Magic Q PC and Linux

[johnhuson]

First off I'm very much a newbie to Linux so forgive me if I'm a little naive!

 

Here's the scenario, I'm planning on stripping my laptop and re-installing everything this weekend as it's quite cluttered and slowing down! As I've been using Magic Q PC more and more, I thought it would be nice to create a dual boot system so I have a clean and hopefully more stable OS to run Magic Q and another for the rest of my day to day stuff.

 

I'm leaning toward using Linux as the Magic Q OS, mainly because that is what the software was originally designed for I believe and also it has less baggage then Windows so should hopefully be more stable. Now as I say I'm a complete newbie to Linux and I've read that it can be quite difficult to install, particularly as a dual boot with Windows so is it worth it? Would I be better just using a CD bootable distro of Linux and would this offer any real advantage over having a HDD based version, bearing in mind I'm only planning on using one application.

 

If I were to go for a second HDD based boot of Linux which would be the best to use with Magic Q? Although I would like it to be not too much of a headache I'm not an idiot when it comes to computer, I've had many years experience of PCs, networks and servers, just largely Microsoft based!

 

Finally I don't want to get into a general discussion about whether Linux is better than Windows, were not a PC forum after all. My question is specific to a suitable OS for using Magic Q PC.

[themadhippy]

I'm running it under Ubuntu gutsy gibbon,only problem is it dosnt seem to like my screen resolution and every time I do something it redraws the screen,however on my old laptop it works fine.Gutsy is very simple to set up for dual boot,in most cases just boot from the live CD, click on the install icon on the desktop,answer a few question and of it goes.partions your hard drive,installs the operating system and sets up grub(the thingy that lets you select windoze or Linux when you boot up),all without upsetting your windoze install

[johnhuson]

Cheers for that, had been reading good things about Ubuntu. Will give it a shot but my laptop display is 1680 x 1050 so I'm guessing that I might also have screen resolution issues. DO you think this could be down to your graphics card not being well supported in Linux or is it just to do with a high resolution?

[tvi675]

Personally, and also from a ChamSys point of view, we would recommend a Debian based system - eg. Ubuntu. It's easy to use and MagicQ is well tested and proven on Ubuntu, in fact this is the OS that our Architectural Controllers are running. Installing the software is easy to do even from the terminal, to do it simply place it on the desktop and use the following commands (assuming the username is 'magicq'):

 

cd /home/magicq/Desktop
gunzip magicqlinuxv1_3_4_0.tar.gz
tar -xf magicqlinuxv1_3_4_0.tar

 

And you'll end up with a MagicQ folder on the desktop with the software ready to run in it.

 

With Ubuntu there are also some libraries to install to do with the FTDI driver which is the driver for running our MagicQ wings, and this can be done using the package manager under the system (or possibly administration.. something like that, it's escaped my memory!) menu. You may also possibly need to remove the 'brltty' package in the package manager as well as this has been known to cause problems on some systems.

 

With Ubuntu is is possible to run it from the CD and negate the need for dual booting your hard drive, however the startup time for running it off the CD is incredibly slow, and Ubuntu runs very slowly like this. The installer is great and simple to use, and has a partition manager for setting up the partitions. You can also reduce the size of your Windows partition in the Windows disk management app and Ubuntu will then detect this unused space and set itself up there.

 

We've got a guide to installing MagicQ on a Debian (specifically Ubuntu) system on our website on the downloads page, and any questions drop me an email or PM.

 

Regards,

 

Matt Lemon

ChamSys Ltd

[johnhuson]

Many thanks, Matt I was hoping that you would pop up with an answer but didn't expect it so quick! I had noticed that your consoles run a Debian based system but hadn't sussed that Ubuntu was Debian based, like I say I'm still very green when it comes to Linux. Thanks for the tip off about the guide on your website, will certainly have a good read.

 

Will have a crack at it this weekend and see how I get on, will report back with progress if anyone is interested.

[themadhippy]

my laptop display is 1680 x 1050 so I'm guessing that I might also have screen resolution issues. DO you think this could be down to your graphics card not being well supported in Linux or is it just to do with a high resolution

same screen resolution here,not sure what the problem is,possible the fact ive got all sorts of desktop effects enabled :** laughs out loud **:

[tvi675]

Could you drop me an email with your system specs and we'll look into any issues with the screen refresh in the Linux version? We haven't tested it out on a resolution that high (our monitors and graphics cards don't go that far!) so it would be good to look into if its an issue that we can resolve for you!

 

Matt

[themadhippy]

Will do.

Bloody ell free software thats fully functional without buying an expensive dongle, and there still willing to try and fix it for ya,now thats what I call service :** laughs out loud **:

[johnhuson]

Just out of interest, what interface are you using? Just discovered after chatting with Matt that the Enttec Open USB interface that I'm using at the moment isn't supported under the Linux and Mac versions of Magic Q, though there appears to be very good reasoning why not.

 

So looks like I'll be doing a dual windows boot for the time being and stripping one version down to the very bare essentials which will hopefully be stable enough until I get a better interface or Chamsys PC Wing.

[themadhippy]

Ha Ha that explains alot,also using the entec open interface,after much swearing and head scratching I gave up and use win 2k for actual show control.Be intrested to know the reason why the open dongle dosnt work

[gyro_gearloose]

Probably because the open version of the Enttec dongle is only a USB to RS422/485 interface and nothing more. It relies totally on the host PC to handle the timing of the data stream, and it may be this that is the problem with Linux/Mac versions of the driver. The Velleman DMX interface has its own processor to handle the DMX timing so it will be more stable than the Enttec interface. Its cheap too. CPC do the kit version for around £40. I'm not sure if theres a Linux driver for it though. Maybe the MagicQ dev. team could write one?

[tvi675]

The reason we don't support the Enttec Open interface on the Mac and Linux versions of MagicQ is because the Open device relies on the PC to handle the DMX timing, which is particularly difficult to deal with under these operating systems. Also, nothing against Enttec or their products, but we have found the Open device to be not as reliable and stable as the Pro, and would recommend that people use this in a show situation.

 

Matt

[gyro_gearloose]

What about a Linux driver for the Velleman interface? Is the interface itself as good as the Enttec? I only ask because the Velleman interface is about half the price of the Enttec Pro. and I'd like to know which is the best to go for.

 

I'm not too bothered about a Linux driver for the Velleman as I'm using Windows XP, though if there isn't one already it would be a good idea to develop one

[tvi675]

From a ChamSys point of view we would recommend the Enttec Pro because of its proven reliability for us, whereas we have not tested a Velleman interface ourselves. Personally, I have never used a Velleman interface so can't comment on it either.

 

Having just looked at the circuit diagram for the Velleman interface, the USB is handled by the PIC on the board rather than with an off the shelf USB interface chip (such as the FTDI chips) therefore we would not be able to support it on Linux or Mac without Velleman releasing a driver for these platforms.

 

With regards to price, you've got 18 universes of software for free so why not splash out on the interface?! :** laughs out loud **:

 

Matt

[indyld]

we have found the Open device to be not as reliable and stable as the Pro, and would recommend that people use this in a show situation.

 

I have also started using the Enttec Pro for this reason. It seems , even with a decent laptop running XP, the Open DMX was a bit jittery and too flaky for show conditions. Running it through a Lil DMXter showed up framing errors and dropouts that are down to the PC spitting out dodgy DMX. The problem was solved by cutting down the packet length to 120-whatever DMX channels (hardly ideal) which stabilised the framing.

 

The Enttec Pro is stable and, IIRC, supports RDM (not that much else does!).