DIY Audio Analyzer with AK5397/AK5394A and AK4490

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Well, my Keysight EDU36311A locks up when under web control, replaced the unit and the same. That is networked. The RTX has been wonderful under Win7 Pro, but everything has become unstable on WIn10 pro (and they are forcing an upgrade to Win11 - I don't think so!!!! Especially since I would need to replace all my computers.

I don't for a second believe we have a firmware issue with the RTX, I think we have sloppy programming when it comes to computer OS.
 
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One thing I do know. From a Windows standpoint, releases get less robust until they come out with a "winning" release. XP was stable, Win7 was stable. Nothing else past XP and those are stable as far as actually working with them.

OS/2 ver 3 and beyond was extremely stable, Linux is extremely stable. There is no excuse for problems, or to change the UI. I am not familiar with Mac, but my daughters seem to like it. Why was OS/2 R3 stable? Because IBM took over the software from Microsoft at that point.

There seems to be issues with drivers (or whatever they want to call them these days). They change the OS, and developers have to learn the new hooks, or your device becomes "unsupported". No backwards compatibility. I have no doubt Microsoft charges for access to the required information so you can write code that works with Windows.
 
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A certain piece of software demanded it. That is the one and only reason. They touted "security". When Windows was upgraded to 10, it took over my network and shared assets. I'm told it shouldn't have, but it certainly did. At any rate, I am one extremely displeased Windows user.

The last I heard, it was my machine and I am responsible for security. The only real security with Microsoft OS is to unplug from the network and run stand alone.

Anyway, if I had my choice I'd be running Linux. But most test equipment apps runs pretty much on Windows only. I think Keysight (HP) has either eliminated or scaled back on Linux support.
 
I run my devel. machine on Linux Mint and Win10 in a VMware virtual
machine. VMware 17 seems to be a memory hog which sometimes
slows WIN things down. This used to better with earlier versions since V12
when I started this. ( 16 GB RAM) Windows cannot see the internet and
the internet cannot see Windows. That also prevents some WIN programs
from calling home. WIN can see the /d (ext4) partition as D: where I keep
my design data exclusively, so other machines can use it. Replacing the
VM with a new one is just copying a 150 GB folder from external storage.
I can also run the very same machine on my motorcycle XPS13 laptop when
I'm away. EVERYTHING on Win is then the same, just a smaller screen and
less performance.

Altium did not want to help me for running AD on a virtual machine,
claiming that VMware could not handle networks. ROTFL. It's VMware's
core business, so I terminated the support contract. It's not that they
were ever helpful, apart of updates that go into a wrong direction.

Stuff like USB is passed to the WIN machine transparently, even the
DG8SAQ network analyzer (which Oracle could not do fast enough
10 years ago.) You can get Windows Internet access for service if
you want to with a mouse click. That prevents the sporadic WIN10
reboots that normally use to happen at night after updates. Just allow
updates, reboot and lock it in again.

You can do ctl-c ctl-v across the Win/Linux barrier, so you may fetch
this & that with the Linux browser.
Win 10 was needed because some CAD programs no longer supported
Win7 , Xilinx ISE FPGA design for example.
The free VMware player is good enough.

Regards, Gerhard
 
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Hi Gerhard!
Thank you!!!

So it would seem I should get a new machine with faster / more cores to support an already slow WIN OS under VMware. I normally use Fedora. At the moment my Win10 box is an i5-3470 Lenovo, 3.2 GHz with 16 GB mem. Smacking Windows down is a great option, but I do need it to see the network. Many of my instruments are on the network.

If you want, you can PM me with your machine details, or post here. I'd like to get it running without a massive amount of study if possible.

Again, thank you Gerhard!
 
gerhard@silver:~$ inxi -v2
System:
Host: silver Kernel: 5.15.0-92-generic x86_64 bits: 64
Desktop: Cinnamon 5.8.4 Distro: Linux Mint 21.2 Victoria
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: P8Z68-V PRO GEN3 v: Rev 1.xx
serial: <superuser required> BIOS: American Megatrends v: 0402
date: 11/16/2011
CPU:
Info: quad core Intel Core i7-2600K [MT MCP] speed (MHz): avg: 1839
min/max: 1600/3800
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GF110 [GeForce GTX 570] driver: nvidia v: 390.157
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa gpu: nvidia
resolution: 2560x1440~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 570/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.157
Network:
Device-1: Intel 82579V Gigabit Network driver: e1000e
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 23.65 TiB used: 21.54 TiB (91.1%)
Info:
Processes: 344 Uptime: 3d 7h 59m Memory: 15.59 GiB used: 12.7 GiB (81.4%)
Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.13

That's my machine. It was bleeding edge 12 years ago when I built it.
Still good enough for daily work. On my LAN is only the Agilent 89441A
FFT analyzer. I wrote a C program to control it via TCP/IP sockets because
it has so many parameters that I get it seldom set up properly by hand.

You can run VMware also on Windows with a Linux or another Widows guest
but why build on sand when you can build on rock? Probably you can put
your devices on a second LAN leg and use the host linux box as a bridge.

I have a BeagleBoneBlack running Debian that connects to the Linux box
via TCPIP_over_USB and its own DHCP server and it can see the internet
when I plug a LAN cable into the BBB.

< https://www.vmware.com/de/products/workstation-player.html >
I hope you get the English version.
 
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Hi Gerhard,
Many thanks. I'll be running it on Fedora most likely, but I'll try Mint if I run into any problems.

lol! sand. Windows is more like quicksand! I have a small Linux server that can handle being a bridge as well, but I probably won't need to do that. I'm running dual monitors to show schematics and board layouts at the same time. Makes designing easier.

I use an NAS for files, and 4 TB for local storage, and a 1 GB SSD for the system in my boxes as a rule. Linux can run on a much smaller SSD, but Windows has a habit of creating files on the system drive, a nasty habit.

I have the VMware site up, thanks. I think I'll have to build a new box for this project. Darn.

-Chris
 
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FWIW I have been using W10 mostly for years. I have it running on 25 year old hardware without issues. However several steps are important. First SSD's. They are so cheap today no reason not to. Second, a fresh install on older hardware and give the system several days to update etc in the background.
I have Win10 32 bit running on several systems now. 32 bit to support the AP system 1 interface (I know the USB works with 64 bit OS). The same system is working with a vintage Picoscope and the RTX6001.
I have found W10 to be the least troublesome actually.
 

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Hi Demian,
I had far fewer problems with Win7 Pro. It ran everything perfectly and co-existed with Fedora and the rest of network things. The RTX ran fine, as did every other instrument whether USB or networked. As soon as I upgraded to WIN10 Pro, my life became hell.

Installing software on Fedora or other Linux distros - easy as pie. OS/2 4 and versions of 3 (warp) were never a problem, extremely stable. DOS 7 (IBM) is solid as heck too.

Yes I use an SSD as the system disk on everything, a normal HD for data and programs. Then an NAS RAID deal for storage and backups. Want to make old hardware run fast as heck? Install any flavour of Linux.

My OS/2 server (5 advanced) ran years without rebooting, Windows servers, you had to restart at least one a year, minimum. Linux servers are about the same as the OS/2 servers, they just run without complaining.

Win11 will never be used as a primary computer. I may have to run one, but the rest of my life will reside on Linux or Win7 Pro.
 
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