E-mu 0404 and getting nowhere...

[Linuxmusician01]

@Linuxmusician01

AV Linux is a 'modern distribution' it's based on Debian Stable, has a custom RT Kernel, numerous other tweaks and customizations and comes with the KXStudio repos as well as a significant amount of other Audio and Video software not contained in KXStudio pre-installed as well as a 129 page illustrated User Manual. It has also been around since 2007 which is probably a longer run than any other Audio distro including KXStudio. It's not perfect and it doesn't always work for everyone but it has worked well for many over the years and is a tremendous amount of work for one person so I'd appreciate it if you didn't so glibly dismiss it out of hand.

I hear you and I stand corrected. The reason that I, unjustly so, dismissed AV Linux in a heartbeat is that I have bad experiences with people that use a distro that is not well known. Most of these unneeded "just for fun" distro's, I think you'll agree, cause problems to their users. And they are not well supported. Another problem was/is that I cannot reach AV Linux's website from behind my VPN and I thought that the website was down for a long time. Considering the fact that AV Linux is based on a very well supported and stable OS and it's repo's (Debian Stable) as well as the KXStudio ones I wish you all the best and I'll never dismiss AV Linux as third rate distro.

[glowrak guy]

Found a 2015 emu0404 firmware mentioned in the first link's topic,
last page.

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopi ... 6&t=371831

firmware link:

http://maxonlimited.com/uploads/ipo_doc ... mware/emu/

[nikgnomicradio]

The E-Mu 0404 does have the same emu10k1 IC as Creative cards. Appears to be used for soundfonts/dsp; MIDI; possibly digital IO. But, there are other ICs used for analog IO - Burr-Brown PCM1820 ADC and AKM AK4395 DAC. Both ICs are capable of 192kHz, but card can only support 96kHz.

emu10k1 Creative cards work great for analog playback. not good enough IMO for line level analog capture. maybe ok for spdif capture

[Red Leader]

@Linuxmusician01

AV Linux is a 'modern distribution' it's based on Debian Stable, has a custom RT Kernel, numerous other tweaks and customizations and comes with the KXStudio repos as well as a significant amount of other Audio and Video software not contained in KXStudio pre-installed as well as a 129 page illustrated User Manual. It has also been around since 2007 which is probably a longer run than any other Audio distro including KXStudio. It's not perfect and it doesn't always work for everyone but it has worked well for many over the years and is a tremendous amount of work for one person so I'd appreciate it if you didn't so glibly dismiss it out of hand.

@Red Leader

In the future if you have AV Linux problems try the AV Linux forum, or PM me here. I'm not sure why the Emu wasn't working, it is a bit of a rare bird but it did work in previous AVL versions.

GMaq,

I have ALWAYS enjoyed using AV Linux - it has always worked well for me, for years. Thank you for all your hard work and effort over the years to help us musicians who try to go the Linux route!

I would absolutely be using it right now, as well. Thing is, I'm pretty linux-dumb, so there is no fault to the system, just more my understanding.

I'm tearing into things today to see if I can get the Emu up and running. I'm excited to see what 2019 will bring for AV Linux and if I can get my skills up to the task, I would totally be happy making the switch back.

[Red Leader]

You might try one last time to get that E-mu 0404 pci sound card to play nicely or, until you have a better audio device, use an on-board sound card to record some audio with Adacity for practice. I found this post in a Linux Mint forum in which somebody wrote how he got his Emu card working (Mint is based on Ubuntu so it might work for you too). Here's how he solved it:

"Here's the cure for all EMU cards whether internal or usb/external.

Code: Select all

cd ~
wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/firmware/alsa-firmware-1.0.28.tar.bz2
tar xjf alsa-firmware-1.0.28.tar.bz2
cd alsa-firmware-1.0.28
./configure --enable-buildfw
cd emu/
make
sudo make install


It works like a charm. I can record, have all the effects, synths, midi, everything works like it does in every other OS I have."

What do you want to do w/ music in Linux? Use virtual instruments like VST's? Record your singing voice? Record guitar? Record a synth? Make house music via Midi and drum computers? What software to use depends on that.

So, I'm installing the meta-audio package in the KX Studio repos, and I'm going to tackle this next.

Do I literally just copy and past the code above? One line at a time? Put a 'sudo' in front of it all? Sorry I'm so linux dumb! Thanks for your help!

[Linuxmusician01]

Do I literally just copy and past the code above? One line at a time? Put a 'sudo' in front of it all?

Yep One line at the time (press Enter of course), you do not have to put a 'sudo' in front of every command (except for the last line). If it doesn't work then it might help to follow the more elaborate procedure from https://wiki.debian.org/snd-emu10k1

Good luck!

[Red Leader]

Okay! So I have all the audio packages installed, and I did the above (it actually worked by pasting the whole thing, except at the end I had to use a different command to install?)...anyways, I started up Cadence and looked and it doesn't really give me a whole lot of options. For 'Device/Interface', my options are 'hw:0' or 'hw:PCH,0[ALC887-VD Analog] but nothing denoting the 0404 card.

I'm going to hook up all the audio gear and see if I'm getting anywhere...

[Red Leader]

Okay, I must be a special kind of dumb.

Nothing is working. Lol...I can't even do basic linux commands.

So, I fired up Cadence/Jack, start up Ardour. So if the 'audio engine' is ALSA, It is stopped. When I try to start, it 'fails to start audio engine'. Okay. So then I switch to Jack as the audio engine. Nope...try to load Ardour and it 'cannot create session'. I'm using 44.1k as my sample rate at it is hardware/software consistent.

So then I go to the page that @Linuxmusician01 posted. I figure let me try this way.

the very first code box...

$ su
# aptitude update && aptitude install build-essential
# exit

So I copy/paste. Error. Try it without the $. Can't recognize 'su'. Try 'sudo'. Does nothing. Try it with sudo apt get. 'get' not a command. Try 'sudo apt get install'....'E: Unable to locate package update'.

What am I doing wrong? I can't even get through the first command box!

I'm laughing at myself over here for being so incompetent. I'm not sure where else to go from here. Here is the interesting thing. I used this code -

# modprobe -r snd-emu10k1-synth snd-emu10k1 ; modprobe snd-emu10k1

...and it said their was a fatal error because snd-emu10k1 is already in use!

The mystery deepens and I'm in way over my head. One would think that if the thing is already in use, I would go into Cadence and look at drivers and see 'snd-emu10k1' or something similar in nature and select that and be on my merry way. Not so! Right now, looking at drivers, forget about the 'hw:0'...its not even listed anymore, the PCH Analog device/interface is my only option and it's not doing anything.

I need to go buy Linux for Dummies.

Are there some commands where I can check on what is recognized, what is installed, and how to find it?

[Red Leader]

Here is what came back at me:

dave@frank:~$ sudo apt update aptitude && install aptitude build-essential
E: The update command takes no arguments
dave@frank:~$ modprobe -r snd-emu10k1-synth snd-emu10k1 ; modprobe snd-emu10k1
modprobe: ERROR: ../libkmod/libkmod-module.c:793 kmod_module_remove_module() could not remove 'snd_emu10k1_synth': Operation not permitted
modprobe: FATAL: Module snd_emu10k1 is in use.

Is this...good?

I hope at least some of you are getting free entertainment from my troubles

[glowrak guy]

I'd make your new tests from the AVL live dvd, so you have
a repeatable frame of reference to work with.

Use the AVL root password to open a terminal,

command: lsmod
to verify the e-mu module is listed,
then command from normal user terminal:

aplay -l and
arecord -l

to see what audio i/o ports are listed.
Next, start qjackctl from a normal user terminal

In another terminal, command:

a2jmidid -j default

Now start the Hydrogen drum machine, load and play one of it's demo songs,
make sure Hydrogen audio output on the left side of qjackctl connections panel
is connected to System: on the right side, and find the headphone jack
that has the drumming output. Make sure to check all the mixers available to insure
they are on. Alsa-mixer or alsamixergui, and if the pulse-jack module is operating,
a pulse mixer (PAVU?) laden with home-theatre options will need sorting.
Make sure only one headphone is connected at a time..
Good luck

[Red Leader]

Thanks for your willingness to help out. I'm not sure where my AVlinux live boot thumb drive is, but here are some of the commands you listed. Hopefully they help in the meantime. Again, thank you! I will try my best!

Here is the lsmod command:

Module Size Used by
snd_seq_dummy 16384 0
snd_hrtimer 16384 0
arc4 16384 2
intel_rapl 20480 0
x86_pkg_temp_thermal 16384 0
intel_powerclamp 16384 0
coretemp 16384 0
kvm_intel 208896 0
kvm 626688 1 kvm_intel
irqbypass 16384 1 kvm
crct10dif_pclmul 16384 0
crc32_pclmul 16384 0
snd_emu10k1_synth 20480 0
snd_emux_synth 40960 1 snd_emu10k1_synth
snd_seq_midi_emul 16384 1 snd_emux_synth
snd_seq_virmidi 16384 1 snd_emux_synth
snd_emu10k1 155648 1 snd_emu10k1_synth
gpio_ich 16384 0
snd_hda_codec_realtek 106496 1
snd_hda_codec_generic 73728 1 snd_hda_codec_realtek
ghash_clmulni_intel 16384 0
pcbc 16384 0
input_leds 16384 0
snd_util_mem 16384 2 snd_emu10k1,snd_emux_synth
snd_ac97_codec 131072 1 snd_emu10k1
aesni_intel 200704 0
ath9k_htc 77824 0
ac97_bus 16384 1 snd_ac97_codec
ath9k_common 36864 1 ath9k_htc
ath9k_hw 475136 2 ath9k_htc,ath9k_common
aes_x86_64 20480 1 aesni_intel
crypto_simd 16384 1 aesni_intel
cryptd 24576 3 crypto_simd,ghash_clmulni_intel,aesni_intel
glue_helper 16384 1 aesni_intel
ath 32768 3 ath9k_htc,ath9k_common,ath9k_hw
intel_cstate 20480 0
intel_rapl_perf 16384 0
mac80211 802816 1 ath9k_htc
serio_raw 16384 0
i915 1740800 23
cfg80211 667648 4 ath9k_htc,ath9k_common,ath,mac80211
mei_me 40960 0
lpc_ich 24576 0
snd_hda_intel 40960 6
drm_kms_helper 172032 1 i915
mei 98304 1 mei_me
ie31200_edac 16384 0
snd_hda_codec 126976 3 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_realtek
drm 458752 16 drm_kms_helper,i915
snd_hda_core 81920 4 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_realtek
i2c_algo_bit 16384 1 i915
snd_hwdep 20480 3 snd_hda_codec,snd_emu10k1,snd_emux_synth
fb_sys_fops 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
syscopyarea 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
sysfillrect 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
sysimgblt 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
video 45056 1 i915
mac_hid 16384 0
sch_fq_codel 20480 6
snd_aloop 24576 2
snd_pcm 98304 8 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_emu10k1,snd_ac97_codec,snd_aloop,snd_hda_core
snd_seq_midi 16384 0
snd_seq_midi_event 16384 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_virmidi
snd_rawmidi 32768 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_emu10k1,snd_seq_virmidi
snd_seq 65536 6 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_midi_emul,snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_dummy
snd_seq_device 16384 5 snd_seq,snd_seq_midi,snd_emu10k1,snd_emu10k1_synth,snd_rawmidi
snd_timer 32768 4 snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_hrtimer,snd_pcm
snd 81920 29 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_emu10k1,snd_timer,snd_ac97_codec,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_aloop,snd_emux_synth,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi
soundcore 16384 1 snd
parport_pc 36864 1
ppdev 20480 0
lp 20480 0
parport 49152 3 parport_pc,lp,ppdev
ip_tables 28672 0
x_tables 40960 1 ip_tables
autofs4 40960 2
hid_generic 16384 0
firewire_ohci 40960 0
psmouse 151552 0
pata_acpi 16384 0
usbhid 49152 0
hid 122880 2 usbhid,hid_generic
firewire_core 65536 1 firewire_ohci
r8169 86016 0
crc_itu_t 16384 1 firewire_core
mii 16384 1 r8169

Here is the aplay command:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC887-VD Analog [ALC887-VD Analog]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Loopback [Loopback], device 0: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
Subdevices: 8/8
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 1: Loopback [Loopback], device 1: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
Subdevices: 8/8
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
Subdevice #7: subdevice #7


and the arecord command:

**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC887-VD Analog [ALC887-VD Analog]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 2: ALC887-VD Alt Analog [ALC887-VD Alt Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Loopback [Loopback], device 0: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
Subdevices: 8/8
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 1: Loopback [Loopback], device 1: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
Subdevices: 8/8
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
Subdevice #7: subdevice #7

[Linuxmusician01]

[...] Try it with sudo apt get. 'get' not a command. Try 'sudo apt get install'....'E: Unable to locate package update'. What am I doing wrong?

Understandable mistake. You were almost there! The command is "apt-get" (it's one word with a with a dash in it) instead of "apt get". I still make this mistake too sometimes.

# modprobe -r snd-emu10k1-synth snd-emu10k1 ; modprobe snd-emu10k1

...and it said their was a fatal error because snd-emu10k1 is already in use!

The Debian page to which I redirected you might be a little cryptic. Let me explain something first (took me a long time to figure this out in the beginning too). In Linux in the old days one has to execute certain "dangerous" commands as root. Root is the boss (or super user) of your computer: you are not. One switches user with the command su like so:

Code: Select all

su root


And back to Dave with:

Code: Select all

su dave


The "prompt" on the command line then changes from a dollar sign ($) to a pound sign (#). Looks something like this:

Code: Select all

dave@frank:~$ su root
<<type in root's password>>
root@frank:/home/frank/#


Some Linuxers presume that everybody on earth knows that. So when they post an example from a command with a dollar sign ($) in front of it they assume that you know that you are supposed to execute said command as a regular user. When they post a command with a pound sign (#) in front of it they assume that you know that you are supposed to execute that command as root. If one simply types in "su" - without a username after it - then Linux assumes that you want to be the super user (i.e. root).

Debian still works this way but distro's like Ubuntu and Mint don't. They think that it is unsafe that you can become root. Therefore root does not have a password and you must execute commands as root with the command sudo (super user do). You then type in your own password.

Now why didn't your modprobe command work? If you look closely then you might notice that there is a pound sign in front of said commands: they must be executed as root. So I'd do:

Code: Select all

sudo modprobe -r snd-emu10k1-synth snd-emu10k1
sudo modprobe snd-emu10k1


The frist command removes the old diver (kernel module) the second inserts it again. That second command loads the driver for your sound card with the needed firmware that you've just compiled from source. I hope...

I forgot how one can check if the sound card actually works properly then. Probably by trying to play an MP3 or something...

Good luck! You're almost there.

[glowrak guy]

The 0404 problem was solved in one case at

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=246988

Scroll down to the third-from-last post,
from Bill1959

He lists the commands in order, to aquire and install the
alsa firmware package which enabled the -e-mu card
and everything worked. I verified that the
download is currently working.
Cheers

[Linuxmusician01]

The 0404 problem was solved in one case at

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=246988

Scroll down to the third-from-last post,
from Bill1959

He lists the commands in order, to aquire and install the
alsa firmware package which enabled the -e-mu card
and everything worked. I verified that the
download is currently working.
Cheers

The topic starter is already stuck at installing the build essential package that one needs for the procedure in that link to work. So I explained him about su and sudo, "apt get" and "apt-get" etc.

[Red Leader]

The 0404 problem was solved in one case at

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=246988

Scroll down to the third-from-last post,
from Bill1959

He lists the commands in order, to aquire and install the
alsa firmware package which enabled the -e-mu card
and everything worked. I verified that the
download is currently working.
Cheers

The topic starter is already stuck at installing the build essential package that one needs for the procedure in that link to work. So I explained him about su and sudo, "apt get" and "apt-get" etc.

So, the interesting thing is that I did run that command from his post. And it, I believe, installed the firmware. That's why it was so frustrating when I hooking things up and absolutely nothing came back at me. I mean, its like the system didn't even recognize the card was in the computer.

I'm trying to think if I should see something in Cadence that lists it out as an option. At least that is where I'm looking, but I see nothing there at all.