[linux-dvb] Re: Newbie questions

[Holger Waechtler <holger@convergence.de>]

Bruno Prior wrote:
> I'm just starting to get to grips with how to use my Hauppauge Nova-T on 
> linux, and to say I'm confused would be an understatement.
> 
> As I understand it, I need the siemens_dvb drivers. I'm not sure whether 
> I should use the siemens_dvb-0.9.4-2002-05-20.tgz from the VDR page or 
> the latest snapshot from linuxdvb.tv. For the timebeing, I can't see 
> myself installing any DVB-S or -C cards, so I am guessing it doesn't 
> matter, as I understand the DVB-T drivers are relatively mature.
> 
> The machine the card is in is running Mandrake 9.0. I've had a lot of 
> problems with IRQ clashes on this machine, so my first step was to go to 
> Hardware in the Mandrake Control Center, to see if the card had been 
> recognised. I was surprised to see that not only was the card 
> recognised, but Mandrake had identified that it needed the dvb module. 
> At this stage I had not compiled either of the driver packages, so this 
> came down to the default Mandrake installation. Sure enough, "ls 
> /lib/modules/2.4.19-16mdk/kernel/3rdparty/mod_dvb/" showed the following 
> modules:
> 
> dmxdev.o.gz     dvb_filter.o.gz    dvb.o.gz       saa7146_core.o.gz 
> stv0299.o.gz    VES1820.o.gz       dvb_demux.o.gz dvb_frontend.o.gz
> L64781.o.gz     saa7146_v4l.o.gz   tda8083.o.gz   VES1893.o.gz
> dvbdev.o.gz     dvb_net.o.gz       lirc_dvb.o.gz  SP8870.o.gz 
> tuner_dvb.o.gz

this is a _very_ old driver. Please get a fresh one (directly out of CVS 
from http://linuxtv.org/cvs/) before reporting any problems.


> These are all part of the base kernel package. modprobeing videodev, 
> i2c-core and dvb, gave me the following items in lsmod:
> 
> Module                  Size  Used by    Tainted: P
> dvb                   229188   0
> dvb_demux              10272   1  [dvb]
> dmxdev                  7876   1  [dvb]
> dvbdev                  1732   1  [dvb]
> dvb_frontend            3744   0  [dvb]
> dvb_net                 3992   0  [dvb]
> dvb_filter              8128   0  [dvb]
> saa7146_core           14064   0  [dvb]
> i2c-core               15332   0  [dvb dvb_frontend saa7146_core]
> videodev                5792   0  [dvb]
> 
> The modprobe of dvb warned me the module was tainted. I take it I can 
> ignore that?

yes. it's caused by a missing MODULE_LICENSE("GPL") macro in very old 
kernels or by a LGPL'd module.


> I also have:
> 
> demux0  dvr0  frontend0  net0  sec0
> 
> in /dev/ost, which are links to the equivalent files in /dev/dvb/card0 
> (Mandrake 9.0 uses devfs by default). However, I do not have /dev/video 
> or /dev/v4l/.
> 
> Does all this mean I don't need to compile the siemens drivers? The 
> modules Mandrake supplies seem to be nearly identical to the drivers to 
> be compiled, except for the omission of dvb_firm and the renaming of 
> tuner as dvb_tuner.

if you use only tools compiled against the old API: yes. If you want to 
use recent tools you should get + install a fresh kernel.


> If needed, I can get the siemens_dvb drivers to compile with the small 
> modification to dvb.c suggested in the mailing list archives for 2.4.19 
> kernels. "make" completed successfully. I haven't tried "make insmod", 
> because I don't want to overwrite the Mandrake modules unless I am sure 
> this is the right thing to do.

fixed in recent driver sources.


> However, libdvb will not compile. I had to make a small change to the 
> makefile, as it was including ../include, when it seems that it should 
> actually be ../ost/include. (This is using the 
> siemens_dvb-0.9.4-2002-05-20.tgz package). I have attached the error 
> messages below, as there is too much to quote here.

IIRC this was fixed by Andreas a while ago.


> I wouldn't worry much about this, except I got the impression I may need 
> libdvb to be able to tune, view and/or record from the card. I had 

no, you dont' need.


> planned to use VDR, as the author of the linux DVB-T page 
> (http://www.linuxstb.org/dvb-t/index.shtml) said he had his Nova-T 
> working with it. But I didn't do enough research, and I now understand 
> that I cannot use VDR without at least one card with TV-out, which the 
> Nova-T doesn't have. Is that correct? If so, can I use the TV-out from 
> my graphics card (Radeon 7500)? To be honest, that's probably not much 

not with current VDR. If you use X11-, framebuffer or DirectFB based 
programs: yes.


> use, even if I can, as the computer is nowhere near a TV.
> 
> Assuming VDR is a dead-end for me, I am trying to figure out what 
> alternative programs I can use to tune, watch and record the channels? 
> The two options that stand out so far are either the programs in the 
> apps dir of the siemens_dvb package (particularly the tuxzap set of 
> programs), or the software listed on the DVB-T page (dvbtune, dvbstream 
> etc.). Am I better off with one or other set of programs or both?
> 
> Most importantly, what is my most direct route to be able at least to 
> view a channel on-screen? If I had any idea how to do this, I would feel 
> more comfortable playing around with the programs, as I could see the 
> effect they had. Without knowing how to view a digital TV channel, I 
> feel like I'm groping in the dark.

start xawtv, use szap/czap/tzap for tuning.

If you don't have installed X11 but a remote login on your box you can 
use the framebuffer video utility (DVB/apps/test/video.c) and 
szap/czap/tzap for tuning. dvbstream and dvbtune should work as well, 
tuxzap too.

Holger



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