Digital Alpha AXPpci33 aka noname Board with 256KB cache and
16MB RAM
Hercules Terminator 3D/DX graphics card (S3 Virge/DX Chip), 4MB EDO
Hauppauge WinTV with Stereo and Radio support (the premium model, should
work with other WinTV cards, too), PCI device
XFree86 3.3.3.1 (SVGA Server)
Linux Kernel 2.2.5
xawtv 2.40
1.) Getting started
Install and configure the XFree86-System on your Alpha Linux machine and
make sure that it is running correctly in 16bit colourdepth and a resolution
of at least 800x600 pixels (I recommend that you use at least version 3.3.3.1
of the XFree86-system)
You can obtain the latest version free from http://www.xfree86.org
Get the newest 2.2.x Kernel, version 2.2.5 works fine for me.
2.) Configuring and compiling the Kernel
unpack the Kernel sources in the appropriate directory (usually /usr/src/linux)
change into that directory and type make menuconfig as root.
Select "Character devices --->"
Then select "Video For Linux --->"
Then select "<M> Video For Linux" and" "<M> BT848 Video
For Linux". (I've only tested Video4Linux on my Alpha Box with a Hauppauge
BT878 Card. Other cards may work for you, too (try it and let me know if
you're succeeded!).
These are the V4L specific settings. After you've configured your other
system settings you should compile the kernel and boot with it. Since you've
used modules for Video For Linux you should enable "Module support" and
"kerneld, Autoload modules" (somewhere in the configuration), too! Don't
forget to make the modules (make modules) and install them (make
modules_install).
In order to make the Kernel to load the modules on demand you should add
the following lines to /etc/modules.conf
# TV alias char-major-81 bttv pre-install bttv modprobe
-k msp3400; modprobe -k tuner options bttv
radio=0,1 vidmem=0x048 options tuner
type=5 Of course you have to change the various options appropriate to your
system, but don't worry too much about the vidmem setting, as far as I
know it will be autodetected correct in most of the cases. Also the other
option settings may be left blank.
3.) Adding /dev/video
In order to make the various tools for your tv card work correctly you
have to install the correct devices in /dev
First check if they already exist, if so, it's fine and you can jump to
the next "chapter"
(to check if they exist, the command ls -l /dev/vi* should
display something like that
[root@deepstar /dev]# ls -l /dev/vi* lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root
6 Apr 8 15:20 video -> video0 crw-r--r-- 1 root root
81, 0 Apr 8 15:19 video0
If they do not exist you have to create the device with the following command:
mknod /dev/video0 c 81 0 after that create a symbolic link named /dev/video to this device
ln -s /dev/video0 /dev/video To verify that everything has worked the command ls -l /dev/vi*
should have the following output:
[root@deepstar /dev]# ls -l /dev/vi* lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root
6 Apr 8 15:20 video -> video0 crw-r--r-- 1 root root
81, 0 Apr 8 15:19 video0
4.) Installing xawtv
xawtv is a very good frontend in order to watch TV. It has all necessary
features you might expect from a software TV-Tuner.
Version 2.40 has compiled out of the box on my Alpha system without any
errors. Nevertheless not everybody has installed all necessary libraries
and you can download the binary-rpm of version 2.40 here.
After you've downloaded the binary rpm you should install it with the command
rpm
-i xawtv-2.40-1.alpha.rpm
5.) Let's watch TV
Hmmm, if everything has worked until here most of the work
is done. In order to test your TV configuration do the following things
Start X11 (command startx) as root (you can change that later by setting
the suid-bit on xawtv)
Start xawtv in a terminal with -v2 (verbose mode level 2)
Watch the output, if it says something like this and you have to stop it
with CTRL-C you have to use the -x option
[root@deepstar /dev]# xawtv -v2 This is xawtv-2.40, running on Linux/alpha (2.2.5) x11 uses inet sockets me : 192.168.1.5 peer: 192.168.1.5 DGA: server=1.0, include=1.0 VidMode: server=0.8, include=0.8 [PRESS HERE CTRL-C TO STOP IT - IT DOES'NT WORK ;-()
Now you should start it with -x (xawtv -v2 -x) and the output should look
similar to this (thus not exactly):
[root@deepstar /dev]# xawtv -v2 -x This is xawtv-2.40, running on Linux/alpha (2.2.5) x11 uses inet sockets me : 192.168.1.5 peer: 192.168.1.5 Xv: compiled without Xvideo extention support wmhooks: kde x11: color depth: 16 bits, 2 bytes - pixmap: 2 bytes x11: color masks: red=0x0000f800 green=0x000007e0 blue=0x0000001f x11: server byte order: little endian x11: client byte order: little endian x11: 1024x768, 16 bit/pixel, 0 byte/scanline init: trying: v4l2... init: failed: v4l2 init: trying: v4l... non-local display `deepstar.dn:0.0' not allowed, using `:0.0' instead sigchild v4l: open v4l: device is BT878(Hauppauge new) capabilities: capture tuner teletext overlay clipping frameram
scales channels: 3 Television: 1 tuner audio tv Composite1: 0 audio camera S-Video: 0 audio camera audios : 1 0 (TV): muted=no volume=65535 bass=32768 treble=32768 size : 32x32 => 924x576 tuner : Television 0-4294967295 PAL NTSC SECAM fbuffer : base=0x0x4800000 size=1024x768 depth=16 bpl=2048 picture : brightness=32768 hue=32768 colour=32512 contrast=27648 picture : whiteness=0 depth=0 palette=rgb16 init: ok: v4l: BT878(Hauppauge new) v4l: 1024x768, 16 bit/pixel, 2048 byte/scanline video: configure off v4l: input: 0 v4l: norm : 0 v4l: freq: 615.250 video: shell: size 384x288+0+0 video: configure off v4l: capture probe rgb16... g0* s0* ok grab: req: 384x288 16 bit TrueColor (LE) grab: use: 384x288 16 bit TrueColor (LE) video: x11_create_ximage video: root: ConfigureNotify video: configure off From this point a new window should have opened with a blue background
or some "snow" in it. All you have to do from this point on is to select
a channel with the up/down cursor keys. Try a click with the right mousebutton
on the TV-window, this should open a new window with various settings of
your TV-card. For more information about xawtv read the documentation included
in the rpm-archive.
If you see a black background in the window you have a problem, look
in the Troubelshooting section of this article - maybe it's solved there.
6.) Troubleshooting
The card could not be initalized the right way - xawtv doesn't
work?
Try to NOT to use the PCI slot 1 (the slot next to the
keyboard and mouse connectors) of your AXPpci33 board. This slot sucks,
it does not work with the WinTV. Use the slot next to the ISA slots for
your WinTV and try again.
I got a black window, what's the problem:
It seems that there is a conflict with your VGA graphics card.
If you have one of the following cards it will NEVER work:
S3 Vision 864
S3 Trio32
I've got this thing working with my S3 Virge DX card (Hercules Terminator
3D/DX)
A compatibility list (in german language) can be found at http://www.freiburg.linux.de/~flug/projekte/tv/ If you think it should work on your system you have to play around
with some with the vidmem-option in /etc/modules.conf - this is
described in /usr/doc/xawtv-2.40/Trouble-Shooting and /usr/src/linux/Documentation/video4linux/bttv/PROBLEMS
xawtv doesn't work on my local system, can I try it remotely
over my network?
Sure! And this really rules! It's a 1A-bandwidthkiller, you
can get 3-5fps with a 10Mbit Ethernet.
It's also very helpful for debugging your configuration.
This Troubleshooting section will be expanded with your help! Send me
your problems and how you've solved them.
