A possible way to run Sonic Pi v3.1 on Debian 9/Stretch

Development
1

Hi,
Over the past few days, I’ve been tinkering to try to get Sonic Pi v3.1 working on a PC running Debian 9/Stretch. I’ve managed to get it working somewhat (it makes sound at least!) so, I’ve thought I’ll share a bit on how I got it working, to help others who may want to install Sonic Pi v3.1 on Debian Stretch. :slight_smile:

If you want to install Sonic Pi v2.10, you can install it from the debian stretch repositories: sudo apt-get install sonic-pi

There’s no guarantees that the info/scripts in this post will work for your system. I will not take responsiblility for any damage caused from the use of the information or scripts in this post.

Note: Sonic Pi for Linux isn’t currently offically supported (apart from Raspbian).

Packages

  • supercollider - The version of supercollider in the debian stretch repositories (3.7.0) doesn’t work with Sonic Pi 3.1 as it is missing the -B argument that sets the ip address (I think). The latest version, 3.9.1, seems to work.

  • sc3-plugins - Sonic Pi seemed to open and work fine with the version in the Debian repositories, 3.7.0. But, if you want to be more sure that it will work, try version 3.9.0 (you could try v3.9.1, but it is currently in pre-release according to its releases page on GitHub, and I’ve had less success in installing that version).

  • aubio & osmid - The latest versions of these seem to work fine.

  • All other required packages can be installed from the Debian repositories:

    sudo apt-get install -y g++ ruby ruby-dev pkg-config git build-essential libjack-jackd2-dev libsndfile1-dev libasound2-dev libavahi-client-dev libicu-dev libreadline6-dev libfftw3-dev libxt-dev libudev-dev cmake libboost-dev libqwt-qt5-dev libqt5scintilla2-dev libqt5svg5-dev qt5-qmake qt5-default qttools5-dev qttools5-dev-tools qtdeclarative5-dev libqt5webkit5-dev qtpositioning5-dev libqt5sensors5-dev qtmultimedia5-dev libffi-dev curl python erlang-base

Ruby Server Extensions

  • rugged - For me, the compile-extensions script doesn’t seem to successfully install rugged.
    If you have issues with rugged, try installing it via. gem install rugged, and copy the rugged folder to the appropriate place in the sonic pi folder using cd /sonic-pi-folder/app/gui/qt & cp -a "/var/lib/gems/2.3.0/gems/rugged-0.26.0/." "../../server/ruby/vendor/rugged-0.26.0/" (replace sonic-pi-folder with the path to the sonic pi source folder).

  • All other extensions seem to be installed just fine by compile-extensions.rb

Modified install script

I’ve modified build-ubuntu-app to include: some changes that I made to get it working, updated versions of packages, the option to install some packages via: make install, or checkinstall install=no & dpkg -i, and other fixes/tweaks.

I’ve added checkinstall because it turns manually built programs into packages which can be installed and removed from your system. The packages seem to be easier to uninstall than programs installed via. make install, as you can uninstall packages via your package manager. I’m not sure whether this is the best program to use for this, please tell me if there are any other/better programs that do this.

build-ubuntu-app:

#!/bin/bash

#Fail script on first error encountered
set -e
# Verbose
#set -x

#Application/library versions built by this script.
SUPERCOLLIDER_VERSION=3.9.1
SC_PLUGINS_VERSION=3.9.0 # 3.9.1 is currently in pre-release and I've had issues installing it, but 3.9.0 seems to work fine.
AUBIO_VERSION=c6ae035 # v0.4.6
OSMID_VERSION=391f35f789f18126003d2edf32902eb714726802
RUGGED_VERSION=0.26.0

#Internal definitions
SCRIPT_DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"
SP_APP_SRC=${SCRIPT_DIR}
SP_ROOT=${SP_APP_SRC}/../../../../
OSMID_DIR=${SP_APP_SRC}/../../server/native/linux/osmid

CYAN='\033[1;36m'
NC='\033[0m' # No Color

echo "This script is modified version of the original build-ubuntu-app script. This has been tested on Debian Stretch (9)."
echo "In some cases users may need to install some of the dependencies by hand from source."
echo "We're working to make a one shot script solution for all Linux platforms."
echo "Original script made by Factoid and possibly other people, modified for Debian Stretch by SunderB."

installMethod=''

while [ "$installMethod" != "1" ] && [ "$installMethod" != "2" ]; do
		echo 'Some packages may be built from source and installed manually.'
		echo 'How do you want to install these packages?'
		echo '1 - install manually via. make install.'
		echo '2 - make .deb packages via. checkinstall and install those via dpkg. (Only works on Debian)'
		echo 'Type quit to exit.'
		read installMethod
		if [ "$installMethod" == "quit" ]; then
				return;
		fi
done

#Install dependencies for building supercollider, as well as qt5 and supporting libraries for gui
echo -e "${CYAN}Installing dependencies for building supercollider, as well as qt5 and supporting libraries for gui...${NC}"
sudo apt-get install -y \
     g++ ruby ruby-dev pkg-config git build-essential libjack-jackd2-dev \
     libsndfile1-dev libasound2-dev libavahi-client-dev libicu-dev \
     libreadline6-dev libfftw3-dev libxt-dev libudev-dev cmake libboost-dev \
     libqwt-qt5-dev libqt5scintilla2-dev libqt5svg5-dev qt5-qmake qt5-default \
     qttools5-dev qttools5-dev-tools qtdeclarative5-dev libqt5webkit5-dev \
     qtpositioning5-dev libqt5sensors5-dev qtmultimedia5-dev libffi-dev \
     curl python erlang-base
					
if [ "$installMethod" == "2" ]; then
		echo -e "${CYAN}Installing checkinstall...${NC}"
		sudo apt-get install checkinstall
fi

# Ruby Packages:
# ruby ruby-dev gem
# ------------------
# ruby - Interpreter for the ruby programming language
# ruby-dev - Header files for compiling extension modules for Ruby

# Qt Packages:
# libqwt-qt5-dev libqt5scintilla2-dev libqt5svg5-dev qt5-qmake qt5-default \
#    qttools5-dev qttools5-dev-tools qtdeclarative5-dev libqt5webkit5-dev \
#    qtpositioning5-dev libqt5sensors5-dev qtmultimedia5-dev
					
# Other languages and compilers:
# python erlang-base g++ 

# Other tools:
# git curl
# -----------------
# git - A version/revision control system
# curl - 

### IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS WITH qwt
#cd $SP_APP_SRC/../../../../
#wget 'http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/qwt/qwt/6.1.2/qwt-6.1.2.tar.bz2'
#tar -xf qwt-6.1.2.tar.bz2
#cd qwt-6.1.2
#/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/bin/qmake qwt.pro
#make
#sudo make install
#sudo cp /usr/local/qwt-6.1.2/features/* /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/mkspecs/features/

### IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS WITH qscintilla2
#cd $SP_APP_SRC/../../../../
#wget 'http://sourceforge.net/projects/pyqt/files/QScintilla2/QScintilla-2.9.2/QScintilla_gpl-2.9.2.tar.gz'
#tar -xf QScintilla_gpl-2.9.2.tar.gz
#cd QScintilla_gpl-2.9.2/Qt4Qt5/
#/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/bin/qmake qscintilla.pro
#make
#sudo make install

#Build supercollider from source
echo -e "${CYAN}Building supercollider from source...${NC}"
cd "${SP_ROOT}"
git clone --recursive https://github.com/supercollider/supercollider.git || true
cd supercollider
git checkout Version-${SUPERCOLLIDER_VERSION}
git submodule init && git submodule update
git submodule update --init
mkdir -p build
cd build
cmake -DSC_EL=no ..
make
echo -e "${CYAN}Installing supercollider...${NC}"
if [ "$installMethod" == "2" ]; then
		sudo checkinstall --pkgname=supercollider --pkgversion=1:${SUPERCOLLIDER_VERSION} --pkglicense=GPL-3.0 --pkggroup=sound --nodoc --default --install=no
		sudo dpkg -i supercollider_${SUPERCOLLIDER_VERSION}-1_amd64.deb
else
		sudo make install
fi
#This should install to /usr/local/

#Install sc3 plugins
#Build sc3 plugins and install to /usr/local/ so supercollider can find them
echo -e "${CYAN}Building sc3-plugins from source...${NC}"
cd "${SP_ROOT}"
git clone --recursive https://github.com/supercollider/sc3-plugins.git || true
cd sc3-plugins
git checkout Version-${SC_PLUGINS_VERSION}
git submodule init && git submodule update
git submodule update --init
cp -r external_libraries/nova-simd/* source/VBAPUGens
mkdir -p build
cd build
#cmake -DSC_PATH=../../supercollider -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local ..
#cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local --build . --config Release
cmake -DSC_PATH=../../supercollider ..
cmake --build . --config Release
make
echo -e "${CYAN}Installing sc3-plugins...${NC}"
if [ "$installMethod" == "2" ]; then
		sudo checkinstall --pkgname=sc3-plugins --pkgversion=1:${SC_PLUGINS_VERSION} --pkglicense=GPL-2.0 --pkggroup=sound --nodoc --default --install=no
		sudo dpkg -i sc3-plugins_${SC_PLUGINS_VERSION}-1_amd64.deb
else
		sudo make install
fi

#Install libaubio (apt-get version is too old)
echo -e "${CYAN}Building libaubio from source...${NC}"
cd "${SP_ROOT}"
git clone https://git.aubio.org/git/aubio/ || true
cd aubio
git checkout ${AUBIO_VERSION}
make getwaf
./waf configure
./waf build
sudo ./waf install

#Install osmid (for MIDI support)
echo -e "${CYAN}Building osmid from source...${NC}"
cd "${SP_ROOT}"
git clone https://github.com/llloret/osmid.git || true
cd osmid
git checkout ${OSMID_VERSION}
mkdir -p build
cd build
cmake ..
make
echo -e "${CYAN}Installing osmid...${NC}"
mkdir -p "${OSMID_DIR}"
install m2o o2m -t "${OSMID_DIR}"

#Build Erlang files
echo -e "${CYAN}Building Erlang files...${NC}"
cd "${SP_APP_SRC}/../../server/erlang"
#The current implementation of osc.erl uses Erlang features that require
#at least Erlang 19.1 to be installed. 16.04 LTS is currently at 18.3.
#If versions < 19.1 are installed, and we use the current code, the MIDI
#implementation breaks because the Erlang OSC router is failing.
ERLANG_VERSION=$(./print_erlang_version)
if [ -e "osc.erl.orig" ]; then
    # Handle, if the original file in the source tree ever gets updated.
    rm osc.erl.orig
    git checkout osc.erl
fi
if [[ "${ERLANG_VERSION}" < "19.1" ]]; then
    echo "Found Erlang version < 19.1 (${ERLANG_VERSION})! Updating source code."
    sed -i.orig 's|erlang:system_time(nanosecond)|erlang:system_time(nano_seconds)|' osc.erl
fi
erlc osc.erl
erlc pi_server.erl

#Build sonic-pi server extensions, documentation, and binary.
cd "${SP_APP_SRC}"

echo -e "${CYAN}Building sonic-pi server extensions...${NC}"
### If you're having trouble with rugged, this should install rugged and copy it to the Sonic Pi folder.
sudo gem install rugged
cp -a "/var/lib/gems/2.3.0/gems/rugged-${RUGGED_VERSION}/." "../../server/ruby/vendor/rugged-${RUGGED_VERSION}/" # You may need to change this path slightly

ruby ../../server/ruby/bin/compile-extensions.rb
echo -e "${CYAN}Building sonic-pi documentation...${NC}"
ruby ../../server/ruby/bin/i18n-tool.rb -t
cp -f ruby_help.tmpl ruby_help.h
ruby ../../server/ruby/bin/qt-doc.rb -o ruby_help.h
echo -e "${CYAN}Building sonic-pi binary...${NC}"
lrelease SonicPi.pro
qmake -qt=qt5 SonicPi.pro
make
echo -e "${CYAN}Done!${NC}"

After running and closing Sonic Pi, if I tried to open it, it wouldn’t open due to one of the ports being used. It turned out that a process relating to Sonic Pi was still running (beam.smp), so I ended up making a script which runs Sonic Pi and closes left over processes after it is closed:

#!/bin/bash
# Sonic Pi Launch Script for Debian 9/Stretch - by SunderB
set -e # Quit script on error
echo "Starting Sonic Pi... Please leave this window open, it will clear up processes and close automatically."
# Replace this path with the path to where you've installed Sonic Pi:
~/Documents/Coding/SonicPi/sonic-pi-3.1.0/app/gui/qt/sonic-pi

# The script will resume when Sonic Pi is closed.
# Close left over beam.smp processes
echo "Sonic Pi closed. Closing any left over processes..."
# -x # Verbose

# Set up array
pidsArray=()

# Get PIDs of left over processes...
while read each; do
		pidsArray+=("$each")
done < <(echo "$(ps -ef | grep -v awk | awk '/beam.smp/ { print $2 }')")
# ps -ef - Gets the list of processes with their PIDs
# grep -v awk - Removes any processes containing 'awk' (to avoid picking up the next command)
# awk '/beam.smp/ { print $2 }' - Extracts the PIDs of any processes containing 'beam.smp'
# pidsArray+=("$each") - Adds the PIDs to the array.

# If there only one object in the array, and that object is empty, then it's likely there's no processes left over.
if [[ ${pidsArray[0]} = "" ]] && [ ${#pidsArray[@]} -eq 1 ]; then
		echo "0 left over processes found."
else
		echo "${#pidsArray[@]} left over process(es) found."
		# If there is any PIDs in the array...
		if ((${#pidsArray[@]} > 0)); then
				# Iterate through them.
				for i in "${pidsArray[@]}"; do
						# If the object is empty, ignore it. Otherwise, close that process.
						if [[ ! $i = "" ]]; then
								echo "Closing process $i..."
								kill "$i"
						else
								echo "Process ID = nothing?! Lets just ignore that one."
						fi
				done
		fi
fi
echo "Done!"

There’s no guarantees that these scripts will work 100%. I haven’t tested them that much, and I’ve only tested them on one system.

I hope this has helped others who want to run Sonic Pi v3.1 on Debian Stretch. :slight_smile:

1 Like
2

Thanks for documenting this.

Do you think you’d be interested in helping merge your efforts into our repo?

1 Like
3

I’d be happy to add this info to INSTALL-LINUX.md, and possibly merge the modified install script (should I rename it to a different file so that we can keep the old build-ubuntu-app just in case?) :slight_smile: I may not be able to make the pull request straight away, but I’ll do it soon.

1 Like
4

any idee i have try to make your tuto to install it work but a a certain moment it failed