Hello,

I am looking for some help getting a TerraTec Cinergy T2 (T^2) USB DVB-T adapter working. The adapter is supported by linuxtv, and I have the appropriate kernel modules built. I think the problem I am having is in the devices that are being set up, or not being set up, when I plug the adapter in.

When I plug the adapter in after a reboot, that is, before any of the appropriate modules have been loaded, the system makes these devices in /dev/dvb/adapter0:

bash-3.1$ ls -l /dev/dvb/adapter0/
total 0
crw-rw---- 1 root video 212, 4 May 20 16:18 demux0
crw-rw---- 1 root video 212, 5 May 20 16:18 dvr0
crw-rw---- 1 root video 212, 3 May 20 16:18 frontend0
crw-rw---- 1 root video 212, 7 May 20 16:18 net0

If I remove the adapter, the frontend0 devices is deleted, but the others remain. When I plug the adapter back in, frontend0 is created again.

lsmod the shows these cinergyT2 specific modules as being loaded:

cinergyT2 13444 0
dvb_core 77992 1 cinergyT2
usbcore 119684 4 cinergyT2,uhci_hcd,ehci_hcd

My user account is included in the video group in /etc/groups, so I am ruling out a permissions problem.

Still, even though these devices are present, I can't get Kaffeine or Xine to recognize that I have a DVB-T receiver attached. In Kaffeine, the DVB tab didn't appear at all until I used the configuration settings to add it, but I am still not offered a menu or dialog to do any further configuration beyond a broadcast address, a broadcast port, an info port and a directory for timeshift files. It also complains that it, "Can't bind the info socket!!" (It is trying to bind to port 1235.) I should be able to access an option to scan for channels, but there are no other configuration options available.

Xine was complaining about a missing channel.conf, but using a number of tools available on the web, including linuxtv's scan utility, I have been able to develop a channels.conf for xine. Unfortunately, it still complains that, "There is no input plugin available to handle 'dvb:/ZDF'. Maybe MRL syntax is wrong or file/source stream does not exist." I am figuring that the "file/source stream does not exist" part of that is a good hint that the devices are not properly bound.

I used the dvb.sh script given in /usr/src/linux/Documentation/dvb/udev.txt (I am using kernel 2.6.16.14) to write /etc/udev/scripts/dvb.sh, and the script is executable for all users. It looks like this:

#!/bin/sh
/bin/echo $1 | /bin/sed -e 's,dvb\([0-9]\)\.\([^0-9]*\)\([0-9]\),dvb/adapter\1/\2\3,'
#end of script

My slack-current system has these lines in /etc/udev/rules.d/udev.rules:

# dvb devices
KERNEL="dvb*", PROGRAM="/etc/udev/scripts/dvb.sh %k", NAME="%c", GROUP="video", MODE="0660"

That line builds on the rule given in the kernel documentation and adds the video group binding and the mode.

When I plug the apapter in, usbmonitor shows this:

UEVENT[1148209418] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.3/usb1/1-6
UEVENT[1148209418] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.3/usb1/1-6/1-6:1.0
UEVENT[1148209418] add@/class/dvb/dvb0.frontend0
UEVENT[1148209418] add@/class/input/input4
UEVENT[1148209418] add@/class/usb_device/usbdev1.5

That kind of surprises me, because I would expect to see some UDEV lines showing events udev sends out after rule processing.

Anyway, I am stumped. If anyone has some ideas on this, I would be grateful for the advice.

Okay, I've gotten it working. Sort of. I can only watch in xine, and I have to click the DVB button twice to start watching. On the first click, I get "Can't find plugin" error. Works on the second click though. I also have to change the channels manually using the playlist dialog. That's an lirc remote control configuration problem which I will tackle separately. Kaffeine doesn't work - it still won't show me the DVB configuration menu option.

I am also not certain if the configuration will last through a reboot. I ran this script, which I found in the forums at slax.linux-live.org:

#!/bin/sh
# Create device nodes for the Linux DVB API with DVB_API_VERSION 2.
# The devices created are suitable for most current PC DVB cards,
# i.e. cards having one frontend, one demux and optionally one
# MPEG decoder.
# The script creates devices for four cards by default.

if [ -e /dev/.devfsd ]; then
echo "It seems you are using devfs. Good!"
exit 0
fi

# get rid of old DVB API devices; do it twice for good measure...
rm -rf /dev/ost
rm -rf /dev/ost
rm -rf /dev/dvb
rm -rf /dev/dvb

mkdir /dev/dvb
chmod 755 /dev/dvb

for i in `seq 0 3`; do
echo "Creating DVB devices in /dev/dvb/adapter$i"
mkdir /dev/dvb/adapter$i
chmod 755 /dev/dvb/adapter$i
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/video0 c 212 `expr 64 \* $i + 0`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/audio0 c 212 `expr 64 \* $i + 1`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/frontend0 c 212 `expr 64 \* $i + 3`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/demux0 c 212 `expr 64 \* $i + 4`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/dvr0 c 212 `expr 64 \* $i + 5`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/ca0 c 212 `expr 64 \* $i + 6`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/net0 c 212 `expr 64 \* $i + 7`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/osd0 c 212 `expr 64 \* $i + 8`
chown root.video /dev/dvb/adapter$i/*
done

Then I unplugged the adapter and plugged it back in again. My udev dvb.sh script took care of making a new /dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0. I was able to start xine and with the two clicks on the DVB button, I was watching TV. Great stuff.

Now I have to figure out how to do it "right." I wonder if I could cut the devfs-specific stuff out of this script, as well as the deletion of /dev/ost, since I don't have that anyway. I could put the line from Documentation/dvb/udev.txt at the end of the script to make sure the frontend gets made. I'll give that a shot and see how it goes. I would still be grateful for any advice though.

EDIT: Sorry, posted in completely the wrong subsection, I think.

I recently set up an USB DVB-T device and had problems with the udev part. Although it looked like an exact copy I had to copy/paste the udev lines twice to get it working. It looked as if there was any kind of typo or wrong white space in it. It worked with udev <= 0.71 (haven't tried any other udev package). After that kaffeine started to show its DVB part.
I read about the new udev rules regarding "=" and "==" expressions; maybe you would have to change the KERNEL=... to KERNEL==... or something like that.

The udev lines I used (try a copy and paste even if it looks identical, see above):

/etc/udev/rules.d/udev.rules part about dvb:
/etc/udev/scripts/dvb.sh
EDIT: fixed typo

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...=channels.conf

You may find the above thread useful. Important: There are two incompatible formats for channels.conf. With a channels.conf in the wrong format you'll have lots of fun, but not caused by the tv programme, you won't see, then...

In fact, I don't understand how and why this problem arose, and why the programs don't come packaged with proper channels pre-set. Is this, beacause the software is free, and someone has a business plan for selling channels.conf files?

gargamel