Hi,
I've got a MIDI keyboard and an SB PCI64 that I really miss using
now I've ditched MS from my disk. I'd like to keep MS off my disk,
but after several *months* of frustrating and searching the web and
posting to NGs I still don't have it working. So here I am, with
rather a long post; hopefully it has all the info some kind souls out
there need to assist me ...
My setup is this:
- SB PCI64
- cheap MIDI keyboard (works fine under MS OSs)
- ALSA 0.9+0beta12
- Debian GNU/Linux (woody, kernel=2.4.16)
- ALSA kernel modules 0.9+0beta12+3+p0
- alsaplayer 0.99.59
(I guess the experts on the list know this, but according to Linux
kernel documentation, SBPCI64 has no onboard MIDI synth, but the card
does have a MIDI connector, and - under MS OS's - I can use this no
problem. I realise that the MS driver must include the equivalent of
Timidity inside it. Anyway ...)
I think - correct me if I'm wrong - I need to do the following tasks:
(a) get input of MIDI keyboard events by ALSA PCI64 device
driver working
(b) get alsaplayer working using ALSA devices (required by
(e) below)
(c) set up virmidi device
(d) do some plumbing with 'aconnect' so MIDI keyboard events
are routed through the ALSA PCI64 driver, to the virmidi
driver
(e) run Timidity as backend to virmidi
Ok, well, (d) and (e) I've not got anywhere near attempting yet,
'cos (a), (b) and (c) don't work :-(
Ok, so, dealing with each of those things individually ...
reading MIDI keyboard events
----------------------------
Well, I'm not sure how to do this beyond correct sound card config
and then trying something like 'rosegarden' and pressing keys!
The right modules are loaded:
dione:~# lsmod | grep snd
snd-pcm-oss 35168 1 (autoclean)
snd-mixer-oss 8928 1 (autoclean) [snd-pcm-oss]
snd-ens1371 9440 2 (autoclean)
snd-ac97-codec 22304 0 (autoclean) [snd-ens1371]
snd-rawmidi 12256 0 (autoclean) [snd-ens1371]
snd-seq-device 3984 0 (autoclean) [snd-rawmidi]
snd-pcm 47968 0 (autoclean) [snd-pcm-oss snd-ens1371]
snd-timer 10080 0 (autoclean) [snd-pcm]
snd 24808 0 (autoclean) [snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss
snd-ens1371 snd-ac97-codec snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device snd-pcm snd-timer]
soundcore 3492 6 (autoclean) [snd]
and the config seems fine:
dione:~# cat /etc/modutils/alsa
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-ens1371
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
options snd snd_major=116 snd_cards_limit=1 snd_device_mode=0660
snd_device_gid=29 snd_device_uid=0
options snd-ens1371 snd_index=0 snd_id=ENSONIQ
XMMS, mplayer etc - all configured to use OSS devices - work fine.
But rosegarden's MIDI setup menu just lists the MIDI record device as
'(null device)'.
I've wrote a 5 line C prog just to read /dev/midi or
/proc/asound/dev/midiC0D0, expecting to see printf()'s as I pressed
keys on the MIDI keyboard, but no luck. How can I simply test/verify
that keypresses are seen?
alsaplayer
----------
dione$ alsaplayer
snd_pcm_open: No such file or directory (default)
/usr/lib/alsaplayer/output/libalsa.so failed to load
I could not find a suitable output module on your
system. Make sure they're in "/usr/lib/alsaplayer/output/".
Use the -o parameter to select one.
failed to load output add-on. exitting...
dione$
The library it fails to load exists of course.
Since the OSS aliases are in place, then using XMMS or *non*-ALSA
players works fine. But if ALSA is in 2.5 kernel then I guess I'll
have to get alsaplayer (and other apps) using the ALSA devices rather
than the OSS compatibility devices, right?
So, why doesn't alsaplayer play?
If I try any other ALSA-ish player, for example Timidity with -Os
('s' for ALSA device) then I get a - presumely not unrelated -
error:
dione:~# timidity -Os ~alexis/bohemian.mid
No sound card found.
Couldn't open ALSA pcm device (`s')
What's going on?
virmidi
-------
Ok, so then I added to /etc/modutils/alsa the following:
alias snd-card-1 snd-virmidi
alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
options snd-virmidi snd_index=1 snd_id=VIRTUAL_MIDI
But when I boot this results in:
ALSA %s:%d: ALSA ../alsa-kernel/core/init.c:77: card 1 is out of range (0-0)
Card-VirMIDI #1 not found or device busy
Card-VirMIDI soundcard not found or device busy
(virmidi)
Huh?
So I tried manually adding the snd-virmidi module with insmod:
dione:~# insmod snd-virmidi
Using /lib/modules/2.4.16/alsa/snd-virmidi.o
/lib/modules/2.4.16/alsa/snd-virmidi.o: unresolved symbol
snd_virmidi_new_Re3be217c
dione:~#
Ok, but with a bit of messing about I got this:
dione:~# modprobe -a snd-seq-virmidi <-- silent, so ok I
guess
dione:~# lsmod | grep virmidi
snd-seq-virmidi 2552 0 (unused)
snd-seq-midi-event 2792 0 [snd-seq-virmidi]
snd-seq 36236 0 [snd-seq-virmidi snd-seq-midi-event]
snd-rawmidi 12256 0 (autoclean) [snd-seq-virmidi snd-ens1371]
snd 24808 0 (autoclean) [snd-seq-virmidi
snd-seq-midi-event snd-seq snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-ens1371 snd-ac97-codec
snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device snd-pcm snd-timer]
But is that really the way to do it? Surely the entries in
/etc/modutils/alsa are fine, and much more graceful?
Can anybody offer any advice? Is there anybody with the same
card and/or requirement (MIDI keyboard, no onboard MIDI
synth) with it working?
Thanks!
Alexis Huxley
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
PS In case anybody is having the same problem, and finds this article
via a web search, the information above was primarily gleaned from
the following URLS:
http://audio.opensrc.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=8
http://linux-sound.org/quick-toots/4-sequencers_and_softsynths/quick-toot-midisynth_howto.html
file:///usr/doc/kernel-doc-2.4.16/Documentation/sound/es1371.gz
The MIDI HOWTO, the ALSA mini HOWTO were very out of date and didn't offer
anything useful.
PPS I'll post a summary if anybody is interested. Let me know.
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