MMA with Lemma in Ubuntu Studio 11.04

[walterharold]

I am attempting to use MMA with Lemma as a Gui in Ubuntu Studio 11.04. Lemma is returning an error "Failed to generate midi from MMA" and in the output window "Warning: No RC file was found or processed"

I suspect I do not have my paths configured correctly or need to configure something for MMA to connect to/thru. My paths are set as follows:

Python path: /usr/bin/python
MMA path: /usr/bin/mma
MMA groves path: /usr/share/mma/lib
Midi engine: I have the choice of [External midi player] or [PyGame]...I chose external midi player
External midi player: /usr/bin/timidity

I seem unable to find clear documentation on how to setup MMA or Lemma. I would like to be able to use Jack Audio to connect the output through midi or alsa. Any help or direction is appreciated.

Thanks.

[bvdp]

Not sure what lemma is doing (never used it ... just played a bit and it seems okay). BTW, my GUI is emacs

The "warning no RC file" is a mma generated warming (nothing to do with lemma). It just informs you that you don't have an rc file. Simple to avoid this is:

      cd ~
      touch .mmarc

and that should go away (this is an empty file, but mma doesn't care).

the "Failed to generate midi" looks like a lemma error. And is most likely a path problem.

Just a hint on stuff like this ... make sure the underlying progam (mma) is working, then add in the gui.


I just tried lemma on my system and had a bit of a problem. Seems that after changing the settings you need to quit and restart.

To see where/what the "real" error is you should run lemma from a terminal and the error output will display on the screen. This might be helpful?

Please let us know solution, etc.

Best.

[walterharold]

Okay thanks, that got rid of the "warning no RC file" error.

Now to go for the root. . .MMA.

I enter:
mma-songs-1.7$ mma you-belong-to-me.mma

and in return:
ERROR:<Line 6><File:you-belong-to-me.mma>
    1st char in KeySig must be digit 0..7,  not 'B'

Am I using the right syntax to start playing a song?
Or are there dependencies that need to be installed?

[bvdp]

I think you have a VERY OLD version of MMA?

The current mma is on the MMA website:  http://www.mellowood.ca/mma

The keysig option was changed a very long time ago to permit digits or "proper" symbolic notations. I think that you have the mma song collection from the website but a beta copy of mma.

Try mma -v to check. The current version of mma is: 1.7 (or the developer version 1.7f).

BTW, I have no control over the debian repository. I've tried to have the old beta deleted and/or to update to the current version. Either I'm and idiot or they just don't like me ... and I've stopped wasting my time on the issue.

Hope this helps,

[nileshtrivedi]

I looked for status of mma package in Debiand and found this:

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=481916
http://packages.qa.debian.org/m/mma/news/20100902T163912Z.html
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=595093

mma was removed from Debian (unstable and testing) in September 2010. The sad thing is the reason they gave for removal:

"It's dead upstream, orphaned for a long time and virtually unused according to popcon. Also plenty of replacements exist."

No way that is true. )

Another thing I don't understand is why did Ubuntu 10.10 and 11.04 ship an outdated version of mma if it was already removed from Debian.

[bvdp]

Then entire debian/ubuntu app thing is a total mystery to me.

The fellow who originally packaged MMA moved on to other things. I tried, at the time, to interest someone else. Nothing.

I also tried a number of times to contact someone on the "team" to grant me permission to update the package. No responses.

The best I could do was some arcane path where I'd get accepted to the group after being sponsored by a mentor. Honestly, I did my best effort on this and spent quite a bit of time on trying to do the right thing.

I don't know the cause, but they appear to be a tight/closed group. If they don't want my stuff ... well, that's fine. I'm not losing any sleep over the issue. Frankly, having MMA pulled from the repository is okay if it can't be updated.

I'll stop my rant now

[bvdp]

I should add that if anyone wants to become the mma-debian maintainer they'd get my full support.

[Oren]

Then entire debian/ubuntu app thing is a total mystery to me...
I don't know the cause, but they appear to be a tight/closed group. If they don't want my stuff ... well, that's fine. I'm not losing any sleep over the issue. Frankly, having MMA pulled from the repository is okay if it can't be updated...

Sounds oddly political, Bob, which is a shame.

It seems you give more than enough information to allow a motivated person to compile MMA from your .deb package or tar.gz file.
That's the beauty of Linux - learn the basic skills, and make of it what you want... or am I missing something here?

[folderol]

It's been said, somewhat tounge-in-cheek that debian is the most stable distro with the least stable developers

[bvdp]

Sounds oddly political, Bob, which is a shame.

On my part or theirs? I'm not suggesting at all the "something's up" or anything like that. I just think the whole debian repository thing is some kind of a closed club with mysterious ways to find the secret handshake

 ... and was it W.C.Fields who said something about a club that would accept me as a member ... ??

[Oren]

On my part or theirs?

On their part, of course.

...some kind of a closed club with mysterious ways to find the secret handshake ...

That's basically my definition of politics

[bvdp]

...some kind of a closed club with mysterious ways to find the secret handshake ...[/b]

That's basically my definition of politics

Ha ... good one

I've been a little involved in some local politics and will do it NEVER AGAIN.

I though I was doing the right things. Worked hard, donated my time, did my homework, etc. But, I found that no one gave a tinker's dam about the "right things" ... much more concerned with maintaining the status quo ... and other petty stuff.