luned?, 04 ottobre 2004 alle 19:39:57, Pedro Lopez-Cabanillas ha scritto: > 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 Pedro, thanks for clarifying that, as I said I've no direct experience with these devices, so excuse me for misunderstanding. Now I know that not all "firmware" based devices force you to deal with windows drivers and the consequently arising problems of redistribution. I should have read your messages with more attention. Best regards, -- Emiliano Grilli Linux user #209089 http://www.emillo.net
