AKAI MPK Mini controller stopped working in Bitwig on Linux?

[kh1]

Greetings!

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for trying to diagnose what might be preventing my controller from working in Bitwig Studio 3.1.3 on Linux?

I had gotten it working without any issues for a couple months, other than having to restart my computer after a kernel update or such but recently, for some unknown reason, it has stopped working altogether.

The keyboard is detected by Linux when I plug it in (dmesg), and "MPK Mini II MIDI" also shows up in the controller settings panel, however, pressing a key doesn't trigger any notes or show any sign that Bitwig is receiving the signal. I've tried removing the controller and adding it back, using a few different script variant, but no luck.



Just to be sure, I checked the same controller on a Windows version of Bitwig and it works fine.

Any ideas what the problem could be, or how I might go about tracking it down?

I use Jack/Cadence for audio, although I don't recall changing anything in those settings recently.

Any thoughts? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

[sth]

OS and recent kernel versions? Honestly I might have the same thing and would be diagnosing it this weekend. I sometimes stay powered on for weeks at a time and I thought I just messed it up, but a reboot didn't work and now I'm wondering about potential update issues. I have 2 Controllers and neither work.

[kh1]

Yea, reboot is no longer doing the trick for me.. Wondering if maybe it was due to to the most recent Bitwig update? I'll report an issue with them so they are at least aware / see if they have any suggestions.

I'm using Arch 64-bit 5.6.3.

[sth]

Same, so it is likely related to that. I know BW doesn't like JACK-based MIDI so I needed the ALSA-bridge, and I remember "breaking" it once I used MuseScore which was wanting it as JACK-MIDI. However, restarting JACK fixed it then. I figured something similar was happening, but I've been doing other things so I haven't spent much time on it.

[SmajjL]

And i was supposed to go 100% Linux yesterday, no dual-boot-stuff and loosing MIDI was my welcome..
So in my case, i was.. on Manjaro KDE and all is good (after a new clean install) as long as I don't update.. and I had no luck in swapping Kernels either without braking something else, i'm on Nvidia.. :p

Long story short, i figured, hey, Linux Mint is famous for holding back and that must be because they want a stable system?
So I am now on Cinnamon, did a full update, rebooted twize just to be sure and Bitwig & MIDI is still alive! haleluljah!
So, Mint-people is my hero

Bitwig aside, Eeeeverything works! and looks great! thank you wewwy much.
Think i'll give Timeshift a first try just in future-case

[sth]

Interesting, so it's possible that it's specific to a kernel update? I'm pretty sure all my modules are through DKMS, so swapping versions there isn't a problem. If it is that, then I've only been on 5.5.13, 5.5.8, 5.5.6. and 5.5.3 for the past few months and roughly updating every two weeks. Will probably try tomorrow!

[SmajjL]

Also, i'm using Alsa straight up, no fancy Jack stuff at all, nothing extra installed and Alsa works great out of the box (when it works) maby the Manjaro update has new Alsa stuff that might be broken? iiii dunno, maby you senior penguins can investigate that?
Might be an issue on the new Ubuntu beta also btw, something is up.

Gonna try manjaro-kde-20.0-pre1, cuuuurious.
Edit: Nope, MIDI don't work at - all.. after a clean install or after the minor update..

On Manjaro KDE Update, one can go preferences/advanced and ignore upgrades for:
lib32-jack
lib32-portaudio
lib32-sdl2
lib32-fluidsynth
But it was none of those..

[sth]

Still will try the kernel today/tomorrow, but it doesn't seem to be anything else after a cursory search. Of the last 4 updates for everything JACK, ALSA, and MIDI related, they're all minor version changes and almost all of them happened last year, the others much earlier this year when it was still working for me.

Kernel releases mention ALSA/MIDI on two recent versions:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sxs ... CAs&uact=5

Those line up when things stopped working for me. I wrapped up my last track near the end of February, and since then I haven't done much with MIDI, only Devices and stuff. Here's my last few updated packages:

Code: Select all

.rw-r--r--    72M root    11 Feb 10:27  linux-5.5.3.arch1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
.rw-r--r--    72M root    24 Feb  6:18  linux-5.5.6.arch1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
.rw-r--r--    72M root     5 Mar 19:30  linux-5.5.8.arch1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
.rw-r--r--    72M root    30 Mar 15:29  linux-5.5.13.arch2-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

5.5.7 is likely since that's close to my timeframe, but 5.5.12 is also likely since I only noticed it the past week or two.

[SmajjL]

manjaro-kde-19.0.2-200311-linux54 works fine, i think it is something in the update because if i update and after that try new or old kernels, i won't get back MIDI.
A fully updated Mint or Kubuntu still works, if the upcoming 20.04 will break something, not sure.

[sth]

That's still in line with a Linux Kernel 5.5.7 or 5.5.12 being the problem, since that's on 5.4.x.

[SmajjL]

Think i went up to 5.6x-something on Manjaro though with no luck and, Ubuntu Mate 20.04-beta works, and i went down to 4.9x-something also on Manjaro, this problem is not something i've heard about before, it's next to loosing audio of seriousness (speaking for myself) and if problems like this hits Ubuntu Studio.. then i think some people will make sure this is a known issue. lol hope they sort it
I'm safe with Mint, already comphy, everything works, can't wait for Mint 20.

And the PPA-land has a Nvidia volunteers team updating stuff if one aAaaAbsolutely need the latest drivers and Bitwig is Debian/Ubuntu and kernels is downloadeable and easy to change (if recommended?) no need for slow-safe-ring of Debian though just yet for me.

And the Manjaro story: i noticed a minor change in /proc/asound/cards-somewhere.. (and had problems changeing it) but i am only a common new happy civilian penguin, just need stuff to work.

[lilith93]

Here it's still working: Debian 10 with kernel: 4.19.0-8-rt-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT RT Debian 4.19.98-1 (2020-01-26) x86_64 GNU/Linux

[SmajjL]

Hmm yep and LMDE4 have sorted the Nvidia now also and is pretty much the same user XP but i think for example Firefox was on v68'ish and if all software is behind? is it possible to choose a faster branch on a Debian or update manually? i shall find out, stuff
And must try see if Btrfs works good with Timeshift, here i come!

[sth]

Still thinking it's related to a recent kernel update, but I haven't been able to confirm that on my machine. Swapping to a previous package was unsuccessful because large GCC/tooling changes happened during that timeframe, so I might have to compile it myself to be sure. I also tried the LTS branch for 5.4.x but it had the same issue. I've tried so many things with JACK/ALSA/MIDI and nothing has changed it at all.

[sth]

ugghhhh I'm pretty sure I just found it. Built the 5.5.6 kernel so it was before any of the recent MIDI/ALSA changes and had the same issue. But that led me to notice something in `aconnect`.

PIPEWIRE. Checked my logs on that and I've only had logs for that since April 6th, when I updated and noticed this issue.

Turns out it's a user-local service for GNOME that's automatically connecting to all MIDI Devices. Given that Bitwig REQUIRES direct/exclusive access for Controller Scripts, that's surely the cause!

Code: Select all

systemctl --user stop pipewire.socket
systemctl --user stop pipewire.service

AND THEN IT WORKS AGAIN. This PW project looks very beta and lacking in configurations. We'll likely have to disable this Service or find a way to make it less greedy.

And of course, Bitwig really should be nicer and more flexible with its MIDI integration. It's a huge pain and sore thumb compared to every other Linux application that works with MIDI.