FAQ & Troubleshooting

FAQ

General

What device do I exactly have ?

To the casual observer this question might seem ridiculous, but in reality, the answer isn't always as clear as it might appear on the surface of things; for help identifying your device, see here.

Where do I get a driver from?

If your device is supported by LinuxTV, then follow the steps outlined here.

Note - there may also be support for your device provided by other sources then LinuxTV -- try a google search, as suggested here.

My device requires a firmware. Where do I find that ?

See here.

I have the DVB drivers loaded. Now how can I test it?

Check if you have files in /dev/dvb/adapter0/. Then, see the steps in Testing your DVB device.

How do I tune my TV-channels? Where do I get the frequencies from?

Try the scan command as described above or on the page of its package LinuxTV dvb-apps.

How many devices are supported in a system?

In respect to DVB devices, see this thread. In respect to analog devices, see this thread.

Troubleshooting

• Under Ubuntu (I assume that this also applies to other linux systems), make sure that the user is in the video group in /etc/group.

Any software I use comes up with error messages like "can't find demux".

This means that /dev/dvb/adapter0/demux is missing. Probably your card drivers are not installed properly. Then, you don't have anything in /dev/dvb/. If that's the case, make sure above that you have all in your kernel config (of your running kernel, of course) and that you loaded them all with modprobe.

My device was working perfectly, but now it is not recognized anymore. What is the problem?

It's possible that you're using a different kernel now, so you have to install the driver again and ensure that the firmware is reached by the hotplug system.

My DVB device is recognized but I'm not able to use it. What can I do?

You should check that the /dev/dvb exists and that you have the correct permissions to read and write that directory.

You might also try some of the steps in Testing your DVB device to see if other software can cope with it.

For further please contact developers via irc.freenode.net on #linuxtv (or #dvb) or via mailing list.