Today I've done the following:
System tweaks and stuff
I've set the noatime mount option for my drives to increase performance.
With Boot-Up Manager (BUM) I disabled some services that I don't think I need running all the time.
My accents (as in é and á) didn't work - I fixed this with "setxkbmap se" (as I'm using a Swedish keymap).
Software updates
Thanks to khashayar, I now have Ardour 2.7.1 and Audacity 1.3.6 as well as recent versions of LMMS and Rosegarden - from www.getdeb.net. I haven't had much time to try them out yet, but Ardour does seem a bit faster than I'm used to.
Dual screen, big desktop
I have literally spent HOURS trying to figure out how to use both of my screens (the laptop's 1280x800 screen and my LCD with 1280x1024) for one, continuous desktop. After screwing around endlessly with aticonfig, I realized that the proprietary fglrx driver does not support such a virtual desktop - both screens would need to have the same resolution. I can, however, switch screens (this is called "clone mode") which is more than nothing, I guess. Apparently I can't install the more recent (and open source) radeon driver, as it depends on the drm module which throws a "Can't allocate memory" error when I try to modprobe it.
I checked in Ubuntu 8.10, and sure enough, the radeon driver is on and configuring the dual monitor desktop is easy as pie. No screwing around in the console (aticonfig) or with some proprietary controller software (amdcccle) - just click, drag and apply. Things do get better, it seems. Too bad the realtime kernel in Intrepid doesn't work with dual core processors. I know, I'm repeating this in each blog post, but it really is annoying. (On a side note: there seems to be a war between two drivers: radeon and radonhd. It is amusing and tragic at the same time).
Further steps
1. One comment to the bug report suggests that it's possible to install an older kernel in Intrepid and be able to use real time capabilities. I might try this. I'm pretty sure I have already but I can't remember what happened.
2. Do I really need real time capabilities? Maybe I can do without it for now?
3. Maybe I should check out the 64 bit version of Ubuntu Studio.
4. I must go to bed much earlier than 5am.
Alright, since I've made myself a regular on your blog, here come a few other comments :-)
SvaraRaderaI've actually been thinking about it myself, using intrepid + an old kernel. But you really should rebuild the hardy kernel in an intrepid environment if that's what you're attempting. If I switch, and manage to rebuild the kernel, I'll share the debs here.
Regarding real time capabilities, yes, you need it for music production. Well, at least I need it. I get xruns all the time without.
One more thing you might want to do in your fine tuning process, is to google for rtirq.sh and read up on it :-)
Regards fglrx and radeonhd, if your drm module can't allocate memory, it may be because it is locked by the fglrx module. Add "blacklist fglrx" to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist temporarily, so that the module is not automatically loaded at boot time, reboot, and then try again with radeonhd.
SvaraRaderaAlso, AMD has just released driver code for your hardware, so I would expect that Jaunty, as well as containing a hopefully better RT kernel, will contain fully functioning open source graphics code.
khashavar: This might be a stupid question, but what exactly is the difference between the environments? Is it that different libraries are used etc.?
SvaraRaderaI guess you could live without real time capabilities if there was no need for low latency, but when recording and overdubbing audio I realize it's quite necessary.
Thanks, I'll read up on rtirw.sh!
tsmithe: Thanks, I will try that.
Good to hear that AMD has released the driver code. I too have high hopes for Jaunty!
From my experience, it's precisely that, the libraries. libc6 comes to mind wrt kernel compilation.
SvaraRaderaRead this thread: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-studio-users/2008-December/003696.html. Most importantly, read the follow-ups (cause I don't think the OP's suggestion is a good idea!)