ALSA Driver for TASCAM US-144MKII

An unofficial ALSA kernel module for the TASCAM US-144MKII USB audio interface.

📢 Project Status

✅ Upstreamed — This driver has been merged into the sound/for-next branch for inclusion in an upcoming Linux kernel release.

✅ Implemented Features

• Audio Playback:
• Audio Capture (Recording):
• MIDI IN/OUT:

📝 To-Do & Known Limitations

• Find Bugs, if possible improve performance/stablity
• *MIDI IN/OUT works only in active audio streaming(DAW ALSA/JACK or browser audio)
• Non MKII US-144 needs testing to see if the driver will work with it.

Installation and Usage

This is an out-of-tree kernel module, meaning you must compile it against the headers for your specific kernel version.

Step 1: Blacklist the Stock snd-usb-us122l Driver

The standard kernel includes a driver that will conflict with our custom module. You must prevent it from loading.

Follow the steps to blacklist it if lsmod | grep snd_usb_us122l returns results.

1. Create a blacklist file. This tells the system not to load the snd-usb-us122l module.

   echo "blacklist snd_usb_us122l" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-us122l.conf
   

2. Rebuild your initramfs. This is a critical step that ensures the blacklist is applied at the very start of the boot process, before the stock driver has a chance to load. Run the command corresponding to your distribution:
   • Debian / Ubuntu / Pop!_OS / Mint:

     sudo update-initramfs -u
     

   • Fedora / RHEL / CentOS Stream:

     sudo dracut --force
     

   • Arch Linux / Manjaro:

     sudo mkinitcpio -P
     

   • openSUSE:

     sudo mkinitrd
     

3. Reboot your computer. Reboot the system and check with lsmod | grep snd_usb_us122l again if there is no output the blacklisting is complete.

Note on a More Aggressive Method: If the method above does not work, some systems (like Arch) may load the conflicting module before the blacklist is processed. A more forceful method is to use a udev rule to de-authorize the device for the kernel entirely, preventing any driver from binding to it automatically.

Create the file /etc/udev/rules.d/99-tascam-blacklist.rules and add the following line. This targets the Tascam US-122L/144MKII series product ID (8007).

ATTR{idVendor}=="0644", ATTR{idProduct}=="8007", ATTR{authorized}="0"

After saving, run sudo udevadm control --reload and reboot. Note that with this rule in place, you will likely need to load the us144mkii driver manually with sudo insmod snd-usb-us144mkii.ko each time. The modprobe method is preferred for automatic loading.

Step 2: Install Prerequisites (Kernel Headers & Build Tools)

You need the necessary tools to compile kernel modules and the headers for your currently running kernel. Open a terminal and run the command for your Linux distribution:

*You can attempt build without installing linux headers package first, if you are unable to build then you would need to!

• Debian / Ubuntu / Pop!_OS / Mint:

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)
  

• Fedora / CentOS Stream / RHEL:

  sudo dnf install kernel-devel kernel-headers make gcc
  

• Arch Linux / Manjaro:

  sudo pacman -S base-devel linux-headers
  

• openSUSE:

  sudo zypper install -t pattern devel_basis
  sudo zypper install kernel-devel
  

Step 3: Compile and Load the Driver

This process will build the module from source and load it for your current session. This is the best way to test it.

1. Clone this repository and navigate into the source directory.

git clone https://github.com/serifpersia/us144mkii.git
cd us144mkii/

2. Compile the module:

   make
   

3. Load the compiled module into the kernel:

   sudo insmod snd-usb-us144mkii.ko
   

4. Connect your TASCAM US-144MKII. Verify that the driver loaded and the audio card is recognized by the system:

   # Check if the kernel module is loaded
   lsmod | grep us144mkii
   
   # Check if ALSA sees the new sound card
   aplay -l
   

   The first command should show us144mkii. The second command should list your "TASCAM US-144MKII" as an available playback device. You should now be able to select it in your audio settings and play sound.

Step 4: Install for Automatic Loading on Boot

To make the driver load automatically every time you start your computer, follow these steps after you have successfully compiled it in Step 3.

You can use build_install script to do automate this process just sudo chmod +x build_install.sh before you run it with ./build_install.sh or just do it the manual way.

1. Copy the compiled module to the kernel's extra modules directory. This makes it available to system tools.

   sudo mkdir -p /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra/us144mkii
   sudo cp snd-usb-us144mkii.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra/us144mkii
   

2. Update module dependencies. This command rebuilds the map of modules so the kernel knows about our new driver.

   sudo depmod -a
   

Now, after a reboot, the us144mkii driver should load automatically.

Tascam Control Panel

A control panel app built with Qt6 and ALSA.

Get it from releases or build it. If you are on Arch Linux or an Arch-based distribution, you can install the package directly from the AUR:

paru -S tascam-control-panel-git

or if you are using yay:

yay -S tascam-control-panel-git

Prerequisites

Before building the application, ensure you have the following installed on your system:

• CMake (version 3.16 or higher)
• C++ Compiler (supporting C++17, e.g., GCC/G++)
• Qt6 Development Libraries (specifically the Widgets module)
• ALSA Development Libraries
• Make (or Ninja)

Installation of Prerequisites by Distribution

Debian/Ubuntu

sudo apt update sudo apt install cmake build-essential qt6-base-dev qt6-base-dev-tools libasound2-dev

Fedora/RHEL/CentOS

sudo dnf install cmake "Development Tools" qt6-qtbase-devel alsa-lib-devel

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -Syu

sudo pacman -S cmake base-devel qt6-base alsa-lib

openSUSE

sudo zypper install cmake gcc-c++ libqt6-qtbase-devel alsa-devel

Building the Application

Follow these steps to build the TascamControlPanel application from source:

1. Clone the repository (if you haven't already):

   git clone https://github.com/serifpersia/us144mkii.git

   cd tascam_controls/

2. Create a build directory and navigate into it:

   mkdir build cd build

3. Configure the project with CMake:

   cmake ..

   This step will check for all necessary dependencies and generate the build files.

4. Build the application:

   make -j$(nproc)

   This command compiles the source code. The -j$(nproc) option uses all available CPU cores to speed up the compilation process.

Running the Application

After a successful build, the executable will be located in the build directory.

./TascamControlPanel

Cleaning the Build

To remove all compiled files and intermediate artifacts, simply delete the build directory:

cd .. rm -rf build

Reporting Issues & Feedback

If you test this driver, please share your feedback to help improve it. Include:

• Linux distro and version
• Kernel version (uname -r)
• Exact TASCAM model
• How you installed and loaded the driver
• Any errors or problems (logs help)
• Which features worked (playback, capture, MIDI)
• Your setup details (e.g., DAW, ALSA/JACK version, buffer/periods used)

All feedback is welcome—whether it’s a bug, a success, or a suggestion!

Please report your findings via the GitHub Issues page.

License

This project is licensed under the GPL-2.0 see the LICENSE file for details.