pcHDTV :: View topic - PC3000 on Slackware -- No Joy Anywhere

smartin

I hope someone can help me figure out where I'm going astray in trying to get my 3000 working. I'm running a Slackware 10.2 system here with the 2.6.13 vanilla kernel. I'm using udev for devices. I've read quite a bit about how to get this card running, and none of it seems to be working for me.

First off, the included drivers simply will not build for me, following the instructions, either under kernel 2.4 or 2.6. When tried under 2.6, I get an error stating that there are too many arguments to pci_save_state. Sure enough, the driver is trying to pass two arguments, but pci_save_state (as defined in the 2.6.13 kernel source) is "int pci_save_state(struct pci_dev *dev);", so that obviously won't work.

I then tried to compile this driver under a 2.4.31 kernel, since pci_save_state( ) is defined as passing one argument in that version. However, I get an error stating that there is "no target for making 'modules'". It seems the "make" process in the driver recurses back into its own source tree, where it tries to run "make modules" and bombs.

Finally, I thought I'd try just using the (allegedly) built-in drivers for this card under 2.6.13. I configured the BT848 driver as a module, configured DVB and DVB_CORE both as modules, as well as the following frontend configs:

CONFIG_DVB_OR51132=m
# CONFIG_DVB_BCM3510 is not set
# CONFIG_DVB_LGDT330X is not set
CONFIG_VIDEO_TUNER=m
CONFIG_VIDEO_BUF=m
CONFIG_VIDEO_BTCX=m
CONFIG_VIDEO_IR=m
CONFIG_VIDEO_TVEEPROM=m

This builds and loads, and I can modprobe the or51132 module (which loads firmware_class and dvb_pll), but I don't get any /dev/dvb devices nor do I even get a /dev/dvb directory.

Further research showed that I apparently need to upload firmware. I downloaded the firmware as described on this site, put it in /lib/firmware, made sure this directory was referenced in /etc/hotplug/firmware.agent, but I can't for the life of me figure out how actually to get the upload to happen.

lspci shows this card being found as:

06:01.0 Multimedia video controller: Conexant CX23880/1/2/3 PCI Video and Audio Decoder (rev 05)
06:01.2 Multimedia controller: Conexant CX23880/1/2/3 PCI Video and Audio Decoder [MPEG Port] (rev 05)

so I know the hardware is being seen by the mobo.

One other thing that kind of puzzles me: when I try to configure for a CX88 and CX88_DVB driver, I cannot find that driver in the list of possibles in the kernel configuration process, nor does it show up as being on or off in the .config file, and the driver Makefile in drivers/media/video/cx88 doesn't seem even to have targets for building the driver from the source. I finally manually edited .config to insert the appropriate entries for this driver, thinking it would magically pick it up and build it, but no joy, no CX88 driver.

It seems most of the support for this card is geared towards Red Hat / Fedora users, and (as I indicated) I'm a Slackware user, so I'm struggling mightily here. Any help would be appreciated. I'd really like to get this card working, as I am the assistant chief engineer of our local ABC affiliate, and I'd like to monitor what we're transmitting!

TheCaptain

The module that you need to make sure you are building is the cx88_dvb module.

You can find this in the kernel config at the following location:
Device Drivers->Multimedia Devices->Video For Linux

You will need to make sure you have "Conexant 2388x (bt878 succerror) support" and "DVB Support for cx2388x based TV cards" selected.

In the config file it is the following lines:
CONFIG_VIDEO_CX88=m
CONFIG_VIDEO_CX88_DVB=m

Then to load the modules you will just have to load cx88_dvb and it should load all the other modules that you need.

smartin

Okay, now I'm beginning to wonder if I'm just stupid. There is no entry for this in my kernel source. It's the 2.6.13 kernel tree included with Slackware 10.2, which is supposed to be a straight vanilla kernel tree as downloaded from www.kernel.org. Just for fun, I downloaded a 2.6.14 tree from www.kernel.org, unpacked it, and ran "make menuconfig" on it, and this option doesn't appear there either! Which kernel are you using when you see this cx88_dvb device?

smartin

Ok, I have determined that I'm not stupid, just missing a vital piece of information.

In order for the CX88 driver to show up in "make menuconfig", one first has to turn on "Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers (EXPERIMENTAL)". Since I had never had the penchant for diddling with experimental drivers in my kernels, I've never turned that on, so it never occurred to me to turn that on in this case.

I'll try this and advise. Thanks!

smartin

Wahoo! After compiling my test kernel (and some minor udev magic), I now have four device files under /dev/dvb/adapter0! I did have to go out and find a copy of the missing dvb.sh file to put under /etc/udev/scripts, but once I did that, everything fell into place.

Onward and upward to xine-hd!

pcHDTV_tech

Don't go to xine-hd!!!

Get the latest xine from xine-hq.de, then get the dvb-atsc-tools from the pcHDTV website. In there there is a file called atscpatch. Follow the instructions in the README file to patch the latest xine to work with DVB(ATSC) support.

That will work better with less hassle/headache!

Rusty

smartin

Rusty, will doing what you suggest patch xine so that it can watch HD? Since we're broadcasting two digital streams (one standard resolution and one 720p), I'd like to be able to look at both.

By the way, I am pleased to report that, with some more research, I have now confirmed that my card is seeing and decoding both our broadcast services. All that lacks is getting the PES's decoded and onto the screen (and speakers). I'm thinking I'm going to put together some sort of a step-by-step document for Slackware users to possibly save someone the frustration I've gone through.

pcHDTV_tech

Yes, patching Xine will allow you to watch whatever resolution is being transmitted (including HD resolutions). (As long as your hardware can display it, that is Smile

)

Rusty

smartin

Wahoo! I'm now able to watch our local stations in HD using the 3000 card. Success!

Wangolde

maybe...