On Monday 04 October 2004, Emiliano Grilli wrote: > > > I have no direct experience of devices that require firmware, but I > > > recall a thread earlier this year on the agnula-user mailing list > > > discussing the > > > opportunity of distributing the firmwares, and if those firmwares were > > > "proprietary software" or not... > > > > Can you please give me a pointer to that thread? > > http://lists.agnula.org/pipermail/users/2004-June/002045.html > http://lists.agnula.org/pipermail/users/2004-July/002335.html Thanks. But they are talking about the alsa-firmware package. That collection includes firmware for several PCI and PCMCIA devices, and also for Tascam USB devices. This is not what we are talking here. There are not firmwares in alsa-firmware package for the Midisport devices, for instance. > > > As far as I can tell, agnula/demudi still doesn't distribute those > > > firmwares. They don't distribute the proprietary files from alsa-firmware, but they distribute the ezusbmidi package, a GPL firmware for Midisport1x1, 2x2, UNO and Steinberg USB-2-MIDI devices. See: http://apt.agnula.org/pool/main/e/ezusbmidi/ You can use the Midisport2x2 in agnula/demudi, with only GPL software and firmware. RMS shall bless your audio workstation with this setup. > > redistributed without the permission of their owners. It is proprietary > > software. There are no sources. I wash my hands. But if you don't mind to > > burn your soul in the hell, it is the only way to use some USB MIDI > > devices on Linux. > > That's why I would avoid them and buy the models that "just work" out of > the box, if I have the possibility to choose. You have two choices for Midisport1x1, 2x2, UNO and USB-2-MIDI: 1. The GPL firmware written by Lars, and known as "ezusbmidi". There are easy to install precompiled packages in agnula/demudi, CCRMA and Mandrake (and I hope that more distros will include it in the future). 2. The proprietary firmware, that you can extract from the windows drivers using the extractor in http://usb-midi-fw.sourceforge.net/ For other USB devices (4x4, 8x8...) you only have the second option. Regards, Pedro
