Re: [LAD] alsa and OSS (again?)

> Well, besides the lack of 64 bit support, what makes Midishare so hard
> to compile and install on Linux right now, is mostly related to
> getting
> the Midishare kernel module to work on different iterations of the
> 2.6.x
> kernel, as the kernel API is still a moving target (which certainly
> isn't Grame's fault). It would likely be much easier if the kernel
> module could be replaced by a user space driver, but support for
> that in
> the 2.6 kernel is relatively new and noone has looked into that yet.
>

Well I have it working fine on both 2.4 and 2.6 kernels, so I don't
know what the dilemna is here, really .. maybe it is a drag to
compile from source, but to be frank, I think MidiShare is one of the
most friendly source trees to present this situation.

And actually I really like the Midishare design - kernel module for
the queues, and user-space for drivers .. this setup works really
well, surprising enough.

> Another issue, also related to the kernel module, is that the
> necessary
> init.d logic and kernel devices support (udev et al) varies among
> different distros, and sometimes even between different minor versions
> of the same distro.

This is not MidiShare's fault. Maybe some would be happier when
someone packages it up into a .deb or .rpm, but the fact is that
MidiShares' design allows this to occur quite easily. Someone just
needs to do it for the distro. My experience is that very few people
are enlightened as to the reasons for why they may want to do this in
MidiShares' case .. it is a bit of an (unjustly, imho) underdog in
the Linux/MIDI realm ..

On my GP2X machine (which has been running MidiShare for a few years
now) I have the MIDEX driver, firmware loader, MidiShare kernel and
user space modules, all happily being handled by an /etc/init.d/
midishare [start,stop,status] style config .. on my Intel machine
(Ubuntu), I sometimes go through the alsa-midi layer, but most of my
work (and interest in the first place) is with MIDI on ARM.

> >Unfortunately, autoconf doesn't help with that. When
> this stuff finally settles, it will be much easier to create a
> Midishare
> version for Linux which just works out of the box.

But the question is: Which Linux (distro)? Like I say, MidiShare is
well-written such that it can be easily integrated into the folds of
most distro's. Its just that very few have done the last-step distro-
integration work to make it easy, and thus: for now you gotta go with
the source.

Maybe MidiShare needs a packager/evangelist to get the last steps
done, so people can see just why this wonderful API/Driver/subsystem
is worth the effort.

> >This problem is not
> in any way unique to Midishare, just look at the mess with graphics
> and
> wireless drivers. You just don't notice it as much as these are
> usually
> already included in your distro.

I'm having an awful time trying to get ATI Mach64 driver support done
on a Ubuntu Studio installation. MidiShare, on the other hand, was
smooth and easy on the same machine ..

> Dave, I can't help you right now with getting Midishare to work on 64
> bit system, but if you're willing to run it on 32 bit I'll try to help
> you getting it compiled. Just drop me an email.

I'd be willing to help with any and all MidiShare problems,
honestly. I think its a wonderful, stable, productive way to do MIDI
on Linux. If only more people knew about it, and ditched the attempt
at re-inventing a well-rounded wheel, already. The MidiShare design
lends itself to integration with JACK, for example, very, very well ..

;

--
Jay Vaughan
_______________________________________________
Linux-audio-dev mailing list
Linux-audio-dev@email-addr-hidden
http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-dev