AverTV Volar HD PRO

AverTV Volar HD PRO

[Andrej Podzimek]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2673 bytes --]

Hello,

this USB stick (07ca:a835) used to work fine with the 3.0 and 3.1 kernel series, using one of the howtos in this thread: http://forum.ubuntu-it.org/index.php/topic,384436.msg3370690.html

However, there were some build errors with my current kernel 3.2.4, so I tried to update the entire media tree instead, as described here: http://git.linuxtv.org/media_build.git

Unfortunately, the device doesn't work. These are the dmesg messages that appear after plugging the receiver in:

	usb 3-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 6 using ehci_hcd
	WARNING: You are using an experimental version of the media stack.
	        As the driver is backported to an older kernel, it doesn't offer
	        enough quality for its usage in production.
	        Use it with care.
	Latest git patches (needed if you report a bug to linux-media@vger.kernel.org):
	        59b30294e14fa6a370fdd2bc2921cca1f977ef16 Merge branch 'v4l_for_linus' into staging/for_v3.4
	        72565224609a23a60d10fcdf42f87a2fa8f7b16d [media] cxd2820r: sleep on DVB-T/T2 delivery system switch
	        46de20a78ae4b122b79fc02633e9a6c3d539ecad [media] anysee: fix CI init
	WARNING: You are using an experimental version of the media stack.
	        As the driver is backported to an older kernel, it doesn't offer
	        enough quality for its usage in production.
	        Use it with care.
	Latest git patches (needed if you report a bug to linux-media@vger.kernel.org):
	        59b30294e14fa6a370fdd2bc2921cca1f977ef16 Merge branch 'v4l_for_linus' into staging/for_v3.4
	        72565224609a23a60d10fcdf42f87a2fa8f7b16d [media] cxd2820r: sleep on DVB-T/T2 delivery system switch
	        46de20a78ae4b122b79fc02633e9a6c3d539ecad [media] anysee: fix CI init
	IR NEC protocol handler initialized
	IR RC5(x) protocol handler initialized
	usbcore: registered new interface driver dvb_usb_af9035
	IR RC6 protocol handler initialized
	IR JVC protocol handler initialized
	IR Sony protocol handler initialized
	IR SANYO protocol handler initialized
	IR MCE Keyboard/mouse protocol handler initialized
	lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, major 249
	IR LIRC bridge handler initialized

Surprisingly, the tda18218 module doesn't load automatically (I guess it should) and loading it manually doesn't help. So the device doesn't get initialized at all and there are no messages about firmware loading. (The firmware file is in /lib/firmware, of course.)

Is it possible to make the device work somehow? The receiver worked fine with older kernels (using the howto from ubuntu-it.org linked above) and the remote controller was usable as well.

Andrej



[-- Attachment #2: Elektronický podpis S/MIME --]
[-- Type: application/pkcs7-signature, Size: 6725 bytes --]

Re: AverTV Volar HD PRO

[Gianluca Gennari]

Il 06/02/2012 00:44, Andrej Podzimek ha scritto:
> Hello,
> 
> this USB stick (07ca:a835) used to work fine with the 3.0 and 3.1 kernel
> series, using one of the howtos in this thread:
> http://forum.ubuntu-it.org/index.php/topic,384436.msg3370690.html
> 
> However, there were some build errors with my current kernel 3.2.4, so I
> tried to update the entire media tree instead, as described here:
> http://git.linuxtv.org/media_build.git
> 
> Unfortunately, the device doesn't work. These are the dmesg messages
> that appear after plugging the receiver in:
> 
> 
> Surprisingly, the tda18218 module doesn't load automatically (I guess it
> should) and loading it manually doesn't help. So the device doesn't get
> initialized at all and there are no messages about firmware loading.
> (The firmware file is in /lib/firmware, of course.)
> 
> Is it possible to make the device work somehow? The receiver worked fine
> with older kernels (using the howto from ubuntu-it.org linked above) and
> the remote controller was usable as well.
> 

Hi Andrej,
here you can find an updated version of the af9035 patch:

http://openpli.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=openpli/openembedded;a=blob_plain;f=recipes/linux/linux-etxx00/dvb-usb-af9035.patch;hb=HEAD

There are several improvements, including support for newer kernels (3.2
and 3.3) as well as the current media_build tree.
I also added the missing "select" directives for the tda18218 and
mxl5007T tuners, so the modules auto-loads correctly now.

In this version there is no remote support.

Please let me know if it works fine for you.

Regards,
Gianluca

Re: AverTV Volar HD PRO

[Andrej Podzimek]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 4544 bytes --]

>> Hello,
>>
>> this USB stick (07ca:a835) used to work fine with the 3.0 and 3.1 kernel
>> series, using one of the howtos in this thread:
>> http://forum.ubuntu-it.org/index.php/topic,384436.msg3370690.html
>>
>> However, there were some build errors with my current kernel 3.2.4, so I
>> tried to update the entire media tree instead, as described here:
>> http://git.linuxtv.org/media_build.git
>>
>> Unfortunately, the device doesn't work. These are the dmesg messages
>> that appear after plugging the receiver in:
>>
>>
>> Surprisingly, the tda18218 module doesn't load automatically (I guess it
>> should) and loading it manually doesn't help. So the device doesn't get
>> initialized at all and there are no messages about firmware loading.
>> (The firmware file is in /lib/firmware, of course.)
>>
>> Is it possible to make the device work somehow? The receiver worked fine
>> with older kernels (using the howto from ubuntu-it.org linked above) and
>> the remote controller was usable as well.
>>
>
> Hi Andrej,
> here you can find an updated version of the af9035 patch:
>
> http://openpli.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=openpli/openembedded;a=blob_plain;f=recipes/linux/linux-etxx00/dvb-usb-af9035.patch;hb=HEAD
>
> There are several improvements, including support for newer kernels (3.2
> and 3.3) as well as the current media_build tree.
> I also added the missing "select" directives for the tda18218 and
> mxl5007T tuners, so the modules auto-loads correctly now.
>
> In this version there is no remote support.
>
> Please let me know if it works fine for you.
>
> Regards,
> Gianluca

Hi Gianluca,

the tuner seems to work now. I applied the patch directly to the 3.2.5 kernel, without using the media_build tree. (Is this the correct approach?) Unlike the previous versions of the driver, this one does not keep the tuner hot when inactive. (There must have been a power management issue that is already resolved.)

This is what I see in dmesg:

	usb 3-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 9 using ehci_hcd
	dvb-usb: found a 'Avermedia AverTV Volar HD & HD PRO (A835)' in cold state, will try to load a firmware
	dvb-usb: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-usb-af9035-01.fw'
	dvb-usb: found a 'Avermedia AverTV Volar HD & HD PRO (A835)' in warm state.
	dvb-usb: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream to the software demuxer.
	DVB: registering new adapter (Avermedia AverTV Volar HD & HD PRO (A835))
	af9033: firmware version: LINK:11.15.10.0 OFDM:5.48.10.0
	DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (Afatech AF9033 DVB-T)...
	tda18218: NXP TDA18218HN successfully identified.
	dvb-usb: Avermedia AverTV Volar HD & HD PRO (A835) successfully initialized and connected.
	usbcore: registered new interface driver dvb_usb_af9035

However, there are still some glitches. Sometimes the initialization fails:

	usb 3-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 8 using ehci_hcd
	dvb-usb: found a 'Avermedia AverTV Volar HD & HD PRO (A835)' in cold state, will try to load a firmware
	dvb-usb: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-usb-af9035-01.fw'
	af9035: bulk message failed:-71 (6/0)
	af9035: firmware download failed:-71
	dvb_usb_af9035: probe of 3-1.2:1.0 failed with error -71

Unloading the dvb-t modules manually and re-plugging the tuner resolves this. Furthermore, I had two kernel panics today. :-( They seem to occur when the DVB-T signal is poor for a long time. Unfortunately, I didn't have netconsole set up.

An attempt to scan channels in Kaffeine always fails before the progress bar reaches 20% and lots of messages like this appear in dmesg:

	af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
	af9033: I2C read failed reg:0047
	af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
	af9033: I2C read failed reg:0047
	af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
	af9033: I2C read failed reg:0045
	af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
	af9033: I2C read failed reg:0048
	af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
	af9033: I2C read failed reg:0047
	af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
	af9033: I2C read failed reg:002c
	af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
	af9033: I2C read failed reg:0047
	af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
	af9033: I2C read failed reg:0048

Fortunately, I have another DVB-T tuner (dvb_usb_af9015, MSI DigiVox Mini II V3) that scans channels just fine, so I used that one to obtain the list of channels. Once you have a list of channels, watching TV with the AverTV Volar HD PRO (dvb_usb_af9035) seems to work fine.

Andrej


[-- Attachment #2: Elektronický podpis S/MIME --]
[-- Type: application/pkcs7-signature, Size: 6725 bytes --]

Re: AverTV Volar HD PRO

[Gianluca Gennari]

Il 07/02/2012 06:10, Andrej Podzimek ha scritto:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> this USB stick (07ca:a835) used to work fine with the 3.0 and 3.1 kernel
>>> series, using one of the howtos in this thread:
>>> http://forum.ubuntu-it.org/index.php/topic,384436.msg3370690.html
>>>
>>> However, there were some build errors with my current kernel 3.2.4, so I
>>> tried to update the entire media tree instead, as described here:
>>> http://git.linuxtv.org/media_build.git
>>>
>>> Unfortunately, the device doesn't work. These are the dmesg messages
>>> that appear after plugging the receiver in:
>>>
>>>
>>> Surprisingly, the tda18218 module doesn't load automatically (I guess it
>>> should) and loading it manually doesn't help. So the device doesn't get
>>> initialized at all and there are no messages about firmware loading.
>>> (The firmware file is in /lib/firmware, of course.)
>>>
>>> Is it possible to make the device work somehow? The receiver worked fine
>>> with older kernels (using the howto from ubuntu-it.org linked above) and
>>> the remote controller was usable as well.
>>>
>>
>> Hi Andrej,
>> here you can find an updated version of the af9035 patch:
>>
>> http://openpli.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=openpli/openembedded;a=blob_plain;f=recipes/linux/linux-etxx00/dvb-usb-af9035.patch;hb=HEAD
>>
>>
>> There are several improvements, including support for newer kernels (3.2
>> and 3.3) as well as the current media_build tree.
>> I also added the missing "select" directives for the tda18218 and
>> mxl5007T tuners, so the modules auto-loads correctly now.
>>
>> In this version there is no remote support.
>>
>> Please let me know if it works fine for you.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Gianluca
> 
> Hi Gianluca,
> 
> the tuner seems to work now. I applied the patch directly to the 3.2.5
> kernel, without using the media_build tree. (Is this the correct
> approach?) Unlike the previous versions of the driver, this one does not
> keep the tuner hot when inactive. (There must have been a power
> management issue that is already resolved.)
> 
> This is what I see in dmesg:
> 
>     usb 3-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 9 using ehci_hcd
>     dvb-usb: found a 'Avermedia AverTV Volar HD & HD PRO (A835)' in cold
> state, will try to load a firmware
>     dvb-usb: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-usb-af9035-01.fw'
>     dvb-usb: found a 'Avermedia AverTV Volar HD & HD PRO (A835)' in warm
> state.
>     dvb-usb: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream to the
> software demuxer.
>     DVB: registering new adapter (Avermedia AverTV Volar HD & HD PRO
> (A835))
>     af9033: firmware version: LINK:11.15.10.0 OFDM:5.48.10.0
>     DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (Afatech AF9033 DVB-T)...
>     tda18218: NXP TDA18218HN successfully identified.
>     dvb-usb: Avermedia AverTV Volar HD & HD PRO (A835) successfully
> initialized and connected.
>     usbcore: registered new interface driver dvb_usb_af9035
> 
> However, there are still some glitches. Sometimes the initialization fails:
> 
>     usb 3-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 8 using ehci_hcd
>     dvb-usb: found a 'Avermedia AverTV Volar HD & HD PRO (A835)' in cold
> state, will try to load a firmware
>     dvb-usb: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-usb-af9035-01.fw'
>     af9035: bulk message failed:-71 (6/0)
>     af9035: firmware download failed:-71
>     dvb_usb_af9035: probe of 3-1.2:1.0 failed with error -71
> 
> Unloading the dvb-t modules manually and re-plugging the tuner resolves
> this. Furthermore, I had two kernel panics today. :-( They seem to occur
> when the DVB-T signal is poor for a long time. Unfortunately, I didn't
> have netconsole set up.
> 
> An attempt to scan channels in Kaffeine always fails before the progress
> bar reaches 20% and lots of messages like this appear in dmesg:
> 
>     af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
>     af9033: I2C read failed reg:0047
>     af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
>     af9033: I2C read failed reg:0047
>     af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
>     af9033: I2C read failed reg:0045
>     af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
>     af9033: I2C read failed reg:0048
>     af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
>     af9033: I2C read failed reg:0047
>     af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
>     af9033: I2C read failed reg:002c
>     af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
>     af9033: I2C read failed reg:0047
>     af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
>     af9033: I2C read failed reg:0048
> 
> Fortunately, I have another DVB-T tuner (dvb_usb_af9015, MSI DigiVox
> Mini II V3) that scans channels just fine, so I used that one to obtain
> the list of channels. Once you have a list of channels, watching TV with
> the AverTV Volar HD PRO (dvb_usb_af9035) seems to work fine.
> 
> Andrej
> 

Hi Andrej,
thanks for the very detailed report.
I'm happy that the driver seems to work a little better for you.
Unfortunately I don't have the A835 (I have an A867 which uses a
different tuner and it has no problem scanning channels or tuning weak
signals) so there is no chance I can fix this problems.
Probably the TDA18218 tuner is not managed properly in the driver.

Gianluca

Re: AverTV Volar HD PRO

[Gianluca Gennari]

Il 07/02/2012 06:10, Andrej Podzimek ha scritto:

> An attempt to scan channels in Kaffeine always fails before the progress
> bar reaches 20% and lots of messages like this appear in dmesg:
> 
>     af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
>     af9033: I2C read failed reg:0047
>     af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
>     af9033: I2C read failed reg:0047
>     af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
>     af9033: I2C read failed reg:0045
>     af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
>     af9033: I2C read failed reg:0048
>     af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
>     af9033: I2C read failed reg:0047
>     af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
>     af9033: I2C read failed reg:002c
>     af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
>     af9033: I2C read failed reg:0047
>     af9035: recv bulk message failed:-110
>     af9033: I2C read failed reg:0048

Hi Andrej,
I contacted the original creator of the patch that you used previously
(Xgaz on Ubuntu.it forums).

He passed this suggestion to me (coming from a Spanish user):


For people having the kernel message "af9035: recv bulk message
failed:-110", it's due a problem with the power save mode. To solve it,
create the file "/etc/modprobe.d/options.conf" with this content:

options dvb-core dvb_powerdown_on_sleep=0


So basically you may need to disable the power saving functionalities to
make the device working again.

Since the only functional difference between the old and the new patch
version is in the remote code (which I removed), probably this code was
preventing your device to go into sleep mode, so it was hotter but
worked fine.

Please report if this helps.

Regards,
Gianluca