[Solved] MIDI controllers - device or resource busy

[krussedull]

Hi

I've reinstalled my Linux machine and set it up from scratch again, and for whatever reason my 2 MIDI controllers doesn't work anymore.

I'm on Linux Mint 20.1 (kernel 5.8.0-55-lowlatency) using Bitwig 3.3.10. I'm using jackd + cadence etc etc, standard setup, audio working fine etc.
I also tried to install a kernel 5.4, thinking this might be some kernel thing, but same problem

Bitwig is complaining about "Device or resource busy" for both my usb MIDI controllers (Korg microKEY + Faderfox PC4). This should be basic stuff, I mean, I don't think these controllers are using anything other than standard protocols etc.

I'm a fairly experienced Linux guy, but I'm still kinda stuck here.

Any help debugging this is very much appreciated! Cheers

Screen:

no-midi-ctrl.png (36.99 KiB) Viewed 3991 times

[krussedull]

It's just typical. 5 minutes after posting this I finally found a page that talked about this issue, which hinted at a solution.

http://www.tedfelix.com/linux/linux-midi.html

ALSA Troubleshooting

"Device or resource busy" - If you get a "Device or resource busy" message, that means someone else (like pulseaudio) is using the soundcard. In that case "-D pulse" might work. See Killing pulseaudio.

So I stopped the "ALSA MIDI" bridge and it worked againg. Still wrapping my head around how all these ALSA/Jack/Pulseaudio things are wired, but at least it works.

(Keeping this post here instead of deleting in case anyone else have this problem)

no-midi-ctrl-2.png (38.01 KiB) Viewed 3990 times