An OSS/Free Driver for WaveFront soundcards (Turtle Beach Maui, Tropez, Tropez Plus) Paul Barton-Davis, July 1998 VERSION 0.2.5 Driver Status ------------- Requires: Kernel 2.1.106 or later (the driver is included with kernels 2.1.109 and above) As of 7/22/1998, this driver is currently in *BETA* state. This means that it compiles and runs, and that I use it on my system (Linux 2.1.106) with some reasonably demanding applications and uses. I believe the code is approaching an initial "finished" state that provides bug-free support for the Tropez Plus. Please note that to date, the driver has ONLY been tested on a Tropez Plus. I would very much like to hear (and help out) people with Tropez and Maui cards, since I think the driver can support those cards as well. Finally, the driver has not been tested (or even compiled) as a static (non-modular) part of the kernel. Alan Cox's good work in modularizing OSS/Free for Linux makes this rather unnecessary. Some Questions -------------- ********************************************************************** 0) What does this driver do that the maui driver did not ? ********************************************************************** * can fully initialize a WaveFront card from cold boot - no DOS utilities needed * working patch/sample/program loading and unloading (the maui driver didn't document how to make this work, and assumed user-level preparation of the patch data for writing to the board. ick.) * full user-level access to all WaveFront commands * for the Tropez Plus, (primitive) control of the YSS225 FX processor * Virtual MIDI mode supported - 2 MIDI devices accessible via the WaveFront's MPU401/UART emulation. One accesses the WaveFront synth, the other accesses the external MIDI connector. Full MIDI read/write semantics for both devices. * OSS-compliant /dev/sequencer interface for the WaveFront synth, including native and GUS-format patch downloading. * semi-intelligent patch management (prototypical at this point) ********************************************************************** 1) What to do about MIDI interfaces ? ********************************************************************** The Tropez Plus (and perhaps other WF cards) can in theory support up to 2 physical MIDI interfaces. One of these is connected to the ICS2115 chip (the WaveFront synth itself) and is controlled by MPU/UART-401 emulation code running as part of the WaveFront OS. The other is controlled by the CS4232 chip present on the board. However, physical access to the CS4232 connector is difficult, and it is unlikely (though not impossible) that you will want to use it. An older version of this driver introduced an additional kernel config variable which controlled whether or not the CS4232 MIDI interface was configured. Because of Alan Cox's work on modularizing the sound drivers, and now backporting them to 2.0.34 kernels, there seems to be little reason to support "static" configuration variables, and so this has been abandoned in favor of *only* module parameters. Specifying "mpuio" and "mpuirq" for the cs4232 parameter will result in the CS4232 MIDI interface being configured; leaving them unspecified will leave it unconfigured (and thus unusable). BTW, I have heard from one Tropez+ user that the CS4232 interface is more reliable than the ICS2115 one. I have had no problems with the latter, and I don't have the right cable to test the former one out. Reports welcome. ********************************************************************** 2) Why does line XXX of the code look like this .... ? ********************************************************************** Either because its not finished yet, or because you're a better coder than I am, or because you don't understand some aspect of how the card or the code works. I absolutely welcome comments, criticisms and suggestions about the design and implementation of the driver. ********************************************************************** 3) What files are included ? ********************************************************************** drivers/sound/README.wavefront -- this file drivers/sound/wavefront.patch -- patches for the 2.1.106 sound drivers needed to make the rest of this work DO NOT USE IF YOU'VE APPLIED THEM BEFORE, OR HAVE 2.1.109 OR ABOVE drivers/sound/wavfront.c -- the driver drivers/sound/ys225.h -- data declarations for FX config drivers/sound/ys225.c -- data definitions for FX config drivers/sound/wf_midi.c -- the "uart401" driver to support virtual MIDI mode. include/wavefront.h -- the header file Documentation/sound/Tropez+ -- short docs on configuration ********************************************************************** 4) How do I compile/install/use it ? ********************************************************************** PART ONE: install the source code into your sound driver directory cd tar -zxvf PART TWO: apply the patches DO THIS ONLY IF YOU HAVE A KERNEL VERSION BELOW 2.1.109 AND HAVE NOT ALREADY INSTALLED THE PATCH(ES). cd drivers/sound patch < wavefront.patch PART THREE: configure your kernel cd make xconfig (or whichever config option you use) - choose YES for Sound Support - choose MODULE (M) for OSS Sound Modules - choose MODULE(M) to YM3812/OPL3 support - choose MODULE(M) for WaveFront support - choose MODULE(M) for CS4232 support - choose "N" for everything else (unless you have other soundcards you want support for) make dep make boot . . . make modules . . . make modules_install Here's my autoconf.h SOUND section: /* * Sound */ #define CONFIG_SOUND 1 #undef CONFIG_SOUND_OSS #define CONFIG_SOUND_OSS_MODULE 1 #undef CONFIG_SOUND_PAS #undef CONFIG_SOUND_SB #undef CONFIG_SOUND_ADLIB #undef CONFIG_SOUND_GUS #undef CONFIG_SOUND_MPU401 #undef CONFIG_SOUND_PSS #undef CONFIG_SOUND_MSS #undef CONFIG_SOUND_SSCAPE #undef CONFIG_SOUND_TRIX #undef CONFIG_SOUND_MAD16 #undef CONFIG_SOUND_WAVEFRONT #define CONFIG_SOUND_WAVEFRONT_MODULE 1 #undef CONFIG_SOUND_CS4232 #define CONFIG_SOUND_CS4232_MODULE 1 #undef CONFIG_SOUND_MAUI #undef CONFIG_SOUND_SGALAXY #undef CONFIG_SOUND_OPL3SA1 #undef CONFIG_SOUND_SOFTOSS #undef CONFIG_SOUND_YM3812 #define CONFIG_SOUND_YM3812_MODULE 1 #undef CONFIG_SOUND_VMIDI #undef CONFIG_SOUND_UART6850 /* * Additional low level sound drivers */ #undef CONFIG_LOWLEVEL_SOUND ************************************************************ 6) How do I configure my card ? ************************************************************ You need to edit /etc/modules.conf. Here's mine (edited to show the relevant details): # Sound system alias char-major-14 wavefront alias synth0 wavefront alias mixer0 cs4232 alias audio0 cs4232 pre-install wavefront modprobe "-k" "cs4232" post-install wavefront modprobe "-k" "opl3" options wavefront io=0x200 irq=9 options cs4232 synthirq=9 synthio=0x200 io=0x530 irq=5 dma=1 dma2=0 options opl3 io=0x388 Things to note: the wavefront options "io" and "irq" ***MUST*** match the "synthio" and "synthirq" cs4232 options. you can do without the opl3 module if you don't want to use the OPL/[34] FM synth on the soundcard the opl3 io parameter is conventionally not adjustable. In theory, any not-in-use IO port address would work, but just use 0x388 and stick with the crowd. ********************************************************************** 7) What about firmware ? ********************************************************************** Turtle Beach have not given me permission to distribute their firmware for the ICS2115. However, if you have a WaveFront card, then you almost certainly have the firmware, and if not, its freely available on their website, at: http://www.tbeach.com/tbs/downloads/scardsdown.htm#tropezplus The file is called WFOS2001.MOT (for the Tropez+). This driver, however, doesn't use the pure firmware as distributed, but instead relies on a somewhat processed form of it. You can generate this very easily. Following an idea from Andrew Veliath's Pinnacle driver, the following flex program will generate the processed version: ---- cut here ------------------------- %option main %% ^S[28].*\r$ printf ("%c%.*s", yyleng-1,yyleng-1,yytext); <> { fputc ('\0', stdout); return; } \n {} . {} ---- cut here ------------------------- To use it, put the above in file (say, ws.l) compile it like this: shell> flex -ows.c ws.l shell> cc -o ws ws.c and then use it like this: ws < my-copy-of-the-oswf.mot-file > /etc/sound/wavefront.os If you put it somewhere else, you'll always have to use the wf_ospath module parameter (see below) or alter the source code. ********************************************************************** 7) How do I get it working ? ********************************************************************** Optionally, you can reboot with the "new" kernel (even though the only changes have really been made to a module). Then, as root do: modprobe wavefront You should get something like this in /var/log/messages: WaveFront: firmware 1.20 already loaded. or WaveFront: no response to firmware probe, assume raw. then: WaveFront: waiting for memory configuration ... WaveFront: hardware version 1.64 WaveFront: available DRAM 8191k WaveFront: 332 samples used (266 real, 13 aliases, 53 multi), 180 empty WaveFront: 128 programs slots in use WaveFront: 256 patch slots filled, 142 in use The whole process takes about 16 seconds, the longest waits being after reporting the hardware version (during the firmware download), and after reporting program status (during patch status inquiry). Its shorter (about 10 secs) if the firmware is already loaded (i.e. only warm reboots since the last firmware load). The "available DRAM" line will vary depending on how much added RAM your card has. Mine has 8MB. To check basically functionality, use play(1) or splay(1) to send a .WAV or other audio file through the audio portion. Then use playmidi to play a General MIDI file. Try the "-D 0" to hear the difference between sending MIDI to the WaveFront and using the OPL/3, which is the default (I think ...). If you have an external synth(s) hooked to the soundcard, you can use "-e" to route to the external synth(s) (in theory, -D 1 should work as well, but I think there is a bug in playmidi which prevents this from doing what it should). ********************************************************************** 8) What are the module parameters ? ********************************************************************** Its best to read wavefront.c for this, but here is a summary: integers: wf_raw - if set, ignore apparent presence of firmware loaded onto the ICS2115, reset the whole board, and initialize it from scratch. (default = 0) fx_raw - if set, always initialize the YSS225 processor on the Tropez plus. (default = 1) < The next 4 are basically for kernel hackers to allow tweaking the driver for testing purposes. > wait_usecs - loop timer used when waiting for status conditions on the board. The default is 150. debug_default - debugging flags. See sound/wavefront.h for WF_DEBUG_* values. Default is zero. Setting this allows you to debug the driver during module installation. strings: ospath - path to get to the pre-processed OS firmware. (default: /etc/sound/wavefront.os) ********************************************************************** 9) Who should I contact if I have problems? ********************************************************************** Just me: Paul Barton-Davis