[SOLVED] Error installing 4.5 on Raspberry Pi Bookworm

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1

I have a new Raspberry Pi 500 running Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm that I am trying to install Sonic Pi on. My architecture is aarch64.

  1. I downloaded the latest version from sonic-pi net (the bookworm.arm64.deb file)
  2. right clicked on the download and hit install package
  3. I am not prompted for my password like the instructions video says, and I get an error that a package could not be found to complete the action.

The README link on sonic-pi net for the Raspberry Pi install instructions is also broken and returns a 404
(https://sonic-pi.net/files/releases/v4.5.1/README-Sonic-Pi-Raspberry-Pi-OS.txt)

SOLVED
I needed to update Raspberry Pi OS from 32 bit to 64 bit. I didn’t realize the RPi 500 comes with the 32 bit, all the docs say it should come with the 64-bit OS.

2

I ended up just cloning Sonic Pi from GitHub and building it that way and I got it up and running fine, but still unable to get it running using any packages.

3

I haven’t got a pi500 to try the installation on, but it certainly works OK on my Pi5. If you build your own I would recommend building 5.0beta at the latest commit. The whole build process is much more streamlined. Basically
Download sonic-pi source code. If you want to use several versions, then you can rename the top directory from sonic-pi to something else BEFORE starting to build, eg sp5.0 open a terminal in the app folder (in mycase in sp5.0/app).
then do

./pi-setup.sh
./pi-build-all.sh

it should build completely but takes some time. especially compiling the mainwindow file.
When complete, from the top level you can run
./sp5.0/bin/sonic-pi

You can produce a relocatable version much reduced in size by running
./sp5/app/linux-release.sh
This copies essential elements to a folder
./sp5/app/build/linux_dist

You can copy or move this folder anywhere you like, and rename the top folder eg from linux_release to sp5. I usually put mine on the desktop
you can run sonic pi by executing the file sonic-pi in sp5/bin eg from a browser window double click it and select “run in terminal”. It is posslbe to add a desktop entry which can appear in the menu to run your own build sonic-pi. I’ll detail this in a separate post later.

Also sound output by default will select the hdmi channel and assume that you have a monitor with build in speakers, or at least a headphone socket. To change this you have to midify pipwire connections. This is why qpwgraph is installed as well It enables you graphically to change the connections of the sound output from SuperCollider (the sonic-pi sound engine) to whatever audio outputs you have available. see my video here https://youtu.be/d5MhUZHZ1uw

It also refers to the readme file for 4.5.0 I think the release text for 4.5.1 was never written by me! The video is better.

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