Well done @smiths73v3. That is an interesting adventure that you have made. Everyone please note that zynthian labs is unlikely to provide any level of support for this folly. it is a fun distraction but you must consider that it may break at any time before you invest too much of your time, effort and expense. It is fantastic that we have such resourceful members of the community who are willing to spend so much of their own time being inventive and solving issues. (Even ones that were not really problems that needing solving!) Those individuals (as we all) may not be able to provide the level of support for branches that you may desire. (It is difficult enough to keep the core code patched.)
So again, brilliant work by @smiths73v3 - you have done a wonderful job… but I won’t be rushing out to to buy x86_64 hardware anytime soon. (All my x86 legacy hardware is 32-bit and probably heading for recycling soon… following the many 386, 486 & Pentium bases that I just disposed of!!!)
@riban, Thanks for the comments and reminder that yes, this is a Proof of Concept that will be broken more often than it is working.
I don’t want to detract from Zynthian proper, and definitely appreciate all the work that goes into keeping a hardware/software product fully supported. One of the main advantages of the Zynthian Hardware is that it is a standard Kit and one can simply buy what works and install the latest software on it. I already hit issues with different PC hardware not having firmware for audio, and broken touchpad.
I plan on taking this a couple steps further and see if I can shim in the auto-detect and basic config of x86_64 a little cleaner. I am considering a cheap NUC, and an HDMI touchcreen (USB-A) display as a barebones setup.
I have moved mostly to ARM for my tech due to its power efficiency. I tend to get the level of processing power that I need at a low power consumption. My Chromebook (on which I use the Linux subsystem) gives me 10 hours of usage from a single charge which helps me during long-haul travel. It is why the zynthian remains on RPi - giving sufficient processing power without getting too hot. Both of these have no fans. Silence is golden! Intel et al have some work to do in this field and RISC V5 is probably a few years behind.
Good luck with the next stage and keep us informed.
I am able to reliably clone and build a zynthian_x86_64 on a VirtualBox VM at this point, and get sound out of it. It builds from source a number of synth engines from source recipes, and I can play these (with lots of lag and xrun) on the VM. This includes the DSP56300 plugins, PianoTeq and SetBFree. My dream machine has these all running in MultiTimbral mode
At this stage I am getting a few more odds and ends together for a better “out of the box” experience.
Next stag of development will be getting this running on an N150 NUC, and have a 10.1” HDMI touchscreen.
The new hardware didn’t have support in Bookworm for the specific Wifi Adapter, and coincidentally is the same as the one in the touch laptop I am also planning on using as a potential zynthian. I ended up going to a Debian 13 Trixie based install. That had a new set of challenges, but I was just able to get it to build and boot to a UI, and audio test finally on the Box VM. I have a bit more testing to do and likely more changes before this gets stable.
