Installing the Linux driver for VX222e

Note : these instructions are only useful for :

• VX222e boards with hardware revision IS=06 or higher
• VX222e-Mic boards with hardware revision IS=05 or higher
• PCX924e boards with hardware revision IS=05 or higher
• PCX924e-Mic boards with hardware revision IS=05 or higher

Earlier hardware revisions (or any other PCX/VX board) can use the snd-pcxhr driver that is already included in the Linux kernel.

• Option 1 : Automatic installation
  • I) Download and install the driver
    • > Debian, Ubuntu and other Debian-based distributions
      • I.1) Install the dependencies
      • I.2) Download the driver package
      • I.3) Install the driver package
    • > Fedora, CentOS, openSUSE or other RPM-based distributions
      • I.1) Install the dependencies
      • I.2) Download the driver package
      • I.3) Install the driver package
    • > Any Linux distribution with a DKMS-enabled package manager
      • I.1) Install the dependencies
      • I.2) Download the driver sources
      • I.3) Install the driver
  • II) Check the installation
• Option 2 : Manually building and installing the driver
  • I) Get the source code
  • II) Compile the driver
  • III) Install and load the driver

Option 1 : Automatic installation

This method works on most major distributions, by using the DKMS system. After the initial installation, nothing more is needed to be done as DKMS will take care of re-building the driver every time the kernel is updated, or a new kernel is installed.

Requirements :

• A package manager which supports DKMS. Most major distributions support this, please check your distribution’s documentation if you are not sure.
• DKMS
• The kernel headers for the kernel version(s) you need
• Git, if you don’t use a Debian-based or RPM-based distribution

I) Download and install the driver

> Debian, Ubuntu and other Debian-based distributions

I.1) Install the dependencies

$ sudo apt install dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r)

This will allow you to install the driver for the currently running kernel. If you have other kernels you wish to install it for, you will also need to install their headers by adding linux-headers-<kernelversion> to the above command (replace <kernelversion> with the version you need)

I.2) Download the driver package

Choose the latest .deb package on the Releases page.

I.3) Install the driver package

Go into the directory where you downloaded the package (we have downloaded it in ~/digigram in our example), and install the package :

$ cd ~/digigram
$ sudo apt install ./pcxhr-dkms_2.0.12_amd64.deb

> Fedora, CentOS, openSUSE or other RPM-based distributions

I.1) Install the dependencies

• For Fedora/CentOS/Red Hat :

  $ sudo yum install dkms kernel-devel

• For SUSE/openSUSE :

  $ sudo zypper install dkms kernel-devel

This will allow you to install the driver for the currently running kernel. If you have other kernels you wish to install it for, refer to your distribution’s documentation for installing the relevant kernel headers.

I.2) Download the driver package

Choose the latest .rpm package on the Releases page.

I.3) Install the driver package

Go into the directory where you downloaded the package (we have downloaded it in ~/digigram in our example), and install the package :

• For Fedora/CentOS/Red Hat :

  $ cd ~/digigram
  $ sudo yum install ./pcxhr-2.0.12-1dkms.noarch.rpm

• SUSE/openSUSE :

  $ cd ~/digigram
  $ sudo zypper install ./pcxhr-2.0.12-1dkms.noarch.rpm

> Any Linux distribution with a DKMS-enabled package manager

I.1) Install the dependencies

Before the next steps, the following packages should be installed through your distribution’s package manager :

• Git : the package is usually called simply git
• DKMS : the package is usually called simply dkms
• Kernel headers for all kernel versions you need :
  • The package name is linux-headers-<kernelversion> on Debian/ Ubuntu and their derivatives.
  • The package name is kernel-devel on most RPM-based distributions such as Fedora, CentOS or openSUSE.
  • On Arch Linux, it is called <linuxflavor>-headers, depending on what kernel flavor you are using. For example : linux-headers, or linux-lts-headers, or linux-zen-headers, etc.
  • For another distribution, please refer to its documentation.

I.2) Download the driver sources

Create a working directory and go into it. In our example, it will be ~/digigram/github_repo :

$ mkdir -p ~/digigram/github_repo
$ cd ~/digigram/github_repo

Clone the Digigram Github repository :

$ git clone https://github.com/Digigram-audio/pcxhr

Go into the cloned repository, list the available version tags, and check out to the latest one (v2.0.12 at the time of writing) :

$ cd pcxhr
$ git tag
[...]
v2.0.12
$ git checkout v2.0.12

Copy the src/ directory to /usr/src/pcxhr-<version>, replacing <version> with the one from the previous command without the "v" prefix (the target directory has to have exactly that name). In our example, the command is :

$ sudo cp -r ./src /usr/src/pcxhr-2.0.12

I.3) Install the driver

Use DKMS to install the driver for the current kernel :

$ sudo dkms install pcxhr/2.0.12

II) Check the installation

After completing one of the previous set of steps depending on your distribution, run the following command to check which kernels the driver has been installed for (example output on an Ubuntu machine with several kernels installed) :

$ sudo dkms status
pcxhr, 2.0.12, 5.4.0-29-generic, x86_64: installed
pcxhr, 2.0.12, 5.4.0-31-generic, x86_64: installed
pcxhr, 2.0.12, 5.4.0-33-generic, x86_64: installed
pcxhr, 2.0.12, 5.4.0-40-lowlatency, x86_64: installed
pcxhr, 2.0.12, 5.4.0-42-generic, x86_64: installed
pcxhr, 2.0.12, 5.4.0-42-lowlatency, x86_64: installed

If you can see the relevant kernel versions with the installed tag, everything should work fine. If a kernel version you need is missing, you can run the following command to install it, provided that you have already installed the headers (see step 1 of the instructions for your distribution) :

$ sudo dkms install pcxhr/2.0.12 -k <kernelversion>

From now on, the driver will be automatically loaded at boot, and for every kernel update, the package manager will automatically run DKMS to build it. If you want to test right away without a reboot, you can manually load the driver with :

$ sudo modprobe snd-pcxhr

Option 2 : Manually building and installing the driver

This method works for any Linux system, but requires to be done every time the kernel is updated as it doesn’t use any package manager to automatically rebuild the driver.

Requirements :

• The kernel headers for the kernel version(s) you need
• Git
• Make and a C compiler such as gcc

Please refer to your distribution’s documentation to install these requirements.

I) Get the source code

Clone the Digigram Github repository :

$ git clone https://github.com/Digigram-audio/pcxhr

Go into the cloned repository, list the available version tags, and check out to the latest one (v2.0.12 at the time of writing) :

$ cd pcxhr
$ git tag
[...]
v2.0.12
$ git checkout v2.0.12

II) Compile the driver

Go into the src/ directory, and compile the driver by simply running make :

$ cd src/
$ make

III) Install and load the driver

The compilation has generated a kernel module : snd-pcxhr.ko. Copy this module to the kernel’s modules directory :

$ sudo mkdir -p /lib/modules/<kernelversion>/kernel/digigram
$ sudo cp snd-pcxhr.ko /lib/modules/<kernelversion>/kernel/digigram

Then run depmod to update the module dependencies :

$ sudo depmod -a

At this point, the driver should automatically be loaded at boot if the card is plugged in. To test right away without a reboot :

$ sudo modprobe snd-pcxhr