Re: [Denemo-devel] 1.1.2 packages for openSUSE and Fedora 19 (was: Newbie getting MIDI K/B to work with ALSA and qjackctl - update - some progress)

[Edgar Aichinger]

Philip,

Am Mittwoch, 22. Januar 2014, 10:58:36 schrieb Philip Rhoades:
> Edgar,
> 
> 
> On 2014-01-19 20:04, Edgar Aichinger wrote:
> > Am Sonntag, 19. Januar 2014, 14:08:26 schrieb Philip Rhoades:
> > 
> >> This is what I have in Edit-Preferences-Audio/MIDI - seemingly no 
> >> matter
> >> what I do:
> >> 
> >>    Audio Backend
> >>      PortAudio
> >>      JACK
> >>      none
> >> 
> >>    Output Device
> >>      Lots of ALSA devices
> >> 
> >> the third panel has:
> >> 
> >>    MIDI Backend
> >>      ALSA
> >>      JACK
> >>      none
> >> 
> >> - can you tell me what you see in your setup?
> > 
> > The same. My build supports portaudio, but not portmidi, because of
> > the bug i referred to in my previous post. I tried to come up with a
> > quick solution yesterday, but failed, and won't have much time next
> > week to look at it again, sorry.
> > 
> > For me choosing either ALSA or JACK as MIDI Backend just works. For
> > JACK the jackd server has to be running of course...
> > 
> > Choosing the backend and pressing OK immediately creates the
> > respective denemo port, so it become visible in e.g. qjackctl in the
> > ALSA resp. MIDI tab (right panel), and I can connect my keyboard (left
> > panel) to it.
> > 
> > To use JACK MIDI properly you have to start the a2jmidid daemon or use
> > the -X seq commandline option (MIDI driver config option in qjackctl)
> > to jackd, both methods will forward ALSA MIDI ports to the JACK MIDI
> > system. JACK MIDI itself doesn't create hardware ports, so you need
> > that to see your MIDI keyboard in qjackctl's MIDI tab. a2jmidid is
> > preferred over -X seq because it supplies better MIDI timing.
> 
> 
> OK, I have made some progress but a thorough analysis would require lots 
> of reboots of my server and I don't have time to do that at the moment - 
> sticking to ALSA for the time being:
> 
> - if I boot with the MIDI K/B plugged in - user "phil" can't get 
> ANYTHING going at all - no normal sound with mplayer, no MIDI 
> connections; root can get sound reliably and MIDI connections about half 
> the time; I think the order of the sound cards is being changed and also 
> there is a permission problem somewhere - I tried chmodding everything 
> in /dev/snd to 666 but it didn't help
> 
> - if I boot WITHOUT the MIDI K/B plugged in and plug it in after booting 
> - user phil and root can actually have normal sound plus MIDI connection 
> maybe about half of the time? - sometimes the existing Preferences setup 
> "just works" - like you said, but sometimes I have to reselect an item 
> and save it or select something else, save it and then change back to 
> what is listed above - sometimes I can't get it to work until another 
> reboot
> 
> - with limited testing, a cold boot seems to give better results than a 
> warm boot?
> 
> - sometimes, making some change or other will cause the loss of sound 
> and I will have to reboot just to get a working machine
> 
> At least now I know it can be made to work eventually, even if the 
> situation seems to be a bit hit and miss . .

the 1.1.2 build got published an hour or two ago, this has the portmidi fix you 
were waiting for.
As far as i can see it should all work like Richard described previously in 
this thread, i.e. the portmidi backend should be present now...
Please install and see if this fixes your midi issues (with non-persistent 
connections, not with device order during boot).

Edgar

> 
> Thanks to all!
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Phil.
>