Hi guys,
Just wanted to share my experiment on upgrading my Arturia DrumBrute using MIDI Control Center if you are like me and avoid Windows no matter the cost.
1. Install VirtualBox on your Linux machine (On Ubuntu $ apt-get install virtualbox)
2. Install the extension pack (On Ubuntu $ apt-get install virtualbox-ext-pack)
3. Grab a free trial copy of Windows 10 Enterprise from Microsoft (You will need a Microsoft/Live/Skype account
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO)
4. Make sure that the user that will run VirtualBox is part of the user-group vbxusers (On Ubuntu $ adduser $USER vbxusers)
5. Stop your Linux machine from grabbing USB-sound-devices when plugged in (They need to be grabbed by VirtualBox directly) by adding the modules snd-usbmidi-lib, snd-usb-audio, maybe more to the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
6. Restart the Linux machine and start up VirtualBox, enbable USB 2.0 devices, add the Windows10 ISO-image and install it into a new virtual machine
7. In the virtual Windows installation install MIDI Control Center.
8. Plug the device into the USB port. Go in to the VirtualBox USB-settings and add it permantly to the USB-devices to be let through to the virtual machine.
9. Start a firmware upgrade in MIDI Control Center
10. When the upgrade process starts, you will (at least when upgrading DrumBrute) asked to turn on/off the machine and the display of the machine says ("UPD"). This is where things start to be weird. The USB device changes name from "Arutira DrumBrute" to "Arturia Upgrade" (or something similar), hence you need to add this USB device to the VirtualBox USB-devices as well.
11. Once both the USB-device names are allowed directly in to the virtual machine firmware upgrades are going smooth
12. Don't forget to remove the blacklisted Linux modules in your /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf file again when you feel just about done.
Enjoy an up-to-date Arturia machine without spending a dime.
