Unable to connect USB Midi device to Linux machines

I have been attempting to connect a set of Midi drums (an Alesis DM6) to my machine with no success. I am using the Midi controller's standard USB interface with a USB 2 type B to type A cable.

The device seems to get stuck in a loop connecting and disconnecting indefinitely.

Relevant dmesg output:

[ 2160.282707] usb 1-3: new full-speed USB device number 4 using xhci_hcd
[ 2160.570701] usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=0a67, idProduct=119d, bcdDevice= 1.00
[ 2160.570706] usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 2160.570708] usb 1-3: Product: e-Drum
[ 2160.570709] usb 1-3: Manufacturer: Medeli Electronics Co., Ltd.
[ 2160.586368] usb 1-3: USB disconnect, device number 4
[ 2160.874399] usb 1-3: new full-speed USB device number 5 using xhci_hcd
[ 2161.162671] usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=0a67, idProduct=119d, bcdDevice= 1.00
[ 2161.162676] usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 2161.162678] usb 1-3: Product: e-Drum
[ 2161.162679] usb 1-3: Manufacturer: Medeli Electronics Co., Ltd.
[ 2161.178374] usb 1-3: USB disconnect, device number 5
[ 2161.466393] usb 1-3: new full-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[ 2161.753720] usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=0a67, idProduct=119d, bcdDevice= 1.00
[ 2161.753725] usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 2161.753726] usb 1-3: Product: e-Drum
[ 2161.753727] usb 1-3: Manufacturer: Medeli Electronics Co., Ltd.
[ 2161.769552] usb 1-3: USB disconnect, device number 6
[ 2161.783057] mc: Linux media interface: v0.10
[ 2161.800132] usbcore: registered new interface driver snd-usb-audio
[ 2162.058603] usb 1-3: new full-speed USB device number 7 using xhci_hcd
[ 2162.346717] usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=0a67, idProduct=119d, bcdDevice= 1.00
[ 2162.346722] usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 2162.346723] usb 1-3: Product: e-Drum
[ 2162.346724] usb 1-3: Manufacturer: Medeli Electronics Co., Ltd.
[ 2162.366023] usb 1-3: Quirk or no altest; falling back to MIDI 1.0
[ 2162.366510] usb 1-3: USB disconnect, device number 7

The disconnects/reconnects repeat indefinitely (with incrementing device numbers).

I see the following in /var/log/messages occasionally but not always interspersed just after the disconnects:

mtp-probe[8320]: checking bus 1, device 8: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/0000:04:00.0/0000:05:0c.0/0000:0e:00.0/usb1/1-3"
mtp-probe[8320]: bus: 1, device: 8 was not an MTP device

Unfortunately because the disconnects happen so rapidly I can never see the device appear in lsusb or similar.

Some details about my machine follow, however I fear they are not enormously relevant since I am able to reproduce the same behaviour on two other Linux-based devices I have (a Rock5b SBC and another Proxmox host on a Protectli SBC)

$ uname -r
6.7.9-200.fc39.x86_64

$ lsb-release -a
LSB Version:    n/a
Distributor ID: Fedora
Description:    Fedora Linux 39 (KDE Plasma)
Release:        39
Codename:       n/a

And a few bits of additional information:

• This hardware works fine on Windows.
• This hardware also connects and seems to work fine on a BSD device I have (a bare metal TrueNAS host).
• I have previously (from Windows) flashed this device with its latest manufacturer firmware.
• I have tried connecting it to USB3 and USB2 ports on my machine, both front panel and rear.

I am at this point at a loss regarding how to proceed. Am I out of luck getting it to work on Linux? Any advice will be appreciated!

Hello, Chippitsaur & welcome to LQ.

You're connecting it all right, but the kernel doesn't have a driver for you. Not only that, but midi was a popular thing in the 1990s and I haven't really heard of it much since. We had 16 bit sound cards in the old ISA bus which ran at a max of something like 7.86MHz(?) officially, although most suppliers doubled that speed. I'm no audio buff, but there's packages for playing retro games that might get you midi. If it's a generic item they might even support it.

The trick here is to put your usb id '0a67:119d' on a web search along with some keywords. Try searching for

+0a67:119d +linux

and see what comes up. I tried in DDG and got 0 results. You could try with the brand name instead of the usb id.

Lesson is to check linux compatibility before spending your hard-earned cash.

Originally Posted by business_kid Not only that, but midi was a popular thing in the 1990s and I haven't really heard of it much since.

Digital musical instuments like the mentioned "Alesis DM6" drumset currently use MIDI interfaces for communication which other digital musical instuments and computers. Many PCI soundcards provide a (more or less) native MIDI port.

Microsoft has dropped native MIDI support and support for MIDI on PCI soundcards with Windows Vista. Therefore you must use USB-MIDI-converters instead of native MIDI ports with Windows Vista and later.
The Linux kernel provides native MIDI support and support for MIDI on PCI soundcards to date.

Mentioned USB-MIDI-converter seems to be a piece of this annoying "Windows only e-waste".

On the other hand, given vendor & device Id belongs to a USB device supported by the Linux kernel 2.6.0 … 6.3: https://linux-hardware.org/?id=usb:0a67-119d
In a few cases, very old drivers are moved to "staging drivers" in recent kernels. These staging drivers are normally not included in distro kernels.
In a few cases, very old drivers are dropped in recent kernels.

A possible solution is to use a PCI soundcard with MIDI port instead. If used mainboard has a free PCI slot it is not a problem. If used mainboard only provides PCIe slots it becomes a little bit difficult due to mechanical reasons. Electronically it is simple because PCIe x1 to PCI slot adapters are available. Mechanically soundcard with PCIe x1 to PCI slot adapter must be mounted in a way that MIDI port at soundcard is accessible:

• µATX mainboard in ATX case: normally no problem
• ATX mainboard in ATX case: difficult
• µATX mainboard in µATX case: nearly impossible

Thank you both for your responses and advice, especially the tip for searching for USB IDs. I'd not considered that.

A thing I might not have made especially clear in my first post (my apologies) is that the device ONLY has a USB interface, no legacy MIDI. I do incidentally happen to have an old sound card I could use with a native MIDI interface but it wouldn't be helpful considering this drum brain is strictly a USB device.

Originally Posted by Arnulf On the other hand, given vendor & device Id belongs to a USB device supported by the Linux kernel 2.6.0 … 6.3: https://linux-hardware.org/?id=usb:0a67-119d In a few cases, very old drivers are moved to "staging drivers" in recent kernels. These staging drivers are normally not included in distro kernels. In a few cases, very old drivers are dropped in recent kernels.

Thanks for the info. Based on this page, it seems it might make sense for me to try this again on an older laptop I happen to have, which is running a 5.x kernel, to see whether the device was still supported in an older version. I will do this and report back.

In the event that it is, presumably it would then be possible to compile a modified kernel to reintroduce the support, or perhaps add it as a kernel module? I'll admit extremely naive understanding of how this process works for adding custom driver support to the kernel, but surely this is feasible?

Originally Posted by business_kid Lesson is to check linux compatibility before spending your hard-earned cash.

Appreciate the point, but this is fortunately not a concern. This was a device I've owned for many years and used a lot in the past. I just happened to have moved completely to Linux recently and thought I'd try using it again. If it does not work I would not be burned, though of course I'd love to use it if I can!

An update:

No luck, unfortunately, on the 5.11.x kernel machine. Are there any other things I could/should attempt, or is this a fool's errand at this point?

using xhci_hcd

Never mind I see you have tried both USB 2 and 3 ports...

Originally Posted by Chippitsaur An update: No luck, unfortunately, on the 5.11.x kernel machine. Are there any other things I could/should attempt, or is this a fool's errand at this point?

Now at least you know more than you did. The task that lies before you is finding the old unmaintained driver in the most recent kernel that you can, and attempting to compile it. That won't be trivial effort. So is the end result going to be worth the effort to you?

Personally, I think not, but it's your effort, your decision, and I don't know how much you value a midi keyboard in 2024.

Post dmesg output after connecting the drumset with the kernel 5.11 machine both for connections with USB 2.0 & USB 3.0 port.

Apologies, I didn't include the dmesg output for the other computer because it was the same. I should've mentioned that. Similarly this older laptop predates the ubiquity of USB 3.0 and so is 2.0 only.

I tried it earlier with a 4.19 kernel as well, with the same results.