missing /dev/video0
 

I am using Mandrake 10.0, kernel 2.6.3-19mdkcustom. Just compiled my first kernel today. I have been trying to get usb video capture working for over a month. I tried dazzle fusion, dvd express and now am trying to get wintv-pvr-usb2 working. I cannot find drivers for any of these and have a more basic problem===There is no /dev/video0 in my system and I do not know how to add one. I have a /dev/video in the /dev dir but cannot add /video0. Is the /video0 device added when a module is loaded or when a driver is compiled. I tried to compile the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-usb2 driver by Björn Danielsson but it failed.

Please help.

/dev/video is usually a symlink to video0. Try doing an ls -la and see if it points to something. Also since you are using a usb video capture device it could be located under /dev/usb.

I tried your ls -la and don't know what it means.

[dan@localhost dan]$ ls -la /dev/video
crw------- 1 dan video 81, 0 Nov 30 22:29 /dev/video
[dan@localhost dan]$ ls -la /dev/video0
ls: /dev/video0: No such file or directory

When I run xawtv -hwscan I get:

This is xawtv-3.93, running on Linux/i686 (2.6.3-19mdkcustom)
looking for available devices
port 60-60
type : Xvideo, image scaler
name : Intel(R) 830M/845G/852GM/855GM/865G Video Overlay

But when I run xawtv I get:

This is xawtv-3.93, running on Linux/i686 (2.6.3-19mdkcustom)
can't open /dev/v4l/video0: No such file or directory
v4l-conf had some trouble, trying to continue anyway
v4l2: open /dev/v4l/video0: No such file or directory
v4l2: open /dev/v4l/video0: No such file or directory
v4l: open /dev/v4l/video0: No such file or directory
no video grabber device available

Try running "xawtv -c /dev/video" and report back the results.

This is the result of xawtv -c /dev/video :

[dan@localhost dan]$ xawtv -c /dev/video
This is xawtv-3.93, running on Linux/i686 (2.6.3-19mdkcustom)
can't open /dev/video: No such device
v4l-conf had some trouble, trying to continue anyway
v4l2: open /dev/video: No such device
v4l2: open /dev/video: No such device
v4l: open /dev/video: No such device
no video grabber device available

Take a look at http://justiceforall.free.fr/pvrusb2.html where there is information about a driver for this device.

Thanks. I have downloaded this driver and tried to compile it but ran into problems. That will be the subject of another post I suppose. I am just curious as to how the video0 device is generated and don't know where to ask. I have spent numerous hours reading and googling and still am not there.

Thanks again.

If you're talking about the /dev/video* files, I don't recall where they were created - I'm fairly sure I had to create them manually at some point. You still need a device driver to get anywhere though, what problems did you have with the device driver?

I ran "make' on the untarred driver files and the code broke with ;

make -C /lib/modules/2.6.3-19mdkcustom/build SUBDIRS=/home/dan/tarstuff/pvrusb2/pvrusb2-dev-07112004 modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.3-19mdk'
/usr/src/linux-2.6.3-19mdk/Makefile:395: .config: No such file or directory

The present kernel configuration has modules disabled.
Type 'make config' and enable loadable module support.
Then build a kernel with module support enabled.

make[2]: *** [modules] Error 1
make[1]: *** [modules] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.3-19mdk'
make: *** [default] Error 2

I then recompiled the kerner and I think I enabled loadable modules. I used "make menuconfig' and I suppose I selected the correct menu items. When I reran 'make' on the driver I got the same errors. I have sent an email to the driver developer (Aurelien Alleaume) last night and am waiting for advice.

Looks like you may have had a problem building your kernel, I've written a document about building
your own kernel which can be read at http://www.minnesund.net/linux/kernel_build.txt
Once you're confident in building a new kernel then we can look at building the modules for this tv capture card.

Thanks for the input. I followed the readme file in the kernel source, after downloading the mandrake source. The mandrake control console does all the urpmi functions and untars the source to a /usr/src/ver_no dir. I did not know how to get it to a "home' dir so I did a make menuconfig, selected options, make, make modules, make modules_install, make install then also make bzimage, and make bzdisk for a bootable floppy. All completed without error and it booted from floppy and hd. I had to go to the mcc to point the previous kernel to config.old, but now both versions of the kernel boot. Oh yes, I did a make mrproper on the /usr/src/ver_no dir prior to starting. and did a make clean afterwards. Yes I do have a .config file. I think the driver developers compile (makefile?) or something maybe even his c code has a problem.

If I don't get this going soon I will probably just put it on hold until spring, what with Christmas, New Year and all coming up. and come Jan I am heading for the Gulf Coast and warm weather since I'm retired and can run from the cold.

Rockets,

Try this. It worked for me. Create a group called "video" first.

> rm /dev/video /dev/video0
> mknod /dev/video0 c 81 0
> chmod 666 /dev/video0
> chgrp video /dev/video0
> ln -s /dev/video0 /dev/video