I've given up on getting my soundcard's MIDI ports working on any of my soundcards (midiman usb 1x1, and "soundblaster compatable" ESS1869, ALS-100, & yamaha ymf-724)

My impression is the most prevalent soundcard for linux users (including midi support) is the soundblaster AWE32, which is out of production (I guess ebay is about the only way to get one?)

There is also the SB live! and the soundblaster16, still available at stores.

Which is the easiest to get running in linux? Your feedback (on any card) is welcome.

Also, if anyone has gotten midi working (using OSS/free, not alsa) on the cards I mentioned I already have (especially usb) please share!

Way back in the day, the MPU-401 was the standard. I'd imagine anything hardware compatible with that would work?

most cards have an mpu401 interface, but getting them to work under linux is a different story. I'd just like to hear "I have whatever which I got midi working by doing whatever".