Connecting a synth to my laptop ?

[merlyn]

From your suggestions I take it option b) would involve me doing stuff with repositories?

No, you already downloaded the alsa-firmware archive with wget, installing it would be following the steps of unpacking and installing it which are in the tutorial.

The good news is that the card is working and it will work in Linux.

[TDNE]

and it will work in Linux.

Famous last words. I get the strong feeling I'm just not meant to be using this Tascam.

you already downloaded the alsa-firmware archive with wget

Not exactly I had downloaded alsa-firmware but not with wget but from a link Linuxmusicain01 had given me & I'd saved it as instructed (as a so called compressed "archive") in a folder on my Home directory/folder. I never got as far as extracting it. I don't know if that bit has any relevance.

I have now followed the Tutorial 1 from & inc. the wget step. I forgot a sudo infront of ./configure --prefix=/usr && sudo make install at that point so had a 'denied access' but things progressed normally (as far as I can tell) once I'd used sudo. And lo when I ran fxload I got...

...little light shining!

made me jump but there it was/is - well sort of.

At the end of the tutorial it says:
# If you don't want to set a special UDEV rule, you're going to have to
# enter this command after every restart or reconnect of the audio interface.

usx2yloader

** see edit

This is where it goes wrong. My assumption was if I unplugged the unit & then plugged it back in I'd get no light - so I tried it - and the green light came back on... AND... my laptop froze
Strangely the light on the capslock key was winking on & off. But I couldn't get anything to work, no mouse or touch-pad. Unhooked the tascam & still frozen. Had to hard shut down with the on/off button. Rebooted OK. Re-connected unit no green light - unhooked - looked in my home folder to see if that came up (it did) opened the text file I'd made with notes I'd made on what I was doing with the tutorial (as i thought I'd need to run that usx2yloader command ) plugged the damn unit in & got the green light & a crashed laptop. Booted up Ok following a hard shutdown.

Any clues ?

edit : forgot to mention I exited the command line at this point & was still in the directory HP-15-Notebook-PC:~/alsa-firmware-1.0.29/usx2yloader$
ALSO just tried to open that text file to copy that directory & got the file recovery dialog box and:
Document file 'tascam%20firmwaare%20load%20commands-files.odt' is locked for editing by:
Unknown User
Open document read-only or open a copy of the document for editing.

I opened a copy.

Another edit : sorry that odt text file does the same thing every time I try & open it now.

This text doc contains cut & pasted command dialog box instructions & results but surely that won't do anything. See what I mean about me & computers.

[merlyn]

My assumption was if I unplugged the unit & then plugged it back in I'd get no light - so I tried it - and the green light came back on... AND... my laptop froze

You would think you'd get no light. How long did you unplug it for? The way volatile memory works it could be there for say ~20 seconds. That's why a 'cold boot' is : shutdown and leave it for >20 seconds -- the memory will be cleared.

Your laptop freezing is pretty weird. Make sure the phantom power is off on the interface when you plug it in -- it could be a power dip.

I would think a way to test what is going on would be to plug the interface in then boot. Then perhaps avoid unplugging it until the laptop is off.

It may 'just work' now . I have heard rumours of that on the internet.

[TDNE]

Hoooo does it work does it not?

The answer is ... I think so.

Doing as you say laptop boots fine with unit attached, light is off. Had brief moment when the tutorial command Usx2yloader returned No command 'Usx2yloader' found, but this was appended with did you mean: Command 'usx2yloader' from package 'alsa-firmware-loaders' (multiverse) So tutorial had used a capital letter. The proffered suggestion turn on the light. Hallelujah !

Experimentation shows I can hook it up after I boot too. In short everything goes as expected unless I unhitch the tascam and then reconnect (even after a long pause) without rebooting my laptop. It's then that the light comes back on without command line instruction & my laptop ceases up.

Now I've got hooking up my synth with it to look forward to...

Thanks very much for your help once again.

[khz]

\o/ Wow respect, that was a cool entry hack! I wish you a lot of fun with the freedom you won!
Frank Zappa - The Torture Never Stops (New York LIVE Concert) https://youtu.be/C64lENRL8j0?t=2225

[merlyn]

@TDNE I agree with @khz well done for getting it working! That was impressive for your first foray 'under the bonnet'.

[TDNE]

Well thanks Guys - but you all gave me a lot help. I was following your guidance (& a tutorial) for most of it. Still a bit flattery Is a most welcome thing just now, so I'll accept it with pleasure. Cheers!

[Michael Willis]

Well thanks Guys - but you all gave me a lot help. I was following your guidance (& a tutorial) for most of it. Still a bit flattery Is a most welcome thing just now, so I'll accept it with pleasure. Cheers!

I think congrats are due for not ragequitting after a week of frustration.

Let us hear some of your music when you have something to show off!

[TDNE]

Let us hear some of your music when you have something to show off!

Well my all time fav piece of music is Ricochet by Tangerine Dream followed by Stratosfear which they released straight after. They veered away from that style then & I've had an itch for more ever since & I finally decided to do something about it.

I fear that may take a while as I'm still paddling in the shallows with my K-station currently & then I've to learn how to use a recordable DAW (looking at the Ardour4 from my distro package manager) & then get my fingers co-ordinated. I'm still in it though as I just love the sounds (not music) I'm already getting from this synth.

If the help I've had so far is at all indicative of you guy's on this forum I'm sure I can get there.