Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Mon, 26 Jun 2006, Samual Acorn wrote:

> On 26/06/06, sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org> wrote:
> > On Mon, 26 Jun 2006, Samual Acorn wrote:
> >
> > > sindi you're not going to believe this....
> > >
> > > try this; 'playmidi -e -D0 midifile.mid'
> >
> > Using playmidi-2.4 for libc6 or 2.5 for libc5:
> >
> > Playmidi -e and -a play AWE.
>
> same here
>
> > Playmidi -D0 or -D1 or -D2 (no -e) play as FM synth.
>
> same here

I bet you loaded your modules in the same order I did, with sb first and 
opl3 and awe_wave following them.

On David's suggestion, I loaded sb last, which indeed made it D0.
playmidi -e file.mid  - played to external midi, as did -e -D0.
The default external device appears to be D0.

> > Playmidi -e -D0 and -D1 play nothing.
>
> -D0 played nothing (nothing is connected to the midi port) -D1 played
> to the AWE (see the device listing)
>
> > Playmidi -e -D2 plays to the piano
> > So my external device is -D2.
> >
> > Playmidi -4 = opl3
>
> opl3 in four operator mode....
>
> > Playmidi -a = awe
>
> playmidis version of awe .. .. best to use -e to send data to the
> driver rather than let playmidi try to interpret it... that way sysex
> messages are sent properly....

What is sysex?

> > > apparently when you specify an external device to play to you also
> > > need to tell it to play to that external device.... figured specifing
> > > a device would be common sense that i wanted it to play to that
> > > device.... IMHO if the programmer wanted to take that confusing route
> > > it would have been nice if he would have put it in the manual... but
> > > the '-D' option isnt even -in- the manual... ugh...
> > It is mentioned in QuickStart, but -e is probably not.
> >
> > According to the man page, external is supposed to be default 'as
> > distributed'.
>
> according to the man page a lot of things should work the way they dont.....

It worked as default if the external device was loaded LAST (D0).
> if you load the SBlives soundfont (the one included with the lives
> driver) the awe will sound just as good as most GM/GS keyboards....
> the files name is 'ct2mgm.sf2' and is around 2.1MB...

I can't load 2.1MB into an AWE64, which has only 512K RAM.

The SB32 has mpu401 disabled.  It is a cheapie card and I don't see any 
way to enable it.  I enabled gameport with CTCM.

In my two best computers I have an AWE32 SB and and AWE32 Vibra with real 
jumpers which I will test for working midi port and maybe switch with the 
AWE64.  The Vibra does not need CTCM and I could therefore bypass DOS 
startup files.

> > I will attempt this again after putting Rosegarden on the music computer
> > It does not work with Xvesa unless I bypass startup files (himem.sys
> > interferes with Xvesa - illegal instruction - even when running DOS 7.1),
> > and in BL3 the S3 server (and a Trio32 or 64 card, or svga server with S3
> > or trident) displays black text on black background (in Opera, anyway)).

> boot with syslinux or lilo.... please.... quit booting linux from dos...
I use DOS on all my computers.   There are more interesting things to 
learn than lilo and isapnp, such as mousekeys.

> boot bl3 with syslinux and use isapnp

I wasted a lot of time with isapnp.  It is an art.

> > I tried another computer with SB32 card (and working Xvesa with himem.sys)
> > but mpu401 is disabled (maybe by jumper, have to open it up and look).
> > SB16 diagnose says so, and none of the mpu addresses work with sb.o
>
> the mpu401 can be disabled with a jumper.... look for total hardware
> 99 on the web... it will show you the location if you cant find it on
> the card...

Only one jumper on the SB32, not mpu, I forget what it does.  Cheap 
version of AWE32.  What is missing from the Vibra, will it play to 
external midi?

> should be there when you load the sound modules... if not you can try;
> cat /dev/sndstat

I tried that too, and it did not work.  I already made the device.
More soon.  It got late.

> if -that- file doesnt exsist then try making it;
> mknod /dev/sndstat c 14 16
> then try 'cat'ing it again....
> > > > > in that list -- in 'midi devices' "0: Soundblaster 16" is the external
> > > > > midi port....
> >
> > Or in my case apparently 2 is the external port.  What sets it?
>
> when sb.o and uart401.o is loaded i would assume....  (uart401.o
> should load when sb.o loads)

I insmod it first, before sb.