Why having a backup operating system (live or separate partition..) is important

C

CrazedNerd

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So I just had a very nerve-wracking experience that I was luckily able to fix...

So currently I have dual boot Ubuntu Studio and Ubuntu (latest versions of both...) and I tend to feel really comfortable editing the boot file to customize things the way I want. Something that was really annoying me overall was that on the grub loader screen, instead of it saying Ubuntu Studio for the selection, it said "Ubuntu (low-latency)". So I went into the file and thought I changed it to Ubuntu Studio, looking for menu configuration. Then I rebooted, and just got a grub command line instead! I was freaking out...I currently don't have a M.2 reader external to my computer so i could recover files, and i have so many shell scripts and written libre documents i've made and i'd hate to lose them...

So, I went into the BIOS, and there was a second partition i could launch into, but i was pessimistic because it was exactly the same in writing as the other one. However, it booted into the standard Ubuntu partition, and i was very relieved: that had all the important stuff, and i already backed up the completed audio recordings and project files from Ubuntu Studio. Then, i went and opened up the grub.cfg file from Ubuntu Studio, and instead of it saying what i wanted, it said:

Code:
'Ubuntu Studio''

So I just removed the extra single quote, and voila, it worked the way it was supposed to! Who would have thought that a missplaced single quote would ruin your entire operating system, holy crap!
 
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That's why I've always had an image of my Drive kept on an external HDD because you never know when disaster is going to strike.
m1212.gif
 
Ubuntu Studio
Hey,
Is there a difference between Ubuntu Studio and other general linux distributions? I still have to keep a separated windows drive for my music softwares and currently trying out some alternatives like XMMS, Ardour on linux mint. I am wondering what Ubuntu Studio offers other than preinstalled softaware bundle. Is there a kernel modification or something like that?
 
Hey,
Is there a difference between Ubuntu Studio and other general linux distributions? I still have to keep a separated windows drive for my music softwares and currently trying out some alternatives like XMMS, Ardour on linux mint. I am wondering what Ubuntu Studio offers other than preinstalled softaware bundle. Is there a kernel modification or something like that?
Its basically a version of ubuntu with a ton of music software. It has served me well. It has adifferent desktop environment, file manager, and terminal.
 
I was freaking out...I currently don't have a M.2 reader external to my computer so i could recover files, and i have so many shell scripts and written libre documents i've made and i'd hate to lose them...
I have Puppy on a USB for cases like these.
Even fix a few 'dll missing' in the Windows days.
Now I do like Bob.
 
Hey,
Is there a difference between Ubuntu Studio and other general linux distributions? I still have to keep a separated windows drive for my music softwares and currently trying out some alternatives like XMMS, Ardour on linux mint. I am wondering what Ubuntu Studio offers other than preinstalled softaware bundle. Is there a kernel modification or something like that?
In terms of the kernel - yes! The kernel used by Ubuntu Studio has a real-time patch applied, for recording low-latency audio. Whereas plain Ubuntu uses a slightly more vanilla kernel. Not completely vanilla because the Ubuntu devs usually apply a few custom patches/tweaks to their kernels.

Most distros don't ship with the real-time patch pre-installed as it's not usually required for most server, or desktop operations. It's only specialist use cases where the real-time patch might be needed.

But Ubuntu Studio has it pre-installed along with lots of audio/visual media related tools.
So it's a great way for musicians and other creatives to quickly get their home-studios up and running.

However - you can apply the real-time patch at any time you like on most other distros. Many distros have packages in their software repostories that will install the real-time patch. And for those that do not, you could always download the source code for the kernel yourself, apply the real-time patches and then build and install the kernel from source.

In Debian and any Debian derived distros (*buuntu, Mint etc) you can simply install the real-time patch via apt.
I have the real-time patch installed on my Debian laptop, to allow me to record audio with low latency in Ardour.
I'm currently using the latest version of Ardour, built from source, rather than the slightly older version of Ardour in the Debian repos.
 
Some info about the above:


They have a low-latency kernel, without the real-time kernel for the reasons they specify.

I want to say there was a major change with the 5.3.x kernels and that they once used a real-time kernel patch. But, don't quote me on that.
 
In terms of the kernel - yes! The kernel used by Ubuntu Studio has a real-time patch applied, for recording low-latency audio. Whereas plain Ubuntu uses a slightly more vanilla kernel. Not completely vanilla because the Ubuntu devs usually apply a few custom patches/tweaks to their kernels.

Most distros don't ship with the real-time patch pre-installed as it's not usually required for most server, or desktop operations. It's only specialist use cases where the real-time patch might be needed.

But Ubuntu Studio has it pre-installed along with lots of audio/visual media related tools.
So it's a great way for musicians and other creatives to quickly get their home-studios up and running.

However - you can apply the real-time patch at any time you like on most other distros. Many distros have packages in their software repostories that will install the real-time patch. And for those that do not, you could always download the source code for the kernel yourself, apply the real-time patches and then build and install the kernel from source.

In Debian and any Debian derived distros (*buuntu, Mint etc) you can simply install the real-time patch via apt.
I have the real-time patch installed on my Debian laptop, to allow me to record audio with low latency in Ardour.
I'm currently using the latest version of Ardour, built from source, rather than the slightly older version of Ardour in the Debian repos.
That clears a lot up then, lol. Latency is very important with recording.
 
Some info about the above:


They have a low-latency kernel, without the real-time kernel for the reasons they specify.

I want to say there was a major change with the 5.3.x kernels and that they once used a real-time kernel patch. But, don't quote me on that.
I’ll admit, I haven’t followed developments.
Previously, it used to be the real-time kernel patch. If there’s now a low-latency patch rather than real-time - that’s even better, I suppose?!
 
Previously, it used to be the real-time kernel patch. If there’s now a low-latency patch rather than real-time - that’s even better, I suppose?!

Yeah, they consider the RTK bad for desktops and great for appliances. That's the reason they made the change, and I assume the kernel started supporting it right around that version. I suppose the RTK would prioritize the "wrong" tasks, meaning slowdowns elsewhere? Like you, I haven't followed along all that well.
 
the real-time patch via apt
That's a relief. If I had to reinstall my system, I would be distrohopping for another 6 months. sigh
 


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