[Ardour-Users] Which distro best supports Ardour using the Delta 44 (ICE1712)?

[James P. Early]

Wow, I certainly came to the right place! I very much appreciate all
the fine suggestions. I, too, am inclined to think that the
introduction of Pulse Audio has complicated the setup of this card
under Ubuntu, as evidenced by the multiple "workarounds" that have
been released (with varying success).

Noel, I think I'm going to take your advice and try Gentoo with the
pro audio overlay. I appreciate your offer for additional details, and
I will contact you directly when the process is further along. These
audio-related distros are convenient, but I learned so much more when
I was managing my own installations. I want to try reconnecting with
what's "under the hood."

Once I get the system up and running, I think I'll give Kxstudio a try
(Thanks, Paul!). I'm intrigued that they have seemingly integrated
pulseaudio with jack, although I'm not sure if my Delta 44 is fully
supported. We'll see.

Again, please accept my sincere thanks for your help.
~Jim

On Sun, Mar 20, 2011 at 9:21 PM, James P. Early <earlyjp at cs.oswego.edu> wrote:
> Greetings everyone,
>  I'm writing in hopes that some experts can help me identify which
> distro gives me the best chance of bringing up a new AMD system using
> the M-Audio Delta 44, specifically to run Ardour. For the past few
> months, I've been assembling the following system, piece by piece:
>
> CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 (640 Propus)
> MoBo: Asus M4A785-M
> Sound card: M-Audio Delta 44 (Alsa ICE1712 driver)
>
> Long story short -- I'm getting back into recording after a multi-year
> hiatus. I happily used Ardour with my Delta 44 back then, so I decided
> to assemble a new system to take advantage of advances in hardware.
> Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find a modern distro that can make
> Jack and the Delta 44 coexist. Basically, jackd either reports
> "Already in use" or dies after about 30 seconds with a timeout error.
> (Note: I've disabled on-board audio devices in the BIOS) My most
> recent travails with Ubuntu Studio can be read here:
>
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1709846
>
> So, I'm looking for advice. Is there a modern distro that can work
> with this Mobo/interface? Anyone else using this? The Ubuntu Launchpad
> is full of angry users who have been complaining about ICE1712 related
> bugs for years, so perhaps I should abandon it. How about 64 Studio,
> AV Linux, or Planet CCRMA? Or, should I start with something really
> small and build up instead?
>
> Thanks in advance for your help,
> ~Jim
>