What is Planet CCRMA at Home?

Planet CCRMA at Home is a collection of free, open source software packages that you can add to a computer running Fedora 28, 29 or 30 Here at CCRMA we use a consistent and well defined Linux environment for our daily work in audio and computer music and research. With the Planet CCRMA at Home package collection, you can easily install most of that environment on your own Linux system.

You will only be able to install Planet CCRMA on top of the supported versions of Fedora. For other linux distributions see this entry in the FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions).

First pointers to answers to some important questions (that can, of course, be safely skipped :-)

how was the planet named?

how did it get created?

how old is it?

The Standard Disclaimer

It is time to say something before you start installing stuff in your computer...

The software made available for download in this area is offered as a convenience, and is distributed without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. You download and use software from this site at your own risk.

In no event will the owners and operators of this site or their institutions be liable to you for damages, including lost profits, lost monies, or other special, incidental or consequential damages arising out of or in connection with the use or inability to use (including but not limited to loss of data or data being rendered inaccurate or losses sustained by third parties or a failure of the program to operate as documented) the program, even if you have been advised of the possibility of such damanges, or for any claim by any other party, whether in an action of contract, negligence, or other fortuituous action.

Contents

The Planet CCRMA at Home collection consists of packages in the RPM Package Manager (RPM) format managed through the yum package manager. Some of the packages are newer versions of packages that come with the standard Fedora distributions. I have added others over the years to the CCRMA environment. By following the directions in the Planet CCRMA at Home pages, you can install some or all of these packages on your computer.

The collection includes a recent kernel with patches applied to lower the kernel's latency and make it completely preemptible. With a properly tuned system these patches make it possible to run music and sound programs with small audio buffers so that realtime processing applications are responsive to user inputs and there are no glitches in the input or output audio streams. It also includes a selection of useful programs for audio and musical applications.

Planet CCRMA at Home includes only a subset of all the available audio, midi and music applications for Linux. For a very complete listing of what's out there go to the well known Sound and MIDI Software for Linux (USA) web site, or one of its mirrors (in USA, Europe or Japan).

The package collection does not restrict itself to music applications, many other software packages I have installed or upgraded at CCRMA and make life easier in the Linux universe have found (or will find) their way to the Planet CCRMA collection.

Source rpms for all packages are also included, so that the advanced (or curious) user can recompile everything from scratch.

Installing

This document assumes that you already have a working Fedora installation and that you have some basic Linux knowledge. I'll try to explain everything in detail, but some concepts or explanations will have inevitable built-in assumptions that I'm not aware of. Let me know, and I'll try to explain those blurry parts in more detail.

Installing and upgrading Planet CCRMA at Home is managed by the yum package manager. All Planet CCRMA packages are stored in a yum repository that includes the complete base Fedora install, all its updates and the Planet CCRMA package collection.

If you are not Linux-literate don't despair, go find a friend that knows about Linux. He or she will most likely be happy to help. Don't forget to subscribe to the Planet CCRMA mailing list (low volume, subscribers only) to receive announcements about new or updated packages.