broken xawtv
 

Hi all,
When I try to run xawtv I get the following messages displayed on the console and xawtv will not run -

This is xawtv-3.91, running on Linux/i686 (2.6.16)
WARNING: Your X-Server has no DGA support.
can't open /dev/video0: No such file or directory
v4l-conf had some trouble, trying to continue anyway
v4l2: open /dev/video0: No such file or directory
v4l2: open /dev/video0: No such file or directory
v4l: open /dev/video0: No such file or directory
no video grabber device available

So I checked up /dev/ and found no video0 in it.

lsmod gives no output.

I tried to create the device video0 using the mknod command but the device disappears after reboot.

I tried all the methods I could find by googling but to no avail.

Any idea how can this problem be rectified?

I guess you do not have a supported TV card or other video grabbing device (such as a webcam) available in your computer. Xawtv needs one such to be able to display anything at all.

Eric

which TV card are you using? Can you also post the output of lsmod?

He stated "lsmod gives no output."

Eric

aditya,
You have not provided info about which device u r using with XawTv? Have you checked whether that device's required kernel module is loaded bewfore u start xawtv?

xawtv is working fine on PCLinuxOS, which is also installed on my system. Moreover, it was working fine before I had to reinstall Slackware 10.1 after I stupidly corrupted my previous installation.
The TV tuner card is Pinnacle PCTV.


As I already stated lsmod gives no output.

Paragn > It may sound stupid but how do I check whether the required kernel module is loaded or not? I am a die-hard newbie you see. :-)

Aditya,
Which OS r u using to solve this problem on? And r u really not getting any output for lsmod ??

Aditya whats output of lspci also?

i have the same card.
it needs the bttv driver.

you can check if it's loaded with: " dmesg |grep bttv"

if you get no output, check if the module exists with :
" /sbin/modprobe -l |grep bttv "

if it's not there, check if your kernelmodules are installed.
else, check if /etc/rc.d/rc.hotplug is executable.
( i think it should be loaded by hotplug )

egag

Thanks for being patient with me ;-)
I had compiled my kernel as a single monolithic block hence I was not getting any output for lsmod.
I recompiled and here is the output of lsmod -
Module Size Used by
rtc 10332 -
i2c_sis96x 4812 -
i2c_core 16776 -
Currently I am having this problem on Slackware 10.1, kernel 2.6.16.
Egag, dmesg |grep bttv gives no output neither does /sbin/modprobe -l |grep bttv. And yes, /etc/rc.d/rc.hotplug is executable. As for the kernel modules, I don't know which are to be installed, kindly enlighten me as to which specific modules are to be installed.

Eureka.
I finally got it going. The problem was the BT848 was not selected in xconfig while I was compiling the kernel. Having selected it and after recompiling the kernel I am now able to run xawtv.
Thanks to all of you wonderful people for helping me out on this one.

ah..that's fast.
( edit away my setup..... )

can you tell me...is sound working directly for you,
or do you use a cable ?

also, xawtv didn't give me a good picture.
i use "tvtime" which has a smooth image ( at the cost of some cpu time.)

egag

egag, im interested in the sound question too. I have to connect my audio out on the tv card directly to the speakers, which means i can't record sound. Is there anyway to get that sound coming through the sound card and therefore recordable?

xawtv also lacked picture (and color!) quality for me too, but i settled for xdtv. Seems just an extended version of xawtv. Mazaic channels rocks!

hi,

for sound i use a cable from the tv-card-out to the line-in of the soundcard.
( not directly to the speakers ).
you could try that.
i can record sound with that setup.

but for my card( almost 10 years old ) i never had direct sound support.
what card do you have ?

oh...and thanks for th xdtv hint.
the screenshot i saw on their homepage looks great.
gonna try that in a few moments... :)

egag

egag,
I am sorry to say that I had spoken too early. No doubt, xawtv is working but I am unable to change channels. That is, only one channel gets displayed and no matter what you do, it doesn't change. Secondly, no audio.
And yes, I too have to connect the tv-out card to the line of sound card with an external cable, when my Xawtv is working.
Any idea what could be wrong. Any other modules to be installed?