Hi,
I've got a couple of audio/midi devices knocking around that I'd quite like to add ALSA support for (for use in Linux sequencers/DAWs) so I've been reading up on Linux device drivers and Alsa driver development.
I do have a programming background but unfortunately, I'm a little confused on a couple of points and I was hoping someone wouldn't mind helping me out.
I'm kind of basing my thoughts on the idea that I have a USB device which is not recognised by the kernel and does not expose a known midi interface (so requires a completely new Alsa driver?). The goal would be for this device to be usable in Linux midi sequencers.
- How does the Alsa driver communicate with the hardware? Would I need to write a Kernel driver (e.g. a character device) for the Alsa driver to talk to?
- Would my Alsa driver basically create a card instance and then a RawMidi component? I'm assuming the use of RawMidi would then allow applications to recognise the Alsa driver as a seemingly ordinary midi port??? Then implement _input_trigger() and _output_trigger() to exchange data with the application, whilst passing data to/from the kernel driver to talk to the hardware?
Sorry if I'm way off base. I'm trying to get in on this thing to help spread some extra Linux love in music world.
Many thanks.