Bt87x - Brooktree Bt878 card not detected in Slackware 10.1 kernel 2.6.16
 

Hi,
I have installed kernel 2.6.10 and 2.6.16. My problem is that though I am able to hear sound in xawtv and other TV applications when I boot into 2.6.10, sound is not heard if I boot into 2.6.16.
When in 2.6.10, the output of
$cat /proc/asound/cards is as follows -
However, the same command produces the following output in 2.6.16 -
For this reason I think I am unable to hear sound in TV applications while in 2.6.16.
My T. V. card is Pinnacle PCTV.
Any suggestions?

What is your output of lsmod?

You may have to modprobe the driver

Here is the output of lsmod

knock, knock !!!

i also have a bttv card, and when i tried the new zenwalk distro the sound was broken...i had image but only noise instead of tv sound.
same happened a while a go with ubuntu
i am starting to think that the kernel support is messed up since 2.6.15

adityavpratap can you compare the output of lsmod with both kernels? Maybe something is missing there.
Did you compiled the kernel yourself? If you did, did you use the oldconfig as base?

Hi gbonvehi,
I have compared the lsmod outputs of the two kernels. Here are they -
Out put of lsmod in kernel 2.6.10 (the kernel in which sound works in xawtv) -
and here is the output of lsmod in kernel 2.6.16.18 (here sound doesn't work in xawtv) -

the only modules extra I can see in the 2.6.10 kernel are joydev, nls_utf8 and evdev. Now which of these are relevant to the context, I do not know. Hope somebody can help me out.

Solved?
 

Dear,

I have a same problem of yours now, and I googled but no success.
I wonder that your problem is solved. If so then please let me out of this...
Here it is my current status - TV Ok, but no sound, ubuntu dapper
and additional information as follows;

# cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [SI7012 ]: ICH - SiS SI7012
SiS SI7012 with ALC850 at 0xe800, irq 58
# lsmod | grep bt
bt878 10552 0
bttv 164304 1 bt878
video_buf 22148 1 bttv
i2c_algo_bit 9608 1 bttv
v4l2_common 6016 1 bttv
btcx_risc 5128 1 bttv
tveeprom 15248 1 bttv
i2c_core 21904 7 i2c_acpi_ec,tuner,msp3400,nvidia,bttv,i2c_algo_bit,tveeprom
videodev 9856 1 bttv

# dmesg | grep bt
[17179587.748000] bttv: driver version 0.9.16 loaded
[17179587.748000] bttv: using 4 buffers with 2080k (520 pages) each for capture
[17179588.040000] bttv: Bt8xx card found (0).
[17179588.040000] bttv0: Bt878 (rev 17) at 0000:00:0a.0, irq: 209, latency: 32, mmio: 0xdfffe000
[17179588.040000] bttv0: using: *** UNKNOWN/GENERIC *** [card=0,insmod option][17179588.040000] bttv0: gpio: en=00000000, out=00000000 in=00ffffff [init]
[17179588.044000] bttv0: using tuner=2
[17179588.044000] bttv0: i2c: checking for MSP34xx @ 0x80... found
[17179588.224000] bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA9875 @ 0xb0... not found
[17179588.224000] bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA7432 @ 0x8a... not found
[17179588.228000] bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA9887 @ 0x86... not found
[17179588.252000] tuner 0-0060: chip found @ 0xc0 (bt878 #0 [sw])
[17179588.284000] bttv0: registered device video0
[17179588.284000] bttv0: registered device vbi0
[17179588.296000] bt878: AUDIO driver version 0.0.0 loaded
[17179588.296000] bt878: Bt878 AUDIO function found (0).
[17179588.296000] bt878(0): Bt878 (rev 17) at 00:0a.1, irq: 209, latency: 32, memory: 0xdffff000


It seems that modules are okay but the something wrong in the link between bt878 sound moudule and alc850. Any suggestion?

Sorry vtsangwon, but the problem is far from solved.
When I want to watch TV (with sound, that is) I log on to kernel 2.6.10. Sound is not working still in 2.6.16.18 :-(

Hi vtsangwon, I finally found a solution to the problem. The solution is after the system boots up, one has to remove the bttv module by
$ sudo /sbin/modprobe -r bttv
it is likely that you may get an error that bttv is in use, if so, try the following -
$ sudo /sbin/modprobe -r bt878 bttv
then reload the modules by
$sudo /sbin/modprobe bt878 bttv
Now audio should play on xawtv.
Hope this solves your problem.
edit -----
sorry, it should be as follows -
$sudo /sbin/modprobe bt878
$sudo /sbin/modprobe bttv card=39 pll=11
you can substitute your card and pll details in place of 39 and 11

Aditya, you're right. I had the problem of audio not working and I had to manually modprobe with the correct chipset as well.

Both in Debian and Slackware, this was the problem. In Gentoo this TV card works perfectly with sound without any problems.

I've found Gentoo's hardware detection to be superior to either hotplug or udev. (I think Gentoo uses "coldplug")

The solution might be to disable hotplug and do all your module loading manually in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules.

lol, Harishankar, it was you who gave me this hint, albeit in Debian forum. Thanks once again, friend!

I remember mentioning this issue. Glad you found it useful. Also please get back on whether this works for you and for others as well. It's something I got through a lot of trial and error.

Thanks adityavpratap and Harishankar. I did what you suggest but no success.

Here is what I did;
$> rmmod bt878 bttv (unload successfully)
$> modprobe bt878 (load ok, but bttv also loaded with default options 'tuner=-1')
$> modprobe bttv card=0 tuner=2 (it can't work because the above already loaded)

I tried to load bttv alone and still no sound with good tv screen.

The suggestion of you seems that 'the sequence of module loading is the key', but under my ubuntu(debian though), I can't even load the bttv module with the proper options after unloading.

Yes, I have a Long~way to go...^^

You are right, though I didn't observer it earlier. bttv gets loaded along with bt878, but I think this time with correct options regarding the card and pll, because even if don't modprobe bttv after bt878, it gets loaded with correct options as the sound problem vanishes in xawtv.
Did you try and see if xawtv is working alright in any other system on your system?
And moreover, are you getting absolutely no sound out of your xawtv, or do you get any noise/hissing sound?
Actually, xawtv was working fine in the vanila flavour of the kernel that comes default with Slackware 10.1 (I think 2.4.29). My problem arose when I compiled new kernel (2.6.16.18).
I want you to try out this as root-
I have not tried Ubuntu, but is it based on Debian?
If so -
# modprobe -r bttv
# modprobe bttv card=39 pll=11 (replace the card and pll options with your values)

that is, do not unload bt878.
Does it say that bttv depends on bt878?

I had this same problem in kernel 2.6.17 on Debian. In debian I don't have to unload bt878, just bttv.