Dear maintainers, Linux is being ridiculed in the professional audio community — not because it can't do low-latency audio, but because the ALSA FireWire stack actively breaks it. Professional gear costing thousands of dollars like Motu RME Focusrite etc. etc. Since kernel 5.16+, FireWire audio devices are correctly detected and functional — but they are burdened with an artificial +90ms latency offset due to missing timing metadata (e.g., cycle-match delay, transmission latency) in the driver's interface to userspace. PipeWire and WirePlumber rely on accurate latency reporting. When it's missing, they fall back to worst-case assumptions — adding ~90ms of delay. This is NOT a PipeWire bug. It is a FAILURE of the ALSA FireWire drivers to expose timing data that the hardware and firmware already provide. This bug: - Renders high-end interfaces (RME, Focusrite, Tascam, Motu, Terratec) unusable for real-time monitoring - Forces users to hack WirePlumber with hardcoded quantum rules - Damages Linux's credibility in music production - Makes Linux a JOKE in studios worldwide There is NO excuse for this in 2025. We have workarounds (see: https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=274978), but they are fragile, device-specific, and do not scale. We demand: 1. Immediate exposure of accurate device latency via ALSA control or hwdep interface 2. Proper reporting of transmission/cycle delay to userspace 3. A timeline for fixing this in mainline This is not a "nice-to-have". It is a **critical defect** in a core multimedia subsystem now using pipewire as standard. Linux can and must do better. Many are waiting to move to Linux, finally leaving windows. — Martin Armsby (Martin A - maa) Professional Audio Producer / Linux Advocate Please see: Imagine if Linux Audio just worked - Firewire <https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=302305> and <https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/issues/4785> Thank you for reading. -- Martin Armsby -- Martin Armsby
