Squeak 3.8 #6665, Debian etch/sid, alsa

I can't seem to get Midi to work. I tried:
	MidiPrimTester new getDriverParameters
	MidiPrimTester new getPortList
but both give me 'a primitive has failed'

And
	SimpleMIDIPort primPortCount
returns 0

Midi is basically working on my box
martin at beaureve:~$ aplaymidi -l
 Port    Client name                      Port name
 24:0    ESS ES1938 (Solo-1) MIDI         ESS ES1938 (Solo-1) MIDI
 25:0    OPL3 FM synth                    OPL3 FM Port

It is a stock vm from squeak.org. I am not sure if I need an extra shared 
library, but I doubt it as "strings squeak | grep -i midi" gives me

sqMIDIOpenPort
sqMIDIParameterGet
sqMIDIPortWriteFromAt
sqMIDIPortReadInto
sqMIDIGetPortName
serialPortMidiClockRate
sqMIDIGetClock
midiShutdown
MIDIPlugin_exports
sqMIDIClosePort
sqMIDIGetPortDirectionality
midiInit
sqMIDIParameterSet
sqMIDIParameter
sqMIDIGetPortCount
MIDIPlugin
primitiveMIDIClosePort
primitiveMIDIGetClock
primitiveMIDIGetPortCount
primitiveMIDIGetPortName
primitiveMIDIOpenPort
primitiveMIDIRead
primitiveMIDIWrite
primitiveMIDIGetPortDirectionality
primitiveMIDIParameterGetOrSet
MIDIPlugin 19 March 2005 (i)
primitiveMIDIParameterSet
primitiveMIDIParameterGet

Am I missing something obvious ?