i have an AVerMedia TV card that worked in mandrake or knoppix but i can't get it to work with ubuntu


this is the output for lsmod:

Module Size Used by
proc_intf 3968 0
freq_table 4356 0
cpufreq_userspace 5336 0
cpufreq_powersave 2048 0
button 6936 0
ac 5132 0
battery 9740 0
ipv6 230020 8
af_packet 20872 2
snd_ens1371 23012 3
snd_rawmidi 23232 1 snd_ens1371
snd_seq_device 7944 1 snd_rawmidi
snd_ac97_codec 59268 1 snd_ens1371
gameport 4736 1 snd_ens1371
8139too 23936 0
8139cp 19072 0
snd_bt87x 13640 0
snd_pcm_oss 48168 0
snd_mixer_oss 16640 3 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 85540 3 snd_ens1371,snd_bt87x,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer 23172 1 snd_pcm
snd 50660 11 snd_ens1371,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_ac97 _codec,snd_bt87x,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm ,snd_timer
snd_page_alloc 11144 2 snd_bt87x,snd_pcm
bt878 11184 0
tuner 18448 0
tvaudio 20620 0
bttv 143020 1 bt878
video_buf 20356 1 bttv
i2c_algo_bit 8968 1 bttv
v4l2_common 6400 1 bttv
btcx_risc 4744 1 bttv
i2c_core 22416 4 tuner,tvaudio,bttv,i2c_algo_bit
videodev 9856 1 bttv
soundcore 9824 4 snd,bttv
stir4200 13700 0
irda 167360 1 stir4200
crc_ccitt 2432 1 irda
uhci_hcd 29328 0
pci_hotplug 30640 0
amd_k7_agp 7692 1
agpgart 31784 1 amd_k7_agp
floppy 54996 0
pcspkr 3816 0
rtc 12216 0
nls_iso8859_1 4352 1
nls_cp437 6016 1
vfat 13312 1
fat 41792 1 vfat
md 44744 0
dm_mod 51068 1
capability 4872 0
commoncap 7168 1 capability
usbnet 25352 0
usbcore 104292 5 stir4200,uhci_hcd,usbnet
mii 4864 3 8139too,8139cp,usbnet
crc32 4608 4 8139too,8139cp,stir4200,usbnet
parport_pc 32064 1
lp 10436 0
parport 37320 2 parport_pc,lp
ide_cd 38276 0
cdrom 35872 1 ide_cd
tsdev 7168 0
evdev 9088 0
mousedev 10124 1
psmouse 17800 0
ext3 109544 1
jbd 54552 1 ext3
ide_generic 1664 0
via82cxxx 13084 1
pdc202xx_old 15516 1
ide_disk 16768 4
ide_core 125272 5 ide_cd,ide_generic,via82cxxx,pdc202xx_old,ide_di sk
unix 25904 668
fan 4236 0
thermal 13200 0
processor 17712 1 thermal
font 8576 0
vesafb 6688 0
cfbcopyarea 3968 1 vesafb
cfbimgblt 3200 1 vesafb
cfbfillrect 3712 1 vesafb





and this one the output for lspci

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-760 [IGD4-1P] System Controller (rev 13)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-760 [IGD4-1P] AGP Bridge
0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] (rev 40)
0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 16)
0000:00:07.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 16)
0000:00:07.4 SMBus: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI] (rev 40)
0000:00:09.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV4 [RIVA TNT] (rev 04)
0000:00:0a.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture (rev 11)
0000:00:0a.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture (rev 11)
0000:00:0d.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
0000:00:0e.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq 5880 AudioPCI (rev 03)
0000:00:10.0 Unknown mass storage controller: Promise Technology, Inc. 20265 (rev 02)




and dmesg

Linux video capture interface: v1.00
bttv: driver version 0.9.15 loaded
bttv: using 8 buffers with 2080k (520 pages) each for capture
bttv: Bt8xx card found (0).
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:0a.0[A] -> GSI 5 (level, low) -> IRQ 5
bttv0: Bt878 (rev 17) at 0000:00:0a.0, irq: 5, latency: 32, mmio: 0xd7020000
bttv0: detected: AVerMedia TVCapture 98 [card=13], PCI subsystem ID is 1461:0004
bttv0: using: AVerMedia TVCapture 98 [card=13,autodetected]
bttv0: gpio: en=00000000, out=00000000 in=00847ff3 [init]
bttv0: Hauppauge/Voodoo msp34xx: reset line init [11]
bttv0: Avermedia eeprom[0x0afc]: tuner=Unknown type radio:yes remote control:no
bttv0: using tuner=5
bttv0: i2c: checking for MSP34xx @ 0x80... not found
bttv0: i2c: checking for MSP34xx (alternate address) @ 0x88... not found
bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA9875 @ 0xb0... not found
bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA7432 @ 0x8a... not found
tvaudio: TV audio decoder + audio/video mux driver
tvaudio: known chips: tda9840,tda9873h,tda9874h/a,tda9850,tda9855,tea6300,tea6420,tda8425,pic16c54 (PV951),ta8874z
tuner: chip found at addr 0xc2 i2c-bus bt878 #0 [sw]
tuner: type set to 5 (Philips PAL_BG (FI1216 and compatibles)) by bt878 #0 [sw]
bttv0: registered device video0
bttv0: registered device vbi0
bttv0: PLL: 28636363 => 35468950 .. ok
bt878: AUDIO driver version 0.0.0 loaded
bt878: Bt878 AUDIO function found (0).


so from dmesg it seems to have detected the card, and all seems to be right

but if i try scantv with pal as tv norm and europe-west as frequency table, as i'm from spain, i get

vbi: open failed [/dev/vbi]
open /dev/vbi: No such file or directory



so i tried "ln -s /dev/vbi0 /dev/vbi", and then if i try to scan the channels, for all of them it says "no station", as if it wouldn't be able to get any signal

anybody knows what can i try? cause all seems to be right to me

hwinfo --tv:

09: PCI 0a.0: 11200 TV Card
[Created at pci.65]
Unique ID: bSAa.0C_QRzp+rP3
Hardware Class: tv card
Model: "Avermedia AVerMedia TVCapture 98"
Vendor: pci 0x109e "Brooktree Corporation"
Device: pci 0x036e "Bt878"
SubVendor: pci 0x1461 "Avermedia Technologies Inc"
SubDevice: pci 0x0004 "AVerMedia TVCapture 98"
Revision: 0x11
Memory Range: 0xd7020000-??? (rw,prefetchable)
IRQ: 5 (no events)
Driver Info #0:
Driver Status: bttv is active
Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe bttv"
Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

now it doesn't even work on windows :S there are a couple of channels in which i can see something, but just guess the image :/
maybe is it that the tuner is k.o?

anyone can help with this?

What is the model of your capture card?

just as hwinfo said, an "Avermedia AVerMedia TVCapture 98"

That tells me nothing because there is no Avermedia TVCapture 98.

what are you talking about? :| of course there is :|
take a look at this: http://www.geocities.com/revenant1981/box-Cap98vcr.jpg
it's not a ghost card or something like that XD i'm not seeing things that don't exist XD

My problem was this:
tuner: type set to 5 (Philips PAL_BG (FI1216 and compatibles)) by bt878 #0 [sw]
MDK keeps setting: tuner: type set to 3 instead.
I just change it back in modprobe.conf.
Also I put in bttv into modprobe.preload. This solved the loading problem.
btw. I also put nvidia there too.



geez. i hope i can help one day.

I would compare the configs from Mandrake to Ubuntu. The config files you should compare is /etc/modules.conf and XF86Config. You may want to load up v4l1-compat module because I do not think scantv or xawtv are v4l2 compatible. You can try set a symbolic link from /dev/video0 to /dev/video. You should not need btcx_risc loaded. That module is for new TV capture card models. Load tveeprom and type dmesg to fin the real tvtuner brand and model. If the capture card as an on-board encoder than you can not use xawtv, scantv, and tvtime. You will have to use mplayer or xine to watch tv.

Try using mplayer to see what is going on. Check the man pages if you do not know how to use mplayer. If you are using mplayer that came with the distribution, I suggest uninstalling it and compile mplayer from source.

If nothing above makes it work and you made sure the coxial cables are connected to the card, search the internet for some information.