A bit off topic: Confirmed Scarlett 18i6 works on Linux with Alsa 1.0.25

Installation & Configuration Linux
#12

Scarlett 18i6 mixer support

I’ve reverse engineered the mixer-protocol and came up with a script to reconfigure the device under GNU/Linux.

While the complete protocol (mixer, routing, clock-source, impedance switch, peak-monitoring) is supported and documented in the source: https://github.com/x42/scarlettmixer

This is currently just a proof-of-concept and not a versatile mixer utility. More work is needed to integrate it into ALSA and come up with a commanline mixer-app and a GUI (compare to hdspmixer, hdspconf).

see http://mailman.alsa-project.org/pipermail/alsa-devel/2013-January/058766.html

#13

While reverse-engineering the 18i6 protocol I’ve seen the scarlett-mixer app send various initialization commands not relevant for the device (eg. reset gain for non-existent output channels). It appears the same mixer app is ready for the the 18i20 and hence the same Linux driver will also work with only minor modifications.

#14

It is likely very similar, so a good chance that if someone knows what they are doing they could get it to work, but no promises.

Seablade

#15

Do you guys know how similar the 18i20 is? Would the 18i20 be able to get support easily? Somebody was complaining about the lack of a Linux driver for it on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j23xIrX0TkU.

#16

@x42: i’ve been trying to get the scarlett mixer working from your previous post, however i’m getting some “version H doesn’t exist” error while doing “./gitcompile”, suggestions? kernel is now 3.8.0-20, sorry if its off topic!

#17

Hi Guys,i
I got my Scarlett 18i20 working on Linux this weekend. I get all system sounds as well as jack connection. All works fine. I can see the latency in the Jack configuration which is 2ms. I think that would be too optimistic but I am not too concerned about latency at the moment. The mixer from x42 is failing to compile with the same error that fernesto’s getting at the moment. I will look into this later (one thing at the time).
I have another question though: I am running Pulse server for all the regular sounds. I could use the pulseaudio-module-jack to run everything through Scarlett. I am wandering though. What would be the best configuration? Should I keep the on board sound-card (disabled at the moment) and dedicate that to system sounds and have Scarlett serve only Ardour through Jack? Or is it better to use Scarlett for everything?
With my rough knowledge of how system works I would say it would be better not to push any more through USB than necessary.

#18

I should try the script for SCM on my Scarllet 8i6… can i directly use it? or should i do some hacks?

#19

I tried to build custom alsa driver but kept getting build errors. I ended up installing Kernel 3.9 and everything works out of the box (sans mixer). You can still boot into your old Kernel if the new one does not work out so it’s worth testing. It was the easiest thing to do. If I can’t get the mixer working I’ll just set up the system in windows and save settings to the machine. Advantage of doing that is also that windows mixer will check the firmware for you and upgrade if necessary.

#20

does this patch supports 8i6 also? i was eagerly waiting for the alsa mixer for the 0 latency routing. since which version this is available in kernel?

#21

for now my DreamStudio 12.04 is only letting me install kernel 3.8.0.30.18 i hope some fix is implemented soon, i just tried again the mixer x42’s writes about but get the same error still…

#22

The Scarlett 6i6, kernel 3.11.2, alsa lib version 1.0.25 on Kubuntu 12.04 / KX Studio – the 6i6 still doesn’t work! It is not seen in lsusb or ‘cat /proc/asound/cards’. (The script alsa_utils_alsa-info.sh also doesn’t turn up a hint of the 6i6.) I thought for sure it would work based on gosvald’s report with his 18i20 and kernel 3.9…

Anyone have any suggestions?

BTW, gosvald, which distro are you running?

#23

Hello,

I have Scarlett 18i8 and i figured it can’t be much different than 18i6. I downloaded scarlettmixer driver for 18i6 and changed usb-quirk so it matches 18i8. Card gets recognized.
However i am getting “ALSA clock.c:265 >3:1:1: clock source 43 is not valid, cannot use” errors. And now i don’t know how to continue. When i try to aplay or arecord i am getting aplay: “set_params:1145: Unable to install hw params:” error

What would be alsarecord command if i wanted to capture 4 channel input and save it to file.
Regards

#24

Late to the party… so just a quick heads up:

Complete support for Focusrite Scarlett 6i6, 18i6, 18i8 and 18i20 devices has landed in vanilla linux on 2014-11-13 (Linux 3.18) thanks to the effort of Tobias Hoffmann, Chris Arges and yours truly.

#25

Heh thanks much, one more possibility to add to the list!

Seablade

#26

I think it’s in Linux 3.19. This is a great improvement for Scarlett devices, thanks to all the devs.

#27

Very awesome x42. I just added spidf in to my 18i20, and can’t wait to try this out!

#28

Hey x42, Does “Complete support” include being able to switch between line & instrument inputs from Linux?

#29

@timfulton: Yes, this is supported. Note that I am using a recent 4.1 kernel, but I guess it has been possible since the 3.18 release that x42 advertised.

#30

Aloha trying to get my Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 to work with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. Vanilla Linux? Where is that? I’m looking for the most up to date solution. Thanks to all,
Melekalikimaka (Merry Christmas)

#31

Aloha trying to get my Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 to work with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. Vanilla Linux? Where is that? I’m looking for the most up to date solution. Thanks to all,
Melekalikimaka (Merry Christmas)