Ultralite AVB

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

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bluebell
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by bluebell »

root2 wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 10:03 am I recently bought the Ultralite AVB and it came with Firmware 1.3.5+637. I also experienced channel hopping and distorted sound :( Can you send me that beta firmware too? Thank's in advice!
You have a PM.

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

root2
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by root2 »

Thank you very much. Sadly my Ultralite does not boot after the Firmware Downgrade. It's stuck in load animation :cry:
puleglot
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by puleglot »

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Last edited by puleglot on Thu Apr 16, 2020 2:20 am, edited 2 times in total.
ahellquist
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by ahellquist »

Regarding the stuck device..

Could it be that you have the new version of the Ultralite AVB that has the better AD chips ? ESS Sabre32
They probably changed the internals so the beta firmware doesn't work on the new model ?

Motu support is excellent IMHO so you should be able to get it running again but maybe it will be difficult to get it running with linux.

i have filed service requests urging them to fix the USB issues and stuff that makes their units behave bad on linux and possibly other platforms but it doesn't seem to help.

Best regards, Anders
root2
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by root2 »

Thanks for your answer. I already got it working again by pressing two buttons while booting (bootloader mode) and flashing the newest firmware again. It seems like i have the new Version :( Even with LTC i get distorted audio after one minute.
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by ahellquist »

Sorry to hear that. If I remember correctly someone else did get Motu to exchange their unit to an old version or take it back so maybe that's an option.

If the new model is completely unusable in Linux we should spread the word to inform everyone.

Out of curiosity, what buttons did you press to enter bios-recovery and where did you find information about that?

Best regards and good luck with the mess.
root2
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by root2 »

I was so excited about this Interface, i really hope i can get it to work. Btw, i am using this for my Home Automation. There are not many Interfaces out there with an API.

I think with the current Software Version it is completly unusable if you need USB. We should spread the word!

I pressed the outer two buttons (Power and Mic2). It isn't documented anywhere. I couldn't live without my Jarvis talking, so i tried some things yesterday evening :-)

Thank you very much for your help
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by Drumfix »

You could try my patches (attached are the patched files for kernel 5.6.2). The necessary changes are enclosed with /* drumfix */, so it should be easy to apply them to other kernel versions.

The files need to be copied into directory <kernel-source>/sound/usb
and then the kernel built.

Some notes:

You may need to change the values for your device in the pcm.c file to match the USB_ID, interface number and endpoint number of the isochronous IN endpoint used by your device (see the output of lsusb -v).

Important: If your device is attached to a USB 2.0 controller (ehci), you should make sure that the interrupt of the ehci controller is the
sole interrupt on some core and that the ksoftirqd process of this core has a realtime priority that is only slightly below that of the interrupt.
Attachments
pcm.c
(49.64 KiB) Downloaded 119 times
endpoint.c
(32.45 KiB) Downloaded 111 times
clock.c
(17.15 KiB) Downloaded 124 times
Last edited by Drumfix on Thu Apr 16, 2020 5:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
root2
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by root2 »

Thank you, i'll try your patches later :-) Do you have them as a .patch file?
What's better, usb2 or usb3?
Drumfix
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by Drumfix »

The patches are so trivial that anybody should find the right place and copy it over for their kernel.

Regarding USB 2/3:

For a device it doesn't matter, if it is USB2 or USB3.

From my developer view the xhci controller is a hundrt times easier to program than an ehci, and theoretically, it has a major advantage:
Multiple interrupter (=> interrupts) that can be assigned individually to endpoints events. So with a different design for handling periodic
USB events, the host controller + external interface could be used just like an RME Multziface + PCIe soundcard, both latency and performance wise.
Unfortunately nobody has taken the task to implement that.
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by puleglot »

@Drumfix I think you can use uac_clock_source_is_valid_quirk() to fix sample rate switching and this will be upstreamable. The underlying problem is probably the same as with Microbook IIc:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/ke ... 04df042d9e
fsciarra62
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by fsciarra62 »

Dear forum...
I bought my Ultralite AVB in 2019, already equipped, by chance, with 1.3.2+520 firmware, without knowing.
So I simply tried that in the shop and worked very well since the beginning.
Then I went into the nightmare of firmware upgrade until I found this forum and found that the "good version" is that one.

I did the big big error to tell a friend that MOTU was working pretty well on Linux. He bought one and... tadaaaa... He has the new BIOS which doesn't allow to install 1.3.2+520.

I'm reading the forum again and found that another firmware exists which works on Linux and has touch console too...
1.3.4+558... I would like to test it on my MOTU, and possibly check if it works on my friend's one.

I cannot find that version on MOTU site. Where can I find it, please?

Thank you very much in advance.
Just a final word of sadness. It's so bad that those fine engineers just don't give a penny to us, Linux users who pay sound money for their product. We might be far more people than this, if they would consider us.

PS... After I wrote this message, I got back in the history of this channel, and casually I bumped on my first message on this forum and noticed that I had an answer I never read before, which was offering to test the 1.3.4+558 firmware to me... I apologize I missed totally that answer...
I beg your pardon for this. :-(

Fabrizio
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by ahellquist »

fsciarra62 wrote: Tue Apr 21, 2020 10:20 pm Dear forum...
I bought my Ultralite AVB in 2019, already equipped, by chance, with 1.3.2+520 firmware, without knowing.
So I simply tried that in the shop and worked very well since the beginning.
Then I went into the nightmare of firmware upgrade until I found this forum and found that the "good version" is that one.

I did the big big error to tell a friend that MOTU was working pretty well on Linux. He bought one and... tadaaaa... He has the new BIOS which doesn't allow to install 1.3.2+520.

I'm reading the forum again and found that another firmware exists which works on Linux and has touch console too...
1.3.4+558... I would like to test it on my MOTU, and possibly check if it works on my friend's one.

I cannot find that version on MOTU site. Where can I find it, please?

Thank you very much in advance.
Just a final word of sadness. It's so bad that those fine engineers just don't give a penny to us, Linux users who pay sound money for their product. We might be far more people than this, if they would consider us.

PS... After I wrote this message, I got back in the history of this channel, and casually I bumped on my first message on this forum and noticed that I had an answer I never read before, which was offering to test the 1.3.4+558 firmware to me... I apologize I missed totally that answer...
I beg your pardon for this. :-(

Fabrizio
Sent you a PM
fsciarra62
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by fsciarra62 »

Ok, thanks a lot...

Looks like the new old firmware works for me...

Still have to test it completely but results seem good.

My friend, alas, has the new AVB and got stuck during reboot.

I'm always speechless on how MOTU has this attitude to don't pay attention to standards...

Had, and still have, big troubles with MIDI microexpress... Same story...

I wanted to have a DC coupled high-level card... Well... I have, my friend has the ""best"" version and -> money thrown away.

Thank you very much again for your support. Hope MOTU will solve this for all of us.

Fabrizio
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by ahellquist »

File support tickets that address the problem with USB-timing that affects all platforms and do not focus on linux-compability or the ticket will be silently ignored. I have filed tickets and they have replied that they will look into the issue but they never deliver. If more people engage, they might do something.

Regards, Anders
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