That is sad to hear. I'm currently right in the middle of setting that driver up on Arch Linux.

I created an account here just to respond to this thread.

I have an RME HDSPe AES with a Mytek 8x192. I have been using that in a thunderbolt external box on an old Mac Mini 2011 server version. I have a faster PC with latest Bitwig version which I can't upgrade to on OSX. With pipewire, Linux is now a great system for all things audio. The insane thing is that the crappy motherboard sound chip on my Linux system utterly outperforms my Mac with RME and Mytek in terms of latency. This is a terrible situation given how great Linux now is for audio and don't forget video production with DaVinci Resolve.

I see many more people wanting to make the move to Linux now. Who is going to buy an ultra high end Mac for video production when you can build a PC and why use Windows for this when Resolve runs on Linux?

I came here to cast my support in for a GNU/Linux driver. It's sad that we Linux users often get treated like second-class citizens, having to rely on a class-compliant mode which is slower, having to be told to use WINE when most Linux users eventually learn to wish that WINE doesn't exist so that developers would actually develop for Linux. I hate it. I hope that RME strongly considers native Linux support. I would even be willing to pay for it if need be.

I don't think it would work like that... but my answer: all of them, in the kernel. Then the "which distro" question wouldn't matter much.

I am seriously considering Focusrite in the future when I have/need/want to buy a new interface. https://github.com/geoffreybennett/alsa-scarlett-gui makes a GUI that makes it possible to even enable/disable proprietary functions. It does seem right now, but might change,  that I will not buy an RME interface in the future which is sad because my Fireface 802 works great (all functions) on Windows 10/11 but appearantly not on Linux that I would like to use it on.

I'd suggest you wait for (or help) him with the 4th gen.

There are Linux drivers for HDSP and HDSPe series. (Actually community-written drivers for some RME interfaces were there since like 2 decades ago...)
Excluding MADI FX, all the other cards should just work. (Can confirm AIO and RayDAT.) As for GUI there are hdspmixer, hdspconf and/or alsamixer to control them.
But you might need USB because of laptop for example, then either external PCIe box for HDSPe or the CC mode + on-device operation is the only way to go.

Yet another possibility are stand-alone recorders usable as audio interfaces, for example SoundDevices, where you can also update firmware from SD-card. No proprietary drivers, hence the same story: CC mode + on-device operation, incl. mixer control, presets, connecting USB keyboard, DAW-controller(s)...
Some of this functionality can be covered with RME ARC, but SoundDevices are more advanced in this regard, as the units were developed as a field-recorders in the first place.

it seems presonus is releasing a Linux version of Studio One.
Would this change your mind? i have a digiface USB and would love to use that in linux.

I have actually already donated a small sum of money to him even though I do not have any Gen3 or 4. If things don't change with RME I might actually jump to a Focusrite interface in the future. That is if the community and Geoffrey continue their great advances. It would "hurt" though since I have really enjoyed my current and past RME products.

Do you want to say that RME should have shame because it is not working correctly ?

Focusrite is a big corporation that has very big resources for marketing and PR, and much of its revenue comes from consumer products. RME is a small company with a different target market, the professional recording studios. And over there is no significant demand for Linux support. The OS choice is dictated by the tools being used, not vice versa.

Moreover, on the forum that you linked here, it looks like Focusrite only agreed to cooperate with the developer community, not to provide full official Linux support for their products.

Professional DAW ‘Studio One’ is Now on Linux (Public Beta):
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/pro … orts-linux

Presonus will also create Linux drivers for their devices with this step.

Also Bitwig gets more and more traction (they also have a Linux version)

I think this is the most visited thread on RME forum, but there is no need for Linux drivers ;-)

So far I have a Babyface, but as soon as either Presonus or Focusrite have proper Linux support, I will sell this thing and buy their device.

Oh, you edited your post...

I used BF for almost 10 years, then upgraded to UCX II + QuadMic + ADI-2 combo, USB or via RayDAT.
I've asked several times about the drivers (including my personal involvement) as there were posts considering it an option. Sadly, no new answers.

I'm using Sound Devices MixPre 10 II for a couple of years. Before I thought RME has very good on-device operation with ARC, but actually comes nothing near to SD, with attaching keyboard and DAW controllers directly, both for class-compliant and stand-alone operation. One can get it to work with Linux with a simple configuration step https://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.ph … 35#p159735, plus the SD is more power-efficient (doesn't heat up), can run on bats, has presets how many you want (not only 6 or 8), routes anything-to-anywhere including USB streams, has built-in limiters, low-cut filters, reverb, delay, phase, mute, solo, P48, WC, LTC, digitally controlled gain, back-up record on SD (better than DURec), user-definable shortcuts (kind of key remap on UCX II), built-in metronome and tone generator and whatnot...
On the other hand, it isn't expandable in terms of I/O, no MIDI or digital I/O, and one has to use HW-monitoring + DAW's latency compensation, but covers my needs.

This led me to apply for returning the UCX, which got accepted by retailer and am about to consider for the last time, probably send it back and sell the rest.

You can connect a USB drive and have auto backups, so in stand-alone mode you get 1x redundancy, in audio-interface mode you can get 2x redundancy.
Or, connect a USB hub and to it the USB drive, simultaneously with MIDI DAW controller, plus a keyboard for menu navigation, hotkeys and shortcuts (programmable keyboard possible too for macros). ARC can dream of such flexibility, even in Win/Mac where you can customize keys. I've asked RME if we could get a FW update for UCX/UFX to get ARC keys configurable in stand-alone / CC mode, but sadly no answer.

The SD-card slot is used for firmware updates, in stand-alone mode, so no driver for a FW update needed. DURec can't do this.

And so far I know you can't connect a USB hub to UCX II for having both DURec to drive and ARC at once. (UFX does this providing 2 separate slots.)

Another feature are Q-marks and exporting the whole project, not just the audio data.

Yet another is overdubbing in stand-alone and possibly bouncing tracks.

Yet another one is exporting presets (in XML format). I don't know if you can store TotalMix presets to a USB drive and load it from there - correct me if I'm wrong.

I had already decided that I would not add anything to this topic. But the situation has changed so much that I will comment briefly.

The world is changing and resisting the introduction of Linux to audio production is foolishness. Now we are seeing the snowball effect start. The merging of SSL and Harrison consoles is also a point. Linux is probably also coming to SSL's products at some point. Everyone will eventually follow. Now there would still be skilled workers available for work. It may be too late when the best Linux experts have been hired by other companies. That's why RME should really start considering the issue.

If I were the decision-maker at RME, I would contact the Ardou DAW developers. They are pioneers of Linux audio and have a very deep knowledge of how support should be planned.

You may wonder now, but I wholeheartedly agree; especially in these uncertain times, when it's unclear where Microsoft is headed, having Linux support would be highly desirable.

The developments of recent years have raised concerns for me. I fear that Windows is increasingly moving in a direction that doesn't align with my preferences. Perhaps even transitioning to a subscription model for Windows. Why else would there be mandatory online accounts in Windows 11, even in the Pro version? This, along with the inconvenience of having to discard good and performant hardware, is troubling. While tools like Rufus can currently address these issues, there's uncertainty about how things might evolve in the future.

Apple could be an alternative, since many DAW products and third-party offerings have historically been available for Apple systems. I've explored Apple's hardware offerings with the intention of acquiring a current test system to become familiar with Apple over the next two years and prepare for a potential migration, all in a leisurely manner. The Apple ecosystem isn't necessarily something I require.

No matter how I look at it, I keep coming back to the (unsatisfactory) conclusion that Apple is simply too expensive and not sustainable enough; in fact, it's quite the opposite. Even with refurbished systems, the entry prices are too high, and you're charged exorbitant fees for capacity upgrades in all the interesting and necessary areas (CPU, GPU, DRAM, storage). It's unreasonable to pay these exorbitant prices upfront ("into the blue") without being able to anticipate one's future needs. And it's even more frustrating with the new Mac Studio, where hardware upgrade options exist but are blocked by Apple in the operating system.

Upon further inspection, I've been using my current PC since 2014 (9 years), and I can keep upgrading it to make it compatible with 10Gbit LAN in the near future. Due to rising DRAM prices, I'm also upgrading to 64 GB of DRAM to be prepared for the next 2–3 years, or possibly even longer. Recently, I was able to switch to an 8-core processor for €150 on eBay, which used to cost €1750 (!) some years ago. A new graphics card allows me to play the latest games and the slim, two-slot-width graphics card (RTX 4070) even leaves an available PCIe 3.0 x8 slot, where I will install a 10Gbit LAN card to upgrade my LAN to 10Gbit. When dealing with high data loads, 1Gbit is simply no longer sufficient. Even USB3 hard disks for backups are significantly faster than Gigabit to a NAS.

At the moment, transitioning to Linux isn't feasible for me because I cannot imagine giving up TotalMix FX. I might be willing to make other sacrifices, but not my RME recording setup. While I'm not a fan of Studio One, it would provide a functional base. Moreover, there are rumors that Steinberg intends to release Cubase for Linux, as they surely wouldn't want to lag behind Presonus.

Perspectives change with the circumstances. Despite my previous understanding for all manufacturers, not just RME, about the potential challenges of distribution diversity, I'm gradually shifting my stance and concurring with others that Linux support is crucial.

In summary, having drivers and TotalMix FX for Linux would be a great asset in these times when one seeks protection from ever more voracious monopolists and a viable, particularly affordable, alternative. RME is indispensable for me. This is what concerns me most if Windows takes a wrong turn. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't present an economically viable solution for me.

I would be delighted if RME could find a way to provide drivers and TotalMix FX for Linux, thus at least laying the groundwork for the possibility of transitioning to Linux if the need arises soon.

And not only that, you can keep your current HW and have no extra HW costs.
It could even be the case, that the Unix kernel runs the HW more efficient.

For this reason, I would even be willed to pay for a Linux port of drivers and TotalMix FX
(and maybe also DIGIcheck NG) if some more developer resources would be required for such a migration project.

As plenty of customers would certainly have interest, I wouldn't expect too high costs for everybody.

I also would like RME support for Linux !!
A little tired of -- still in these days -- after 20 years of Pro Audio, -- problems with Cubase/Nuendo on Windows, well, and apple too.

How about this suggestion for the mix ? .. I haven't researched it, but as an experienced systems engineer, I'm thinking this would be a relatively cheap and smoother starting place.

It seems with Class Compliance, and several people working on audio driver support, there's actually no problem getting audio in and out of Linux for most of the RME interfaces.
The sticking point is access to Total Mix.

I am just about to buy an RME interface, and one of the things I was wondering about, was running Total Mix Control on another, older PC to have e.g. my monitoring controls separate from the DAW.

I see that RME have USB3 audio interfaces, also with total mix.
Reasons:
--> So There must be a serialized protocol to total mix.
--> So it *could* be streamed over Ethernet.
--> So, without revealing the protocol itself, what about giving Total Mix Windows app the possibility to connect to a remote IPxx:Port# on a Linux PC ? (Steinberg do it for app and monitoring control .. I can control it from my Ipad via Wifi)
--> Then on the Linux PC, whoever is writing drivers, needs to rx/tx that protocol from an IP socket, and merge it with the audio.
Ohh its only software after all :-/

Of course, the nitty gritty is more complex, but from the commercial discussions, in this scenario, RME keep all the secrets of Total mix and its protocols.
All that's needed (?) is the knowledge of the protocol routing to and from the soundcard via USB or PCIe.

OK OK, so we still have to run total mix on Aghhh windows, .. but it would bridge the temporal gap, and maybe RME would see if the linux user count was worth further investment.

I guess the high speed bit for total mix, is the monitoring levels for each channel which would occupy some bandwidth over ethernet, but as long as the audio was not affected, I can't see this as a big problem, especially if a 10G ethernet interface was thrown into the mix.
Its possible to compress metering data efficiently with range coding (like FLAC), if indeed that is not already the case in the RME protocol.

How about this one RME ??

Subscribing for updates. I'm new to the ecosystem - dipping my toes in with a Babyface Pro FS after years of putting off upgrading from a Gen 1 Focusrite 18i20 - and would love to see full Linux support. Currently on Mac OS, but since switching over to Reaper as my primary DAW, migrating to Linux is starting to make a lot of sense. However, RME incompatibility is a major Achilles heel (Class Compliant mode is cool, but insufficient). The lack of support strikes me as inconsistent with their clear commitment to long-term technical support for all their devices. I'm absolutely ignorant about what kind of technical lift it would take to port everything (drivers, TotalMix FX, DigiCheck, etc.) over, but I can't imagine any OS outliving Linux.

There is already a ready-made organization. The parties involved just have to join.
http://linuxaudio.org/

Here's a happy RME Linux user. I use my UFX and ADI-8 DS MkIII in CC mode, but would still like to see native Linux support. I'd like to be able to use TotalMix for example. It is great that the units can be controlled without software, just from their front panels, but it can be a bit annoying at times. BTW: Have a look at https://linuxdaw.org, a rapidly growing directory of native Linux audio software.

Congrats!

There already were (like 20+ years ago) and still are such guys in RME context too. Does something prevent you from joining in and help with "the snowballing" you mention?

Is that an official Focusrite project? I'm still not selling my RME devices. RME will come to Linux sooner or later...

Both are good things. I'm really looking forward to oscmix working on my 802 and UFX+. It makes a lot of things easier

If @MC is reading this, take a tip from this and help them with that project. It would be in everyone's interest. Show your support to the Linux community. You win a lot with it.

I agree, I would also be willing to pay. If anything gets started, I would like to chip into it.

Great points. Linux is trusted to run most of the internet and half the mobile phones in the world, and it's going nowhere anytime soon. The longevity of Linux: Windows and MacOS would sooner end development before Linux would stop being updated. Linux isn't going anywhere.