Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 14676
Ensoniq Soundscape S2000 ISA MIDI Doesn't Work
Last modified: 2014-03-16 22:15:09 EDT
See 4Front Open Sound notes on Ensoniq Soundscape S-2000 ISA requirements, and free Ensoniq module to make the soundcard work properly. sndconfig allows assignment of proper MIDI and wave IRQ, DMA, and base addresses. No entries are provided for the card's SoundBlaster emulation. After selection of proper system resources, sndconfig's .wav test works OK; MIDI test fails with a note that the sequencer failed. Card works fine with Windows, any flavor, or MS-DOS 6.22 forward. Card programmable parameters set up with Ensoniq MS-DOS software to be the same as those supposedly set up by sndconfig. Punch line: 4Front Open Sound uses free Ensoniq Linux drivers to make Soundscape S-2000 ISA cards work. How about Red Hat doing the same? Red Hat claims it supports this sound card. At present, it doesn't. Dick Thompson
I'm not sure what you mean by 'free linux drivers'; there's the sound card's firmware, but that comes with the card itself; we aren't going to ship that.
The "free Linux drivers" are in a module named sndscape.co0, available free from both 4Front Open Sound and Ensoniq. Because I'm a REAL Linux newbie, I have no idea how to install this module and any other software upon which it depends. The point is that Red Hat claims RH Linux 6.2 supports this sound card, and it doesn't. Red Hat's tech support has made several suggestions, but none has helped. I believe it's a bug in the soundscape software included with 6.2; a bug which others in the Linux community have found a way to fix; and a bug for which the bug fix is free. Red Hat should make the fix available to purchasers of it's product in a form which those purchasers can easily incorporate into their operating systems, such that the product in fact supports hardware Red Hat claims it supports.
I'm not sure what Red Hat is doing about this bug, but perhaps it might interest them in knowing that others are having the same problem. I am using V7.1 and have had a very similar problem. Plays the audio, doesn't play midi.
We don't plan to ship the firmware for the card with the OS, that should come with the card.