Installing a DVB-T USB Stick in Kubuntu

[Eddy5]

I've installed Kubuntu 5.10 Breezy, and I'm pretty impressed with it.
Struggled a bit with mounting some network drives but that's all sorted.
I'm very used to Windows, but have had enough of it so want to go to Linux.
Anyway, I need to install my Freecom DVB-T USB stick, but it doesn't seem to be loading any drivers and I've no idea how to sort this.
The stick works fine in Windows so I know the hardware is good.
From dmesg I get the following. USB 5-6 is the Freecom stick.
[4294675.876000] usb 5-6: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
[4294676.271000] usb 5-8: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
[4294676.512000] usb 4-1: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
[4294677.521000] usbcore: registered new driver hiddev
[4294677.536000] input: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [413c:3010] on usb-0000:00:1d.3-1
[4294677.536000] usbcore: registered new driver usbhid
[4294677.536000] drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.01:USB HID core driver

Any help of what I need to do would be much appreciated.

[mchuskie]

Re: Installing a DVB-T USB Stick in Kubuntu

How can you tell it's not working? I would suspect that elsewhere in dmesg there is evidence of it working. Linux (thankfully) doesn't pop up that vastly annoying "Install New Hardware" dialog; it rather just gets on with the job of loading drivers (kernel modules, usually).

My guess is that your question is: how can I now watch TV?

Kaffeine (with the xine engine) can play DVB, and you really can't beat MythTV for heaps of functionality (though a little hard to set up).

But, I'm getting ahead of myself there. Can you post the complete dmesg output from when you plug in the stick, just to be sure?

[Eddy5]

Re: Installing a DVB-T USB Stick in Kubuntu

My main reasons are that I couldn see any driver installed in the dmesg list and the DVB icon is greyed out in Kaffeine (And from what I have found on the net, it looks really good, way better than Windows stuff).
Anyway I unplugged it and plugged it back in and the following is the result from dmesg

[4295408.367000] usb 5-6: USB disconnect, address 7
[4295410.033000] usb 5-6: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 8

and that is it, nothing more.

[mchuskie]

Re: Installing a DVB-T USB Stick in Kubuntu

With the stick plugged in, could you post the output of the command "lsusb" (no quotes)? A quick Google scan shows that others have had "It Just Works" results with your stick.

Also, is there a /dev/dvb/adaptor0 directory?

The DVB icon in Kaffeine will be greyed unless you install the Xine engine for it (the default, GStreamer, doesn't seem to like DVB). To do this (as posted at http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...10199#msg10199) -

1. Install (using Adept) the kaffeine-xine package
2. Load Kaffeine
3. Go to Settings -> Player Engine and choose "Kaffeine" not "Kaffeine GStreamer"

Incidentally, what country are you in?

[Eddy5]

Re: Installing a DVB-T USB Stick in Kubuntu

lsusb output

Bus 005 Device 004: ID 05dc:a410 Lexar Media, Inc.
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 14aa:0221 AVerMedia (again) or C&E
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 413c:3010 Dell Computer Corp.
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

I've found the same thing on the net, loads of people saying it just works

no dvb directory in my dev folder, which I'm guessing is causing the problem. I've not really got a clue on how to fix that properly though.

kaffeine-xine was installed, although it needed upgrading. Done
Oooh, something new just happened when I started Kaffeine after the install. The Kaffeine installation wizard came up showing what was OK, and what now. Guess what the DVB isn't found

DVB-Device...
No DVB-Devices found. The DVB related functions will be hidden.

It also says my DVD drive isn't found

DVD Drive...
Can't check DMA mode. Permission denied or no such device: "/dev/dvd".

And there's no folder for that either. I don't know why. There is a DVD drive in the PC.

I'm in the UK.

Thanks for your advice so far, it's much appreciated. I guess what I need to sort out is the dvb folder in my dev folder, but how do I do that?

[mchuskie]

Re: Installing a DVB-T USB Stick in Kubuntu

OK, some further research, and some bad news.

The kernel version used in Kubuntu is currently 2.6.12.10, and I don't think the drivers for your stick are included in that release. From the looks of it, they *are* in release 1.6.13.x. (I spent literally weeks trying to get my DVB card working, a few years ago with a different Linux distro, SuSE. It was most painful, I was a newbie then...)

Unfortunately, it's a real pain to update your kernel unless there's a pre-built package (that is, one you can get through Adept).

But - some good news! At the start of next month, Dapper (the next version of Kubuntu) is due to be released, and this has a much newer kernel (2.6.15). Your best bet is to upgrade when that is released, then it should "Just Work".

[Eddy5]

Re: Installing a DVB-T USB Stick in Kubuntu

Ah I see, that makes sense then. Thanks for the help. I an live with it as it is for a bit as I still have Windows
I'll see what happens with Dapper when it's released and post my results here.
Thanks again