4 Oct
2004
4 Oct
'04
7:45 a.m.
domenica, 03 ottobre 2004 alle 22:26:57, Pedro Lopez-Cabanillas ha scritto:
That's why I would avoid them and buy the models that "just work" out of
the box, if I have the possibility to choose.
On Sunday 03 October 2004, Emiliano Grilli wrote:
http://lists.agnula.org/pipermail/users/2004-June/002045.html
http://lists.agnula.org/pipermail/users/2004-July/002335.html
domenica, 03 ottobre 2004 alle 08:47:38, R Parker
ha scritto:
I have no direct experience of devices that require firmware, but I
recall a thread earlier this year on the agnula-user mailing list
discussing the
opportunity of distributing the firmwares, and if those firmwares were
"proprietary software" or not...
Can you please give me a pointer to that thread? There is
also the "midisport" line from m-audio, but
if I recall correctly
they need a firmware upload to work, so I'd avoid
them:
I use a USB Midisport 8x8 that requires firmware but
it works great. My purchase would be based on price
and not whether firmware is required. As far as I can tell, agnula/demudi still
doesn't distribute those
firmwares.
Please let me tell you a tale about these firmware issues, and a little
bit of history.
A long, long time ago (January 2002), I bought a Midisport2x2 USB
interface. Here is a picture of this technological terror, side by side
with an Edirol friend:
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/using-rosegarden/en/chapter-2.ht…
The Midisport2x2 needs to load firmware on it. Luckily, by that time
there was a project conducted by Lars Dölle and aimed to build GPL
firmware for this device. This project supports several devices using the
EZ-USB chip: Midisport2x2, Midisport1x1, Midisport UNO and Steinberg
USB-2-MIDI. The sources are on SourceForge:
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/linux-hotplug/firmware/ezusb/midi/
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/linux-hotplug/firmwarehotplug-0.1.tar.gz…
This baby is distributed as a RPM package (with the name ezusbmidi) by
CCRMA for RegHat/Fedora, and by Thac for Mandrake. Using this package is
very easy to set up the devices. And you are using only GPL software to
play your music. I don't use AGNULA, so don't ask me what happens with
it. I remember that there was a browseable CVS repository long time ago
with the ezusbmidi sources on it, but I can't find it now.
The problem is that there are a lot of devices out there that need a
firmware upload. MAudio has the 4x4, 8x8 and others. Tascam has the
122/224/428, and Steinberg has the Midex3 and Midex8. Nobody is working
on a GPL firmware for them. But there is another project in SourceForge
aimed to build a ripper^H^H^H^H extractor of the firmware juice from the
windoze drivers that can be used on Linux:
http://usb-midi-fw.sourceforge.net
Using this program is very easy. You only need to copy some files from
your windows driver into the directory where you unpacked the sources,
and run make install on it. The firmware extracted from the windows
drivers can't be
redistributed without the permission of their owners. It is proprietary
software. There are no sources. I wash my hands. But if you don't mind to
burn your soul in the hell, it is the only way to use some USB MIDI
devices on Linux. Just my 2 euro cents.
Regards,
Pedro
Best regards,
--
Emiliano Grilli
Linux user #209089
http://www.emillo.net