#1 New Linux drivers lack /dev/sequencer

[Nathan Laredo]

For some reason, new Linux sound drivers seem to lack
support for /dev/sequencer making it really hard to use
playmidi.

Playmidi will need to be changed to use /dev/midiXX
for external midi output, and /dev/dsp for synth
output.

This will require major changes to playmidi.

I expect that when this is fixed, I will create a 3.0
release.

-- Nathan Laredo

[Nobody/Anonymous]

Logged In: NO

Be aware RedHat has changed the value of HZ, using for
kernel timing (ticks per second) from 100 to 512 on
i686/athlon systems.

This means that playmidi has to be run with -t randnum to
get correct output to internal or external synths.

randnum is some float you have to trial and error (for each
MID) to get right.

Bugzilla 78300 has been filed for this.

RELEASE-NOTES in the root dir of CD 1 of 3 say:
HZ=512 on i686 and Athlon means that the system clock ticks
5 times as fast as on other x86 platforms (i386 and i586);
HZ=100 has been the Linux default on x86 platforms for the
entire history of the Linux kernel. This change provides
better interactive response, lower latency response from
some programs, and better response from the scheduler. We
have adjusted the /proc file system to report numbers as if
using the default HZ=100.
<snip>
The following packages have been removed from this release
of Red Hat Linux:
playmidi

Grrrrr! RH7.2 shipped with playmidi 2.4, and now 8.0 ships
with timidity which can't play through external devices.

[Nobody/Anonymous]

Logged In: NO

2 days ago I reported problems running playmidi on RedHat 8.0.
These problems have been 98% resolved by ditching OSS/Free
and compiling a new build of ALSA current on the system.

[Nathan Laredo]

this is fixed in the current git tree and may be tested by anyone interested before things are finally ready for the 3.0 release.

both alsa and coremidi are now supported.