Minibrute connection software- future linux option?

[serjoscha]

First of all - I am new to this forum. Greetings to everyone!
Will there be a linux version of the minibrute software in the future? I do not use microsoft or apple - and who knows, if these operating systems will be around in, say, thirty years from now. 
Anyone else here interested in a linux version of the software?

[kevinmoore73]

There's no guarantee that Linux will be around in 30 years.

What's funny here is that the core of Mac OS X is based on BSD UNIX which can directly trace its roots back to UNICS from 1969.

[Bruno@arturia]

Welcome to the forum!
It's not planned to have a Linux version of the app at the moment. Sorry
Did you tried using Wine by the way?

[serjoscha]

Hallo Bruno,
no linux-version? that is disappointing for me.   
I have not tried to use the connection software with wine. Actually I used a friends computer with MacOSX to make adjustments (namely the arp-hold, which is a great feature to have).
However: I enjoy using the minibrute very much! It is a wonderful machine to play with. Anyway, I love, that it is "hardware" und I would like to avoid to be dependend on "software" 

[maxence]

Hi there,

no Linux version is very disappointing for me too... the connection software does not work with wine...

Since Arturia doesn't plan to build a Linux version, I'm going to build it on my own by reverse-engineering the windows software.

From my first impression, implementing the configuration panel shall be very easy. On the other side, the firmware update process seems very complicated and I will not try to implement it.

[beefinator]

I think I saw bruno say somewhere that the config program (except the firmware update part) was just sysex messages thru USB, so in theory it shouldn't be extremely hard to reverse-engineer.

Two other workarounds that probably would be feasible for Arturia to implement would be, one, to allow the parameters to be edited via the hardware MIDI port, and two, to somehow make a method to change the settings on the synth itself.  The first one should be an easy thing to do, the second, maybe a little less so, but that would be the ideal solution IMO.

[maxence]

so in theory it shouldn't be extremely hard to reverse-engineer

Well, it's done !
Please find my little piece of software in attachment ! The app uses GTK+3-0 and libusb-1.0 (http://libusb.org).
With this app, you'll be able to play with all parameters provided by the win*ows apps, on a GNU/Linux system : Midi in/out channel, audio gate threshold, LFO key retrigger, envelope legato mode, arpeggiator hold, note priority, velocity response and aftertouch response.

Since I've no experience in USB development (and according to the I time spent on it), the app has some limitations:

• You have to plug in the minibrute before running the app
• The app will fail to claim the minibrute if your system has already claimed it through its USB-Audio interface.
  

  On my system, snd-usb-audio modules (including snd_usb_audio, snd_usbmidi_lib, snd_rawmidi) are probed automatically as soon as the minibrute is plugged in. You may have to rmmod these module (sudo rmmod snd_usb_audio snd_usbmidi_lib snd_rawmidi) before launching the app... As a consequence, it's not possible to use the MIDI interface at the same time as the configuration panel...
• The app doesn't detect whether the minibrute has been disconnected... In this case, you have to restart the app
• Interface is quite ugly

minibruteUI.tar.gz contains sources. To build the app, you have to, in a terminal:

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cd <DownloadLocation>
tar xvfz minibruteUI-0.0.1.tar.gz
cd minibruteUI-0.0.1
./configure --prefix=/home/<YourUsername>/usr 
make
make install
After that, minibruteUI executable will stands in your home directory (i.e ~/usr/bin/minibruteUI). To install it to another location, you can play with the ./configure prefix parameter. Alternatively, you can simply omit this prefix parameter and skip the "make install" step. In this case, you'll find the executable in the working directory...

minibruteUI is a x86_64-pc-linux-gnu executable.

Two other workarounds that probably would be feasible for Arturia to implement would be, one, to allow the parameters to be edited via the hardware MIDI port, and two, to somehow make a method to change the settings on the synth itself.  The first one should be an easy thing to do, the second, maybe a little less so, but that would be the ideal solution IMO.

+1 for the second way!

[serjoscha]

maxence, your are my hero!!
Wow, some options to work with linux!!!
 
Thanks for the effort with the software. Something to start with!!!!
 

[beefinator]

nice job 
it's pretty cool that it actually was that easy to reverse engineer.

[maxence]

Attachments awaiting approval
 * minibruteUI (54.72 kB - downloaded 0 times.)
 * minibruteUI-0.0.1.tar.gz (105.29 kB - downloaded 0 times.)

Is there a reason my attachments are not approved yet ?

[Bruno@arturia]

Impressive job maxence!
thanks a lot for spending time doing it and for sharing too.

I didn't had the opportunity to try it because I don't have a Linux pc up and running, But I will give it a try as soon as possible.

By the way if you need any informations on the used protocol, feel free to ask me, we have no secret about it, and I would be happy to help you creating a reliable and fully functional version.
For the firmware update, it's true that it's much more complex, and risky. Actually the binary is encrypted, and I don't think I will be allowed to give you the key.

Anyway thanks again and Bravo!

[Jappe]

Hello and thanks for this app!
I've tried it with Lubuntu 14.10 on a Acer Extensa 5230E and got some problems and errors.

At first I needed to install gcc and pkg (for compiling) and libusb.
Well, nothing complicated until now, but I still have a problem, because the app needs GTK+ 3.0. Lubuntu and LDXE can run GTK+ 3.0 apps, but not compile it, by default. After some research I found this http://askubuntu.com/questions/101306/how-do-i-install-gtk-3-0.

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sudo apt-get install libgtk-3-dev
With libgtk-3-dev it was possible to compile the app for me.

After 'make' and 'make install' I tried to run the app, but nothing happend. I executed it via terminal and got some usb permissions erros, which were avoidable with the use of 'sudo' 
The app recognizes my Minibrute now, ("Minibrute Found !" or "No Minibrute :-(" if it's not connected) but after that a error displays, which I can't fix:

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claim interface failed: Device or resource busy.
Anyone any ideas? 

[naught101]

Did this ever go any further?

Also, is there any similarity between this and the Microbrute software? Has anyone tried to do a similar conversion for the micro? Maxence: how hard was it?

Bruno, did Arturia ever chase this up?

[k.rad]

The app recognizes my Minibrute now, ("Minibrute Found !" or "No Minibrute :-(" if it's not connected) but after that a error displays, which I can't fix:

Code: [Select]

claim interface failed: Device or resource busy.
Anyone any ideas? 

i ran into this error too with Ubuntu 14.04LTS. Fortunately my linux buddy at work fixed this as follows.
additional commandline in the mbgui.c:

in line 536 put:
libusb_set_auto_detach_kernel_driver(h, 1);

in my understanding, this will detach the standard usb drivers in the Kernel.
This command is not available in the standard libusb-1.0.9 that comes with Ubuntu 14.04.
So you have to download the libusb update libusb-1.0.20 (i.e. on sourceforge) and somehow implement it to your system.
As i am new to the Linux universe, maybe there is someone out there with the skills to explain better how to exactly to do this.

[radiowaves]

Thanks for this software, I am still trying to configure it.

But this is just a reminder to Arturia that people buy HARDWARE explicitly to be less dependent on software. So why would I still need a computer just to set the midi channel....

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