Meeblip Geode and Arturia Beatstep Pro weirdness

so today i discovered that the Beatstep Pro (along with other DAW controllers) spit out midi CC when pressing the transport buttons

default settings are

Stop - CC 54

Rec - CC 50

Play - CC 51

all well and good, except the Meeblip Geode uses these

CC 50    Oscillator Detune

CC 51    Filter Cutoff

CC 54    LFO Depth

so, you just need to go into the beatstep utility and change the CC #

symptoms - filter on the synth was changing to value 0 (play button), holding stop would cause the LFO Depth to max *whilst holding*

#tags

controller 54

controller 50

controller 51

keyfax gmedia phatboy midi controller

the device is labelled as manufacture by either keyfax or g.media.

well out of production, the specs are still available on the original site and also backed up on the wayback machine.

specs

http://keyfax.com/keyfax/phatboy/phatspecs.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20210210210819/http://www.keyfax.com/keyfax/phatboy/phatspecs.html

tips

http://keyfax.com/keyfax/phatboy/phatips.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20200220204210/http://www.keyfax.com/keyfax/phatboy/phatips.html

compatibility

http://keyfax.com/keyfax/phatboy/phatcompat.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20210211051522/http://www.keyfax.com/keyfax/phatboy/phatcompat.html

pictures of v1

https://www.matrixsynth.com/2015/12/keyfax-phat-boy-midi-hardware.html?spref=pi

alesis multimix 16 firewire on Sierra and above?

the drivers do not install on more recent macOS versions.

you can disable a particular security setting to allow installation, then the device works correct!

in terminal

csrutil enable --without kext

and reboot

to re-enable

crsutil clear

._.

tips were taken from

https://fr.audiofanzine.com/console-fw-usb-mlan/alesis/MultiMix-16-FireWire/forums/t.604946,multimix-16-firewire-support-for-el-capitan,post.8694566.html

https://www.shoutpedia.com/enable-disable-system-integrity-protection-rootless-mac-os/

bootable USB macOS sierra - not a valid volume mount point

the basic technique of using

/Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia to create a USB installer drive fails with error

"not a valid volume mount point"

Simple work around is to modify one string inside a file inside the macOS Sierra.app

sudo plutil -replace CFBundleShortVersionString -string "12.6.03" /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Info.plist

I did it manually by going into app and opening info.plist with textedit.

.

credit to

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/not-a-valid-volume-mount-point-cant-make-bootable-drive.1935673/page-3?post=28197924#post-28197924

update restore iphone to specific old version of ios

 when you connect the phone to itunes

see window update/restore whatever.

press Option+restore, this lets you choose any ipsw that you have available.

..

OK THAT DIDNT WORK AT ALL LIKE INTENDED .... WILL UPDATE LATER MAYBE

.

thanks to some random post on the internet (i cant find now) for this help.

Dell BIOS update workaround with no battery.

DELL XPS L501X with no Battery running an old BIOS.

tl/dr
extract bios from official release, phlash it from DOS.
...

running the official Bios phlasher fails because I dont have a battery.
error given -144
to sucessfully use the official phlash the laptop needs to be running off AC AND have battery plugged in.

when this fails it does however usefully extract the bios wph file,
in my case to
/USER/AppData/Local/Temp/WinPhlash64/BIOS1.WPH

USER is my username, which will vary on different systems, and you will also need to view hidden files and folders as Local is invisible.

-- now you need a bootable USB-stick to run DOS,
i used RUFUS https://rufus.ie
-- next a DOS version of WinPhlash
i used version 1.7.0.21 https://www.wimsbios.com/phoenixflasher.jsp

-- copy PHLASH16.EXE to the USB drive.
-- copy BIOS1.WPH and rename as BIOS.WPH to USB drive

-- reboot into DOS,
run PHLASH16.EXE

it beeps a lot and loudly, then is finished !!

** dont forget fucking up the BIOS can brick your laptop **

some of this info was supplied by this now deleted blog
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qyhf_0TE20wJ:https://blog.howlin.se/bypassing-error-144-winphlash-on-a-dell-vostro-1520/+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au

virtualising raspberry pi.

seems trick is because pi uses ARM processor, need to use QEMU virtualiser.

the basic requirements are
QEMU
kernel to emulate physical environment
OS img to run



here's a simple download, runs on windows, once downloaded and unzipped, run.bat and bob's your aunties live in lover.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/emulate-raspberry-pi-pc/

longer do it yourself version with outdated versions

https://www.pcsteps.com/1199-raspberry-pi-emulation-for-windows-qemu/





tips. 


change screen resolution for gui.

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Type the following into the file you have just created:-

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

http://web.archive.org/web/20150103125008/http://www.soslug.org/wiki/raspberry_pi_emulation
 

change VM img/HDD size.

qemu-img.exe resize 2015-02-16-raspbian-wheezy.img +10G

when you run the OS, you will then need to "Expand Filesystem" to fill entire image, else you will only have access to the size of the original img
this is done in the Raspberry Pi Software Configuration, which should open on initial boot up, then reboot.
to access configuration

sudo raspi-config

(see
https://www.pcsteps.com/1199-raspberry-pi-emulation-for-windows-qemu/)


change swap size from default 100mb

sudo nano /etc/dphys-swapfile
change to whatever. to restart swap file, can reboot or

sudo /etc/init.d/dphys-swapfile stop
sudo /etc/init.d/dphys-swapfile start

https://www.bitpi.co/2015/02/11/how-to-change-raspberry-pis-swapfile-size-on-rasbian/