And some other questions:

- There's a very loud 1 kHz sinewave tone, only on Analog 1 output, when I raise the volume to -34 or above. And it only happens on that channel? In Windows, on the same computer, that 1 kHz tone does not happen, even at max volume.
- Is there way to make the physical volume knob work in Linux? It doesn't do anything. But when I change the volume in FFADO, the number does visibly change on the Fireface.

Edit:
Ah, looks like the default volume can be set with the "Save control" or "Save mixer" buttons in FFADO Mixer, under the "Output levels" main tab.

@laex: thanks very interesting. Currently I have no use case for working with Linux, but maybe I give it a try to see whats possible.

Are the realtime kernel extensions required ? I remember that Ubuntu studio had them applied.

I’m on OpenSUSE and I set a real time Kernel to run audio.  I just don’t want to deal with any potential issues.  I also set the CPU governors to Performance.

sudo cpupower --cpu all frequency-set -g performance

For that. Not sure the exact codes with unbunto.  Yes at times I want to bash bash too.

fwiw I’ve been reading up on Pipewire which I guess is the incoming audio format that is supposed to solve everyone’s issues.  Although it sounds like it’s breaking more than it’s solving right now.

ffado-mixer &

I get the following:

1604770007619667:  (ffado-dbus-server.cpp)[ 275] main:  Discovering devices...
1604770007622734: Fatal (devicemanager.cpp)[ 187] initialize: No firewire adapters (ports) found.
1604770007622750: Error (ffado-dbus-server.cpp)[ 282] main: Could not initialize device manager
1604770007622757: Debug (ffado-dbus-server.cpp)[ 207] exitfunction: Debug output flushed...
no message buffer overruns
17:26:52 logginghandler   ERROR    Could not communicate with the FFADO DBus service...

the problem is that, since I have connect the FF400 at the USB-C port, I actually have the FF400 physically connected here:

lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0781:5583 SanDisk Corp. Ultra Fit
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04f2:b65a Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd HD Webcam
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 8087:0aaa Intel Corp. Bluetooth 9460/9560 Jefferson Peak (JfP)
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 05ac:1657 Apple, Inc. Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

any idea?
many thanks

Connect monitors to analog 1 and 2 out. Play some music from any program. Browser + Youtube, fi.

If that works, the only thing you need to do, is figure out which I/O goes where.

If it doesn't work, you need to check the console for audio related errors. That usually gives an indication where to look.

I'd bet the TB to FW converter to be the issue. And I've never had to solve this problem. AFAIK it doesn't require it's own driver, but of course, the FW connection going out needs to "see" it.

Are you using ffado?

If the FF400 isn't powering up, you might need to connect an external power supply?

A TB to FW converter doesn't supply enough power for a FF400, while standard FW does.

Thanks. I changed the switch on the back side to "Ext" Power instead of "Bus". Now, at least ithe FF400 is on.
Still, I dont have idea how to "see" the device (and if the connection works).

I have already installed Jack, and FFado mixer, but when I start FFado mixer, it says:

Could not communicate with the FFADO DBus service...

A TB to FW converter doesn't supply enough power for a FF400, while standard FW does.

So this was posted 5 year ago. I wonder if there are any updates or does the code above pull in the latest??

Well, I am trying to set my FF400 into a Linux-PC and I still did not find recent updates.

1) first my connection [Adapter: UBD-C/Thunderbolt2]//[Adapter: Thunderbolt2/Firewire800]//[Cable: Firewire 800/ Firewire 400] seems to not work (the FF400 do not even power on). But I read

https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=29436

that it may be some missing drivers.

So, actually I dont know if is my problem here concens the software or the hardware...

sudo apt-get install libffado2 ffado-tools ffado-mixer-qt4 jackd jackd2 jackd2-firewire

then

ffado-mixer &

and boom were ready to go.

I won't be using it to produce music. well not yet anyway. I just needed to be able to control volume on my FireFace 800 so that I could begin to move away from Windows when developing.

So this was posted 5 year ago. I wonder if there are any updates or does the code above pull in the latest??

I'll stick with Windows for music production cause RME drivers for win (as well as osx) are pure gold and reliable as hell. Just didn't want to bloat my windows with development stuff and developing on windows is anyways a painful experience...

there are some issuse and i generally like to manually install so i know exactly what it going on and what is running
and all that good stuff

the main tricks i had to use to get it woking is

use jack verdion - 1   no more typo fiing - icant it becomes a engless game
the
i do not know if it is true - but it worked for e-me  that the firewire _must_ be installed / config in kernel as a module
and
i have it running -
i dont think i use pulse - i believe it uses alsa
and
there was many many many steps to building and compiling and finding out what is going on

and who is fighting who whom etc - it is a real soap opera behind the scenes ...   

but it works - and i dont have the final piece-
or
i guess - sigh - i need to rebuils it all because i switched back to jack 1  now it all needs fixing  ... /sigh

Can you provide some technical information regarding performance?

Sorry, I really cannot - because I only use Linux for very basic stuff that shouldn't bother any computer these days...

Personally, I think that a well configured Linux is at least as stable and performant as any other well configured OS. (Free) software is available en masse - and I am sure that 95% of users won't miss any functionality of common Windows/Mac-only audio software...

As I wrote above, I miss Digicheck and Totalmix! But apart of that it is only my habits and convenience holding me back from leaving Windows all behind, even for audio use... For everyday/programming/office use I kicked out Windows completely a while ago and only wonder why I didn't much earlier...

Are the realtime kernel extensions required ? I remember that Ubuntu studio had them applied.

I use LinuxMint and the standard kernel and therefore no realtime kernel - and I am no Linux specialist at all... So no, definitely not "required" as such...

But obviously there is a lot to optimize in Linux setup and there are more than one distributions prepared for realtime or even audio use! For all I need at the moment (mostly routing to multiple outputs with very little processing) it seems very stable out of the box... As I said, for more complex applications I still use Windows - maybe an old habit, future will tell!