Ultralite AVB

Talk about your MIDI interfaces, microphones, keyboards...

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bluebell
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by bluebell »

driedstr wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 10:56 pm
bluebell wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 9:15 pm The older one works with the most recent firmware (1.3.5+626), kernel 5.8.6 and Drumfix' driver in Class Compliant mode flawlessly with my computer.
Thanks for mentioning that. Looks like the driver fixes the sample rate though, which is a deal-breaker for me
I don't change the sample rate so I have no experience with that. I change the bufsize with jack_bufsize often. Works ok.

Linux – MOTU UltraLite AVB – Qtractor – http://suedwestlicht.saar.de/

Musinux
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by Musinux »

shellwalker wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 12:02 pm how does your curl command look like?
Since you seem to have a stable setup, would you mind writing a step-by-step guide for this?

BTW: I don't use jack with Ardour, instead I use ALSA directly. Would/should that make a difference?

I didn't really "use" the interface much lately, and after all the problems others and I had in the past, I wouldn't call it working 100%, until I let it run for a few days in a row, which I won't do soon.

Set vendor mode and channel count to 32:

Code: Select all

curl --data 'json={"value":"USB2"}' [IP]/datastore/host/mode && curl --data 'json={"value":"32"}' [IP]/datastore/host/maxUSBToHost   
To check if it has been written:

Code: Select all

curl [IP]/datastore -so /tmp/datastore && grep -e 'host/mode' -e maxUSBTo /tmp/datastore 
After building/installing the module, load it with options or create something like /etc/modprobe.d/motuavb.conf:

Code: Select all

options motu samplerate=88200 midi=1 vendor=1
To change sample rate (which I don't do), you'd have to unload the module (modprobe -r motu) and reload with different sample rate as option.

One of the biggest advantages for me is, that there are no popping sounds when booting my PC in vendor-mode (even without drumfix's module present).

I'm not sure if there's anything else recommended by drumfix to use this module, when I use it, I don't fiddle with irqs or anything else, but it can handle xruns without doing the nasty stuff of snd_usb_audio, which is really cool.


I don't use ardour, but I guess if you set frames/buffers right and don't need to run anything else at the same time, alsa wihout jack should be good.
wouldn't really know how to track errors without jack, tho :)
fritz_distran
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by fritz_distran »

Just a quick question: did anyone else get the impression that those annoying issues (channel hopping, signal modulations, etc.) are less likely to occur when the number of input channels is reduced in the HTTP interface (setting "From Computer" for example to 2 instead of 24 in the "Routing" page)?
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by bluebell »

fritz_distran wrote: Fri Jun 11, 2021 1:32 pm Just a quick question: did anyone else get the impression that those annoying issues (channel hopping, signal modulations, etc.) are less likely to occur when the number of input channels is reduced in the HTTP interface (setting "From Computer" for example to 2 instead of 24 in the "Routing" page)?
No. And I don't think this setting does more than just hiding the channels in the routing matrix. I have always 24 ins and outs in my jackd.

Linux – MOTU UltraLite AVB – Qtractor – http://suedwestlicht.saar.de/

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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by bluebell »

bluebell wrote: Fri Oct 02, 2020 3:57 pm I'd start with only blacklisting the bt and video drivers.

AFAIK the governor doesn't matter if you use the intel_pstate driver:

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root@bubu:~# cpufreq-info | grep pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
I stand corrected. Setting the governor to performance makes a difference.

Linux – MOTU UltraLite AVB – Qtractor – http://suedwestlicht.saar.de/

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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by shellwalker »

bluebell wrote: Tue Jun 15, 2021 7:23 am
bluebell wrote: Fri Oct 02, 2020 3:57 pm I'd start with only blacklisting the bt and video drivers.

AFAIK the governor doesn't matter if you use the intel_pstate driver:

Code: Select all

root@bubu:~# cpufreq-info | grep pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
I stand corrected. Setting the governor to performance makes a difference.
Could you please outline _what_ difference it makes?

MOTU 828mk3, MOTU 828ES, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Kubuntu 22.04.1 LTS, https://github.com/shellwalker-coder/motu_patch_testing

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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by bluebell »

shellwalker wrote: Tue Jun 15, 2021 5:12 pm
bluebell wrote: Tue Jun 15, 2021 7:23 am
bluebell wrote: Fri Oct 02, 2020 3:57 pm I'd start with only blacklisting the bt and video drivers.

AFAIK the governor doesn't matter if you use the intel_pstate driver:

Code: Select all

root@bubu:~# cpufreq-info | grep pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
  Treiber: intel_pstate
I stand corrected. Setting the governor to performance makes a difference.
Could you please outline _what_ difference it makes?
My CPU is a Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700T CPU @ 2.90GHz

With governor powersave a running "heavy" Qtractor project will bring the CPU cores to 3.10 GHz.
With governor performance a running "heavy" Qtractor project will bring the CPU cores to 3.60 GHz and makes the session more robust against xruns.

The CPU gets warmer, even with Qtractor stopped, so I change the governor to performance just before starting Qtractor and change it back to powersave when Qtractor ist stopped.

Linux – MOTU UltraLite AVB – Qtractor – http://suedwestlicht.saar.de/

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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by shellwalker »

bluebell wrote: Wed Jun 16, 2021 7:22 am My CPU is a Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700T CPU @ 2.90GHz

With governor powersave a running "heavy" Qtractor project will bring the CPU cores to 3.10 GHz.
With governor performance a running "heavy" Qtractor project will bring the CPU cores to 3.60 GHz and makes the session more robust against xruns.

The CPU gets warmer, even with Qtractor stopped, so I change the governor to performance just before starting Qtractor and change it back to powersave when Qtractor ist stopped.
Thanks for the details ;-)
I was hoping you'd be saying that it fixes the channel drifting...

MOTU 828mk3, MOTU 828ES, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Kubuntu 22.04.1 LTS, https://github.com/shellwalker-coder/motu_patch_testing

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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by bluebell »

shellwalker wrote: Wed Jun 16, 2021 9:32 am
bluebell wrote: Wed Jun 16, 2021 7:22 am My CPU is a Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700T CPU @ 2.90GHz

With governor powersave a running "heavy" Qtractor project will bring the CPU cores to 3.10 GHz.
With governor performance a running "heavy" Qtractor project will bring the CPU cores to 3.60 GHz and makes the session more robust against xruns.

The CPU gets warmer, even with Qtractor stopped, so I change the governor to performance just before starting Qtractor and change it back to powersave when Qtractor ist stopped.
Thanks for the details ;-)
I was hoping you'd be saying that it fixes the channel drifting...
With Drumfix' driver and the older UltraLite AVB model (with most recent firmware) I don't have any channel hopping anymore.

Linux – MOTU UltraLite AVB – Qtractor – http://suedwestlicht.saar.de/

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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by Musinux »

Everything's still working quite good with drumfix's motu-avb module.
The interface set itself to UAC again, giving strange distortion. Took me a while to find out what was wrong.
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by webmob »

Will the drumfix driver be integrated into the standard kernel at some point?
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by suenteus »

Dear @shellwalker
this is wonderful, thank you for starting up this wiki!

I got my MOTU Ultralite AVB back in October 2018. Probably like many folks on this thread, I thought the combination of configuration via ethernet and USB2 class compliant audio would be a fantastic option for Linux. Then the channel skipping started.. and it's been a struggle since. At that time I downgraded my firmware on the MOTU and it works.. usually, but not reliably (once I try connecting an HDMI monitor or a USB webcam the Motu starts to go haywire).. on a Lenovo Ideapad S540 running Linux Mint 19.3.

Now revisiting your wiki, I'm excited to see some progress has been made on the issue. I was just wondering a few things, information that maybe also could also help newcomers to this thread and be added to the wiki? I would also be happy to help work on it with you - I am not so great at writing drivers.. but I can at least contribute in this way if that's helpful.

if I understand correctly there are three workable options now:
# 1. AVB mode
connection via ethernet, which requires an external AVB switch between your computer and the MOTU. Requires compiling drumfix's AVB driver https://github.com/Drumfix/motu-avb-usb

# 2. Proprietary Mode
Connection via USB2 - it is not completely clear from the wiki what "proprietary mode" means. I am assuming it's MOTU's own USB audio protocol that requires some kind of secondary software to be running on Mac/Windows to work?
Requires compiling the linux kernel yourself using a patch: https://github.com/Drumfix/motu-avb-usb

# 3. USB Class Compliant Mode
Connection via USB2 - using an updated USB driver compiled against your kernel source code.
viewtopic.php?p=122814#p122814
This only works if you have an older model without an "ESS chip".

Some questions...
* Do you know how it is possible to identify whether one's model has an ESS chip?
* Unfortunately I'm not a super experienced Linux user yet... compiling the kernel to me seems very daunting, and almost certain to mess up my system (not to mention the low latency mode) ... I wonder if it would be possible to provide some more hand-holding on how to go through the process of getting this all up and running?

Also, perhaps another method worth mentioning.. many folks have had some luck downgrading the driver firmware to earlier versions (e.g. 1.3.2+520 was the one that kind of worked for me) ... firmwares can be downloaded here: https://motu.com/techsupport/technotes/ ... changelog/

thank you everyone for your work trying to get us all making music again!
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by vmx »

Unfortunately I'm not a super experienced Linux user yet... compiling the kernel to me seems very daunting, and almost certain to mess up my system (not to mention the low latency mode) ... I wonder if it would be possible to provide some more hand-holding on how to go through the process of getting this all up and running?
I would also very much appreciate if anyone could help with some guide or links on how to compile the kernel, specifically the lowlatency kernel (the Ubuntu Studio version). I am having trouble to find out where to start. I got the motu avb with the ESS chips, so this is my only option.
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by shellwalker »

suenteus wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 11:44 am Now revisiting your wiki, I'm excited to see some progress has been made on the issue. I was just wondering a few things, information that maybe also could also help newcomers to this thread and be added to the wiki? I would also be happy to help work on it with you - I am not so great at writing drivers.. but I can at least contribute in this way if that's helpful.
Yes, I totally agree with you. My intention for the wiki was exactly that:
- provide a clear overview of the different solutions and their status
- provide simple guides for newbies to get things working

For accomplishing that I need to depend on the real experts in this matter for providing the required information. Unfortunately it seems everyone was kinda busy and the infos/responses I obtained were thin. The result was that I have to date not succeeded in getting _any_ of those solutions to work for me and thus I've also not made any updates to the wiki.
My last shot at this was here: viewtopic.php?p=133197#p133197

In addition, my professional work situation has gotten the best of my time, so that I've not been able to press on this track since a few months now.
I am actually thinking of selling my MOTU 828ES, since the overall experience with Linux has been rather disappointing :-(

Please do feel free to fork my wiki and drive this forward!! I know it is rather difficult to get hands on to this - there are a lot of assumptions in forums like this regarding the expertise of people in search of help. And long-going discussions with technical details scattered over multiple posts, partly with unclear or presumptuous results makes it even more difficult. But please please do give it a try. If you need help on that, I'd try to assist you!
suenteus wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 11:44 am # 2. Proprietary Mode
Connection via USB2 - it is not completely clear from the wiki what "proprietary mode" means. I am assuming it's MOTU's own USB audio protocol that requires some kind of secondary software to be running on Mac/Windows to work?
Requires compiling the linux kernel yourself using a patch: https://github.com/Drumfix/motu-avb-usb
"Proprietary Mode" means that the USB protocol is not the "Class Compliant mode" (which in turn is understood by all OSes). So the OS needs to know how to handle that specifically. The kernel patch provided by Drumfix under attempts to use close this gap for Linux (https://github.com/Drumfix/motu-avb-usb).
However I personally have not had success with this approach either :-(
suenteus wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 11:44 am Some questions...
* Do you know how it is possible to identify whether one's model has an ESS chip?
* Unfortunately I'm not a super experienced Linux user yet... compiling the kernel to me seems very daunting, and almost certain to mess up my system (not to mention the low latency mode) ... I wonder if it would be possible to provide some more hand-holding on how to go through the process of getting this all up and running?
* I'm sorry, but I do not know how to determine whether once's model has an ESS chip or not - apart from looking at the product description on MOTU pages or the package the product came with.

* I once wrote up a guide (viewtopic.php?p=127891#p127891) for testing a patch that came from wrl. Unfortunately that patch did not solve the channel-drifting issue after all.
But I think the guide can still be used as a general quick intro for kernel building stuff, to get you started (just skip applying the wrl patch). Of course it does not cover all the details of actually configuring the kernel build - for that I'd kindly refer you to the typical search engines for further guidance.

MOTU 828mk3, MOTU 828ES, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Kubuntu 22.04.1 LTS, https://github.com/shellwalker-coder/motu_patch_testing

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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by ophiuchia »

shellwalker wrote: Mon Sep 13, 2021 6:47 am In addition, my professional work situation has gotten the best of my time, so that I've not been able to press on this track since a few months now.
I am actually thinking of selling my MOTU 828ES, since the overall experience with Linux has been rather disappointing :-(
Did you test by any chance with pipewire, e.g. using Fedora 34?
I did not observe any channel drifting since switching but did not test thoroughly.
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