Is it supported? Has anyone tried this before?

should be supported just fine, afaik it uses the bttv driver, but some ati cards use the gatos driver. have a search on google to find which one you need

thanks for your reply, but what I mean is if there is a package that I can use to actually watch tv?

yeah, any tv app should be fine. once you get as far as a driver, the hardware you are using is irrelevant

I think my card works fine with its current driver. What tv apps would you suggest?

xawtv anyday, but i don't think that that app supports gatos (not sure, maybe it does), so IF you're using the gatos driver (obviosuly i don't have any idea what your "current" driver is) then you'll need to ensure you use a compatable program

thanks, i'll try that when i get back home... and probably ask some more questions.

Could anyone give me a simplier instructions on how to install gatos' ati2 and avview? I searched and downloaded files from gatos web site but could not figure out how to install the driver. Is there a way that I can use the intallpkg of slackware, like converting *tar.gz to *.tgz?

I have a brooktree 878 card (ATI TV WONDER) and it works great using xawtv. I would recommend trying that program first before you get involved with avview which requires gatos video drivers, tcl/tl, etc. xawtv will work very well with you existing video drivers.

If you have a brooktree card like mine, you just need to add bttv support to your kernel. 2.4.20 comes with bttv support already. Compile it as a module so you can tweak it with params in modules.conf.

To start up your tv/tuner modules:

/sbin/modprobe msp3400
/sbin/modprobe tuner
/sbin/modprobe bttv

Now just download xawtv, configure and make install it. It comes with a script to create the devices it needs. When you start xawtv, make sure you are using the right cable frequency band -- in my case (US): ntsc/us-cable. Tap in a station number and off you go. Geraldo Rivera reporting from Baghdad. Um, maybe Baywatch instead.......

gatos is totally unnecessary for just watching tv.

drphibes

Good to know there's another option. I actually gave up installing gatos and just switch to my old win98 everytime I watch tv.

I'll try your suggestion, but how will I know the type of my card (brooktree 878 card?). All I know it is all-in-wonder Radeon with 32MB DDR ---do you think it is supported?

You won't have to worry about your card type -- the bttv driver will, in all likelihood, auto-detect it. The ATI All-in-Wonder is a very popular card, so don't worry about it. If you really want to see a list of supported cards, you can download the bttv package from here:

http://bytesex.org/bttv/

and look for the CARDLIST file in the package. This download is unnecessary though, since the 2.4.x kernels support bttv already if you compile it in. That same link above is where you can find the xawtv package. You should download it and follow the installation instructions since that is what you'll use to watch tv.

good luck.

Could you send me instructions on how to compile bttv as a module? I am totally newbie and afraid to screw my system again.

What I actually did was upgrade my kernel to 2.4.20 to get bttv support. But things went wrong (I do not how) I could not even boot to the old kernel. So I did another full installation of Slackware 8.1 etc.

you need to understand how to compile and install the kernel.

cd /usr/src/linux
make clean
make mrproper
make menuconfig (set up your kernel here in this menu)
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install

ok kernel and modules are built. now install them:

cp System.map /boot/System.map
cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/bzImage

assuming you use lilo as your boot loader and assuming the image name in /etc/lilo.conf is bzImage, then just type:

lilo

to tell lilo about your new kernel. Note that simply copying over the old ones is not enough -- lilo must map the actual disk location of bzImage in order to boot it. the better way to do this is to add a new entry in lilo.conf for a new kernel and give it some other name, so you can boot whatever kernel you want.

if you don't understand all of that, stop. you *must* read up on the kernel (Kernel-HOWTO, etc.) before you go any further. now back to the make menuconfig. for bttv, go to Character Devices and enter that submenu. Enter the I2C support submenu. Turn I2C support on (built-in is what use, i.e. answer yes, not M). Yes for bit-banging devices, yes for I2C /proc. Back up to the main menu, enter Multimedia devices. Turn on video for linux and enter submenu Video for linux. Type M on BT848 Video for Linux.
That adds modular support for bttv.

recompile kernel with everything else you need hardware-wise.
install the new kernel as I described above. Now in your rc.modules files, add these lines:

/sbin/modprobe msp3400
/sbin/modprobe tuner
/sbin/modprobe bttv

in order to load the modules. reboot. cat /proc/modules and see if your modules are loaded.

download xawtv. ./configre; make; make install;

crank up X. open terminal. xawtv &

set cable desired cable band for your locale. i use ntsc/us-cable.
type in channel and you're watching tv.

if you get stumped i would download the bttv package and untar it JUST to read the documentation inside, i.e. you dont need the package -- it's in the kernel already.

drphibes

thanks for your quick reply.

Are you talking about installing kernel 2.4.20? MY /usr/src/linux is linked to linux-2.4.18, I suppose I should link that to linux-2.4.20 before I compile/install 2.4.20?

Also the image used in lilo.conf is /boot/vmlinuz. Where do I get that after install or can I use bzImage instead?

i'm not sure about 2.4.18, try it and see. and yes, symlink your ln -s linux.2.4.18 to linux first. if u boot vmlinuz then just copy bzImage to /boot/vmlinuz and then type lilo.