How to set up AviaMedia DVB-T HD USB Puppy 4.3.1

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John Lewis
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How to set up AviaMedia DVB-T HD USB Puppy 4.3.1

#1 Post by John Lewis »

How to set up the AverMedia TV Volar Black HD DVB-T USB stick.
Vendor ID 0x1d6b Product ID 0x2

Having just been through this exercise in Puppy 4.3.1 I thought it might be helpful to detail the process in the hope it might help others. This works on sd card frugal in eee701SD pc and from multisession DVD just fine.

The basic steps are:
1. Install driver if not already. The driver for this card is in 4.3.1 already. It is dvb-usb-af9015.ko

2. Install the firmware file dvb-usb-af9015.fw in /lib/firmware. For some reason it was absent.

3. Install linuxtv-apps-1.1.1.pet. Then:

4. In terminal run MAKEDEV-DVB.sh to create the device nodes.

If you now plug in the stick and run dmesg you should have a warm device shown along with some other information.

5. Download and untar dvbt-scanaid-0.03.tar.bz2 to a suitable location. I put it in root.

6. Run scanaid to create a text file of channel data.

7. Run this command in terminal:
cd dvbt-scanaid-0.03
./Create_Scanning_Table
scan Scanlist.txt >/root/.xine/channels.conf

There are some listed text files for various locations in directory DVB-T in "My Applications" and by experimenting with these I got SBS running too. as it was not picked up by the initial scan.

Now for a useful extra to enable easier channel changes and recording.

Install Gtb-DVB.pet.

For this to work you need to also install GtkBasic003e.pet and PuppyBasic-2.6.pet.

I'm very pleased with this. It works better in Puppy than in Mepis on my main desktop computer where HDTV tends to stutter a bit.

Puppy linux Search and Google helped me find all the necessary bits and pieces.

The above steps should work with almost any version of Puppy as long as you have the necessary driver and firmware files. You may need to compile them if you can't find what you want with Puppy search.as I'm now trying to do for another card I have that is not yet supported.

Thanks to all the great people on this forum who contributed the dot pets and their time and expertise. Without you I would never have succeeded. I have just collected all the information I found here in one place to help others.

Files needed.

dvb-usb-af9015.fw.
http://www.otit.fi/~crope/v4l-dvb/af901 ... es/4.71.0/

Linuxtv-apps-1.1.1.pet
http://puppyfiles.org/dotpupsde/dotpups ... er-1.0rc1/

dvbt-scanaid-0.03.tar.bz2
http://www.johannes-bauer.com/dvbt/dvbt ... 03.tar.bz2

Gtb-DVB.pet (Half way down page)
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=29513

GtkBasic003e.pet
http://dotpups.de/puppy3/dotpups/Progra ... ic003e.pet

PuppyBasic-2.6.pet (On this page)
http://dotpups.de/dotpups/Programming/



John Lewis

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#2 Post by edoc »

Sure appreciate you sharing this!

Have you heard from anyone who has tried this under any other versions of Puppy?

I was thinking of trying this with Spup 040 and have asked elsewhere about that - no replies yet.
[b]Thanks! David[/b]
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John Lewis
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#3 Post by John Lewis »

I've not tried it in another Puppy but I think it should work so long as the af9015 file files matches the kernal.

By the way the link for scanaid no longer works. I found another source via Google. Sorry can't give link at present as it is on another computer. If you are stuck I could email files if you wish.

Off to watch TDF on TV now. :D

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#4 Post by edoc »

John Lewis wrote:I've not tried it in another Puppy but I think it should work so long as the af9015 file files matches the kernal.

By the way the link for scanaid no longer works. I found another source via Google. Sorry can't give link at present as it is on another computer. If you are stuck I could email files if you wish.

Off to watch TDF on TV now. :D

John Lewis
I had already located and downloaded all of the files, including scanaid -- I found it using the privacy-respecting alternative to google http://startpage.com

What is "af9015" and how do I know if it matches the kernel, please?
[b]Thanks! David[/b]
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#5 Post by edoc »

BTW: Barry has temporarily suspended/postponed development of Spup at 040 and has returned to Wary. Spup seems the best-of-breed so I sure hope he returns to it soon!

He intends to use the 2.6.32.16 kernel in Wary.

Any idea if it is compatible?

http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewDetailed=01737
http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewDetailed=01738
[b]Thanks! David[/b]
[i]Home page: [/i][url]http://nevils-station.com[/url]
[i]Don't google[/i] [b]Search![/b] [url]http://duckduckgo.com[/url]
TahrPup64 & Lighthouse64-b602 & JL64-603

John Lewis
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Location: Albany West Australia

#6 Post by John Lewis »

Hi edoc,
Hope this helps. I've not been checking the forum a lot lately due to other commitments.

The file
dvb-usb-af9015.fw. from
http://www.otit.fi/~crope/v4l-dvb/af901 ... es/4.71.0/
You already have? Not sure whether it is kernel specific. probably not.

This is the odd one.
Install driver if not already. The driver for this card is in 4.3.1 already.it is dvb-usb-af9015.ko

I'm pretty sure this will be kernel specific. If it is included in your puppy version you are set. Not sure what to do if it is not. You could try the one from 4.3.1 I guess and see what happens.

I cut and pasted from my notes for the above .

When I get a chance I am going to try some other pups to see what happens.

John Lewis

One thing I've noticed. If you don't have a good working antenna nothing appears to work at all. The little one that comes with the stick doesn't work at all here.

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#7 Post by edoc »

This shows up in Spup 040 vi Pfind:
/lib/modules/2.6.34.1/kernel/drivers/media/dvb/dvb-usb/dvb-usb-af9015.ko

I had downloaded:
How does one determine if something is kernel specific?

Is there a specific way to inquire in Console or does one just try it and see what happens?

This is my home/business laptop so I try to avoid taking too many risks, even with a good backup! :-)

I sure appreciate the help!
[b]Thanks! David[/b]
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John Lewis
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#8 Post by John Lewis »

Does you version of Puppy have the dvb-usb-af9015.ko file?

A good way to try would be to put a frugal install of your puppy on a USB stick and try it there. That way should be no danger of damaging the installation provided it has its own save file. In any event I'm pretty sure that if the file is wrong it won't be a problem. You would just remove it.

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#9 Post by edoc »

According to Pfind it is here in Spup 040:

/lib/modules/2.6.34.1/kernel/drivers/media/dvb/dvb-usb/dvb-usb-af9015.ko
[b]Thanks! David[/b]
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#10 Post by gronos04 »

@edoc

dmesg | grep dvb

if the firmware is incompatible you will see a bunch of squawks.

John Lewis
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#11 Post by John Lewis »

edoc wrote:According to Pfind it is here in Spup 040:

/lib/modules/2.6.34.1/kernel/drivers/media/dvb/dvb-usb/dvb-usb-af9015.ko

I'm pretty sure in that case that if you follow my steps it will work. Tomorrow I will download spup040 if I can find it and give it a try.

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#12 Post by edoc »

gronos04 wrote:@edoc

dmesg | grep dvb

if the firmware is incompatible you will see a bunch of squawks.
Here are my results ...
# dmesg | grep dvb
#
I am also testing Fatdog64-500 on another laptop as well as TXZ_450 -- anyone tested this on either of those?
[b]Thanks! David[/b]
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#13 Post by gronos04 »

@edoc

Was your dvb device plugged in before running the dmesg command?.
If it was then the kernel has no support for dvb

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#14 Post by edoc »

gronos04 wrote:@edoc

Was your dvb device plugged in before running the dmesg command?.
If it was then the kernel has no support for dvb
Does it matter if the device was plugged in when I powered-up or rebooted?

It does show up in HardInfo - USB Devices.
[b]Thanks! David[/b]
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#15 Post by gronos04 »

@edoc

Yes plug it in and boot.
You can activate it but it ain't in the frontal lobes at the moment ie I have forgotten exactly how.

modprobe -something or other

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#16 Post by edoc »

gronos04 wrote:@edoc

Was your dvb device plugged in before running the dmesg command?.
If it was then the kernel has no support for dvb
There were no "squawks".

Because there are no errors it means there is no support?

I can "see" it in HardInfo - USB Devices.
[b]Thanks! David[/b]
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#17 Post by gronos04 »

@edoc

Here is the 'dmesg | grep dvb' output for a USB digital tuner that I just plugged in without reboot.
You can see that it starts is in a cold state.
The modules are loaded ,it moves to warm sate and it is ready to go. You should be seeing something like this.

dvb-usb: found a 'KWorld USB DVB-T TV Stick II (VS-DVB-T 395U)' in cold state, will try to load a firmware
usb 1-1: firmware: requesting dvb-usb-af9015.fw
dvb-usb: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-usb-af9015.fw'
dvb-usb: found a 'KWorld USB DVB-T TV Stick II (VS-DVB-T 395U)' in warm state.
dvb-usb: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream to the software demuxer.
dvb-usb: schedule remote query interval to 150 msecs.
dvb-usb: KWorld USB DVB-T TV Stick II (VS-DVB-T 395U) successfully initialized and connected.
usbcore: registered new interface driver dvb_usb_af9015
This was from my laptop running Fluppy which is has the 'puppy version' 431.
If you don't seee anything from 'dmesg |grep dvb' then at least 3 things are possible.
No kernel support
Dead USB port
Dead DVB device
Try it on a 'vanilla' Puppy. TXZ_pup doesn't have kernel support for this type of device.

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#18 Post by edoc »

Is it definitely the kernel and not something that I can load - like all of the modules, etc intended for this device?

A plain vanilla Puppy won't handle some of the laptop hardware here, which is what led me to try Quirky (too quirky), Wary 030 (nope, but Barry is supposed to be releasing and now one soon, though he's helping a family member at the moment), Spup 040 (close but not quite - he's looking for someone to adopt that Pup), TXZ_450 (interesting, but if you are certain that the kernel is the problem then no), and Fatdog64-500 (only runs on the ACER but that could become the TV-laptop).

Any hope for Fatdog64-500?
[b]Thanks! David[/b]
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#19 Post by John Lewis »

Ok edoc,

Good news and bad news.

I downloaded the spup 040 and made a frugal install to a usb stick.

The first problem was no gxine. I was able to get that from Puppy Package Manager. It had a lot of dependencies. Probably not all needed.

I then installed the other parts as per my first post. A quick look at dmesg showed I had a live AverMedia stick.When I tried it by using Gtb- DVB-T TV viewer in the start menu, the channels flashed up and disappeared and gxine opened but no video.

Something is not yet right there. I still have to investigate.

All was not lost. I brought up Gxine and clicked DVB. Eureka. Up came the channel that was at the top of channels.conf in the .xine directory. By shifting each channel to the top of the list I proved all channels worked.

It is possible to change channels from the command line in console but I have to go hunt up the commands.

The important thing is it does work and doesn't blow up spup. Now I will try to track down why the channel selector won't work.

I have tried this in my eeepc, the old laptop and my desktop box and it worked in all of them. All except the selector that is. I suspect a problem with puppy basic and GTK basic. Hope I can sort it.

Well edoc, I hope this is helpful. I'll continue to probe and see what I can find. If all else fails I guess it will be command line for channel changes.

Edit.
Just found I can change channels with the up down arrow keys or with scroll wheel on mouse.

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#20 Post by edoc »

dmesg generates many pages of output, not sure if it is buried in there somewhere but proceeded just the same! :-)
5. Download and untar dvbt-scanaid-0.03.tar.bz2 to a suitable location. I put it in root.
I ran #5 in /mnt/home/Savestuff/downloads/avertv as I try to keep as much stuff out of root as possible - the theory is it helps me to be less confused when I am looking for stuff. Is that OK?
6. Run scanaid to create a text file of channel data.
This pops-up a bunch of options, was I supposed to accept the defaults all the way through at this point?
7. Run this command in terminal:
cd dvbt-scanaid-0.03
./Create_Scanning_Table
scan Scanlist.txt >/root/.xine/channels.conf
/root/.xine/channels.conf does not exist.

In fact I did a Pfiles search and "xine" doesn't exist.

Do I need to just create that folder?

Does it need to be in that precise location?

Do I need to first load xine?
[b]Thanks! David[/b]
[i]Home page: [/i][url]http://nevils-station.com[/url]
[i]Don't google[/i] [b]Search![/b] [url]http://duckduckgo.com[/url]
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