Install_IVTV_Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

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 
```

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). Starting with Edgy around November, this should no longer occur.

sudo cp v4l-cx2341x-dec.fw ivtv-fw-dec.bin

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

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