isisalsa-announce Mailing List for Guillemot Maxisound ISIS ALSA driver

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Hi all,

I'd like some reports on the driver... is it possible for all people who 
installed the driver to report their experiences?

Thanks,

Pieter

Hi all,

I have corrected the compilation problems of Felipe. The new version at
sourceforge.net should compile with gcc2.96.

I have also added preliminary MIDI support to the driver:
- The MIDI connectors on the breakout box are (by hardware) connected to
the Maestro MIDI port. This port is also available on the joystick
connector. The ALSA device name for the maestro MIDI device is "Maxi
Studio ISIS MPU-401 (Maestro)". This midi port was already supported in
the previous driver release.
- The SAM device contains two MIDI devices: "Maxi Studio ISIS SAM Synth"
and "Maxi Studio ISIS SAM MIDI". The first is the internal wavetable
synthesiser of the SAM chip. The second is the MIDI port of the SAM chip.

Note that these new midi devices aren't very usefull for now:
- I still have to write a method to upload soundbanks into the SAM
memory, so the synth is pretty much useless (for now). But the soundbank
stuff is so damn complicated...
- The SAM midi port isn't connected to anything on the ISIS PCB. So why
support it you may ask... well: first of all it wasn't difficult to
support it, because it's usage almost identical to the internal synth
usage. And second, I plan to modify my ISIS PCB to connect the SAM midi
port to the breakout box connectors. That way I'll have two midi ports
available on the ISIS: one  on the breakout box (=SAM midi port) and one
on the joystick port (=maestro midi port). The modification is pretty
simple... I wonder why the guys at guillemot didn't do it this way...
probably because writing a driver would be more difficult.
Don't expect these things to work yet, because I can't test them for the
moment.

I won't be able to work on the driver from July 30 to Aug 20 because I'm
working (actually earning some money). After that, I'll have to apply
for a PhD scolarship, and I don't know how much time that is going to
consume. Probably a lot. From 3sept to 26sept I'm off to Mexico...
So I guess the project is pretty much suspended until end september. I'm
sorry. Maybe there is someone else who has some basic expierience with
ALSA & linux drivers that can help me out?

Anyway, try the new driver,
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/isisalsa/alsa-driver-0.9.5-isis-1.tar.bz2?download

Pieter

Pieter Palmers wrote:

 > Felipe Sologuren wrote:
 >
 >> Pieter Palmers wrote:
 >>  > Hi Felipe,
 >>  >
 >>  > This looks like a compiler problem. Or an include file that isn't
 >> present.
 >>  >
 >>  > First of all: what distribution do you use? and what version of gcc?
 >>
 >> I'm using RH 7.3 and gcc 2.96
 >> I have alsa-kernel from planet-ccrma 2.4.21.1-II.acpi, but yesterday I
 >> tried with 2.4.20-18.1.caps too and results was the same.
 >>     Before your release I was using alsa 0.9.4 from planet and the
 >> via card
 >> for trying with jack-ardour. It was uninstalling with synaptic.
 >>     Today, I'am trying without via82xx onboard from bios. I don't
 >> know if
 >> that is important, but maybe a hardware conflict... acpi yet...
 >
 >
 >
 > Possibly the problem arises from the gcc version you use. I use Redhat
 > 8.0 which comes with gcc version >3. There are some differences
 > between the 2.x and 3.x versions of gcc. I haven't tested with gcc 2.96.
 > I'll try and figure out the problems (& solutions) as soon as possible.
 >
 > Pieter
 >
 >
 >
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 >

Good news: I've finally succeeded in completing a beta version of the 
ISIS driver. It's only functional with the pci64.bin firmware (i.e. 
multimedia mode, not studio).
Everything works, except recording from the rack (not possible with 
windows drivers either in MM mode) and the MIDI synthesizer doesn't work 
either.

There are some bugs in the driver, for sure. Please let me know what & 
how it occurred.

Installation:
1) download the file alsa-driver-0.9.5-isis.tar.bz2 from the sourceforge 
project page (http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/isisalsa)
this file is a modified version of the ALSA 0.9.5 driver package. You'll 
also need the other ALSA driver files, available at www.alsa-project.org.
2) unpack it, and follow the procedure outlined in the ALSA docs for 
installation
3) use maxiinit to load the pci64.bin firmware to the card (e.g. 
maxiinit /etc/isis/pci64.bin)
4) load the isis driver: (as root) "modprobe snd-isis"

it should work. If it doesnt, please send me the output of the kernel 
log ("dmesg") and the PCI configuration ("lspci -v"), and a description 
of the problem, so I can try and figure out the problem.

Device info:
pcm device 0 = ESS Maestro PCM (Playback & Capture)
pcm device 1 = SAM 1/2 PCM (mixed with Maestro PCM by firmware)    
(Playback only)
pcm device 2 = SAM 3/4 PCM    (Playback only)

Midi should also work
Joystick also

Enjoy,

Pieter

PS: I'm working on the Studio mode driver, but that mode is even less 
documented. Could be a while before I get this straigt.

Hi all,

Recently Herbert Schmid brought a bug in maxiinit-0.2 to my attention. 
It causes some systems to freeze when loading maxiinit, right after the 
"doing even more misterious things" or "looking for interrupt response" 
messages. I placed an updated version of maxiinit-0.2 at the project's 
sourceforge download site (http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/isisalsa)

greetz,

Pieter

PS: I've started working on the complete driver again. It will be ready 
in a few weeks.

isisalsa-announce Mailing List for Guillemot Maxisound ISIS ALSA driver

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