Symlinks with Linvst?

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Luc
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Symlinks with Linvst?

Post by Luc »

I symlinked a few linvst bridge .so files to another file system and neither Tracktion nor Ardour can find them. Is it the DAWs that ignore symlinks or does Linvst refuse to work that way?
ubuntuuser
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Re: Symlinks with Linvst?

Post by ubuntuuser »

Various things are possible for convenience etc

Say that there are dll plugin files in /home/user/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/VSTPlugin

then making a link to /home/user/vst might be more convenient.

ln -s /home/user/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/VSTPlugins /home/user/vst

Then linvstconvert would be run using /home/user/vst and then the DAW would have the vst search path added /home/user/vst


Also

If the dll plugin files are in a sudo permission folder (or any permission folder) such as /usr/lib/vst, then make a user permission folder such as /home/user/vst and then make symbolic links to /usr/lib/vst in the /home/user/vst folder by changing into /home/user/vst and running ln -s /usr/lib/vst/∗ . and then run linvstconvert on the /home/user/vst folder and then set the DAW to search the /home/user/vst folder.
Luc
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Re: Symlinks with Linvst?

Post by Luc »

Thanks.

But the problem with your proposal is that every single folder that contains relevant .dll files would have to be linked individually to /home/user/vst thus creating some kind of replica of the folder structure that I want to avoid. My goal is to use Linvst - which is more stable - in a similar fashion to that of Airwave. I want to have:

/home/user/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/VSTPlugin/blasterdrummer/bd.dll
/home/user/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/VSTPlugin/blasterdrummer/bd.so (linvst)
/home/user/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/VSTPlugin/screechguitar/sg.dll
/home/user/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/VSTPlugin/screechguitar/sg.so (linvst)
/home/user/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/VSTPlugin/pumpingbass/pb.dll
/home/user/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/VSTPlugin/pumpingbass/pb.so (linvst)

then link /home/user/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/VSTPlugin/{*}/{*}.so to another directory wherever the hell I want.

That trick would preserve the requirement for the *.so file to be named exactly the same as the *.dll file (minus the extension obviously) and reside in the same directory, but would let me invoke those files via symlinks that would be named, placed and organized by whatever convention I see fit.

This is *nix. Hard and soft links were made for the very purpose of letting us organize our files in more flexible ways. It really puzzles me that anyone would write *nix software that sabotages that, either by accident or on purpose. Airwave does do that. You can have the airwave *.so files wherever you want, but all dlls HAVE to be inside /home/user/.wine/ which totally sounds like an arbitrary imposition to me. I have complained and the Airwave developer doesn't care. OK, case closed. I am tackling a different but somehow similar issue with Linvst now. I just don't know whether it's Linvst or the DAWs that don't want to play ball.
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Re: Symlinks with Linvst?

Post by tavasti »

Luc wrote: then link /home/user/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/VSTPlugin/{*}/{*}.so to another directory wherever the hell I want.
Most likely you need to link those dll files also. And then some dll's try to find their supporting files there also, and that does not work...

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sysrqer
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Re: Symlinks with Linvst?

Post by sysrqer »

Can you not just add that to your VST PATH?
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Re: Symlinks with Linvst?

Post by ubuntuuser »

Luc wrote:Thanks.

But the problem with your proposal is that every single folder that contains relevant .dll files would have to be linked individually to /home/user/vst thus creating some kind of replica of the folder structure that I want to avoid. My goal is to use Linvst - which is more stable - in a similar fashion to that of Airwave. I want to have:

/home/user/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/VSTPlugin/blasterdrummer/bd.dll
/home/user/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/VSTPlugin/blasterdrummer/bd.so (linvst)
/home/user/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/VSTPlugin/screechguitar/sg.dll
/home/user/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/VSTPlugin/screechguitar/sg.so (linvst)
/home/user/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/VSTPlugin/pumpingbass/pb.dll
/home/user/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/VSTPlugin/pumpingbass/pb.so (linvst)

then link /home/user/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/VSTPlugin/{*}/{*}.so to another directory wherever the hell I want.

That trick would preserve the requirement for the *.so file to be named exactly the same as the *.dll file (minus the extension obviously) and reside in the same directory, but would let me invoke those files via symlinks that would be named, placed and organized by whatever convention I see fit.

This is *nix. Hard and soft links were made for the very purpose of letting us organize our files in more flexible ways. It really puzzles me that anyone would write *nix software that sabotages that, either by accident or on purpose. Airwave does do that. You can have the airwave *.so files wherever you want, but all dlls HAVE to be inside /home/user/.wine/ which totally sounds like an arbitrary imposition to me. I have complained and the Airwave developer doesn't care. OK, case closed. I am tackling a different but somehow similar issue with Linvst now. I just don't know whether it's Linvst or the DAWs that don't want to play ball.

If I have the dlls and linvst .so files in /home/user/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/VSTPlugins

then setting up links in say /home/user/vst3

by changing into /home/user/vst3

and then

ln -s /home/user/.wine/drive_c/"Program Files"/VSTPlugins/*.so /home/user/vst3
and then getting the DAW to scan /home/user/vst3

seems to work ok.
Last edited by ubuntuuser on Thu Sep 06, 2018 12:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.
jonetsu
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Re: Symlinks with Linvst?

Post by jonetsu »

Since I use synths in Bitwig I like to benefit from Bitwig's folder-based browser. That way I can distinguish easily demos from legit plugins and Linux from Windows plugins. So the plugin path is /B3/Plugins and goes a bit like this:

Code: Select all

Monoplugs/
OvertoneDSP/
pianoteq/
Redux/
Renoise/
SonicCharge/
Test/
Tracktion/
u-he/
Windows/
Windows/IK Multimedia/
Windows/ImageLine/
Windows/KV331/
Windows/LinPlug/
Windows/MeldaProduction/
Windows/PsychicModulation/
Windows/RobPapen/
Windows/Seaweed/
Windows/Test/
Physically the Windows folders have the linvst .so files. Their .dll counterparts are symlinks to whatever Windows folder they were installed.

Both Bitwig and Mixbus (Ardour) can load these presets although Mixbus does not offer a folder-based view of plugins.

For instance Windows/Test/ have Melda as well as Rob Papen and other plugins which are in demo mode. When choosing a plugin in Bitwig they are not mixed with the regular plugins if one uses the browser on the right-hand sie of the screen, which is what I mostly do.

Cheers.
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