Linux Setup Notes

Updated 13 December 2025

DO NOT RUN SCRIPTS THAT YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

Linux Mint 22.2 Installation
I am presently using Linux Mint 22.2 - Cinnamon as my preferred distro. I have installed the recommended vanilla updates.

Timeshift
Configure Timeshift now. This will simplify problem solving by making it so you can easily roll-back to an earlier installation. It is suggested to have both Boot and System snapshots stored and start with more copies being made as you get things set up and then wind that back as your system becomes more complete and shows its stability (hopefully this is true). I began with daily system snapshots and per boot snapshots. After two weeks I've dialed it back to keeping the last 2 Boot Snapshots and 5 daily System Snapshots. I will likely switch this to weekly snapshots and keep 4 if things maintain their present course (ie stable and no obvious issues).

Utilities
I have also installed Pipewire-Jack from the Software Manager. I also installed Midisport-firmaware from the Software Manager so my Midisport 4x4 USB interface would work. 

Low-Latency Kernel and Real-Time Audio Features
This is  a multi-step installation and configuration process. Before proceeding, check that Time Shift has previously been enabled to store a daily boot snapshot and system snapshot. If this is not the case, then before anything, set this up and reboot. Now we can proceed to install the Low-Latency kernel by opening the Terminal and entering the following command.
sudo apt-get install linux-lowlatency

When this has completed we need to add the current user to the Audio Group
sudo adduser USERNAME audio  (replace USERNAME with your your account name)

Next, navigate the Terminal to /etc/security/limits.d/.
cd /etc/security/limits.d/

Then create the audio configuration file
sudo touch audio.conf

Add two lines to the audio.conf file.
sudo nano audio.conf
@audio - rtprio 99
@audio - memlock unlimited

Now we need to install a performance configuration tool like Millisecond. This will enable checking on the system settings applied at startup to the real time kernel settings. Millisescond has suggestions on how to configure your system to make it more performant and point you to this website for instructions: https://wiki.linuxaudio.org/wiki/system_configuration#sysctlconf

Below are screen shots of the Terminal showing the Performance.sh shell script executable file that I double-click and run in the terminal before engaging in Linux Audio Production activities and the Millisecond application window.

Much editing of scripts and terminal use is needed to complete the above. Do not proceed if you are unsure. Additionally, there are services which will improve performance if disabled, but will result in a less secure system. Proceed with caution. I have chosen to do some of the provisions, but not the ones which put my machine at security or meltdown risk. Here is what my rtcqs_gui is showing with the above modifications all in place.

Housekeeping
From time to time it is a good idea to remove unwanted cruft from your OS. The following commands help with this.

sudo apt-get autoremove

sudo apt-get autoclean

Blender
I installed Blender by downloading the latest LTS installer from their website and extracted it with the Archive Manager to my Home Directory (the default Flatpack version is, in my opinion, way out of date). I also Right-Clicked on the Desktop to Create a New Launcher Here. This opens a  small application that allows you to point to an application and create a launcher icon. When you save this you will be asked if you would like this added to the menu. Choose "Yes" to have it appear in the "Other" category. You can then right-click on the Menu icon and choose to Configure the menu. From there you can open the Menu Editor and right-click cut and paste the launcher items into a new menu category, or other existing menu categories.

DaVinci Resolve  work. I'll leave the commands that were recommended here so I don't have look for them again. This assumes you have downloaded the named version from the Blackmagic website and have extracted the zip archive in the Downloads folder. If you download any DaVinici Resolve updates you will need to follow the below steps again.

DaVinci Resolve Installation

sudo SKIP_PACKAGE_CHECK=1 ~/Downloads/DaVinci_Resolve_20.3_Linux/DaVinci_Resolve_20.3_Linux.run -i

DaVinci Resolve Cleanup:

cd /opt/resolve/libs

sudo mkdir oldlibs

sudo mv libglib* oldlibs

sudo mv libgio* oldlibs

sudo mv libgmodule* oldlibs

sudo mv libgobject* oldlibs

Bitwig Studio
My next (and most important to me) steps have been to get multiple versions of Bitwig Studio installed so that I can switch between them for development work and testing purposes.

In order to be able to easily develop my presets I like to have several versions of Bitwig Studio installed at one time. Ubuntu/Debian Linux distros (such as Linux Mint) typically only allow for one version of an application to be installed at a time through the Software Manager, using downloads from Bitwig's website and not from the repository of applications in Software Manager. What this means is that you should download the *.deb files for each version you want to have installed. Proceed carefully with the instructions below.

First you need to download the installation packages meant for your system. Bitwig Studio maintain a release archive where you can easily get these. I leave my different versions in the Downloads directory and the below steps make this assumption. I downloaded *.deb files for v4.0, v5.0 and the most recent beta (early release). Do not install anything yet. We have to follow a special sequence.

1. Double-click the bitwig-studio-4.0.deb file and allow the Software Manager to determine what additional packages are needed. Allow this installation to take place as expected.

2. Launch and register Bitwig Studio v4.0. Is it working? Yes? Good. Then proceed.

3. Open the Terminal and follow these next steps shown below.

# Step 1 - navigate the terminal to your downloads folder.
cd  ~/Downloads/

# Step 2 - create needed directories...
mkdir -p ~/Bitwig_Versions/Bitwig_Studio_4.0/
mkdir -p ~/Bitwig_Versions/Bitwig_Studio_5.0/ 
mkdir -p ~/Bitwig_Versions/Bitwig_Studio_6.0_beta_9/

# Step 3 - extract packages to their respective locations...
dpkg -x bitwig-studio-4.0.deb ~/Bitwig_Versions/Bitwig_Studio_4.0/
dpkg -x bitwig-studio-5.0.deb ~/Bitwig_Versions/Bitwig_Studio_5.0/
dpkg -x bitwig-studio-6.0-beta-10.deb ~/Bitwig_Versions/Bitwig_Studio_6.0_beta_10/ 

If you copy and paste the above code, please make certain that no errant "~" tilde characters find their way into your Terminal. This could be very, very bad. How bad? Well, if you were foolish enough to accidentally create a folder called "~" and you then were to navigate to it in the Terminal and type the command (DO NOT DO THIS) rm -r ~, the moment you hit enter Linux will get to work removing your Home folder and everything in it. Let's leave it that I learned this lesson the very hard way.

4. Double-click the bitwig-studio-5.3.13.deb file and allow the Software Manager to determine what additional packages are needed. From there do not use the Software Manager to install any further parallel versions unless it is to update to the latest current release by double-clicking. Simply dpkg -x them as shown above. 

A valuable lesson learned is that if you install the Flatpack versions then when you customise your paths to plugins and audio content, the Flatpack version has OS permissions limitations that will not let you use custom locations you may have defined for the other, parallel installations.

Next you can create some launcher icons. Right-Click on the Desktop to Create a New Launcher Here. This opens a  small application that allows you to point to an application and create a launcher icon. When you save this you will be asked if you would like this added to the menu. Choose "Yes" to have it appear in the "Other" category. You can then right-click on the Menu icon and choose to Configure the menu. From there you can open the Menu Editor and right-click cut and paste the launcher items into a new menu category, or other existing menu categories.

Plugins
Looking for Linux Plugins? Head over to Linux DAW and peruse what developers have made available for you to use. Some are paid, some are free.

Plugins are located in /usr/local/lib/clap (yes, I am aware that  v4.0 of Bitwig Studio does not support Clap plugins, that's OK with me.) If you do not have the needed folders you will make them. First try navigating to the desired location.

# Is there a directory to install Clap plugins into?
cd /usr/local/lib/clap

# If you get an error reporting "No such file or directory", then you will need to make one.
mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/clap/ 

# Do the same for VST3 if you want to use VST3 plugins (run the same commands as above, but replace "vst3" for "clap"

- Airwindows
Airwindows Consolidated has become my favourite sound sculpting, character and tone controlling plugin ever. If you want analogue warmth, tape saturation, reverberation or delay, then this is a most excellent place to start. They are free, but the developer will be able to keep making them if you support their Patreon account.

- Osirus
I  really like the sound of my Access Virus B, but without an audio interface on my PC I am not able to record the audio from this in any meaningful way.  The solution is to use a emulator plugin. The Usual Suspects have created an emulator of the Motorolla DSP56300 and this allows them to create a number of actual synth engines based around this chip architecture. I use the Osirus Clap plugin. There are some legal restrictions around using this and you should carefully consider if this is for you, or not. 

- VCV Rack
I love the possibilities of sonic exploration in VCV Rack and have a pro license which includes a Clap plugin version which can be hosted in Bitwig Studio. There is a handy INSTALL.txt file in the zipped Rack download (I use VCV Rack Pro). I've installed VCV into /opt/VCV because there are fewer folders there and it is easy to find the VCV install when you want to install updates. I use the terminal to copy the different files and folders to their desired locations. First extract the zip download and then right click on the folder name and choose to open into terminal.

# Open a second terminal window and see if there a directory to contain the Rack Pro application. 

cd /opt/VCV

# If no, then make one.
mkdir -p /opt/VCV/

# If yes, then use the terminal window for the VCV Rack download and copy the Rack2Pro directory into the VCV directory.
sudo cp -r Rack2Pro /opt/VCV/

# Is there a directory to contain the Rack Clap plugins into? See steps above.

# If yes, then copy the *.clap plugin to the clap directory.
sudo cp 'VCV Rack 2.clap' /usr/local/lib/clap/

I find that VCV Rack standalone has to be launched from it's location directory. Launchers and other scripting is not working yet for me.

- Valhalla Supermassive (via Wine and YaBridge) - yet to do.
This appears to be a working path to explore and needs checking before going ahead with it.

 
Sample Collections
I have several big collections of samples and audio that I like to reach into from Bitwig for making music. These live on two separate drives and I found that I could add these from within Bitwig Studio by going to Settings->Locations and navigating to "Other Locations" to find my external disks. Setting these locations in this manner has been frustrating because the drives are not mounted at startup and require being found at each login/session. What to do? Easy! 

Run the Disks application and navigate to the disk in question and click on the cogs choose Edit Mount Options. I unset the User Session Defaults and enabled Mount at system startup and Show in user interface. I then set a Display Name and selected the "LABEL=Music" option from the Identify As pull-down list. A quick restart later and I was able to redefine my locations from Other Locations with the new path names and now Bitwig Studio finds my audio every time I launch it. Sweet!

Quality of Life
I've added the Screenshot application to the panel of apps on the bottom of the screen - I use this all the time to make notes to myself.

I like to use Signal for communicating, so I installed this as well.

# NOTE: These instructions only work for 64-bit Debian-based

# Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Mint etc.

# 1. Install our official public software signing key:

wget -O- https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | gpg --dearmor > signal-desktop-keyring.gpg;

cat signal-desktop-keyring.gpg | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg > /dev/null

# 2. Add our repository to your list of repositories:

wget -O signal-desktop.sources https://updates.signal.org/static/desktop/apt/signal-desktop.sources;

cat signal-desktop.sources | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-desktop.sources > /dev/null

# 3. Update your package database and install Signal:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install signal-desktop

November 9 2025 - I am not using the following.

This is here in the event that I want to revisit it at some later point in time. This portion is NOT being used on my current installation.

I had originally started following the YouTube creator Tux Audio's  Linux Mint 21 (Vanessa) installation script to get a variety of audio features installed and configured. As of writing this, there is an issue with the script where the calls to KXStudio's Cadence repo are out of date and this needs to be updated. The updated portion of the code needs to look like the following. Previously it had been requesting kxstudio-repos_10.0.3_all.deb but this package no longer appears to be available and the script will error mid-way through running. I replaced the calls to this with the following package name call as found on the KXStudio repository website.

# ---------------------------

# Install kxstudio and cadence

# Cadence is a tool for managing audio connections to our hardware

# NOTE: Select "YES" when asked to enable realtime privileges

# ---------------------------

notify "Install kxstudio and cadence"

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https gpgv -y

wget https://launchpad.net/~kxstudio-debian/+archive/kxstudio/+files/kxstudio-repos_11.2.0_all.deb

sudo dpkg -i kxstudio-repos_11.2.0_all.deb

rm kxstudio-repos_11.2.0_all.deb

sudo apt update

sudo apt install cadence -y

I then followed the steps instructed in the Tux Audio video to configure the Cadence Audio settings. I have, however, found Cadence and the related low-latency kernel to be frustrating to manage (in my case I can only get one application to work with audio at a time and this is a show-stopper for me). So please follow the above steps at your own peril. I am still finding my way and may make changes to how I am setting things up.