Diff for "Install_IVTV_Troubleshooting"

Differences between revisions 4 and 7 (spanning 3 versions)

Troubleshooting

Check IVTV is initialized

Run:

```
dmesg |grep Initialized
```

You should see something like:

ivtv: Initialized WinTV PVR 250, card #0
ivtv: Initialized WinTV PVR 350, card #1

This example shows two cards. If you only have one, you will see results similar to this:

ivtv: Initialized WinTV PVR 250, card #0

This is a good way to identify if the card even initially loaded.

Testing Capture

After the driver is loaded, you can test it by doing a simple capture
- ```
cat /dev/video0 > /tmp/test_capture.mpg
```
Let this go for about 5 sec and then press <ctrl> + 'c'
Attempt to play this back using your favorite media player. (mplayer for the example)
- ```
mplayer /tmp/test_capture.mpg
```
See if you have some recorded content coming up in the test capture.

Diagnosing Problems

Check dmesg to see if there are any errors loading firmware or anything like that.

dmesg | tac | sed -n '/=\ \ END INIT IVTV\ \ =/,/= START INIT IVTV =/p;/= START INIT IVTV =/q' | tac

If you see any errors about "unable to load firmware" or "missing module" or anything like that, go into #ubuntu and see if you can grab some help or post on the forums.

Resource allocation errors

There are two possible solutions to resource allocation problems:

Be sure that you have enabled APIC on your machine's BIOS. This will guarantee enough resources are allocated for the device.
See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=284041 for more information.

Add vmalloc=192m to your kernel boot parameters. Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst to add the vmalloc=192 to the end of your kernel line:

title           Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.17-10-server
root            (hd0,0)
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-10-server root=/dev/hda1 ro quiet splash vmalloc=192m
initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-10-server
quiet
savedefault
boot

Further Troubleshooting

The IVTV Wiki includes lots of non-ubuntu specific information about IVTV Troubleshooting: http://ivtvdriver.org/index.php/Troubleshooting

-  ⇤ ← Revision 4 as of 2006-12-06 23:58:07 → 
  Size: 2085
  Editor: 128
  Comment:
+   ← Revision 7 as of 2006-12-17 21:10:01 → ⇥
  Size: 2165
  Editor: 68-115-81-248
  Comment:
-Deletions are marked like this.
+Additions are marked like this.
 Line 2:
+=== Check IVTV is initialized ===

Run:
 {{{
dmesg |grep Initialized
}}}

You should see something like:
 {{{
ivtv: Initialized WinTV PVR 250, card #0
ivtv: Initialized WinTV PVR 350, card #1
}}}
This example shows two cards.  If you only have one, you will see results similar to this:
 {{{
ivtv: Initialized WinTV PVR 250, card #0 
}}}

This is a good way to identify if the card even initially loaded.
-Line 8:
+Line 27:
-{{{
+ * Attempt to play this back using your favorite media player.  (mplayer for the example) 
  {{{
-Line 11:
+Line 31:
- * see if there there is come Tv show, in the captured mpg.
+ * See if you have some recorded content coming up in the test capture.
-Line 15:
+Line 35:
-{{{ 
dmesg
+ {{{ 
dmesg | tac | sed -n '/=\ \ END INIT IVTV\ \ =/,/= START INIT IVTV =/p;/= START INIT IVTV =/q' | tac
-Line 19:
+Line 39:
-Look in between the two blocks for START IVTV and END IVTV.  If you see any errors about "unable to load firmware" or "missing module" or anything like that, go into #ubuntu and see if you can grab some help or post on the forums.

=== Error Loading Firmware ===
I had issues with the firmware trying to be load, turned out the softlinks in {{{/lib/firmware}}} needed to be actual copies of the file (if they are softlinks for you).

{{{ 
sudo cp v4l-cx2341x-dec.fw ivtv-fw-dec.bin
}}}
+If you see any errors about "unable to load firmware" or "missing module" or anything like that, go into #ubuntu and see if you can grab some help or post on the forums.
-Line 46:
+Line 58:
-=== Check IVTV is initialized ==

Run:

{{{dmesg |grep Initialized}}}
You should see something like:
{{{ivtv: Initialized WinTV PVR 250, card #0
ivtv: Initialized WinTV PVR 350, card #1}}}
(Here I'm showing an example with two cards.  If you only have one....
{{{ivtv: Initialized WinTV PVR 250, card #0 }}}

doesn't help diagnose but is a yes/no answer to if it's starting on boot.
+=== Further Troubleshooting ===
The IVTV Wiki includes lots of non-ubuntu specific information about IVTV Troubleshooting:
http://ivtvdriver.org/index.php/Troubleshooting

Ubuntu Documentation