Mailing List Archive

SkyStar 2 DVB-S card failing to load after 20.04 upgrade
Hi All,

Ive just upgraded my Myth box from Ubuntu 16.04 to 20.04 (via do-release-upgrade) and have hit a few snags.
Machine has been running for a few years, so I’m a bit rusty on getting it back running properly.

First one I’m trying to tackle is one of my SkyStar 2 DVB-S cards isn’t being fully recognised.

It should appear as /dev/dvb/adaptor1 but doesn’t appear at all. adapter0 is a SkyStar 2, adapter 2&3 are a TBS DVB card

me$ ll /dev/dvb/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 11 root root 220 Oct 17 19:54 .
drwxr-xr-x 23 root root 4.6K Oct 17 19:54 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Oct 17 19:54 adapter0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Oct 17 19:54 adapter2
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Oct 17 19:54 adapter3


me$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/dvb.conf
# Technisat SkySTAR2 DVB-S
options b2c2_flexcop_pci adapter_nr=0,1

#TBS 6909
options tbsecp3 adapter_nr=2,3


dmseg says no frontend driver found

me$ dmesg | grep flex
[ 3.985342] b2c2-flexcop: B2C2 FlexcopII/II(b)/III digital TV receiver chip loaded successfully
[ 3.992261] b2c2_flexcop_pci: unknown parameter 'adapter_nr' ignored
[ 3.992314] flexcop-pci: will use the HW PID filter.
[ 3.992314] flexcop-pci: card revision 2
[ 3.992418] b2c2_flexcop_pci 0000:05:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0003)
[ 4.016165] b2c2-flexcop: MAC address = 00:d0:d7:0c:01:a5
[ 4.398695] b2c2-flexcop: no frontend driver found for this B2C2/FlexCop adapter
[ 4.400528] flexcop-pci: will use the HW PID filter.
[ 4.400529] flexcop-pci: card revision 2
[ 4.400535] b2c2_flexcop_pci 0000:05:01.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0003)
[ 4.428468] b2c2-flexcop: MAC address = 00:d0:d7:0e:c6:8e
[ 4.644817] b2c2-flexcop: found 'ST STV0299 DVB-S' .
[ 4.644819] b2c2_flexcop_pci 0000:05:01.0: DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (ST STV0299 DVB-S)...
[ 4.644855] b2c2-flexcop: initialization of 'Sky2PC/SkyStar 2 DVB-S rev 2.6' at the 'PCI' bus controlled by a 'FlexCopIIb' complete
[ 37.816078] b2c2_flexcop_pci 0000:05:01.0: Frontend requested software zigzag, but didn't set the frequency step size


It does exist as a pci device:

me$ lspci -vvv
05:00.0 Network controller: Techsan Electronics Co Ltd B2C2 FlexCopII DVB chip / Technisat SkyStar2 DVB card (rev 02)
Subsystem: Techsan Electronics Co Ltd B2C2 FlexCopII DVB chip / Technisat SkyStar2 DVB card
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=slow >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 18
Region 0: Memory at f7110000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Region 1: I/O ports at e020 [size=32]
Kernel modules: b2c2_flexcop_pci

05:01.0 Network controller: Techsan Electronics Co Ltd B2C2 FlexCopII DVB chip / Technisat SkyStar2 DVB card (rev 02)
Subsystem: Techsan Electronics Co Ltd B2C2 FlexCopII DVB chip / Technisat SkyStar2 DVB card
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=slow >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 32
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 19
Region 0: Memory at f7100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Region 1: I/O ports at e000 [size=32]
Kernel driver in use: b2c2_flexcop_pci
Kernel modules: b2c2_flexcop_pci


Note the second card has Kernel driver in use: b2c2_flexcop_pci, but the first card doesn’t.

Any tips or things I should be looking at?



- Wade




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Re: SkyStar 2 DVB-S card failing to load after 20.04 upgrade [ In reply to ]
On Sun, 17 Oct 2021 22:08:02 +1300, you wrote:

>Hi All,
>
>Ive just upgraded my Myth box from Ubuntu 16.04 to 20.04 (via do-release-upgrade) and have hit a few snags.
>Machine has been running for a few years, so I?m a bit rusty on getting it back running properly.
>
>First one I?m trying to tackle is one of my SkyStar 2 DVB-S cards isn?t being fully recognised.
>
>It should appear as /dev/dvb/adaptor1 but doesn?t appear at all. adapter0 is a SkyStar 2, adapter 2&3 are a TBS DVB card
>
>me$ ll /dev/dvb/
>total 0
>drwxr-xr-x 11 root root 220 Oct 17 19:54 .
>drwxr-xr-x 23 root root 4.6K Oct 17 19:54 ..
>drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Oct 17 19:54 adapter0
>drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Oct 17 19:54 adapter2
>drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Oct 17 19:54 adapter3
>
>
>me$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/dvb.conf
># Technisat SkySTAR2 DVB-S
>options b2c2_flexcop_pci adapter_nr=0,1
>
>#TBS 6909
>options tbsecp3 adapter_nr=2,3
>
>
>dmseg says no frontend driver found
>
>me$ dmesg | grep flex
>[ 3.985342] b2c2-flexcop: B2C2 FlexcopII/II(b)/III digital TV receiver chip loaded successfully
>[ 3.992261] b2c2_flexcop_pci: unknown parameter 'adapter_nr' ignored
>[ 3.992314] flexcop-pci: will use the HW PID filter.
>[ 3.992314] flexcop-pci: card revision 2
>[ 3.992418] b2c2_flexcop_pci 0000:05:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0003)
>[ 4.016165] b2c2-flexcop: MAC address = 00:d0:d7:0c:01:a5
>[ 4.398695] b2c2-flexcop: no frontend driver found for this B2C2/FlexCop adapter
>[ 4.400528] flexcop-pci: will use the HW PID filter.
>[ 4.400529] flexcop-pci: card revision 2
>[ 4.400535] b2c2_flexcop_pci 0000:05:01.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0003)
>[ 4.428468] b2c2-flexcop: MAC address = 00:d0:d7:0e:c6:8e
>[ 4.644817] b2c2-flexcop: found 'ST STV0299 DVB-S' .
>[ 4.644819] b2c2_flexcop_pci 0000:05:01.0: DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (ST STV0299 DVB-S)...
>[ 4.644855] b2c2-flexcop: initialization of 'Sky2PC/SkyStar 2 DVB-S rev 2.6' at the 'PCI' bus controlled by a 'FlexCopIIb' complete
>[ 37.816078] b2c2_flexcop_pci 0000:05:01.0: Frontend requested software zigzag, but didn't set the frequency step size
>
>
>It does exist as a pci device:
>
>me$ lspci -vvv
>05:00.0 Network controller: Techsan Electronics Co Ltd B2C2 FlexCopII DVB chip / Technisat SkyStar2 DVB card (rev 02)
> Subsystem: Techsan Electronics Co Ltd B2C2 FlexCopII DVB chip / Technisat SkyStar2 DVB card
> Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
> Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=slow >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
> Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 18
> Region 0: Memory at f7110000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
> Region 1: I/O ports at e020 [size=32]
> Kernel modules: b2c2_flexcop_pci
>
>05:01.0 Network controller: Techsan Electronics Co Ltd B2C2 FlexCopII DVB chip / Technisat SkyStar2 DVB card (rev 02)
> Subsystem: Techsan Electronics Co Ltd B2C2 FlexCopII DVB chip / Technisat SkyStar2 DVB card
> Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
> Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=slow >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
> Latency: 32
> Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 19
> Region 0: Memory at f7100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
> Region 1: I/O ports at e000 [size=32]
> Kernel driver in use: b2c2_flexcop_pci
> Kernel modules: b2c2_flexcop_pci
>
>
>Note the second card has Kernel driver in use: b2c2_flexcop_pci, but the first card doesn?t.
>
>Any tips or things I should be looking at?
>
>
>
> - Wade

I am not familiar with the Skystar 2 cards, but I do have a TBS6909.
It requires compiling its version of the Linux DVB driver code, and in
the past doing that has caused incompatibility with some older cards.
So the first thing I would try would be to remove and reinstall your
current kernel and see if it will run the Skystar 2 cards with the
normal kernel DVB drivers. Then compile and install the TBS drivers
and see if that causes the problem. To do that, you need to reboot to
the older kernel that should still be installed, then remove the newer
kernel packages and then reinstall them. Then reboot to the newer
kernel.

And I am not sure why you would be needing to use the old DVB-S cards
anyway - the TBS6909 has 8 DVB-S(2) tuners, so there should not be any
need to have two more on the old DVB-S cards. If you are using DVB-S
for the Freeview satellite service, you only need 3 tuners, and if you
are recording Sky, you need DVB-S2 for all the Sky multiplexes now,
except for the one they broadcast Freeview DVB-S channels on.

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Re: SkyStar 2 DVB-S card failing to load after 20.04 upgrade [ In reply to ]
> On 17/10/2021, at 23:19, Stephen Worthington <stephen_agent@jsw.gen.nz> wrote:
>
> I am not familiar with the Skystar 2 cards, but I do have a TBS6909.
> It requires compiling its version of the Linux DVB driver code, and in
> the past doing that has caused incompatibility with some older cards.
> So the first thing I would try would be to remove and reinstall your
> current kernel and see if it will run the Skystar 2 cards with the
> normal kernel DVB drivers. Then compile and install the TBS drivers
> and see if that causes the problem. To do that, you need to reboot to
> the older kernel that should still be installed, then remove the newer
> kernel packages and then reinstall them. Then reboot to the newer
> kernel.
>

Thanks, shall give this a try in the next day or so. I’ve never played round with removing and reinstalling the kernel, so it might take me a bit to try this.


> And I am not sure why you would be needing to use the old DVB-S cards
> anyway - the TBS6909 has 8 DVB-S(2) tuners, so there should not be any
> need to have two more on the old DVB-S cards.

Carry overs from before the TBS6909, plus my EPG scripts were all set up using my SkyStar cards which I knew weren’t likely to be involved in a recording at the time the scripts ran.

If I abandon trying to get the SkyStars working and focus on EPG gathering by the TBS6909 instead, that might be a better use of effort.

My previously working scripts used dvbstream to open the card, then & epgsnoop to scrape the data, then close dvbstream after. That’s not working now.


Currently dvbstream using the TBS card (lnb is 11300, so trying sky frequency 12519 - 11300 is 1219)


me$ dvbstream -c 2 -s 22500 -f 1219 -p h -n 600 8192
dvbstream v0.7 - (C) Dave Chapman 2001-2004
Released under the GPL.
Latest version available from http://www.linuxstb.org/
Tuning to 1219 Hz
Using DVB card "TurboSight TBS 6909 DVB-S/S2 ", freq=1219
tuning DVB-S to Freq: 1219000, Pol:H Srate=22500000, 22kHz tone=off, LNB: 0, SLOF 11700, LOF1: 9750, LOF2: 10600
Setting only tone ON and voltage 18V
DISEQC SETTING SUCCEEDED
Getting frontend status
Not able to lock to the signal on the given frequency
dvbstream will stop after 600 seconds (10 minutes)
Using 224.0.1.2:5004:2
version=2
Streaming 1 stream



I think the "Not able to lock to the signal on the given frequency” is the issue, but I don’t know what is the root cause. Those were the settings I have been using in my epg scripts.


And trying the currently recognised SkyStar

me$ dvbstream -c 0 -s 22500 -f 1219 -p h -n 600 8192
dvbstream v0.7 - (C) Dave Chapman 2001-2004
Released under the GPL.
Latest version available from http://www.linuxstb.org/
Tuning to 1219 Hz
Using DVB card "ST STV0299 DVB-S", freq=1219
tuning DVB-S to Freq: 1219000, Pol:H Srate=22500000, 22kHz tone=off, LNB: 0, SLOF 11700, LOF1: 9750, LOF2: 10600
Setting only tone ON and voltage 18V
DISEQC SETTING FAILED
dvbstream will stop after 600 seconds (10 minutes)
Using 224.0.1.2:5004:2
version=2
Streaming 1 stream




Trying dvbtune instead with TBS

me$ dvbtune -f 1219000 -s 22500 -p H -tone 0 -c 2
Using DVB card "TurboSight TBS 6909 DVB-S/S2 "
tuning DVB-S to L-Band:0, Pol:H Srate=22500000, 22kHz=off
polling....
Getting frontend event
FE_STATUS:
polling....
Getting frontend event
FE_STATUS: FE_HAS_SIGNAL
polling....
polling....
polling….


But SkyStar

me$ dvbtune -f 1219000 -s 22500 -p H -tone 0 -c 0
Using DVB card "ST STV0299 DVB-S"
tuning DVB-S to L-Band:0, Pol:H Srate=22500000, 22kHz=off
polling....
Getting frontend event
FE_STATUS:
polling....
Getting frontend event
FE_STATUS: FE_HAS_SIGNAL FE_HAS_LOCK FE_HAS_CARRIER FE_HAS_VITERBI FE_HAS_SYNC
Event: Frequency: 10969837
SymbolRate: 22500000
FEC_inner: 3

Bit error rate: 112
Signal strength: 50371
SNR: 54006
FE_STATUS: FE_HAS_SIGNAL FE_HAS_LOCK FE_HAS_CARRIER FE_HAS_VITERBI FE_HAS_SYNC


Then running tv_grab_dvb_plus works:

me$ tv_grab_dvb_plus -d error -a 0 -f skyNZ -o /tmp/sky.xml -s /home/me/.tvgrabdvbplus


So I might experiment more with this and abandon dvbstream. I’ve just figured out that epgsnoop has it’s own tuning option and using that with the skystar also worked.

me$ epgsnoop --adapter 0 --tune 12519 --lnb 11300 --config-dir /home/myth/.epgsnoop/freeview/ > /tmp/freeview.xml

So I just need to play round with getting this going with the TBS6909 instead, then I can physically remove the SkyStars from the machine…. 8)


- Wade





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Re: SkyStar 2 DVB-S card failing to load after 20.04 upgrade [ In reply to ]
> On 18/10/2021, at 22:00, Wade Maxfield <mythtvnz@hotblack.co.nz> wrote:
>
> Trying dvbtune instead with TBS
>
> me$ dvbtune -f 1219000 -s 22500 -p H -tone 0 -c 2
> Using DVB card "TurboSight TBS 6909 DVB-S/S2 "
> tuning DVB-S to L-Band:0, Pol:H Srate=22500000, 22kHz=off
> polling....
> Getting frontend event
> FE_STATUS:
> polling....
> Getting frontend event
> FE_STATUS: FE_HAS_SIGNAL
> polling....
> polling....
> polling….


And of course after spending a few hours this afternoon and definitely after sending my message to the list, I think I’ve found part of the problem.

I finally remembered the TBS6909 has 4 aerial inputs and requires creating a modprobe conf file to set the card to use the single aerial input #3 across all the tuners. Without the lower number adapters I tried with dvbtune and dvbstream, effectively had no aerial attached. Recreating /etc/modprobe.d/mxl58x.conf (and rebooting) since it went missing somewhere between the big upgrade, removing and reinstalling the TBS drivers, and now dvbtune is working with that card:


me$ dvbtune -f 1219000 -s 22500 -p H -tone 0 -c 2
Using DVB card "TurboSight TBS 6909 DVB-S/S2 "
tuning DVB-S to L-Band:0, Pol:H Srate=22500000, 22kHz=off
polling....
Getting frontend event
FE_STATUS:
polling....
Getting frontend event
FE_STATUS: FE_HAS_SIGNAL
polling....
Getting frontend event
FE_STATUS: FE_HAS_SIGNAL FE_HAS_LOCK FE_HAS_CARRIER FE_HAS_VITERBI FE_HAS_SYNC
Event: Frequency: 10969000
SymbolRate: 22500000
FEC_inner: 3

Bit error rate: 0
Signal strength: 36080
SNR: 40062
FE_STATUS: FE_HAS_SIGNAL FE_HAS_LOCK FE_HAS_CARRIER FE_HAS_VITERBI FE_HAS_SYNC



Should be smooth sailing from this point…. 8)

Thanks Stephen, previous conversations are coming back to me now - shall dig through archives and look at the numbering patch for the card.


- Wade



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Re: SkyStar 2 DVB-S card failing to load after 20.04 upgrade [ In reply to ]
On Mon, 18 Oct 2021 22:14:56 +1300, you wrote:

>
>
>> On 18/10/2021, at 22:00, Wade Maxfield <mythtvnz@hotblack.co.nz> wrote:
>>
>> Trying dvbtune instead with TBS
>>
>> me$ dvbtune -f 1219000 -s 22500 -p H -tone 0 -c 2
>> Using DVB card "TurboSight TBS 6909 DVB-S/S2 "
>> tuning DVB-S to L-Band:0, Pol:H Srate=22500000, 22kHz=off
>> polling....
>> Getting frontend event
>> FE_STATUS:
>> polling....
>> Getting frontend event
>> FE_STATUS: FE_HAS_SIGNAL
>> polling....
>> polling....
>> polling?.
>
>
>And of course after spending a few hours this afternoon and definitely after sending my message to the list, I think I?ve found part of the problem.
>
>I finally remembered the TBS6909 has 4 aerial inputs and requires creating a modprobe conf file to set the card to use the single aerial input #3 across all the tuners. Without the lower number adapters I tried with dvbtune and dvbstream, effectively had no aerial attached. Recreating /etc/modprobe.d/mxl58x.conf (and rebooting) since it went missing somewhere between the big upgrade, removing and reinstalling the TBS drivers, and now dvbtune is working with that card:
>
>
>me$ dvbtune -f 1219000 -s 22500 -p H -tone 0 -c 2
>Using DVB card "TurboSight TBS 6909 DVB-S/S2 "
>tuning DVB-S to L-Band:0, Pol:H Srate=22500000, 22kHz=off
>polling....
>Getting frontend event
>FE_STATUS:
>polling....
>Getting frontend event
>FE_STATUS: FE_HAS_SIGNAL
>polling....
>Getting frontend event
>FE_STATUS: FE_HAS_SIGNAL FE_HAS_LOCK FE_HAS_CARRIER FE_HAS_VITERBI FE_HAS_SYNC
>Event: Frequency: 10969000
> SymbolRate: 22500000
> FEC_inner: 3
>
>Bit error rate: 0
>Signal strength: 36080
>SNR: 40062
>FE_STATUS: FE_HAS_SIGNAL FE_HAS_LOCK FE_HAS_CARRIER FE_HAS_VITERBI FE_HAS_SYNC
>
>
>
>Should be smooth sailing from this point?. 8)
>
>Thanks Stephen, previous conversations are coming back to me now - shall dig through archives and look at the numbering patch for the card.
>
>
> - Wade

I have a patch for the TBS6909 drivers that I did that allows me to
select which aerial input is used for each tuner pair. With my patch
in place, there is a new option "inputs=". So this is what I have in
my /etc/modprobe.d/options-dvb.conf file:

options mxl58x mode=1 inputs=1,1,1,1

That allows me to plug my aerial into input 1 (second from the bottom)
where the stress on my aerial cable is less and it does not get in the
way of other things so much.

The latest versions of my patch and the build scripts are here:

http://www.jsw.gen.nz/mythtv/tbs6909/options-dvb.conf
http://www.jsw.gen.nz/mythtv/tbs6909/download_and_build_with_addons.sh
http://www.jsw.gen.nz/mythtv/tbs6909/mxl58x.patch

But you should not need the patch if you are happy to use input 3.

I am getting my OpenTV EPG from the DVB-S multiplex on 12519 like you,
but if you want to get it from one of the DVB-S2 multiplexes, you will
need to set up dvbtune to do DVB-S2 by changing the -fec option to 2_3
and using the -8psk option.

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Re: SkyStar 2 DVB-S card failing to load after 20.04 upgrade [ In reply to ]
>> I finally remembered the TBS6909 has 4 aerial inputs and requires creating a modprobe conf file to set the card to use the single aerial input #3 across all the tuners.

I have a TBS6904, and wondering if it has a similar feature? Presently using a 4-way splitter, which works OK but the cabling is a bit cumbersome. It would be nice to be able to do away with the splitter.

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Re: SkyStar 2 DVB-S card failing to load after 20.04 upgrade [ In reply to ]
> On 19/10/2021, at 13:17, Austin Green <austin.green@orcon.net.nz> wrote:
>
> I have a TBS6904, and wondering if it has a similar feature? Presently using a 4-way splitter, which works OK but the cabling is a bit cumbersome. It would be nice to be able to do away with the splitter.

I’ve just scanned the manual for the 6904 and I don’t see mention of the Mode 0/1/2 setting that the 6909 has on page 3-6. 8(

https://www.tbsiptv.com/download/tbs6904/tbs6904_user_guide.pdf

https://www.tbsiptv.com/download/tbs6909/tbs6909_user_guide.pdf


- Wade



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Re: SkyStar 2 DVB-S card failing to load after 20.04 upgrade [ In reply to ]
On Tue, 19 Oct 2021 13:17:01 +1300, you wrote:

>
>>> I finally remembered the TBS6909 has 4 aerial inputs and requires creating a modprobe conf file to set the card to use the single aerial input #3 across all the tuners.
>
>I have a TBS6904, and wondering if it has a similar feature? Presently using a 4-way splitter, which works OK but the cabling is a bit cumbersome. It would be nice to be able to do away with the splitter.

No such luck, I'm afraid. If it was using the same technology as the
TBS6909, it would only have two inputs, one for each pair of tuners.
So you are stuck with having a splitter.

The TBS6909 seems to have a low noise amplifier on its aerial inputs,
and it is able to change the level of amplification depending on how
many tuners it is feeding from each aerial input, so that each tuner
gets the same signal level as arrived on the input. This is a really
great innovation, but TBS only seem to put it on the cards with
greater than 4 tuners on the card. The 8 tuner cards are expensive,
so I am guessing that the new tech is also expensive and might price
them out of being able to sell the smaller cards if they used it
there.

Apart from wanting at least 5 tuners, this new tech requiring just one
aerial input was what prompted me to get an 8 tuner TBS6909, and then
an 8 tuner TBS6209 DVB-T2 card also, despite the prices. I was able
to buy both on decently reduced "special" prices, so that they came
into NZ under the then GST limits, by just a few dollars. So anyone
who wants one should look out for TBS to be advertising specials,
which seems to happen twice a year. The special prices are sometimes
from their main store, but sometimes only from their Chinese ebay
store.

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Re: SkyStar 2 DVB-S card failing to load after 20.04 upgrade [ In reply to ]
> But you should not need the patch if you are happy to use input 3.
>
> I am getting my OpenTV EPG from the DVB-S multiplex on 12519 like you,
> but if you want to get it from one of the DVB-S2 multiplexes, you will
> need to set up dvbtune to do DVB-S2 by changing the -fec option to 2_3
> and using the -8psk option.

Greetings

I'm looking to move from a TBS6281 (DVB-T) & TBS6982 (DVB-S) combo to a HD
Homerun Quatro (so I don't have to patch the kernel on every update).

Can I get my EPG from this setup (using mhegepgsnoop) or will I have to
keep the 6281 card in the backend for when epg.org.nz goes awol?

Cheers

--
Robin Gilks



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Re: SkyStar 2 DVB-S card failing to load after 20.04 upgrade [ In reply to ]
On Tue, 19 Oct 2021 23:53:25 +1300, you wrote:

>> But you should not need the patch if you are happy to use input 3.
>>
>> I am getting my OpenTV EPG from the DVB-S multiplex on 12519 like you,
>> but if you want to get it from one of the DVB-S2 multiplexes, you will
>> need to set up dvbtune to do DVB-S2 by changing the -fec option to 2_3
>> and using the -8psk option.
>
>Greetings
>
>I'm looking to move from a TBS6281 (DVB-T) & TBS6982 (DVB-S) combo to a HD
>Homerun Quatro (so I don't have to patch the kernel on every update).
>
>Can I get my EPG from this setup (using mhegepgsnoop) or will I have to
>keep the 6281 card in the backend for when epg.org.nz goes awol?
>
>Cheers

Mhegepgsnoop is only able to talk to /dev/dvb hardware tuners, so no,
you will not be able to use it to get EPG from network tuners, unless
you can find a dvbloopback driver that will talk to the network tuners
and create a /dev/dvb tuner from them. And doing that will probably
need recompiling with each kernel, which defeats the purpose of using
network tuners.

TVHeadend can use network tuners - it may be able to get MHEG EPG from
them, but you would need to check. Then it can export EPG data, but I
am not sure if that can be automated.

EPG Collector on Windows may be able to talk to HDHomerun tuners - it
does do SAT>IP, but I am not sure about HDHomeruns. It can be
automated via scripts, so if you have a Windows box to run it on, that
could be a decent backup solution.

There do seem to be Python libraries available to talk to HDHomeruns,
so it should be possible to use them to do a modified version of
mhegepgsnoop that talks to HDHomeruns. I think that would be a very
useful feature for mhegepgsnoop as there are quite a few people in NZ
using them with MythTV.

It is also possible to automate the compilation of the TBS drivers
when the kernel gets updated. Either by using DKMS, or by having a
script that is run at boot time and detects that the /dev/dvb tuners
are gone and runs the script that compiles and installs the drivers
and does an automatic reboot afterwards. DKMS would be preferable, as
that would only need one reboot for a kernel update, but it would
likely be complicated. Whereas automatic boot time detection is
fairly simple - I have been thinking about setting that up on my
MythTV box. The only complicated bit would be detecting that it has
already compiled the drivers against the current kernel and then sees
the tuners missing, so it should not try again and should not reboot
and instead should call for help. That could be done by having a file
with the kernel number in it that gets created when the compile and
install has been done.

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