Gutierrez..

MXDE-EFL 21.2.1 Features/Changes:

– Liquorix Kernel 6.0.0-10.
– Enlightenment 0.25.4.
– Shut off troublesome Procstats module (caused instability).
– Theme changes and improvements.
– Added Multimedia launcher ‘Shelf’.
– Custom utilities are now shared from AVL-MXE.
– Custom utility for Desktop Icons and searchable Appfinder.
– Added Blender from blender.org at version 3.4.0.
– Added Socalabs Plugins
– Guitarix GX Plugins fixed for Reaper.
– New Conky and light Conky Editor
– Ardour 7.2 official full ardour.org bundle!
– Audacity 3.2.2 with VST2 Plugin support..
– Avidemux 2.8.1.
– Cinelerra-GG 20221031
– Kdenlive 22.12.0
– Reaper 6.71 Demo with new CLAP Plugin support.
– Yabridge 5.0.2
*NOTE MXDE-EFL does not include Harrison Mixbus 32C or commercial Plugin demos.

IMPORTANT NOTEWORTHY CHANGES!

This is the part where you hate me… The removal of Openbox and SLiM and all of the associated customizations and scripts was too deep to fix with Repository Packages or Updates. If you want the new changes with the full XFCE4 Desktop etc. then I’m afraid the only way to get them is to install from the ISO. You cannot update all changes from AVL-MXE 21.1 to 21.2.1 through regular updates..

The ‘avl-mxe-extra-plugins-dist’ Package that was previously a catch-all Package of extra Audio Plugins from various non-repository sources had ballooned to a ridiculous size and also contained a stupid amount of duplicate Plugins in LV2, LinuxVST2 and VST3 formats so I broke them all into separate Packages by name and format and created an online FTP where alternates can be accessed (it’s not a Repository just a hosted FTP archive). To save room and needless duplication on both the AVL-MXE and MXDE-EFL ISO’s I selected various popular Plugins in their various formats. VST3 was preferred over VST2 except in cases where there was only a VST2 option. The FTP is linked on the AVL-MXE website.

I am not ‘against’ the new Pipewire Audio server and I will look forward to a time when it is present in all Linux Distros in a final and stable form. At the current time it is progressing well but to be clear it is not yet a ‘better’ option for Professional Audio work. It may be better than a system where JACK and PulseAudio are not set up correctly but in AVL-MXE and MXDE-EFL JACK and Pulse are set up optimally for recording work. You can install and experiment with Pipewire from the MX Test Repo but it will undo and remove key PulseAudio components and break the existing ‘pajackconnect’ setup! I don’t use or test Pipewire on a daily basis and I will not divide my time to support an Audio server that isn’t currently implemented. If you use Pipewire I hope you have success with it but it will not be supported in AVL-MXE until the next full Debian and MX Linux releases, you’ve been warned!

These two ISO’s will most likely be my last releases on MX-21/Debian Bullseye, I need to focus on other important things for a while, and these ISO’s are leaving Content Creators in a good place until the next major Debian/MX Release. I desperately need people who use AVL-MXE to help other Users on the Forum. I only have so much time daily and just because I know my way around Linux Content Creation does not mean I know anything more than your average bear about Boot and Network issues etc. If you want to support AVL-MXE, support your fellow Users!

OK, enough!
You can get the ISO’s at the their respective Web pages!

Links:

AV Linux MX Edition 21.2.1

MXDE-EFL 21.2.2

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AVL-MXE and MXDE-EFL 21.3 ISO Update!

What!? Again!? Don’t panic, this is simply a fresh ISO Image aligning with the recent MX Linux 21.3 release. That said it’s quite surprising how many substantial updates have come along in a short time.. The changelogs below will indicate which updates will come to existing 21.2.1 Users through regular Repository updates and what updates are optionally available to be manually installed at the User’s discretion from the non-repo archives.

Special thanks to dolphin_oracle and Stevo for assistance on this update.

AVL-MXE 21.3 Changelog:

  • Hopefully fixed default wallpapers not showing up on some systems (ie Distrowatch…lolnotlol)
  • Removed resolvconf Package
  • Full upgrade to XFCE4 4.18 (repo)
  • New MX Deb-Installer tool (in repo)
  • Added Patchance and Raysession for modular workflows (in repo)
  • Update of Ardour to 7.2.123 with VST3 bus support (here)
  • Update of Audacity AppImage to 3.2.3 (here)
  • New default Skeuos-DIEHARD and Flat-Remix Icon theming (here)
  • Update of CinGG AppImage (here)
  • Update of Harrison Mixbus Demo to 8.2 (here)
  • Update of Reaper Demo to 6.73 (here)
  • Update and new icon for YADbridge (here)
  • Added promised but missing GX Plugins (here)

MXDE-EFL 21.3 Changelog:

  • Added missing GParted (repo)
  • New MX Deb-Installer Tool (in repo)
  • Removed resolvconf Package
  • Update of Ardour to 7.2.123 with VST3 bus support (here)
  • Update of Audacity AppImage to 3.2.3 (here)
  • Update of CinGG AppImage (here)
  • Update of Reaper Demo to 6.73 (here)
  • Update and new icon for YADbridge (here)

 

As usual it is highly recommended to download directly from my own project pages:

*NOTE A problem with internet connectivity on the original AVL-MXE ISO upload had been reported and is now fixed, if you encountered this issue you may need to re-download. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Get AVL-MXE 21.3  here

Get MXDE-EFL 21.3  here

*NOTE The GPG ISO signing key has changed from the previous releases. Also note that the ByteMark mirror will take some time to catch up and sync, it will be posted on the Website once it’s up.

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AVL Drumkits new Blonde Bop kits released!

Six years after the successful releases of the Red Zeppelin and Black Pearl AVL Drumkit libraries and LV2 Plugins I have once again partnered with x42 Plugins resident genius Robin Gareus to bring out brand new ‘Blonde Bop’ Drumkits in various library formats including Robin’s excellent LV2 Plugin. This new kit is a natural maple 4pc. TAMA Club Jam Bop Kit. Although small in stature this little kit kicks ass and has been sampled in two versions; a regular stick version and a super-phat version played with Promark Hot Rods! For all the details please set aside some time to watch the release Video, download links at the bottom of the post!

DOWNLOADS:

Blonde Bop Soundfont2

Blonde Bop SFZ

LV2 Plugin Binaries (All versions and platforms)

Deb Packages (AV Linux/MXDE-EFL Only!)

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Do-over! AVL-MXE 2020.12.03 Released!

Well… moving platforms is never easy and the wider exposure of the initial release ISO of AVL-MXE indicated that a few ponies got out of the corral on me… There was an internal checksum flaw in the 64bit ISO from my build environment that would prevent it from working with MX’s ‘Live USB Maker’ and this flaw could also potentially affect booting with other USB Key writing applications. If you were able to get the initial AVL-MXE installed and it is working for you there is no reason to be concerned this flaw does not affect integrity or security of the ISO. The cause of this was not easy to track down and if it were not for the tireless bulldog tenacity of MX dev ‘fehlix’ it would not be fixed. ‘dolphin_oracle’,  ‘Adrian’, ‘m_pav’ and ‘Stevo’ also deserve mention for their help behind the scenes… I can’t begin to describe the helpful generosity of the MX Developers, I’m very grateful!

So what else is fixed?

  • Updated Mixbus 32C demo to 6.2.70
  • Updated Qjackctl to 0.6.3
  • Updated Guitarix to 0.41
  • Fixed fugly QT5 number boxes.. eughhh!
  • Libreoffice updated to 7.0.3
  • Added GPG signatures to ISO files
  • Updated and synced all repos
  • Updated User Manual

Big news!

AVL-MXE gets many Multimedia applications from the included KXStudio repos, over time the focus of the KXStudio repos has shifted from General Applications to Audio Plugins.. The fallout from this has been some common Linux Audio Applications (ie Hydrogen, Qjackctl, Qtractor, Guitarix and Yoshimi) have aged to a few versions old and have fallen through the cracks.. I talked to MX Packager extraordinaire ‘Stevo’ and he agreed to package these few applications and they will soon appear in the MX Test repos! A huge thanks to Stevo and the MX packaging team, with these great apps now within MX this is a big step in helping AV Linux and MX merge together more closely in the future!

FAQ’s

Q: Where is the Installer Icon on the 32bit Openbox ISO?

A: Right-click on the Desktop and the Installer is at the top of the Openbox Menu..

Q: The initial Ardour plugin scan fails!?

A: The Ardour scan will also scan some example WindowsVST plugins and the scan can fail if Wine-Staging has not been previously initiated on the system and gets forced to initialize on-the-fly by the Plugin scan.. To avoid this run ‘Configure Wine-Staging’ from the AVL-MXE Assistant to initialize Wine-Staging’s config before running Ardour for the first time and running the plugin scan. Look at the User Manual pages 57-58 for details..

Q: Libreoffice has a dark theme and I can’t see the toolbar icons!!

A: Libreoffice 7 will reflect the default ‘Diehard’ theme, if you want the toolbar icons to appear with more contrast then go to the Libreoffice Writer ‘Tools’–>’Options’–>’Libreoffice’–>’View’ and the select ‘Breeze Dark’ icons.

Q: I hate your stupid RT kernel and I want 3rd party Video Drivers!!!

A: Ok, you’re being rude…but… The special RT Preempt kernel is not hardcoded… it is the initial offering to offer the best low-latency operating potential and it is not common at all to have an out of the box RT setup so I offer one.. AVL-MXE has almost too many optional Kernel choices… You can install an AV Linux ‘lowlatency’ Kernel, you can install the high performing Liquorix Kernel, you can install one of the MX Kernels or you can install a Debian Kernel. I do not personally maintain or support the installation of 3rd party Video drivers but MX has applications and documents explaining how to do this and you are more than welcome to take advantage of them! As we get more users doing this we will get better data as to what the most straightforward way to achieve this is..

Q: Synaptic Package Manager tells me I have held packages and doesn’t apply the changes… what’s up with that??

A: The official MX Answer is to use their excellent MX Package Installer as an alternative to Synaptic but if you’re like me and very used to Synaptic hit the ‘Apply’ button in Synaptic a second time and the changes should go through..

 

You can find the updated ISO’s on the AVL-MXE Webpage!

 

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AVL-MXE 2021.05.22 ISO Update!

AVL-MXE-2021.05.22-Changelog.

Well what began as a bugfix/maintenance release has snowballed into a quasi new-features release especially in the case of the 64bit version with a move to Openbox and SLiM in an effort to put XFCE4 on Keto… As always the huge amount of helpful support and the generosity of the MX Linux developers, packagers and community have made this release possible.

32bit Version

– Fixed missing pulseaudio-module-jack.
– Fixed missing a2jmidid.
– Corrected Liquorix Repo for Buster.
– Removed now obsolete libfaudio OBS Repo.
– Changed ISO Live boot to Auto Login.
– Updated and enhanced User Manual significantly… PLEASE READ, THEN READ AGAIN!
– Updates and improvements to the AVL-MXE Assistant to make it take up less screen space.
– Tweaks to Default Diehard theming and AVL-MXE Logo and new DH Wallpapers.
– Move to a more traditional panel and taskbar from the previous Dock setup.
– Added several new Audio Plugins: Drops, MZuther Plugins, Airwindows.
– Updated SFizz to 1.0.
– Updated Dragonfly Reverbs to latest to fix random noise issue.
– Updated Ardour to 6.7.
– Updated Reaper build to 6.28 (now with LV2 Plugin support!).
– Updated Harrison Mixbus demo to 7.0.150.

Existing AVL-MXE 32bit users can obtain the updated Plugin Package here:

*Note, if you install this updated package you need to re-run LinVST!

64bit Version

– Changed Window Manager to Openbox!
– Removed xfwm and xfdesktop.
– Changed Wallpaper application to Nitrogen.
– Changed Login Manager to SliM.
– Created and added some background helper scripts for Openbox.
– Corrected Liquorix Repo for Buster.
– Removed now obsolete libfaudio OBS Repo
– Updated and enhanced User Manual significantly… PLEASE READ, THEN READ AGAIN!
– Updates and improvements to the AVL-MXE Assistant to make it take up less screen space.
– Tweaks Default Diehard theming and AVL-MXE Logo and new DH Wallpapers.
– Move to a more traditional panel and taskbar from the previous Dock setup.
– Added some new Audio Plugins: Drops, MZuther Plugins.
– Updated SFizz to 1.0.
– Updated Dragonfly Reverbs to latest to fix random noise issue.
– Updated Ardour to 6.7.
– Updated Reaper build to 6.28 (now with LV2 Plugin support!).
– Updated Harrison Mixbus demo to 7.0.150.
– Updated ACM Plugin demos to version 3.0.0.

Existing AVL-MXE 64bit users can obtain the updated Plugin Package here:

*Note, if you install this updated package you need to re-run LinVST!

**IMPORTANT!!

– Do not post tech support questions in Blog posts or my Youtube Videos, I do not check either regularly at all. Please join the MX Linux forum and post tech support questions in the ‘MX Respins‘ forum section and specify that you are using AVL-MXE in your subject.

– Installer is the top menu item in Openbox menu… right-click and installer is right there!

– Wine-Staging has broken Windows VST Plugin support over several updates..
To ensure WinVST is working OOTB in all provided DAWS I have decided to lock Wine-Staging
at version 6.2 and have kept a slightly older version of LinVST (3.1.5) because it seems to reliably work in both Ardour and Reaper. If you want to risk breaking it all that’s your choice and you can unlock Wine-Staging in a Root terminal with ‘apt-mark unhold winehq-staging’. If you have no idea what any of this all means leave it at the default setting and profit!

As usual PLEASE download from the AVL-MXE Webpage… if you find AVL-MXE useful and produce Multimedia Content with it please consider supporting the project with a Donation! Any amount helps and a portion of donations are passed upstream for Kernel development, to ardour.org and to MX Linux.

  I’ve done an example Video of how to set up Wine-Staging and Windows VST Audio plugins while running a Live boot session or for a fresh install:

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