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Having trouble installing a piece of hardware? Want to know if that peripheral is compatible with Linux?
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I haven't done this myself, but have looked at getting one of these cards.There are plenty of reports of success: the main site for drivers and information is
also contain lots of useful information. But I don't know how easy the process of compiling and configuring the necessary drivers would be for a beginner. You could have a go and try asking again if you get into trouble.
Could anyone give me some simple steps to get it installed? I don't want to ruin my Linux install you see, and this recompiling of the kernel doesn't sound to safe!
I guess you first have to figure out if your current install has the dvb drivers, and if your card is detected. I don't know how Fedora handles hardware detection. Can you just plug the card in and run some sort of wizard? If the card is detected it should appear in the boot log, which you can see by running the 'dmesg' command.
You can also look for dvb related applications using 'ls -l /usr/bin/dvb*'.
Assuming this goes OK you should be able to use some basic apps, like 'xawtv', to tune in and watch TV.
If not, and you don't want to get into compiling kernels or drivers, you could also try a recent live CD, e.g. medialinux (http://www.opensourcelab.it, based on Knoppix), or if you wait a few weeks you should be able to get Knoppix 3.4 with the 2.6 kernel.
I have no idea if these will work with the card, but if you have the bandwidth it might be worth a try. Another good summary of what you want is at
[root@Arnold build-2.4]# make
[ -L saa7146_video.c ] || ./getlinks
make -C /lib/modules/2.4.22-1.2166.nptl/build CC="gcc -I/root/linuxtv-dvb-1.1.0/build-2.4/include" SUBDIRS=/root/linuxtv-dvb-1.1.0/build-2.4 modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.4.22-1.2166.nptl'
The present kernel configuration has modules disabled.
Type 'make config' and enable loadable module support.
Then build a kernel with module support enabled.
If your distro does not already supply a dvb driver, it looks like you need to build a new kernel. Even if you can build a driver module, this seems to be telling you that your existing kernel will not be able to use it.
The full answer to that is very long and depends on the distribution you are using. The main steps are
1. Download and unpack the kernel source code.
2. For some things you may have to modify that code by adding patches.
3. Configure the kernel - choose what you want built-in, what modules you want to have available.
4. Compile the kernel.
5. Set up the system to boot the new kernel.
Some distros try to simplify this by supplying the kernel source in preconfigured packages, but at least in my experience, things can still go wrong.
So if you want to get into this, you should look around for tutorials on compiling the kernel for your particular distro. Once you have successfully compiled and installed a new kernel you can have another look at bleeding edge stuff like DVB drivers.
I haven't read the DVB driver docs in enough detail to know exactly what you need to do. With a popular distro it is also possible that someone has already done everything you need -- google around on relevant keywords. Sorry to be vague, but dealing with new hardware is always a problem with linux, since manufacturers do not generally provide support.
Hello again. Coincidentally I also recently upgraded to the 2.6.3 kernel. The good news is that this kernel seems to come with the DVB driver. Well the Debian version does anyway - sometimes that has extra patches installed. Anyway when you 'make menuconfig' or whatever you have to make sure the DVB features are enabled. To be safe you can build most in to the kernel, but some drivers seem to be only available as modules. In particular make sure you have a driver for your card.
See also the docs directory Documentation/dvb in the 2.6.3 kernel tree.
When you start up with the new kernel it should find your card (check output of 'dmesg' command). If it's there with no errors you should be ready to go.
I would like of these cards, but haven't had time to arrange an antenna yet. So please report success or failure.
When you said you had 2.6.3 installed I thought you had already compiled it. Does this mean you just have the source code? If possible you should start off with kernel source configured for your present setup, like from a Fedora 2.6.3 source RPM (if such things exist).
You just need to run an application that makes use of it. One of the oldest and most established is xawtv. Just run it off the command line.
The switch to the 2.6 kernel also involved a pretty major upgrade of the linux video interface, and I am not sure older versions of video applications are compatible. But it should be easy to find updated versions of popular programs like xawtv.
Maybe check out http://www.linuxtv.org again for further suggestions of apps and utilities.
Edit: just fixed that URL above.
Last edited by maroonbaboon; 03-09-2004 at 08:01 PM.
Ok when i try to run the SCAN program i get this error:
[root@Arnold scan]# ./scan dvb-t/uk-Plympton > channels.conf
scanning dvb-t/uk-Plympton
using '/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0' and '/dev/dvb/adapter0/demux0'
main:1882: FATAL: failed to open '/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0': 2 No such file or directory
Any ideas on what is going on? Also i don't have a /dev/dvb folder?!
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it's found it, no idea what to do now though!
