Me: #Linux is great at still supporting old hardware.
Also me: Plugs in his #RME #Fireface400 and runs the fact that #ffadomixer doesn't work no more.
(Yes, I did start FFADO DBus manually, didn't help.)
(The device has an #ALSA kernel driver by now which sort of works, so no #ffado backend to #jack needed… but you can't even adjust the gains of the preamps without ffado-mixer.)
(Usually I use this thing with macOS because… well because… *sigh*)
@nielso I didn't manage to get FFADO working at all, so I also have to rely on ALSA, when using it.
Hope things magically solves it selves for you!
My Firewire Interfaces have been discontinued years ago, so no Mac option for me.
I'm using a MacBook Pro 2017 simply for the reason of #RME #TotalMix. The software I use on #macOS is basically identical to what I use on Linux, it's called #Ardour. 
I don't do mixdown on that old MacBook. It's just my high-quality recording setup with the Fireface 400. There is neither budget nor a proper reason to change this. The preamps/converters of the old Fireface things are still very good.
Of course, a MacBook Pro 2017 is beyond dead for #Apple fan persons.
Concerning #FFADO, it turns out to be a permission problem.
I can
sudo ffado-dbus-server
and then
sudo ffado-mixer
And I can do stuff. Of course, for everyday use, one should configure this to work as normal (non-root) user.
When I tried back in the day with Jack and the ffado-backend to Jack, the Fireface 400 worked reliably on #Linux, but with the #ALSA drivers I'm not so sure. I had hickups and strangely it didn't sound right. But also not wrong. Or maybe my hearing got twisted on the ffado rage…
@nielso makes sense, I could have wanted to keep an older working system, but I always upgraded to something different.
Perhaps we should ask @fortifieduniverse if there is any chance the mixer project, could work with firewire interfaces over ALSA one day?
Thing is, using the Fireface400 on Linux is really just a fallback for me.
Because ffado-mixer is just a PITA. Sorry to the diligent folks who made it, but… TotalMix is so much better. I'm afraid I must claim: TotalMix is usable, ffado-mixer is barely usable. If you really need to do monitor mixing in the RME device.
This is working via an adapter chain from Firewire 400/800 to Thunderbolt 2, and then to Thunderbolt 3, and rumor has it that with Thunerbolt 4, vendors have killed Thunderbolt 2 support anyways.
For middle-aged RME Firewire devices, there's https://framagit.org/jean-emmanuel/fireface-control
And for the Fireface UCX II, there's oscmix – https://github.com/michaelforney/oscmix
My revenue from recording this year will likely be below the price of a Fireface UCX II.
Spotify have killed recording as a business for me. So I'm killing RME by not buying their new gear. 
@nielso @fortifieduniverse I’m asking Michael, because he has this really cool project going of making a Session Mixer, which now runs his Focusrite, but eventually could run other audio interfaces too.
Check it out here:
Yeah I think Sessionmixer is what could work with this Focusrite Vocaster I bought for my wife. Great project!
Thing is… many mix frontends work by accessing the hardware mixer via the ALSA mixer interface. There once also was a mixer frontend for my old Focusrite 18i8 working this way.
The RME Fireface400/800 kernel drivers do not expose hardware control via the ALSA mixer interface.
ffado-mixer accesses these devices via Firewire directly.
