Installing a Driver for MyGica A680B USB TV Tuner

[RudyG]

Hello.

For almost a year now I've been waiting for a Linux driver for this card and on a whim emailed the company asking what the progress is. In shock I was sent a link to the driver. However, I'm not quite sure how to compile this driver and install it into my system. I unzipped the downloaded driver into the /usr/src/ directory where the kernel headers are. Then I installed the make and the gcc. But I did not install the kernel sources. Are those required? Anyone willing to help a noob through this?

Here's a link to the driver itself:
http://www.geniatech.com/down-eng/at...inuxdriver.zip

TIA
Rudy

For searchers this device is also referred to as Auvitek or Syntek

[skint]

Re: Installing a Driver for MyGica A680B USB TV Tuner

Hi, I'm no expert, but a couple of things which may help:

The contents of the .zip don't need to be in /usr/src. They would be better placed in your own part of the file system, say /home/rudy/yfeng-680 then do the following:

cd /home/rudy/yfeng-680

make

sudo make install

The make step will probably take a long time and you may see a lot of warnings scroll up the screen. They don't matter. It will certainly tell you if kernel sources are required. I doubt they are. The linux-headers-generic installed should be all that's required.

Good luck.

[RudyG]

Re: Installing a Driver for MyGica A680B USB TV Tuner

Thank you skint.

I seem to be getting the same error with and without the sources installed.

/home/rudy/yfeng-680$ make
make -C /home/rudy/yfeng-680/v4l 
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/rudy/yfeng-680/v4l'
creating symbolic links...
make -C firmware prep
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/rudy/yfeng-680/v4l/firmware'
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/rudy/yfeng-680/v4l/firmware'
make -C firmware
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/rudy/yfeng-680/v4l/firmware'
make[2]: Nothing to be done for `default'.
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/rudy/yfeng-680/v4l/firmware'
Kernel build directory is /lib/modules/3.0.0-12-generic/build
make -C /lib/modules/3.0.0-12-generic/build SUBDIRS=/home/rudy/yfeng-680/v4l CFLAGS="-I../linux/include -D__KERNEL__ -I/include -DEXPORT_SYMTAB" modules
make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.0.0-12-generic'
 CC [M] /home/rudy/yfeng-680/v4l/tuner-xc2028.o
/home/rudy/yfeng-680/v4l/tuner-xc2028.c: In function 'xc2028_set_params':
/home/rudy/yfeng-680/v4l/tuner-xc2028.c:1178:5: error: 'T_DIGITAL_TV' undeclared (first use in this function)
/home/rudy/yfeng-680/v4l/tuner-xc2028.c:1178:5: note: each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each function it appears in
/home/rudy/yfeng-680/v4l/tuner-xc2028.c:1179:1: warning: control reaches end of non-void function [-Wreturn-type]
make[3]: *** [/home/rudy/yfeng-680/v4l/tuner-xc2028.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** [_module_/home/rudy/yfeng-680/v4l] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.0.0-12-generic'
make[1]: *** [default] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/rudy/yfeng-680/v4l'
make: *** [all] Error 2
/home/rudy/yfeng-680$

Oh well looks like a bug in the code, as it complains about an undeclared variable.

Rudy

[skint]

Re: Installing a Driver for MyGica A680B USB TV Tuner

Possibly not a bug in the code as such. My hunch would be that it doesn't yet support 3. kernels. I don't think there are many distros quite so up to date as ours. The dates of the files in the v4l folder are all July 2010. About a year before Linus announced "Gone are the 2.6.<bignum> days" lol.

The extra message with the URI to Video4Linux git server (I ran make without kernel sources installed) is a good sign though. There's quite a lot of work going on, so maybe it'll work in the near future...

[RudyG]

Re: Installing a Driver for MyGica A680B USB TV Tuner

Thank you skint. Does this mean that Kernel 3 breaks the current code? That would be quite a shame. I guess I'll have to be patient and wait, just wish I knew what I was waiting for. Maybe with each new Kernel update?

BTW did you say you were able to build this driver? If so did you have to install/build LinuxTV?

Rudy

[skint]

Re: Installing a Driver for MyGica A680B USB TV Tuner

Thank you skint. Does this mean that Kernel 3 breaks the current code? That would be quite a shame. I guess I'll have to be patient and wait, just wish I knew what I was waiting for. Maybe with each new Kernel update?

No. It just means the driver developers hadn't accomplished patching it into the latest kernel at the time (July 2010) they released the driver you obtained. It may already work with their latest code, but it would probably mean obtaining the source from their git repository, which is beyond my skill level at the moment.

BTW did you say you were able to build this driver? If so did you have to install/build LinuxTV?

Rudy

No. The build failed in exactly the same way it did for you.

[RudyG]

Re: Installing a Driver for MyGica A680B USB TV Tuner

Thank you for all of your help. You've been awesome.

Rudy

[LinuxRocks]

Re: Installing a Driver for MyGica A680B USB TV Tuner

You can also send the error message to the vendor and let them know about it. Its obviously a bug in their code that pertains to your environment and seeing as you are using the worlds most popular distro, it would be to their advantage to fix it.

They also seem interesting in developing for Linux as they did provide you with a driver for Linux.

They might not even know about it.

Worth a shot anyway...

Joe

[RudyG]

Re: Installing a Driver for MyGica A680B USB TV Tuner

Yup I thought exactly the same thing. About the time I posted this I emailed them the problem that I was having building this. I got a reply that they will work on the fix and that they will post on their blog when it is done. However, it's hard for me to hold my breath as it has been close to a year now that we've already waited.

I also asked them which release the current driver was built for, considering downgrading just to get this to work, but they never replied to this question.

Normally it takes 2+ years for drivers like these to show up, so I guess I have one more year to wait. Provided I still have this setup then. We'll see. Sure wish I could do this coding myself.

Rudy

[LinuxRocks]

Re: Installing a Driver for MyGica A680B USB TV Tuner

Yup I thought exactly the same thing. About the time I posted this I emailed them the problem that I was having building this. I got a reply that they will work on the fix and that they will post on their blog when it is done. However, it's hard for me to hold my breath as it has been close to a year now that we've already waited.

I also asked them which release the current driver was built for, considering downgrading just to get this to work, but they never replied to this question.

Normally it takes 2+ years for drivers like these to show up, so I guess I have one more year to wait. Provided I still have this setup then. We'll see. Sure wish I could do this coding myself.

Rudy

Or...

You could go to a site like http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page and see if you can find a supported device and buy it online. Only have to wait for the shipping time and not a year (Unless its USPS :-D HAHA).

I know there are supported devices out there, just have to find the right one.

Hope this helps!
Joe

[RudyG]

Re: Installing a Driver for MyGica A680B USB TV Tuner

Yup you're absolutely right. Oh well, I'll be smarter with my next purchase.

Rudy