Fun Upgrade Project and Linux Rant

Woo!  So I finally got Ubuntu Studio in a working state on my computer.  The details are a bit fuzzy, because of how long it's been since I've done the project, but here are some points of discussion

• Linux: Long on features; short on usability
• MS and Apple: Why no FLAC or OGG support?
• Why is iTunes so bloated?
• Can't we all agree on a better system than FAT (or NTFS) as the lowest common denominator?
• Why won't Amarok compile on my Mac?

This is a really short post because I forgot what all I wanted to put on here, but these are some points that I may discuss further if I get comments on here.

Suggestions for Improving MuseScore

Note: I originally started this post in February, but got busy with my study abroad and forgot about it.  This is mostly based on MuseScore 1.0 and some complaints may have been long fixed in the development branch.

Since I discovered MuseScore last year, I've been back in the digital composition world. In the before times, I used Finale PrintMusic, but when I got my own computer, I couldn't take the program with me, being a Mac and the program for my family's PC, so I took my .mus files and sat on them, hoping to use them again someday. Eventually I found Muse and the earlier betas of MuseScore and did not enjoy using them that much because they crashed all the time on Mac OS. I came back the the program about 6 months later and was impressed at how it actually worked this time. I've been using it since then to write new music, re-imagine music I made under Finale, and arrange music.

After using it fairly heavily this past year, I have a long list of tips and suggestions for future development and users that I hope will be found to be constructive. I know I should submit all these to the bug tracker and/or feature request forums, but I'm a college student short on time, so here they shall reside until I can get time to atomize this long list into separate posts.

Although nothing can compare to LilyPond when it comes to printing music in a high-quality manner, MuseScore has impressed me, even more so than Finale. Without more exposition, here are the suggestions for you to browse and enjoy.

Computer (sort of) working.

Everything has a trade-off.  My computer has a 640GB drive with 100 GB partitions for Windows and Mac OS, a 45GB Linux partition, and the rest for data.  This works fairly well, except it makes iTunes (in Snow Leopard) asplode [sic] due to it not being in the fruit drive in the iTunes-approved format. Once Amarok gets a binary for Mac OS and I've got something with which to import my iTunes meta data, I'm switching to all Amarok, all the time.

One thing about Linux is that I used not to be able to use sound.  Now, both headphone and speaker output works (Jack and MuseScore haven't been getting along, but that's another rant), but the touchpad won't work.

Meh.  This is a trade-off between writing (something I usually avoid) and playing a some games in an un-optimal position due to losing my two prong front to my charger and the three prong adapter not cooperating my my dining room wall outlet.

New Post

Since I seem to only post once a year, I decided to get this year's post out of the way. I never did get my linux working quite right. If I do post again, I'll tell you about my experience upgrading my hard drive and new data structure

Helpful Hint

If you want to have consistent posting for a blog, don't go to college

Boot Ubuntu Studio with Mac OS on Macbook Pro

Intro:

I wanted to dual boot my 13” Macbook Pro with Linux because some of my favorite applications are Linux-only and I didn’t want to get stuck running OpenLINA all the time. However, I wanted to use Ubuntu Studio, a multimedia variant of Ubuntu which does not have a graphical installer. All the other tutorials I found in on the first page on Google said to install use the entire disc for the install and I wanted to dual boot. Please note that there aren’t screenshots, so please use your brain. If you have questions, try commenting.

Disclaimer(s):

1.) Seeing as this is a dual-boot tutorial, I am going to remind you all to back up your data. Because this dual-boot involves a Mac, there is absolutely NO reason not to back up. Time machine is stupidly easy to use. For more information, go to the Apple website and find a Time Machine tutorial.
2.) I used this method on a 13" Macbook Pro running Leopard - Macbook Air users, please note that you'll need an external disc drive
3.) Keep your computer plugged in. No point on a failed install because you ran out of batteries

Things You'll Need:

• rEFIt (rEFIt.sf.net) - a graphical boot loader for use with EFI systems
• Ubuntu Studio (http://www.ubuntustudio.org) - I used the 9.04, 64 bit edition
• A Mactel computer
• A back-up disk

The Procedure:

gathered from various other tutorials I read and my own experience of this install:

1. Back everything up. Since Ubuntu Studio does not have a graphical installer, it would presumably be easier to format the wrong partition than on your standard dual boot installation. If this is your first back up, you may want to leave your computer on overnight to transfer everything to the external disk. It took me about an hour to back up about 33 GB of data to my 1 TB MyBook. You may want to leave it running to backup overnight. Be sure you have your computer plugged in so that your batteries don’t die on your backup.
2. Install rEFIt (http://rEFIt.sf.net) - this just makes everything easier when restarting
3. Download and burn Ubuntu Studio to a DVD (it is too big for a CD, being about 1.8 GB). Disk Utility is great for burning ISO files.
• This is the first of several time-consuming steps – you have been warned
4. Partition your hard drive. I used Boot Camp and let the "Windows" partition be where Linux will go and gave it 32 GB, figuring that I can use my main partition and external hard drive for storage, I’d give it just enough room for the kernel and some applications.
5. Once Boot Camp is done, click the quit and install later button. If you open Disk Utility, you should notice a BOOTCAMP partition on your main hard disk.
6. Make sure your computer is connected to the internet with an Ethernet cable. I read somewhere that internet helps you install better and Ubuntu Studio doesn’t support AirPort or wireless when it is being installed, although once instaled, AirPort should work out of the box
7. Restart your computer. You should see a rEFIt menu with a choice of your install disc and booting from your hard drive. Choose the disc (it has a large penguin logo and a small disc icon)
8. When the disc boots, select your language and then select the “Install Ubuntu Studio” option or check the dick for defects first, to make sure it was a good burn. (Again: rather safe than sorry).
   • Note: this may take some time (I guessed about 30 minutes)
9. Enter the information as it asks
10. At the [!!] Partition disks screen, select manual
11. On the next screen, select the free space you created and press enter. In my case, it is partition #3 (34.2 GB) fat32 “Untitled”
    1. The next steps are tricky. You now can rename your partition, set its mount point, set its bootable flag to “off,” and do other things. First, set it to be used as your preferred file system (I recommend ext4 or XFS – chose ext4). Then,
    2. Set it to mount as /
    3. After you are satisfied with your partition, scroll down to “Done setting up the partition” and press enter
12. Now, create your swap partition:
    1. Find some free space slightly larger than your RAM and create a new swap partition there or resize one of your other partitions to create your free space. Although you may never use it for paging, it is used for hibernation
    2. If you chose to resize your main partition, you must write the previous changes to your disk before continuing
    3. Once you have some free area, select it, hit enter, and partition it as swap space
13. Then scroll down to “Finish partitioning and write changes to disk” and press enter again
14. Make sure you’re happy with the disk changes and say yes to continue
    • A partitions formatting screen may appear, then the installing the base system screen. This doesn’t take too long
15. It will ask you for personal information. Enter it to make your user account. It gives you the choice to encrypt your home directory, and it’s your choice as to whether you like encryption or not. Next is the network information.
16. Time to set up and install software – finally! This will take a while. Go grill something. Actually, the first install does not take too long. Next, you are presented with four packages to install; you can select the ones you need. This is the time-consuming step
17. As on the Ubuntu website’s instructions, set the drive to /dev/sda3
18. FINALLY!! It will eject your DVD and try to restart your computer. You may need to hold down the power key to restart. When you restart, note that the penguin is now with a hard disk logo by it. Happy Linux!

Note:

There are still a few items to make it work smoothly in the Macbook Pro, I’ll cover those in a later tutorial

Coming next: a tutorial on how to create an acceptable a cappella version of a song from a single recording.