README

Science and Music Research Group
Live Software Distribution/Demonstration images
===============================================

These are debian live-build configurations to build a
hybrid iso (one that can be written to a USB stick or
to a CD-ROM).

The base distribution is wheezy (currently testing).

The live image produced is based on packages obtained
from debian main with the following exceptions:

 * alsa-firmware-loaders (from contrib)
   and its dependencies
 * firmware for the Tascam US-122 used locally
   at the SMRG: this was obtained from
      ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/firmware/
 * Rosegarden with the SMRG Codicil (pitch tracking
   of live performances). This is now incorporated
   into the main stream of Rosegarden as of v11.11,
   but we distribute our development version along
   with its source snapshot.

The rest of the material here is by members of the
SMRG, in alphabetical order:

   Nick Bailey
   Bill Evans
   Dougie McGilvray
   Graham Percival

and is made available under the GPL and, where noted,
other licences.

SMRG Applications on this distribution
--------------------------------------

 * 19cl: a PD application to allow a WX7 wind controller
         and two foot switches to be played in 19ET
 * Ill-Tempered Clavier: uses fluidsynth retuned to permit
         performance of 19-ET pieces on a "scordatura"
         keyboard
 * The Rosegarden Codicil: a version of the Rosegarden
         sequencer incorporating pitch tracking.
 * SMRGygurdy: a physical-model-based MIDI hurdygurdy using
         Graham Percival's artifastring library.

Building
--------

   apt-get install live-build
   lb clean && lb config && lb build

depending upon the current configuration, produces either

 * a file called binary-hybrid.iso which can be
   dd'd onto a USB flash key (NOT a partition of it!) or
   used by (e.g.) wodim to write a CD; or

 * binary.img which can be dd'd to a USB flash key or
   disk which is the used as a conventional bootable
   partition.

live-build issues
-----------------

As a bug-fix, the file

   ./config/hooks/006-kernel.binary
   ./config/hooks/006-syslinux.binary

contains code to move the kernel files to a place where
the boot loader will find them and to rename the isolinux
files to syslinux. Hopefully this can be removed as the
wheezy version of live-build stabilises. Look for comments
in ./binary.log starting NB: which should give a clue as
to when this happens.


Build/Release Notes
-------------------

  *Addition of the default user to the group iocard*

This should simply be a matter of adding a boot-time parameter to
auto/config, e.g.

...
        --bootappend-live "locales=en_GB.UTF-8 keyboard-layouts=gb user-default-
+groups=audio,cdrom,dip,floppy,video,plugdev,netdev,powerdev,scanner,bluetooth,i
+ocard persistent" \
...

or by the addition of a file with he extensions .preseed.chroot
in config/preseed containing the line

user-setup passwd/user-default-groups string [space-separated list of groups]


  *Pre-loading of usbdux/comedi modules*

This is imposed by an entry in /etc/modules. There are issues with the
hot-plugging of a usb-dux interface, which can result in the filesystem
becoming unstable.

Best to plug the usb-dux in before booting up the system, and then removing
and reinserting the USB plug if /dev/comedi* devices don't appear.


  *Installation of a debian system from this stick is untested!*

Only try it if you know what you're doing.

If you're going to add material to the stick, you'll probably want
to install and set-up apt-cacher-ng to limit the quantity of network
traffic by caching downloaded deb files locally. For this reason,
auto/config has the --apt-http-proxy set to localhost:3142.
To persude the bootstrap phase to use the cache too, it's necessary
to export http_proxy=http://localhost:3142/ as well.