Ali5451 and MIDI synth

Ali5451 and MIDI synth

[Neale Banks]

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.

Re: Ali5451 and MIDI synth

[Alan Cox]

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.

Re: Ali5451 and MIDI synth

[Neale Banks]

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.

Re: Ali5451 and MIDI synth

[Alan Cox]

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.