Maybe you
should ask M Audio if they plan to cooperate with the
community on Linux support for this particular device.
This isn't needed in this case, the downloading protocol is already
known (it's DFU). The only problem is that somebody actually has to
write the loader.
Do you mean that the firmware is already available, but currently
there's no way of getting it into the device under Linux?
I still think approaching M Audio is worth a try. If they know people
are actually buying their hardware to use specifically on Linux-based
systems then they might be inclined to work on a Linux/ALSA-friendly
firmware loader themselves, rather than just release specs for
someone else to write it.
I bought a Delta 1010 just because of the (third-party) Linux support
for the device, so there's a few dollars they can put into a firmware
loader straight away...
Cheers
Daniel