One of the new hardware drivers expected to appear in the Linux 6.18 kernel later this year is the “us144mkii” USB sound driver for supporting the TASCAM US-144MKII USB audio interface.
The TASCAM US-144MKII is a 4-channel USB audio interface designed for use with Microsoft Windows and macOS. It has since been discontinued by the manufacturer but is still sold on the likes of Amazon (affiliate link) for $99 or less. Finally now in 2025 there is this open-source driver created by a passionate user to get this USB audio interface working on Linux.
Šerif Rami developed this new driver for the TASCAM US-144MKII USB audio/MIDI interface. This patch was picked up by the sound subsystem’s “for-next” Git branch for establishing the new driver’s foundation. That was followed by other patches for this new us144mkii to implement audio playback and feedback, audio capture and decoding, MIDI support and mixer controls, and other functionality to get this driver into working shape.
With this TASCAM US-144MKII driver making it into the sound subsystem’s “for-next” branch, it’s expected to be submitted for the Linux 6.18 kernel cycle later in the year.
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