2002-07-17 02:44:50

by Neale Banks

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Ali5451 and MIDI synth


I'm trying to get MIDI synth happening with the Ali M5451 audio chipset
(as found in the Toshiba 1800 notebook).

So far, it appears to me that:

* linux-2.2 has MIDI support in the code (v0.14.5c of trident.c) - but
this driver (a) doesn't work for basic audio[1] and (b) doesn't register a
MIDI synth device (and MIDI players complain of no device).

* linux-2.4 has no MIDI support in the code (v0.14.9d of trident.c) - this
driver works OK for basic audio. Oddly, I can't see any mention of the
MIDI code removal in the driver's history.

* ALSA-0.9 - no MIDI support in the code (alsa-kernel/pci/ali5451/*).

Have I missed something here?

Thanks,
Neale.

[1] "doesn't work for basic audio" includes this being logged to kern.log:

trident: drain_dac, dma timeout?

Interestingly, I can make this go away by first loading and unloading the
ALSA drivers then loading the OSS drivers. This makes me suspicious that
linux-2.2's OSS driver is missing something in the initialisation.



2002-07-17 07:46:31

by Alan

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Ali5451 and MIDI synth

On Wed, 2002-07-17 at 03:51, Neale Banks wrote:
> * linux-2.2 has MIDI support in the code (v0.14.5c of trident.c) - but
> this driver (a) doesn't work for basic audio[1] and (b) doesn't register a
> MIDI synth device (and MIDI players complain of no device).

ALSA supports the synth facilities of the device, but not as "midi". The
trident synth doesn't talk midi.

2002-07-17 07:58:39

by Neale Banks

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Ali5451 and MIDI synth

On 17 Jul 2002, Alan Cox wrote:

> On Wed, 2002-07-17 at 03:51, Neale Banks wrote:
> > * linux-2.2 has MIDI support in the code (v0.14.5c of trident.c) - but
> > this driver (a) doesn't work for basic audio[1] and (b) doesn't register a
> > MIDI synth device (and MIDI players complain of no device).
>
> ALSA supports the synth facilities of the device, but not as "midi". The
> trident synth doesn't talk midi.

Pardon the naive question, but does that mean that apps looking for
(IIRC) /dev/sequencer are going to be workable with this chip or not?

If yes, what do I need to read up on?

Thanks,
Neale.

2002-07-17 09:59:43

by Alan

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Ali5451 and MIDI synth

On Wed, 2002-07-17 at 09:04, Neale Banks wrote:
> On 17 Jul 2002, Alan Cox wrote:
>
> > On Wed, 2002-07-17 at 03:51, Neale Banks wrote:
> > > * linux-2.2 has MIDI support in the code (v0.14.5c of trident.c) - but
> > > this driver (a) doesn't work for basic audio[1] and (b) doesn't register a
> > > MIDI synth device (and MIDI players complain of no device).
> >
> > ALSA supports the synth facilities of the device, but not as "midi". The
> > trident synth doesn't talk midi.
>
> Pardon the naive question, but does that mean that apps looking for
> (IIRC) /dev/sequencer are going to be workable with this chip or not?

The old /dev/sequencer stuff died with ISA bus midi synths. None of the
PCI sound drivers support it.