Yes, you're correct, I should take this to a Debian forum. Debian's is
nearing the next release, and I was holding out for that, because I'm using
somewhat unusual hardware.

Just for documentation purposes (in case some poor soul wanders a similar
path), I have an Openbrick computer (via epia 533Mhz, lex mobo) running off
a compact flash card using hacom's cf images. They changed Debian around
abit to write less often to the cf among other things. They've tweaked the
kernel for their hardware and I haven't looked to see if they left a .config
laying around, so upgrading this to the newest may be more of a challenge
than usual.

My project was to use a perl script to generate random midi cc event values
that would get sent out to a couple of midi light-dimmer strips (Light
Master) I have (4 dimmers/strip) so I could have nice blinky Christmas
lights. I was hoping to play around with different "equations" (fractal?) in
calculating random intensity values to try and achieve visually interesting
and "organic randomness".

... maybe by Mardi Gras!

Thanks for all the help,

Rick


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Linux@lists.develooper.com [mailto:Linux@lists.develooper.com]On
> Behalf Of zentara
> Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 6:52 AM
> To: midi@perl.org
> Subject: Re: accessing midisport 2x2 using ALSA & MIDI::Music...
>
>
> On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 08:41:02 -0500, rbolen@carolina.rr.com ("Rick
> Bolen") wrote:
>
> >I was on my way to doing just that when the next snag caught me.
> >
> >When I apt-get (debian) alsa-base, it wants to install the
> alsa-utils which
> >contains most if not all the utils you mention. However, apt-get
> also wants
> >to remove linux-sound-base.
> >
> >That's fine with me I guess, but then apt-get hangs on "Removing
> >linux-sound-base...".
> >
> >Arrrgggggg! Any thoughts on how to tshoot an "apt-get --purge remove xxx"
> >hang?
> >
> >Perhaps dpkg offers more ruthless shovel?
> >
> >Thanks for the ideas. I feel like I'm very close (... well, kinda),
> >Rick
>
> I see 2 choices ( and I always build from source, so my package
> manager experience is limited)
>
> 1.  Look at the options for apt-get, and see if there is a 'force'
> or 'no dependency checks' option.
> Rpm has this for the case you descibe, where it overrides
> the package manager.
>
> 2. Best bet. Just get the tar ball source, and build them yourself.
> http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa/ftp/utils/
>
> Your problem will be to find the version which matches your
> old debian kernel level. The newest version will probably
> not be compatible with the older debian kernel.
> Of course you could always, get the latest kernel, which has
> alsa built-in, then get the latest alsa-utils source package.
>
> Maybe you should ask this on a debian saavy forum?
>
>
>
> --
> I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth.
> http://zentara.net/japh.html