Posted by d.j. in CPU overclocking/unlocking, Hardware, Linux, Operating Systems, Ubuntu.
Tags: Karmic Koala, Phenom II X3 720 BE, Ubuntu, Ubuntu 9.10
My Phenom II X3 720 (Heka core, 2.8 GHZ) Black Edition is now running with all 4 cores in Ubuntu. I purchased a new motherboard, ram and the X3 all at the same time last month. Some of the older steppings of this processor may not allow this procedure. My CPU has a product number (OPN) of HDZ720WFGIBOX. The serial number should begin with a 9. It is Socket AM3.
The motherboard is a Gigabyte MA785GM-US2H. It has a dual bios built in. It also allows you to image the bios to disk (make sure you have an NTFS or FAT32 partition) so you can easily undo this if problems arise.
Here’s how to do it.
Restart your computer and enter the BIOS. Look for a setting called Advanced Clock Calibration. My board uses an Award BIOS and I found it in the MB Intelligent Tweaker (M.I.T.) menus. It so happens it is the first item selectable in the M.I.T.
Open Advanced Clock Calibration. There you will find the two pertinent options, EC Firmware Selection and Advanced Clock Calibration again. To enable the fourth core, change EC Firmware Selection to Hybrid (normal is default) and Advanced Clock Calibration needs to be set to All Cores (disabled is default).
That’s all there is to it. Back out by pressing esc until you get back to the Main Menu. Select Save & Exit Setup, answer Y to save your changes and the system will reboot.
This procedure will work with some other motherboards as well. Just do your research. There is reported success unlocking additional cores with the Phenom II 550 BE as well.
Next, we have the latest release of Ubuntu, Karmic Koala, 9.10. While at first I had problems on older hardware, it turns out the best thing to do is get your best kit and have a go at upgrading. Better yet, if you can, do a clean install, as Ubuntu now supports the Ext4 filesystem by default. Upgrades will retain their Ext3 filesystems.
I was a little leery of Ubuntu 9.10. Previous experience with the last intermediate release before a new Long Term Support release was no fun. When they rolled out previous intermediates, I had the impression it was really an extension of beta testing. I’ve had my share of things “breaking” with these. In one case I got rid of the Ubuntu install and installed the latest stable Debian. But then I got tired of Debian being so slow to offer improvements and went back to Ubuntu.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes wrote a piece back on October 2 and I responded to his article with what you read in the previous paragraph. But Canonical has evidently improved its process and has made a technological leap with this release. Even though it’s six months until the release of Lucid Lynx, the next LTS release set for next April, it looks to be the finest Linux release ever in my estimation. Karmic promised much and delivered as long as you are running relatively new hardware. Canonical is positioning itself as a major supplier of modern operating system software.
But don’t take my word for it. Try it yourself. If you’re running windows, you can install Ubuntu and, if need be, remove as you do any other Windows application. Use Wubi to do this. Or download the live CD from Ubuntu. You won’t believe what you can get for no more than the effort of a download.
If you don’t have broadband access, you can purchase a full set of the release. Make sure you understand the upgrade process before you do though. It may make more sense to wait until next April for the release of Ubuntu 10.4.
Posted by d.j. in Debian, Linux, media, Ubuntu.
Tags: Debian, kernel, Linux, low latency, Rosegarden, Ubuntu
This has been an unanticipated adventure: getting my midi keyboard working with Ubuntu. After installing the midi sequencer of choice, on running, it informed me that the system timer resolution was too low. Having only used midi software in Windows previously, this seemed cryptic, yet understandable. Obviously the midi software wasn’t able to set interrupts at frequent enough intervals for real time processing.
This led to a somewhat frantic search to solve this problem. It’s amazing what you can find if you but look. Another flavor of Ubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, and a specialized 64-bit Debian release, 64 Studio, were unearthed in my quest. What a revelation!
I’ve been an amateur musician nearly all my life. In my experience, musicians aren’t in the least intimidated by technology when it can aid them in their pursuit. This observation was validated upon close examination of both these releases. The software included far exceeds my modest needs.
Video production, 3D modeling, multimedia content creation and desktop publishing tools are also part of the the two Debian-based distributions. If real-time processing is a necessity for you, I urge you to give Ubuntu Studio and 64 Studio a look.
Installation of Ubuntu Studio was simply a matter of finding the packages in Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10′s software repositories. I simply searched for “Ubuntu Studio” in Synaptic Package Manager and installed all selected applications and libraries. If you have even a modestly sized hard disk, this should not be a problem. Linux applications don’t suffer from nearly the bloat that plagues Windows applications of similar capability. The real time kernel was automatically included within this search. Reverting to the generic kernel is simply a matter of selecting the desired kernel at boot-up from the GRUB menu. Getting my midi keyboard to work was easy too. I have an Edirol UM-1SX USB midi interface. There was no problem trying to find drivers as Synaptic takes care of all software dependences and contingencies. Rosegarden (the midi sequencer) had no problem utilizing the interface or accessing the features of my keyboard. As a Windows Finale (Coda Software) user, I had no problem making the adjustment. Standard music notation makes any musician welcome to this setup.
If you are a musician or digital artist, give 64 Studio and Ubuntu Studio a look. It’s amazing what you can get for no more than the time and effort spent downloading.
