running multiple DVB cards successfully.. what do I need to know?? (major and minor numbers??)

running multiple DVB cards successfully.. what do I need to know?? (major and minor numbers??)

[sonofzev]

Hi All 

Some of you may have read some of my posts about an "incorrect firmware readback"
message appearing in my dmesg, shortly after a tuner was engaged. 

I have isolated this problem, but the workaround so far has not been pretty. 
On a hunch I removed my Dvico Fusion HDTV lite card from the system, running now
only with the Dvico Fusion Dual Express. 

The issue has gone, I am not getting the kdvb process hogging cpu cycles and this
message has stopped. 

I had tried both letting the kernel (or is it udev) assign the major and minor
numbers and I had tried to manually set them via modprobe.conf (formerly
modules.conf, I don't know if this is a global change or specific to Gentoo).... 

I had the major number the same for both cards, with a separate minor number for
each of the three tuners, this seems to be the same. 

Is this how I should be setting up for 2 cards or should I be using some other
type of configuration. 

cheers

Allan 

Re: running multiple DVB cards successfully.. what do I need to know?? (major and minor numbers??)

[Michael Krufky]

On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 5:49 PM, sonofzev@iinet.net.au
<sonofzev@iinet.net.au> wrote:
> Some of you may have read some of my posts about an "incorrect firmware readback"
> message appearing in my dmesg, shortly after a tuner was engaged.
>
> I have isolated this problem, but the workaround so far has not been pretty.
> On a hunch I removed my Dvico Fusion HDTV lite card from the system, running now
> only with the Dvico Fusion Dual Express.
>
> The issue has gone, I am not getting the kdvb process hogging cpu cycles and this
> message has stopped.
>
> I had tried both letting the kernel (or is it udev) assign the major and minor
> numbers and I had tried to manually set them via modprobe.conf (formerly
> modules.conf, I don't know if this is a global change or specific to Gentoo)....
>
> I had the major number the same for both cards, with a separate minor number for
> each of the three tuners, this seems to be the same.
>
> Is this how I should be setting up for 2 cards or should I be using some other
> type of configuration.

Allan,

I recommend to use the 'adapter_nr' module option.  You can specify
this option in modprobe.conf -- the name of this file is
distro-specific.

For instance, to make the dual card appear before the lite card:

options cx23885 adapter_nr=0,1
options dvb-bt8xx adapter_nr=2

to make the lite card appear before the dual card:

options cx23885 adapter_nr=0
options dvb-bt8xx adapter_nr=1,2

I hope you find this helpful.

Regards,

Mike

Re: running multiple DVB cards successfully.. what do I need to know?? (major and minor numbers??)

[sonofzev]

Thanks Mike

Is this likely to stop the "Incorrect Readback of kernel version issue as well?" 

cheers

Allan 

On Mon Feb 23 17:57 , Michael Krufky  sent:

>On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 5:49 PM, sonofzev@iinet.net.au
>sonofzev@iinet.net.au> wrote:
>> Some of you may have read some of my posts about an "incorrect firmware readback"
>> message appearing in my dmesg, shortly after a tuner was engaged.
>>
>> I have isolated this problem, but the workaround so far has not been pretty.
>> On a hunch I removed my Dvico Fusion HDTV lite card from the system, running now
>> only with the Dvico Fusion Dual Express.
>>
>> The issue has gone, I am not getting the kdvb process hogging cpu cycles and this
>> message has stopped.
>>
>> I had tried both letting the kernel (or is it udev) assign the major and minor
>> numbers and I had tried to manually set them via modprobe.conf (formerly
>> modules.conf, I don't know if this is a global change or specific to Gentoo)....
>>
>> I had the major number the same for both cards, with a separate minor number for
>> each of the three tuners, this seems to be the same.
>>
>> Is this how I should be setting up for 2 cards or should I be using some other
>> type of configuration.
>
>Allan,
>
>I recommend to use the 'adapter_nr' module option.  You can specify
>this option in modprobe.conf -- the name of this file is
>distro-specific.
>
>For instance, to make the dual card appear before the lite card:
>
>options cx23885 adapter_nr=0,1
>options dvb-bt8xx adapter_nr=2
>
>to make the lite card appear before the dual card:
>
>options cx23885 adapter_nr=0
>options dvb-bt8xx adapter_nr=1,2
>
>I hope you find this helpful.
>
>Regards,
>
>Mike
>)

Re: running multiple DVB cards successfully.. what do I need to know?? (major and minor numbers??)

[Eduard Huguet]

Hi,
    Another way of controlling the numbering schema of your DVB
devices is to blacklist the modules (so udev doesn't load them)m and
then modprobing them manually at system startup. This is what I did
for my Nova T-500 and Avermedia A700.

Briefly (this is for Gentoo, running OpenRC):

In /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist:
blacklist saa7134                  # for Avermedia A700
blacklist dvb_usb_dib0700      # for Hauppauge Nova T-500

And in /etc/conf.d/modules:
modules_2_6="${modules_2_6} dvb_usb_dib0700"
modules_2_6="${modules_2_6} saa7134"


This way, udev doesn't load the modules automatically at startup,
which was causing a different reordering of the DVB devices on reboot
and from a cold boot (due to the delay caused by firmware loading on
the Nova-T). The modules are loaded sequentially now, and in the order
specified in /etc/conf.d/modules.

Best regards,
  Eduard

PS: I doubt this hardly solve your firmware problems, but at least it
might help you with device ordering.





2009/2/23 Michael Krufky <mkrufky@linuxtv.org>:
> On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 5:49 PM, sonofzev@iinet.net.au
> <sonofzev@iinet.net.au> wrote:
>> Some of you may have read some of my posts about an "incorrect firmware readback"
>> message appearing in my dmesg, shortly after a tuner was engaged.
>>
>> I have isolated this problem, but the workaround so far has not been pretty.
>> On a hunch I removed my Dvico Fusion HDTV lite card from the system, running now
>> only with the Dvico Fusion Dual Express.
>>
>> The issue has gone, I am not getting the kdvb process hogging cpu cycles and this
>> message has stopped.
>>
>> I had tried both letting the kernel (or is it udev) assign the major and minor
>> numbers and I had tried to manually set them via modprobe.conf (formerly
>> modules.conf, I don't know if this is a global change or specific to Gentoo)....
>>
>> I had the major number the same for both cards, with a separate minor number for
>> each of the three tuners, this seems to be the same.
>>
>> Is this how I should be setting up for 2 cards or should I be using some other
>> type of configuration.
>
> Allan,
>
> I recommend to use the 'adapter_nr' module option.  You can specify
> this option in modprobe.conf -- the name of this file is
> distro-specific.
>
> For instance, to make the dual card appear before the lite card:
>
> options cx23885 adapter_nr=0,1
> options dvb-bt8xx adapter_nr=2
>
> to make the lite card appear before the dual card:
>
> options cx23885 adapter_nr=0
> options dvb-bt8xx adapter_nr=1,2
>
> I hope you find this helpful.
>
> Regards,
>
> Mike
> --
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