Pinnacle DVB-T USB stick

ChairmanOfTheBored contributed these words of wisdom on 10/27/2007 08:37 PM:
> On Sat, 27 Oct 2007 19:14:22 +1000, Tom <t.ronalds DeleteThis @connect.com> wrote:
>
>> Here's the hardware I have:
>>
>> http://tinyurl.com/ouccr
>>
>> According to linuxtv.org this device is supported. Besides, I had this
>> same stick working some time ago on SUSE 10.1. Tried to get it to work
>> today on both OpenSUSE 10.2 & 10.3 (32-bit), with no luck.
>>
>> SUSE detects it as a "USB 2870 Device" -> "Class: Unclassified Device" -
>> which is rather generic, but perhaps due to no driver being loaded.
>>
>> I installed Mercurial and downloaded the v4l kernel driver tree. These
>> compiled fine on 10.3. and the appropriate module (em28xx) was then
>> loaded, as explained at the v4l wiki, and also in this blog entry:
>>
>> http://www.2nrds.com/digital-tv-in-linux-with-em28xx-devices
>>
>> No firmware should be needed, as far as I can tell.
>>
>> Alas, dvbscan yields only "failed to open frontend" message and there's
>> no /dev/dvb created - which makes me think there has to be another
>> module to be loaded. But which one? I've got everything dvb and
>> v4l-related that I believe may be even remotely relevant.
>>
>> No matter what I tried, this was as far as I could get.
>>
>> On 10.2 I couldn't even get that far.
>>
>> Make fails with:
>>
>> ../v4l-dvb/v4l/saa7134-tvaudio.c:30:27: error: linux/freezer.h: No such
>> file or directory
>>
>> I tried both the stable and experimental branch of linuxtv.org/repo -
>> same deal. And yes, kernel sources are installed and configured - as
>> evidenced by the fact make completed successfully on 10.3.
>>
>> Can anyone shed any light on this?
>
> There are some bluetooth fixes for Linux on the PS3, and discussion
> about them. They should have some pertinence, even though they are for
> and about a different platform.
>
> The Ubuntu and Suse and Yellow Dog, etc forums are on about it as the
> PS3 can use BT for connectivity, as well as several controller devices,
> and even allows a PSP to connect to it. Perhaps those discussions could
> shed some light on your dilemma as well.

Thanks for that, but surely there should be no reason to go quite that
far. This USB stick has worked before on a previous version of SUSE. All
it should need is the correct module to be loaded.

Controller device can then be easily supplied through lirc, which works
fine on this system.

> Just standard TV?
>
> Sheesh, you should at least have bought one of the HDTV jobs. They
> usually do both. :-]

Yeah, that's possibly true, but I've had this one for a while and am not
really that keen to buy a new one.

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On Sat, 27 Oct 2007 22:24:57 +1000, Tom wrote:

>
> Thanks for that, but surely there should be no reason to go quite that
> far. This USB stick has worked before on a previous version of SUSE. All
> it should need is the correct module to be loaded.
>
> Controller device can then be easily supplied through lirc, which works
> fine on this system.
>
>> Just standard TV?
>>
>> Sheesh, you should at least have bought one of the HDTV jobs. They
>> usually do both. :-]
>
> Yeah, that's possibly true, but I've had this one for a while and am not
> really that keen to buy a new one.

Tom,

I don't have one of these and haven't tried setting one up so these are
just suggestions from someone who has had similar problems in the past.

I see that SUSE 10.3 comes with an em28xx module as part of the kernel.
Perhaps you should try the stock one? Or at least make sure you are
loading the correct version by renaming the other one em28xx.ko.HIDE.

Another thing to try is to put the firmware in /lib/firmware whether you
think it needs it or not. If it doesn't then it won't do any damage.

Finally can you post the dmesg output from when you run modprobe em28xx
so we can see if there are any problems...

JohnK

JohnK wrote:
> On Sat, 27 Oct 2007 22:24:57 +1000, Tom wrote:
>
>> Thanks for that, but surely there should be no reason to go quite that
>> far. This USB stick has worked before on a previous version of SUSE. All
>> it should need is the correct module to be loaded.
>>
>> Controller device can then be easily supplied through lirc, which works
>> fine on this system.
>>
>>> Just standard TV?
>>>
>>> Sheesh, you should at least have bought one of the HDTV jobs. They
>>> usually do both. :-]
>> Yeah, that's possibly true, but I've had this one for a while and am not
>> really that keen to buy a new one.
>
> Tom,
>
> I don't have one of these and haven't tried setting one up so these are
> just suggestions from someone who has had similar problems in the past.
>
> I see that SUSE 10.3 comes with an em28xx module as part of the kernel.
> Perhaps you should try the stock one? Or at least make sure you are
> loading the correct version by renaming the other one em28xx.ko.HIDE.

Tried that - no good. I've now test-compiled two different versions of
the mercurial linuxtv.org repositories and have discovered that another
module (em2880-dvb) needs to be loaded.

The device now appears in /dev/dvb, but channel tuning fails.

Well, I'll keep trying.

> Another thing to try is to put the firmware in /lib/firmware whether you
> think it needs it or not. If it doesn't then it won't do any damage.

Done that, but according to the information at linuxtv.org, this DVB-T
only USB stick does not need any firmware.

In any case, downloading firmware files into /lib/firmware has made no
difference. dmesg also produces no messages about firmware being loaded.

> Finally can you post the dmesg output from when you run modprobe em28xx
> so we can see if there are any problems...

Will do. I've now progressed far to the point where I've discovered for
this digital-only device, it's apparently necessary to compile the
modules from another mercurial repository (v4l-dvb-makomk).

The relevant modules now load automaticalyl on system startup; the
device is obviously recognised and dmesg seems to confirm this.

hanel tuning in kaffeine, using the relevant channels.conf (au-cairns)
produces two channels (out of possible 6), but there's no picture to
speak of, the sound doesn't work and the terminal output is a series of
"bad frame" messages.

I am located in the middle of the CBD and an ordinary digital TV box
picks up strong signal on all the DVB channels, using the same aerial
I've plugged into the DVB stick, so this can't be due to poor signal.

Mplayer states "Can't read channels.conf file" - despite the fact a
valid channels.conf sits in the ~/.mplayer directory. -- A mystery...

Anyway, I'll play some more with it over the weekend and post any more
info as I come across it.

One thing is certain - this is way harder than it should be, for a
supposedly supported device.

Cheers,

Tom R.