Getting Line 6 POD Studio UX2 to work on Linux

I was blessed to have a friend who lent me their recording gear. Here's what I did with it =P

Seek and you shall find

Luckily, someone (Markus Grabner) wrote a driver for Line 6 devices on Linux here:
http://line6.com/supportarchivenew/thread/4031
Their website is here: http://www.tanzband-scream.at/line6/
Note the link to the source code on that webpage is old - the latest should be v0.9.1beta not v0.8.1

Getting the latest version

Using svn to checkout the repo and make didn't work (I got a bunch of errors, possibly due to using svn to clone the repo causing the make command to create a bad revision.h file. I also got errors from driver.c

To get around the errors, I tried downloading the zip from sourceforge here:
http://sourceforge.net/p/line6linux/code/HEAD/tree/
(Click "Download Snapshot"). 

After that, just unzip, go to the "drivers" folder, "trunk" branch then $make and #make install inside that directory. Btw, for dependences, you need gcc, make, your kernel's headers (e.g. linux-headers-generic), and alsamixergui + pavucontrol (for later).

Here's a nice article about ./configure, make and #make install. http://www.codecoffee.com/tipsforlinux/articles/27.html

Plugging it in

Now for the harder part, thanks to bkmfs2 on the line6.com forums in the 1st link of this post we have:

#Then you have to find your soundcard with:
cat /proc/asound/cards
#This tells you how your Line 6 device viewed by the computer ('hw:' number).
#Replace 'hw:1' with whatever shows up for your sound card when you type:
alsamixergui -D hw:1
#You HAVE TO turn the 'monitor' slider all the way down or things will crash (unless the 'svn' site has a newer version that fixes this).
#Just so you know, the thing is a little volitile but I was able to use my Line 6 UX2 with jack-audio with (so far) dependable success.
#Just F.Y.I., I bought a M-Audio MobilePre the other day and it works right out of the box.

I didn't have to get alsamixergui to select the device to control - I use Audacity and it allows you to switch between devices.
My favourite audio setup/control tool on linux has to be pavucontrol although I couldn't use it for audio in and I could use Audacity to select the hw2:0 device for recording, letting me record.

By using the monitor turned up to 100% in the alsamixergui, I was able to hear the input from my mic, albeit quite distorted. It obviously was more clipped when I turned up the "phones" dial and/or turned up the monitor signal from aslamixergui. This is mentioned in 4.3.5 of the driver doc manual PDF (from Markus Grabner's Tanzband-scream.net website), but I haven't been able to fix it yet. The PCM audio works phone though, using the computer to play to the phones without clipping.

I decided to get the full experience dual-booting into Windows and using POD farm (didn't want to set up WINE/VM as I was short on time and didn't want to troubleshoot any errors that would come up). However, I didn't have time to do that either (only effectively had one afternoon) so I just stuck with recording in Audacity on Linux.

Yes, this means you might get to see some art/annihilation related projects released soon showcasing the results.

Gaming Update & Arena Commander launched for a couple of weeks!

LoL, Dota 2 and SC2 are now collegiate sports.

Dota 2 nears 10 million prizepool money, which includes USD$8.4 million from compendium and compendium point purchases. That's $33.6 million of total compendium related revenue, and $25.2 million for Valve from compendium related revenue alone! This is getting big, just like TF2 hats =P
Current PrizePool:

Btw, Steam Summer Sale is on, get them daily/flash deals! Isthereanydeal.com is also a great website to track your wishlist and if it goes on sale on many different storefronts - it saves heaps of browsing time! 
You know Valve is doing something right when they release things gamers want (Steam Cloud, Cross platform SteamPlay, Dota2, TF2, SteamOS-Linux) and aren't shy to get it properly done and delay releases according to Valve Time, much like CIG does with Star Citizen and their DFM release. =P


Speaking of, the Star Citizen DogFighting Module has been released (launch trailer here)! It's named Arena Commander (as a in-universe combat sim game). Currently it's at v0.8, check the above link for the planned version update roadmap. Some interesting stats and tutorial videos for different control devices (m+kb, joystick) released ~24hrs after the DFM release.
Also, the most watched Star Citizen streamer on Twitch - Nyaandere - streams almost daily! (Pretty punny username if I may say so myself).

 
Alternate Launch Trailer, the one I prefer - especially with the lovely Bach Prelude 1 =P

Everyone has single player (free-flight, Vanduul swarm) access if you have the Alpha or "Arena Commander module" access. Most recently they've updated it with Hangar Patch 12.3 (which is still v0.8 for Dogfighting module/Arena Commander version numbers).
Want to know if you have multiplayer access? Check your UEE Citizen Record # on your Citizen Dossier like so https://robertsspaceindustries.com/citizens/pd12
Then match it up with the roll-out updates on https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13947-Arena-Commander-Multiplayer-Roll-Out-Begins

Also because a lot of people have been complaining that the ships' handling doesn't "feel right" CR (Chris Roberts, project director) has written up this lovely post full of the details of how they simulate and model the flight physics. It's beautiful! (And therefore obligatory iframe which doesn't work atm, someone tell me why):

Canadian MV in the ISS

this is both lol and respect++
Art & Science ^^ Actually sounds pretty nice =) If you haven't seen Commander Hadfield's other cool vids, check them out! CSA's channel. Hadfield's channel. 
Wonder if they lugged the guitar up when they still had the Space Shuttle ...
It's like the first 'movie' in space by the tourist and Ultima series creator (friends of CIG's and RSI's Chris Roberts et al).