Setting-Up MuseScore on the Raspberry Pi

• Jun 20, 2016 - 18:46

Hello All,

I'm new to both Linux and MuseScore... having spent the past 18 years very happily in the company of Acorn Sibelius... and am finding the change a bit of a challenge, so please don't spare the detail, I need all the help I can get.

Setting up MuseScore 2.0.3 on a Raspberry Pi 3B (running Ubuntu-mate 16.04) I've struck a number of glitches, with stuttering playback at the top of the list.

Ubuntu appears to be operating OK, with bundled applications working as expected. I'm running MuseScore by double clicking the AppImage file.

On my RPi 3B are:
/home/pi/Downloads/MuseScore-2.0.3-armhf.AppImage
/home/pi/Documents/MuseScore2/ [a range of dirs.]

My test file is about 100 measures long consisting of 4 independent parts, although the glitches also occur when playing the music from the getting started tutorial.

The playback glitches are numerous (and are present whether sound output is to HDMI or audio plug). Crackling and popping with the play position cursor a beat or two behind the sound in continuous staves view, for example. Every 5-20 measures the playback freezes but can be un-frozen by jiggling the volume slider in Ubuntu's 'Sound Preferences' window.

In Page View playback mode the cursor can lag by a measure or even remain stationary until the pages jump forward to a new position... but can be made to follow the playback by keeping the mouse pointer constantly moving!

I noticed in Ubuntu's sound preferences that the underlying hardware is described as 'bcm2835 ALSA' and that in MuseScores Preferences I/O there is the option of using ALSA rather then PulseAudio. Changing to ALSA sound does appear to improve playback stuttering, but not totally fix the glitches. However, the instrumental sound is converted to (a rather nice) piano; and remarkably, changing the sample rate also changes the playback tempo! For example, selecting a 96K sample rate doubles the speed of playback and 24K halves it. A sample rate of 44100 appears to give the best overall results. (The other options: 'Device' = default, 'Fragments' and 'Period Size' I haven't touched as I don't know what they are.)

At first, from other forum posts it appeared that a smaller soundfont might be need. I've downloaded TimGM6mb.sf2, but haven't been able to understand the handbook instructions on how to install it. However, as time has gone on, and judging from loadings in the system monitor, it looks as if the problem may not be lack of system resources.

More generally, MuseScore often appears to be struggling 'under a burden' with windows and menus very slow to respond. For example, pointer to 'File', count to ten before it turns blue, click, count to ten before menu appears, etc. This struggling behaviour I think builds up over a session, at first things go quickly but soon slow down.

The above description is from a few days experience. Today on first loading MuseScore, no sound at all and nothing registered in Ubuntu's 'Sound Preferences -> Applications' window. I reload ms, still no sound. I test sound from Ubuntu, it works fine. I change the ALSA sample rate in MuseScore and click 'Apply'... and 'ALSA plug-in [mscore-portable]' pops up in Ubuntu's 'Sound Preferences -> Applications' window. I select the first note in the piece and click 'Play'. Nothing happens. Next I wiggle Ubuntu's volume slider and playback starts (with a little popping). Three or four freezes over 100 measures, each un-frozen by volume wiggles, and, today ALSA is doing instrumental sounds rather than piano (with rather more freezes than yesterdays piano sound).

All thoughts and help are appreciated. MuseScore looks so good, offers so much, I'm determined to get it running smoothly on the RPi if at all possible. Give me hope; has anyone succeeded? Should I download a new AppImage file and try again?

With Thanks, Philip.


Comments

I've not tried to run MuseScore on my Pi 3b, but I have run plenty of other stuff on it, and I'd be be astonished if it had enough processing power to run MuseScore on Ubuntu. Whilst RiscOS runs like a racing car on the PI, Ubuntu is a much bigger, fatter and instruction cycle hungry proposition. I think that you could spend hundreds of hours tweaking and optimising, and still end up with something that was borderline.

My advice would be to run MuseScore on something more powerful if you can, or, if not, stick with your old Sibelius on Risc OS.

In reply to by phildriscoll

Oh dear. I had rather hoped that as the Ubuntu-mate (16.04) website provided a RPi version, that running MuseScore on the RPi was now a practical possibility. Although the lack of posts and info both on the RPi and MuseScore forums made me wonder.

Indeed, if the performance I have now from MuseScore is the best I can expect for the present... (roll on RPi4?) then there are still many features which could be useful. In particular using MuseScore as a bridge between RISCOS Sibelius and newer file types, both for export and import data. I shall investigate... My MuseScore test piece was created by loading a midifile created by RISCOS Sibelius and this was a very quick and accurate process. Hopefully there will be others... I'll report back.

I doubt that for me there will ever come a time when RISCOS and Sibelius are not at the heart of my computer use. However, I must say I immediately took a liking Ubuntu, and of course with the RPi I can have RISCOS too.

Thanks for the info, Philip.

In reply to by pjpy

I suppose you might have thought of it, but you could try installing a lighter weight version of Linux. You (sh|c)ould try Raspbian, a Debian flavored version of Debian, or perhaps Ubuntu with a lighter weight windowing system, such as xfce or similar, if it is available on the RPI.

In reply to by jim.weisgram

I'm using Raspbian and tried using the MuseScore 2.0.3 AppImage file. It crashes on saves and one minor changes on those occasions when it gets past the splash screen. It seems to be a segmentation fault related to line 18 of the program's code, if what the error message is telling me is correct.

I could install 1.3 using aptitude but it's useless to me becuase I use notation and tabs to write guitar parts for students.

(sigh)

In reply to by davidpetersonharvey

Sorry for slow response. As far as I know (no expert though) you need Ubuntu-MATE 16.04 to run Musescore 2 on the Raspberry Pi. That was the case when I installed ms2 a few months ago. I don't know if Raspian has moved on and now has whatever it is that was lacking before -- but I haven't heard that it has.

My experience has been positive, after some struggles, I found Musescore 2.0.3 from the PPA (install commands supplied by 'shoogle' below) works well on my Pi3B/ubuntu-MATE setup... with just some difficulties around playback. (One comment in this thread suggests the AppImage version is rather harder work for the Pi than the PPA version.)

Being a non-expert user myself I purchased a 16GB SD card from www.newit.co.uk with ubuntu-MATE 16.04 installed and took it from their... with copious help from this forum. If you manage to run ms2 successfully on Raspian please do let me know.

Best regards and good luck, Philip.

Thanks for that information on soundfont installation. Yes, I have:

/home/pi/Documents/MuseScore2/Soundfonts/TimGM6mb.sf2

I've now also read one or two other posts on the topic, and have clicked the 'Add' button in the Synthesizer window, highlighted the new sfont in the resulting pop-up window, clicked on it and seen it install as the first entry in the Synthesizer window.

Sadly, on try-out the new mini-footprint sfont makes little or no improvement to playback.

With the new sfont, the system monitor memory use is much the same as before, circa 35% and when playback is in operation one of the 4 cores is running at 100% while the other 3 range 0-15% with the 100% load being swapped to a different core every few seconds.

Interestingly in terms of work load, Firefox appears to run quite acceptably on RPi3\Ubuntu, with the load spreadout over the 4 cores.

Also it occurred to me that I should experimenting with other audio for comparison. Thus far a downloaded mp3 file has played without complaint... but will try out more over next few days.

Best regards, Philip.

Not sure about trying another Linux variety for many reasons:

1) Ubuntu-MATE (16.04) which I have installed is the version recommended on the MuseScore website for running MuseScore 2.0.3 on RPi2/3. (I believe Raspian doesn't have everything MuseScore 2.0.3 needs. I do have MuseScore 1.3 running on Raspian but that is nowhere so good as ms2.)

2) I thought Ubuntu-MATE is a relatively light weight distribution.

3) It has been tough getting this far, I wouldn't relish doing it all again.

4) Early days yet to be thinking of changing the system, it makes sense to explore the MuseScore I have before moving on. The score display is excellent quality. I'm gradually testing out various import and export features... so far midi import and export, PDF export and xml export are working fine.

The major glitch, playback, appears to result from the load the synthesizer places on the system. Without playback, the system monitor shows the 4 cores working in a similar manner to when other programs are running. It is only when playback is attempting to function that the 100% loading appears. However, I don't know enough about computers to tell whether this is a 'red herring' or the source of the playback problem. The pattern of core usage shown in the system monitor while in playback mode, also occurs in the first couple of minutes after switching on the computer but otherwise is not present. Attached (hopefully) are four png images of the system monitor.

Assuming there isn't enough horsepower to run the synthesizer my next move is to try and find out about 'JACK'... which I hope means I can link up a MIDI module for playback?

Best regards and thanks, Philip.

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ms-noplayback.png 71.21 KB
ms-playback.png 74.35 KB
startup.png 74.27 KB

shoogle,

Thank you for the post about your upgrade and the work you have done. Unfortunately I don't feel confident (or competent) enough to test the software. I'm new to Linux; indeed, until reading your post I had never heard of PPA. Thus I fear my ignorance might well contrive to produce an unhelpful outcome for all.

Best regards, Philip.

In reply to by pjpy

@Philip

No need to worry about using a PPA. (Well actually, you should always be careful about where you install software from, but since I made the AppImage too I presume you trust me already :D ) PPAs are actually the *preferred* method for installing 3rd party software on Ubuntu - they were created by Canonical for that purpose. If you have managed to set up a Raspberry Pi then you should have no difficulty using a PPA. Simply open up a Terminal and type these commands one-at-a-time. You can use the TAB key to autocomplete most Terminal commands after you type the first few characters.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mscore-ubuntu/mscore-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install musescore

If anything goes wrong (extremely unlikely) you can completely remove MuseScore and the PPA like this:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:mscore-ubuntu/mscore-stable
sudo apt-get remove --purge musescore

You will be prompted for your password after the first command because installing software requires root priviledges. (The command "sudo" means "run the following command as root".)

In reply to by shoogle

shoogle,

Sorry not to have answered more promptly... family and work intervened

First let me thank you for making the AppImage version of MuseScore 2.0.3. It was only after seeing this method of installing MuseScore on the website that I decided to go ahead. Coming from a RISCOS background, the idea of simply downloading a program and then double-clicking to run it is a great encouragement to the non-technical user. Well done.

Amongst the bundled programs on Ubuntu-mate is QjackCtl along with, apparently, all the JACK machinery. My plan at the moment is to buy a USB to MIDI cable and see if this route to MIDI-module playback will work for me. I imagine this solution would require only a tiny fraction of the system's horsepower in comparison to on-board audio synthesis.

Thank you for those clear instuctions on commands. Regarding the PPA option (which I don't at all rule out) may ask if you believe it will provide 'the solution' for playback on the RPi3 or just a step toward a solution? As I say I'm not unwilling to try things out but until I've made a copy of my Ubuntu SD card I'm in ultra cautious mode. (One of my two card readers died; I use the RISCOS program -- CloneDisc -- to make copies between two readers. My apologies for the slow pace at this end.

Best regards, Philip.

Thanks for that thought. I have tried playback both with and without the Navigator, but no improvement.
Best regards, Philip.

shoogle,

Now have backup SD card copied and have installed the PPA version of MuseScore upon it.

The PPA musescore appears to be a good step forward on the RPi3... more testing to be done. Playback is much improved and the menus seem quicker to display (not totally sure about the menus).

For playback the top listed soundfont on the Fluid tab is TimGM6mb.sf2 which I assume the PPA version picked up from the earlier AppImage installation, and the I/O tab shows PulseAudio.

For tests, after starting up the computer I load mscore alone -- no other programs running -- load my test score (four independent parts recorders & viol, 100+ measures), don't use the navigator, select the first note, select looped playback and enter playback mode. Now with the PPA version I get good playback sound, no cracking, popping and stuttering; but as playback continues, for maybe 1,2,3 loops... sooner or later it freezes. I can unfreeze playback by jiggling the volume in the Sound Preferences window and playback will continue again (though perhaps without the play cursor).

My (most un-expert) impression is that the PPA version is falling just within the playback capacity of the RPi3 (in contrast to the AppImage version which is beyond it). Indeed, the moment I load the System Monitor for a screen shot, playback freezes. Attached is a screen shot covering playback with the PPA version... which does show a different (less stressed) pattern of core use. However, the playback quality is low for the period covered by the screen shot because both the System Monitor and Screen shot Utility are also running!

When closing mscore after playback problems it will usually refuse to quit and I get a window labelled 'Marco' which allows me to select 'Force Quit'... which then does the job.

I will continue testing and report back some more. Also I now have a USB/MIDI cable for experiments with JACK.

Best regards, Philip.

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I haven't read this thread.

But I saw someone complain about playback glitches. I have had that issues on arm devices too.

I suggest lowering the sampling rate to the minimum that you can still hear the pitches. FYI, although RPi3 is quadcore, the synth is only single thread to my understanding. If you're curious, watch top or whatever system resource monitor you have installed while playing. edit: I see you're watching resource monitor...seems to show that playback doesn't utilize all cores, as synth isn't multithreaded. Note the command line top will let you know how much each process is consuming individually.

"My plan at the moment is to buy a USB to MIDI cable and see if this route to MIDI-module playback will work for me."

I actually do the exact thing with my pi...I have a midi keyboard synth, and musescore plays back just fine letting the keyboard synthsize. I'm regretting setting the arm app image builds to use lower sampling rate.

I actually hope that some things like layout can be multithreaded...I notice it is especially a problem when dealing with big scores on lower frequency but high core count machines. On my android phone with muse score app, it will take like 5 seconds to transpose a large score, but I can tell from top that it is only using one core. Same with simply loading a big score. I know there are some layout optimizations in 3.0, and I know these things can be hard to parallelize, but provided that different regions of the score can be laid out independently, then could better take advantage of multi-core.

Sorry I haven't read the thread.

@ericfontainejazz Thank you for all that information... it is particularly good to know that satifactory playback on the RPi, via MIDI, is possible.

Given the present difficulties with sound synthesis on the RPi, MIDI device playback seems the best way to go.

I now have a Tie Midi USB 1in/1out interface (from Bax-shop.co.uk product No. 9000-0021-7817)... but so far have not been able to get MIDI info to flow. I'm using QjackCtl. I attach screen shots of QjackCtl's connection windows (ALSAtab, Audio, MIDItab), QjackCtl's Settings windows (Advanced, Parameters) and mscore's Preferences->I/O tab.

At present I'm just getting very poor quality audio playback... sounds like humming through paper on a comb! Nothing going to my MIDI module. Playback is rather slower than the tempo indicated (MM92) but the play-cursor is moving correctly and there is no stutter/popping.

No problem not reading entire thread... it'll soon rival War and Peace.

I would be most grateful for guidance about your successful set up.

Best regards and thanks, Philip.

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Advanced.png 100.16 KB
ALSAtab.png 35.62 KB
Audio.png 32.75 KB
MIDItab.png 32.96 KB
mscoreInputOutput.png 59.67 KB
Parameters.png 53.04 KB

In reply to by pjpy

In none of those windows do I see any musescore midi output being sent as input to your USB midi synth.

Big issue is I don't see any musescore midi output in ALSAtab.png...clearly there will be no way to make a connection via qjackctl if no musescore midi output is presented there.

In your Jack Parameters.png, try using "seq" instead of "raw"...I'm not sure if that will fix this (I tend to be confused on those differences too).

Sometimes I find I need to use a2jmidid when interfacing Jack with Alsa Midi...you might give that a try.

But honestly, if getting midi to work with jack is too hard, I would actually suggest first trying to make sure you run musescore using ALSA and not even use a jack server. (FYI, the jack and pulse servers both utilize the ALSA drivers, which exists at a lower level). After restarting MuseScore in ALSA mode, then open a terminal and run the following command:

aconnect -l

That should list all your alsa midi devices. You should see both musescore and your usb midi device listed with a number. Then connect the two by running this command:

aconnect MuseScoreNumber:0 USBMidiNumber:0

Hopefully that will work.

@ericfontainejazz, many thanks... but alas, still no MIDI output.

First I tried 'raw' in QjackCtl's parameters window, with JACK option still selected in MuseScores I/O window... but no change to MIDI/sound output.

Next I changed MuseScores I/O window to ALSA and experimented with aconnect:

aconnect -l
client 0: 'System' [type=kernel]
0 'Timer '
1 'Announce '
Connecting To: 15:0, 128:0
client 14: 'Midi Through' [type=kernel]
0 'Midi Through Port-0'
Connecting To: 128:1
client 15: 'OSS sequencer' [type=kernel]
0 'Receiver '
Connected From: 0:1
client 20: 'USB MIDI Interface' [type=kernel]
0 'USB MIDI Interface MIDI 1'
Connecting To: 128:1
client 128: 'MuseScore' [type=user]
1 'MuseScore Port-0'
Connected From: 14:0, 20:0
2 'MuseScore Port-0'

aconnect 128:0 20:0
Connection failed (Operation not permitted)

sudo aconnect 128:0 20:0
[sudo] password for xyz:
Connection failed (Operation not permitted)

sudo aconnect 128:1 20:0
[sudo] password for xyz:
Connection failed (Operation not permitted)

I tried both 128:0 and 128:1 but no luck either way. MuseScore is present (client 128) but it is not clear if this is a MIDI port? Client 20 is labelled MIDI but not 128.

All suggestions and advice gratefully received, Philip.

In reply to by pjpy

Update to @ericfontainejazz, many thanks...

After a little more experimenting I've managed to get MIDI note input working. This was after I tried the command:

aconnect 128:2 20:0

which did succeed.

I feel now the full solution is near. Maybe just getting the right port numbers or perhaps the MIDI-module requires a tweak... the module does have a PC serial connection to another computer which is currently switched off. (The module itself is of course switched on.)

Philip.

Further update @ericfontainejazz many thanks...

Command output:

aconnect -li
client 0: 'System' [type=kernel]
0 'Timer '
1 'Announce '
Connecting To: 15:0, 128:0
client 14: 'Midi Through' [type=kernel]
0 'Midi Through Port-0'
Connecting To: 128:1
client 20: 'USB MIDI Interface' [type=kernel]
0 'USB MIDI Interface MIDI 1'
Connecting To: 128:1
client 128: 'MuseScore' [type=user]
2 'MuseScore Port-0'

aconnect -lo
client 14: 'Midi Through' [type=kernel]
0 'Midi Through Port-0'
Connecting To: 128:1
client 20: 'USB MIDI Interface' [type=kernel]
0 'USB MIDI Interface MIDI 1'
Connecting To: 128:1
client 128: 'MuseScore' [type=user]
1 'MuseScore Port-0'
Connected From: 14:0, 20:0

I infer from the above that:

128:1 is MuseScores MIDI output, and

20:0 is the USB MIDI interface input.

Therefore... aconnect 128:1 20:0 ...is the command needed to get MuseScore's MIDI data to the module, but it produces:

Connection failed (Operation not permitted)

My next move is to experiment with the MIDI module (Actually it is two modules a Yamaha MU15 and Roland SC-88vl both rather old timers). So far both with PC serial connection or switched to MIDI connection is not not working... and both ways produce on the module's display: 'errIlegalData'.

The note input (which is working) travels down a separate wire from keyboard direct to the Tie USB MIDI interface... there are two wires, MIDI input and MIDI output joining up at the USB connector.

Wish the dunce luck, Philip.

In reply to by pjpy

I though we already established that 128:2 was musescore's midi output. So you want

aconnect 128:2 20:0

fyi just -o is outputs, just -i is inputs, while -lo is listing output connections... So when it says:

client 128: 'MuseScore' [type=user]
1 'MuseScore Port-0'
Connected From: 14:0, 20:0

it means that 128:1 (musescore's input) is connected from both 14:0 (midi through) and 20:0 (usb).

In reply to by ericfontainejazz

@ericfontainejazz...

More than a little confused here... I will just accept your guidance. However, after using the command 'aconnect 128:2 20:0', although the connection is registered:

client 128: 'MuseScore' [type=user]
1 'MuseScore Port-0'
Connected From: 14:0, 20:0
2 'MuseScore Port-0'
Connecting To: 20:0

I have been unable to get so much as a squeak out of either of my MIDI-modules.

Possibly there is a fault in the USB interface. But as MIDI note input to MuseScore, from the studio keyboard (no MIDI in/through) is working down the other wire to the USB interface, the probability of a fault here is low. I'm not inclined to buy another USB interface just to be sure.

On the plus side of using the USB interface, as well as MIDI input, to my surprise, I have discovered that with the USB interface plugged into the RPi3 the audio playback glitches (stutter, crackle & pop) are largely (but not totally) banished. Ubuntu's 'Sound Preferences' window shows 'ALSA plug-in [mscore]' and the sound quality is as good as my old modules if not better. A test file has played without problems in a loop for more than an hour, but when the interface is removed the old playback troubles return. Generally, after mscore loads, if I hear the sound system come on (slight white noise hum) all will be well with playback.

The present situation does give me a functioning system: the PPA version appears quicker, more responsive than the AppImage, MIDI input is fine and audio playback is mostly OK. The system still appears to be working hard... in that there is a delay between writing a MIDI input note to screen and the sound emerging. Equally, the playback cursor is generally a beat ahead of the sound output... I shall continue testing, best regards and thanks Philip.

In reply to by pjpy

No need to buy another usb interface to test. One thing you can to help debug is apt-get install vmpk ("Virtual Midi Piano Keyboard") which doesn't synthesize midi at all, but is useful for generating midi events to test. Anyway, try connecting vmpk to your usb hardward synth with acconect, and then press keys on the virtual piano keyboard, and see if any midi output is produced. Also note, sometimes you have to change the midi channel.

I'm confused why there are no audio glitches when when the USB is plugged into the your computer but when you aren't using the USB synth.

PPA is probably going to a little faster than appimage just because of lower overhead. Ubuntu ppa are built specifically for ubuntu machines, while app image has to duplicate a lot of librarie.

@ericfontainejazz... success, instant success... that is sound from MIDI-modules with vmpk.

client 20: 'USB MIDI Interface' [type=kernel]
0 'USB MIDI Interface MIDI 1'
Connecting To: 128:1
Connected From: 128:2, 129:0
client 128: 'MuseScore' [type=user]
1 'MuseScore Port-0'
Connected From: 14:0, 20:0
2 'MuseScore Port-0'
Connecting To: 20:0
client 129: 'VMPK Output' [type=user]
0 'VMPK Output '
Connecting To: 20:0
client 130: 'VMPK Input' [type=user]
0 'VMPK Input '

Thanks for that advice.

So the USB interface is not the problem and further down the line the modules are OK (15 years of trouble-free use with RISCOS Sibelius). Thus the problem appears to be up-stream. Looking in the handbook I'm wondering if there is something that needs to be switched on or switched off in MuseScore like for example 'Edit->Preferences->Port Audio' ?

But still no MIDI-sound from MuseScore, even though the terminal indicates they are connected.

Regarding the (apparent) effect of the USB interface on audio synthesis, it has not completely cured the stutter/crackle/popping. This morning sound quality was poor some crackle and one or two freezes (cured by sound slider wiggle) but in the afternoon glorious sound quality and no freeze/stutter. I'll test some more.

Two other features I've noticed:

1) In continuous view playback the play position cursor, after reaching the end of the first 'screenful' jumps back just one measure and only after that measure jumps to the left for the second 'screenful'.

2) If there has been 'troubled' playback MuseScore will not quit without persuasion... usually just a wiggle of the Sound Preferences slider releases a moment of sound before the quit proceeds. Sometimes 'Marco' intervenes and forces a quit.

Best regards, Philip.

In reply to by pjpy

So the hardware usb midi out doesn't work on both the PPA and the AppImage?

I'm remeber ing now I never got ARM AppImage to work with jack or alsa only, but thought I got it working with pulse. Maybe I never tried pulse and midi with the AppImage...

Unfortunately Musescore 2.0.3 will never be smooth on raspi 3 because still each core is only 1.2Ghz but the layout and software synth are single threaded. I hear there are layout improvements for 3.0 that hopefully will be fast enough.

@ericfontainejazz Sorry for delayed response.

Indeed, I have been unable to get hardware usb midi output from either the PPA or AppImage version of MuseScore. As VMPK has no trouble transmitting midi through the USB interface it is presumably a problem with MuseScore.

However, I am able to use MIDI keyboard input and get acceptable audio synthesis most of the time. The PPA version of MuseScore appears to me to give somewhat better overall performance. In both versions the playback cursor is a note ahead of the sound and with midi keyboard input the note appears on screen well before the sound. I still get the impression that having the usb interface connected improves the audio output (but this may be a red herring).

Although MuseScore 2 on the RPi3 appears a work in progress, I think I can get enough out of it, in its present state, to persevere... and of course to look for improvements to come... both in hardware and software.

Best regards, and thank to you all, Philip.

Further comments on Setting-Up MuseScore on the Raspberry Pi.

I'm beginning to get a little experience using ms (PPA version) on the RPi3B, and as issues come up I shall note them down here as an addendum.

Early days of course, but overall I've been might impressed by this music editor. Everything I've tried so far has worked fine, if a little slowly in places, excepting of course for playback.

MIDI keyboard input works a treat. However, with a playback lag-time of about half a second it's most distracting to hear notes sound when you are playing in others further on. I've turned it off: Edit->Preferences->Note Input. Un-checking 'Play notes when editing'. Additionally this hopefully stops any playback glitch halting note input. Just very occasionally note input freezes when the synthesiser stumbles... requiring a Ubuntu 'Sound Preferences' volume slider wiggle to free up the system.

Also impressed with Ubuntu-MATE: Runs OK on the RPi3 for a relatively undemanding user like me... and no stability problems. I set up MuseScore and a PDF for MIDI input in the morning and let it run all day... coming back to it now and then to work on the score and otherwise turning off the monitor and keyboard. However, one question I haven't solved yet is how to get the Ubuntu display to full screen HDMI. I guess from RISCOS it will be 'disable_overscan=1' in some config file... but where?

Best regards, Philip.

To answer my own overscan margin question, from an internet search:
Open a terminal window and make a backup of /boot/config.txt

sudo cp /boot/config.txt /boot/config.txt.backup

You will prompted for your password.
Open config.txt for editing.

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

config.txt is loaded into the terminal window, scroll down to 'Overscan Video Settings' and un-comment

#disable_overscan=1 (i.e. Remove the #)

In my config file it's on line 369. Leave all other overscan parameters commented out.
#overscan_left=10
#overscan_right=10
#overscan_top=15
#overscan_bottom=15
These can be used to adjust screen position if disable-overscan=1 doesn't work.

Save and exit. You are prompted for Y/N answer.

CTRL+SHIFT+X
SHIFT+Y (to save followed by RETURN to confirm config.txt file name)
RETURN

Reboot

sudo reboot

On most monitors/TVs this should remove the black borders and make the desktop fill the whole screen. It worked for me using Ubuntu-MATE 16.04 on the Raspberry Pi 3B.

Just to report my experience of installing Musescore on a raspberry pi 3. It will install version 1.3 if you type sudo apt-get install musescore. There have been many improvements since 1.3 so to get the latest you are advised to use the appimage. I downloaded the 32 bit version (although the pi3 is a 64 bit machine I have read that Raspian is actually a 32 bit os), did a sudo chmod a+x appimagefilename and then ran it. I got

pi@raspberrypi:~/Downloads $ ./MuseScore-2.0.3-armhf.AppImage
libEGL warning: DRI2: failed to authenticate
libEGL warning: DRI2: failed to open swrast (search paths /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/dri:${ORIGIN}/dri:/usr/lib/dri)
initScoreFonts 0x14f6368
Cant find EGLConfig, returning null config
Unable to find an X11 visual which matches EGL config 0
Could not initialize OpenGL for RasterGLSurface, reverting to RasterSurface.
PulseAudio Context Connect Failed with Error: Connection refused
init PulseAudio failed
no audio driver found
Cannot start I/O
sequencer init failed
Cant find EGLConfig, returning null config
Unable to find an X11 visual which matches EGL config 0
Could not initialize OpenGL for RasterGLSurface, reverting to RasterSurface.
Cant find EGLConfig, returning null config
Unable to find an X11 visual which matches EGL config 0
Could not initialize OpenGL for RasterGLSurface, reverting to RasterSurface.
Ignore SSL error: 6 The certificate has expired
/tmp/.mount_RmGDfc/AppRun: line 18: 2015 Segmentation fault "${APPDIR}/bin/mscore-portable" "$@"

So, there are quite a few things wrong.

In reply to by [DELETED] 71557

@nigeldodd, you are correct that the Raspberry Pi OS is 32 bit running on a 64 bit processor, but the processor is ARM so you need to use the ARM AppImage, not the 32 bit x86 AppImage (which is for Intel and AMD processors).

If you don't want to use the AppImage, or you find the performance is not good enough, your options depend on the OS you are running.

Raspian OS

If you are using Raspbian OS (which you probably are) then you can try installing MuseScore via Debian backports. (Instructions adapted from here.)

# Add Debian package signing keys
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 7638D0442B90D010
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 8B48AD6246925553

# Add the Backports repository
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/sources.list.d
echo 'deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian jessie-backports main contrib non-free' \
  | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jessie-backports.list

# Install MuseScore via Backports
# (notice the backports repo must be manually specified in the install command)
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -t jessie-backports install musescore

If anything goes wrong you can completely uninstall MuseScore with these commands:

sudo apt-get remove --purge musescore
sudo apt-get autoremove --purge

And then disable the backports repo by doing:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jessie-backports.list

This will open a text file in a terminal-based text editor (nano). Add a hash '#' to the beginning of the line

deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian jessie-backports main contrib non-free

to comment it out. Save the file (Ctrl+O) and exit (Ctrl+X).

Ubuntu MATE

On Ubuntu-based systems you can use the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mscore-ubuntu/mscore-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install musescore

If anything goes wrong (unlikely) you can completely remove MuseScore and the PPA like this:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:mscore-ubuntu/mscore-stable
sudo apt-get remove --purge musescore
sudo apt-get autoremove --purge

Compile yourself

The alternative is to try compiling MuseScore yourself from the source code, but this is not recommended because it will take ages on the Raspberry Pi and you're likely to have trouble finding a suitable version of Qt.

Nigel,

I'm not a regular user of Raspian/Linux and have no great knowledge of these matters, but what worked for me, when installing Musescore 2 on the Pi 3B, were the commands provided by Shoogle in his post dated 24th June, 2016 further up this thread. The commands , I believe, install a Pi friendly version of the AppImage from Shoogle's personal archive.

The PPA software worked back in June last year, hopefully it is still OK. If you do give the commands a go, I would be interested to hear how you get on.

Good luck, Philip (pjpy)

Nigel,

After turning off the computer last night I realised that I hadn't said that back in June 2016, you needed to be running UbuntuMATE 16.04 (rather than Raspian) on the Pi 3 for MuseScore 2.0.3 have all the resources/components it needs. I don't know if it is still the case today, or for that matter, what is OS/resources are required with regard to ms 2.1.

Philip.

In reply to by pjpy

Now we have the RaspberryPi4, and making Raspian 64-bit takes 10 minutes max and is simple ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSF_jXGH4EQ ) (watch from 15 minutes to the end for that ), can we have a compilation of Musescore 3 for ARMHF ? The only other way is to install ManjaroARM for RaspberryPi4, their repository contains an ARMHF version of Musecore 3.4 :-) I do not know where who compiled or packaged it, but the ManjaroARM distro is not bad at all, and 3.4 appears to work well :-)

Running Raspbian on RPI4. Installed musescore via command line. It installed musescore 2.3.2. No sound, no playback, synthesizer grayed out, playback grayed out. Went to Edit-Preferences-I/O and ticked Portaudio. Now the sound and playback work.

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