Install and run MIDI soft synth in Wine

[uckjhfrv]

I like to play MIDI music on my computer, and for years I've done this on a Windows (2K) box using a Yamaha S-YXG50 soft synth. Now that I've migrated to Linux, I still want to play MIDI songs. I've tried FluidSynth and many soundfonts, but nothing sounds as good as the S-YXG50.

I've installed the S-YXG50 and XG Player, and XG Player works, but I get no sound. It seems the soft synth is not working on Wine somehow. On Windows, in control panel, in sounds and multimedia applet, audio tab, MIDI music playback, it lists two devices: "Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth" and "YAMAHA SXG Driver". On Wine, I imported the sounds and multimedia applet, but it only shows "Midi Through Port-0".

I went through the registry on the windows box and compared it to the registry in wine and added any keys and values I found that are related to the soft synth, and also compared files in the systemroot/system32 folder. The soft synth installs several dll files and one sys file: Sxgbvswp.sys. I don't know how the Microsoft or the Yamaha soft synths install or work on windows and I don't know what else to check. If anyone would like to experiment with it one can get the S-YXG50 soft synth here: http://web.archive.org/web/200302080056 ... syg50a.htm. It may not be possible to use this soft synth in wine but I sure hope it can be done.

[uckjhfrv]

I think the root of the problem could be sxgbvswp.sys. It's declared in the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\sxgbvswp. Can wine run it as a service? I tried executing the program directly, but then wine said sxgbvswp.sys has encountered a serious problem and needs to close; the backtrace starts with Unhandled exception: page fault on read access to 0x00000000 in 32-bit code (0x00000000).

[dimesio]

Windows hardware drivers can't be used in Wine.

[uckjhfrv]

Well it's not a hardware device driver because it's a soft synthesizer like FluidSynth. It just generates an audio bitstream that needs to be directed to sound hardware and is hardware agnostic. The S-YXG50 installs like a service or a printer driver and then it shows up in the control panel. It might be a software driver, in which case it might run in kernel mode rather than user mode and if so then I think that is why it wouldn't work in Wine, but I'm unsure. Another possibility is that it might work the same way as the Microsoft GS soft synth that came with older versions of Windows. So in that case I would ask is it possible for the Microsoft GS soft synth to work in Wine?

[dimesio]

According to http://systemexplorer.net/file-database ... s/11569590 sxgbvswp.sys is a kernel mode driver. It won't work in Wine.

There's nothing in the AppDB about Microsoft GS Soft Synth. Try it and find out.

[uckjhfrv]

I don't know how to try the MS GS synth since it is part of Windows and has no installer of its own.

I have a different version of the S-YXG50 soft synth that uses sxgxgwdm.sys instead of sxgbvswp.sys. The systemexplorer.net website you mentioned says the sxgxgwdm.sys is a WDM driver. Could that work in Wine?

[dimesio]

According to https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... 85%29.aspx, WDM drivers are kernel mode drivers.