There does not currently exist a linux driver for Mbox 2 mini. I don’t have the hardware so I am not writing one either. This page is for driver discussion on this model.
UPDATE 4/12/2010:
The Mbox2 and Mbox2 Mini share the same USB ID and usb endpoints thus they are physically the same device at the hardware level.
Therefore, the Mbox2 driver will work with the Mbox2 Mini straight out of the box.
Note that it may be possible to mod your Mbox2 Mini to add 1x MIDI IN and 1x MIDI OUT jacks because it is reporting that it already has the hardware built in.
17 thoughts on “Digidesign Mbox 2 Mini on Linux”
Hello all,
I will try to make it work.
I sound like hard to do with listening requests and answers on Windows side first then trying to change values a bit randomly… is it what you did damo for the MBox 2?
Regards
Is there any progress on this?
I’ve tried to make THIS (http://www.zamaudio.com/?p=97) driver work on 2.6.35.x with “MBox2 Mini” and it does) The only problem was to move Damien’s code into a new, slightly modified environment (new files structure for usb-audio driver in kernel) I can share the results if anyone interested
@Fima
I would really like to know the steps you took to get it working on 2.6.35.x for the mbox2 mini. I just had a go but I must have stuffed something up because it didn’t compile (I’m not surprised at all since I’m new to ubuntu and until last night I’d never even tried making my own kernel!). I’m about to start trawling through the compile errors and see if I can fix it, but if you have hints for how to move damo’s code to the new file structure I would really appreciate any help/tips.
@spoida
Can you post the output of “lsusb && lsusb -v” to a pastebin service and post the link here?
I am unsure if the device has the same descriptors as this is highly unlikely, but with this info I should be able to craft something.
I am currently submitting an official patch to ALSA to get the Mbox2 support up and running. Could be easy to do both at the same time, depending on the device, but I don’t have one myself, so any testing would be appreciated.
Hi Damo,
I think this is what you’re asking for: http://tinypaste.com/b1bd8
I’m happy to do testing whenever it’s needed.
BTW. Thanks a tonne for putting in all the hard yards to get this up and going.
It appears that the Mbox 2 mini and the Mbox2 are identical devices, even to the extent that they share the same USB ID. So I believe the driver I wrote for the Mbox 2 will work with the Mini straight out of the box…
[quote=damo]
I have fixed my experimental driver to work with full capture, playback and S/PDIF in both 44.1kHz and 48kHz modes @ 24 bit. I am submitting a patch to ALSA soon to get it officially accepted into the mainstream kernel drivers so you won’t need to recompile your kernel to get support for this card very soon.[/quote]
Thanks a lot Damo.
I was able to make it work once but then I had to give back the box to his owner and when I tried again, hoping to post a how to here, a few kernel from that (I still uses Archlinux which is rolling release) it was broken and I was not able to fix it.
I hope it will be officially accepted soon.
Thanks again.
you are the god of hackers. thanks so much for the work
first of all, thank you soooo much!! i want to migrate my system to ubuntu but i need my mbox2 mini to get work under linux. I could compile, install & modprobe the driver you made for mbox2. I get the green usb light on but whenever i try to launch ardour or other daw it crashes. I don’t know how to get it working into a daw, please, could you help me? tried to select alsa driver, oss, jack, etc… always selecting the mbox2 as device but didn’t work…
alex: If the green light comes on, chances are the device is working, it might be your DAW that is crashing due to some other problem. Try running jack separately using qjackctl, and make sure you use input channels = 2 and output channels = 2, *not* ‘auto’. If you get that working, try loading a jack enabled media player such as aqualung and try to play something through the mbox2mini. Should work. Then get the DAW working.
Hello guys, I’m trying to get my Mbox-2 Mini working on a Gentoo 64 bit system. Everything seems working from the hw and driver point of view: green light ok, jack sees the monster but when I connect capture with system’s left/right channel I get loud white noise instead of my guitar. Any idea on how to solve this?
..actually the noise comes in even if nothing ahs been plugged in…
..that is I get loud white noise as soon as i connect capture to speakers using jack connection window
Finally it works perfectly. So if ever you wondered now you know that this driver works perfectly even for MBox 2 Mini. Cheers
Just got an mbox 1, running Kx Studio . I have a recent kernel so the also driver seems to be there. MYy mbox powers on, ive managed to get ardour to playback through the mbox, however i cannot get capture to work. starting jack from command line and specifying 2 capture ports,
Using ALSA driver USB-Audio running on card 2 – Digidesign MBox at usb-0000:00:02.0-1, full speed
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM 2
ALSA: Cannot open PCM device alsa_pcm for capture. Falling back to playback-only mode
Not sure how to get it working, ive tried both 44100 and 48000 sample rates . its definatly the right device
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC883 Analog [ALC883 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: ALC883 Digital [ALC883 Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Loopback [Loopback], device 0: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
Subdevices: 8/8
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 1: Loopback [Loopback], device 1: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
Subdevices: 8/8
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 2: MBox [MBox], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC883 Analog [ALC883 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 2: ALC883 Analog [ALC883 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Loopback [Loopback], device 0: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
Subdevices: 8/8
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 1: Loopback [Loopback], device 1: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
Subdevices: 8/8
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
seems like theres no capture listed for the mbox
Hello, a decade after.
I got my hands on an “Avid MBOX 3”, wtih no support from alsa. But I’ve come across somebody that made a driver for the PRO version, that has Firewire instead of USB like mine. They are the same in every other way looking at the mainboard.
This are the rust definitions for that card https://github.com/alsa-project/snd-firewire-ctl-services/blob/master/libs/dice/protocols/src/avid.rs
Is there a way to implement those definitions for alsa snd-usb-audio?