[alsa-devel] RME Fireface alsa driver - improved but still not working

[thet]

I notice that the RME fireface alsa driver snd-fireface now works a
little since 4.19 I think

In earlier kernels 4.18 and below the midi worked on the FF400 but no
audio and the FF800 was not supported at all.

now the midi works on both FF400 and FF800 and the audio works a little.

the kernel I am using is 5.0.0-7.1-liquorix-amd64 #1 ZEN SMP PREEMPT
liquorix 5.0-6ubuntu1~bionic (2019-04-06) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

(I am also happy to test with a different kernel but I am not able to
compile it myself so it would need to be available in a repo.)

The audio however does not work correctly. It is unstable, sometimes it
works for a while but other times it glitches or even becomes wildly
distorted.

I am not a kernel developer at all - but I am willing to test and post
logs if it helps - if anyone here can give me clear instructions about
how to test.

Also - is it possible for a user to disable the audio part of the driver
but still use the midi part?

This would allow me to use the audio with FFADO and the midi with alsa.
FFADO doesn't support midi on these devices so it is great that alsa
does -  but running both at once can be tricky as the alsa driver does
not let FFADO take over the device once it has it.

Can I suggest that maybe the audio and midi drivers for these devices
could be made as separate kernel modules? Then if one part has problems
it need not be loaded. I'm not sure if this is feasible but if it is it
would allow more flexibility in how they are used.

thanks

Thet