9,999 Problems with Linux
 

Hi everybody!

Ok, prehaps that is somewhat of an overstatement - that is having 9,999 problems with linux. But I do have several problems with some of my hardware. I'm trying here BTW I'm new around here (smiles and waves!). I am kinda at a dead loss to know what to do really.

My main problem is with Mandrake linux on one of my systems (I do have trouble with a travan tape streamer too but I'll leave that for another time).

In that system I have an old ATI All in wonder video card (it can do video capture, and TV out) - it has 8 MB on board memory. I've tried using the GATOS drivers to make the capture side work (the display on the monitor connected to the PC, a 19" SVGA monitor) works fine. But no so for video capture. Firstly am I starting up the driver correctly. I usually do this:

(as root)

modprobe videodev

Then I run (I've already compiled it, it did scucceed in compilng but listed lots of errors) "kv", by following the instructions by typing "make test". If I don't do the modprobe thingy above however the kv driver dosen't work properly and crashes with an error. I'm guessing this has something to do with /dev/video and /dev/video0.

After doing that I then go ahead and run avview (I also had to compile and install tcl and tk - I noticed that when I ran avview it crashed, I had to copy the .so files tcl and tk made into the /lib directory manually). But avview ran and I could watch TV ok. The problems come when I try to do video capture.

Trying to do video captrue in any mode above 1024x768 results in a total system lockup. And I mean total as well - the mouse pointer stops dead, I can't type - the whole thing freezes up. Ironically the only thing that does keep going is the TV display window of avview. If I use lower than 1024x768 avview thinks "kv" isn't loaded for some reason.

Also, I have a problem with ALSA which is needed (I thought mandrake 9.1 installed this and the drivers?!) however I suspect that my SB Live audigy card might not be supported by ALSA. So (and the last thing I've tried) is a complete reinstall and changed the SB card for my old Terratec 16/95 ISA sound card (I'm guessing that will work with ISA). But I've come across another problem - the system hangs at boot when I use it, I get the screen to load up Mandrake but that's as far as it gets.

Can anyone help? Has anyone else had these weird problems? :(

Urg....

:)

SP

(BTW "avview" claimed I had no sound card or couldn't find one while I had the SB Audigy installed). With the old ISA sound card I've tried enabling and disabling "Plug and play os" in the bios but it has no effect :( . I've tried another old ISA sound card too and that did the same thing (BTW I am guessing maybe it's the IDE port on both cards, I don't know how to disable it even if you can).

SP

Strange problems, I understand why your frustrated though. The ALSA problem is pretty wierd, I've never had a problem with sound on linux (but, I have never run linux on a desktop). As far as the ati all in wonder, have you downloaded the ati drivers from their website? I'd definitely check the status of their cards from their site, they added a linux section under the driver tab. Good luck!

Good point, it's worth a try :) I did try the GATOS xfree drivers though! Hmm :)

SP