skystar 2 and viewing satellite programs in FC 2

[Valent]

I have SkyStar 2 DVB card for viewing satellite programs. I see that Fedora Core 2 has allready skystar2 module for it and that is just great! One step in right direction.

Ok, now how to make (compile) vdr to work with fedora and skystar 2 card? As faw as I can tell you can't compile vdr without compileing dvr module for satelltite card. You have to use source from vdr site and make first dvr module and only then vdr.
Correct me if I'm wrong.

How to load skystar2 module in modprobe.conf? Kudz put 'alias eth0 skystar2' because it recognised it as a network card. But I get network starting error with this line in modprobe.conf.

What other programs beside vdr are there for viewing satellite programs?

Thank you.

[Jman]

It's not a network card, so you can remove the eth0 line. I don't know what to put there though.

I found it already compiled under /lib/modules/2.6.5-1.358/kernel/drivers/media/dvb/b2c2/skystar2.ko.

modprobe skystar2

should load it.

[Valent]

Originally posted by Jman
It's not a network card, so you can remove the eth0 line. I don't know what to put there though.

I found it already compiled under /lib/modules/2.6.5-1.358/kernel/drivers/media/dvb/b2c2/skystar2.ko.

modprobe skystar2

should load it.

That I know. But what do I do from here? I have loaded module and I see it with lsmod.

How do I compile and make vdr work with this module? Any other viewing program?

[TomS2]

[i]
How to load skystar2 module in modprobe.conf? Kudz put 'alias eth0 skystar2' because it recognised it as a network card. But I get network starting error with this line in modprobe.conf.

What other programs beside vdr are there for viewing satellite programs?

Thank you. [/B]

Try to insert the following lines into modprobe.conf:

alias skystar skystar2
alias frontend stv0299

The latter line might differ depending on which version of the SkyStar Card you have (if st0299 does not work try m312).

After the drivers load check if you have the dvb devices under /dev/dvb. That´s what I'm still missing :-(

Greets Tom.

[TomS2]

Originally posted by TomS2
...After the drivers load check if you have the dvb devices under /dev/dvb. That´s what I'm still missing :-(

Ok - here a complete HOWTO to "aktivate" the SkyStar 2 DVB board under Fedora Core 2:

Installation SkyStar II under Fedora Core 2

Prerequisites:
Fedora Core 2 with Kernel 2.6.3-1.358.

Please use the „root“ account to work through the following steps.

To load the card drivers automatically insert the following lines into your “/etc/modprobe.conf� file:
alias skystar skystar2
alias frontend stv0299

Currently Fedora Core 2 does not create the devices under /dev/dvb automatically. Thus execute the following ShellScript, which is part of the DVB Driver Package from www.linuxtv.org :

#!/bin/sh
# Create device nodes for the Linux DVB API with DVB_API_VERSION 2.
# The devices created are suitable for most current PC DVB cards,
# i.e. cards having one frontend, one demux and optionally one
# MPEG decoder.
# The script creates devices for four cards by default.

if [ -e /dev/.devfsd ]; then
echo "It seems you are using devfs. Good!"
exit 0
fi

# get rid of old DVB API devices; do it twice for good measure...
rm -rf /dev/ost
rm -rf /dev/ost
rm -rf /dev/dvb
rm -rf /dev/dvb

mkdir /dev/dvb
chmod 755 /dev/dvb

for i in `seq 0 3`; do
echo "Creating DVB devices in /dev/dvb/adapter$i"
mkdir /dev/dvb/adapter$i
chmod 755 /dev/dvb/adapter$i
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/video0 c 250 `expr 64 \* $i + 0`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/audio0 c 250 `expr 64 \* $i + 1`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/frontend0 c 250 `expr 64 \* $i + 3`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/demux0 c 250 `expr 64 \* $i + 4`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/dvr0 c 250 `expr 64 \* $i + 5`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/ca0 c 250 `expr 64 \* $i + 6`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/net0 c 250 `expr 64 \* $i + 7`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/osd0 c 250 `expr 64 \* $i + 8`
chown root.video /dev/dvb/adapter$i/*
done


Use “User and Groups� from the System settings menu of the Red Hat Menu, to create a group named “video�. Add all users who should have access to the DVB-card to this group.

Insert the following lines to /etc/rc.local
modprobe skystar and
modprobe frontend


The dmesg command should print the following lines:
drivers/media/dvb/b2c2/skystar2.c: FlexCopII(rev.130) chip found
drivers/media/dvb/b2c2/skystar2.c: the chip has 6 hardware filters
DVB: registering new adapter (Technisat SkyStar2 driver).
probe_tuner: try to attach to Technisat SkyStar2 driver
drivers/media/dvb/frontends/stv0299.c: setup for tuner Samsung TBMU24112IMB
DVB: registering frontend 0:0 (STV0299/TSA5059/SL1935 based)...

In the case that stv0299 could not bound a different frontend will be needed. Use alias frontend mt312 in modprobe.conf in this case.

That's it.
Good luck
Tom.

[Valent]

Originally posted by TomS2
Ok - here a complete HOWTO to "aktivate" the SkyStar 2 DVB board under Fedora Core 2:

In the case that stv0299 could not bound a different frontend will be needed. Use alias frontend mt312 in modprobe.conf in this case.

That's it.
Good luck
Tom.

First of all really, really thank you for answer. There are really little people that know linux enough and have skystar2 card to help.

I allready managed to compile vdr by myself in meantime. I just didn't manage to make /dev/dvb by myself so than you for that script.

I still get this error when run ./runvdr

[root@lain vdr-1.3.9]# ./runvdr
Makefile:102: /lib/modules/2.6.5-1.358/build/Rules.make: No such file or directory
make: *** No rule to make target `/lib/modules/2.6.5-1.358/build/Rules.make'. Stop.
vdr: no primary device found - using first device!


What am I doing wrong?

If it helps here is a little skystar 2 step-by-step that I started to make by myself. So if it helps you to see if I made a mistake somewhere here it is:


Step by step vdr installation (one more step)

This is the beginning of step-by-step or pre how-to for installing vdr for SkyStar 2 card on Fedora Core 2 linux with 2.6.5 kernel.
It should work on Mandrake and other linux distributions also.

-----

1. Download vdr source file (vdr-1.2.6.tar.bz2 or vdr-1.3.9.tar.bz2) and driver (linux-dvb.2003-11-08.tar.bz2) from http://linvdr.org/download/vdr/Developer

I downloaded both vdr files because I saw that 1.3 version is "beta" or some thing like that. Is 1.3 beta? Is it stable? Why isn't show on official vdr site?

2. extract both (or all three) files in common directory. I extracted them to DVB directory. So I got DVB/vdr-1.2.6, DVB/vdr-1.3.9 and DVB/linux-dvb.2003-11-08 directories.

3. Edit "Makefile" in DVB/vdr-1.3.9 (or 1.2.6) folder; change line #17 from "DVBDIR = ../DVB" to "DVBDIR = ../linux-dvb.2003-11-08" and change line #25 so it corresponds to directory where you want vdr to save video material.
I changed mine from "/video" to "/mnt/fat" because I want vdr to put there video files.

4. Do these changes to "Make.config.template" file also (in vdr directory)

5. rename or copy "Make.config.template" to "Make.config"

6. run 'make' to compile vdr or 'make VFAT=1' if vdr is going to save video files to fat32 partition.

7. edit "runvdr" file in vdr folder; edit line #23 so it points to your dvb driver directory. This was "../linux-dvb.2003-11-08/driver" in my case.

8. copy "channels.conf" and "sources.conf" to "video" directory. This was /mnt/fat in my case.

9. load SkyStar2 modules; "modprobe skystar" and "modprobe stv0299"
Do this as root user.

10. run vdr with './runvdr' command.

Well I got everything till step 10 right, and I feel like I'm missing some steps after step 10 because when I run vdr I get this as a response:

[root@lain vdr-1.3.9]# ./runvdr
Makefile:102: /lib/modules/2.6.5-1.358/build/Rules.make: No such file or directory
make: *** No rule to make target `/lib/modules/2.6.5-1.358/build/Rules.make'. Stop.
vdr: no primary device found - using first device!

What does this mean?

and with 1.2.6 I get this error:

[root@lain vdr-1.2.6]# ./runvdr
Makefile:102: /lib/modules/2.6.5-1.358/build/Rules.make: No such file or directory
make: *** No rule to make target `/lib/modules/2.6.5-1.358/build/Rules.make'. Stop.
vdr: no primary device found - using first device!

Ok. Problem?!? I goggled but found nothing that helped me.

Where did I make a mistake? Does vdr work with tv-out only? Because I don't have TV, I only have PC monitor.

I added two lines in my /etc/modules.conf so SkyStar 2 modules load but they don't load automatically and that is why I load modules manually in line #9. These 2 lines I added:

alias skystar skystar2
alias frontend stv0299

are these lines ok?


ps. there is a nice article for vdr compiling and basics here:
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7171

[LaKing]

HOWTO view free to air Sat-TV with Fedora Core 2 and the SkyStar2 from Technisat. (B2C2 Flexcop chip)

Install and Update Fedora with yum or apt.
You will need Xine as the mediaplayer.
( install the midnight commander as well )

The Kernel in fedora supports the card built in, you just need TomS2's "howto" to activate. (Thanks Tom)

For me the mt312 works. (Older Skytar2 from EOL)

After that, dmesg prints the following lines + more ...

drivers/media/dvb/b2c2/skystar2.c: FlexCopII(rev.130) chip found
drivers/media/dvb/b2c2/skystar2.c: the chip has 6 hardware filters
driver_initialize MAC address = ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:00:00
DVB: registering new adapter (Technisat SkyStar2 driver).
DVB: registering frontend 0:0 (Zarlink MT312)...

Download from linuxTV the linuxtv-dvb-apps-x.x.x, uncompress and make.
in there is a util/szap dir with a README and some conf files.
For DVB-S, Astra Channel config file:

$ ./szap -c channels.conf-dvbs-astra n24

will tune to N24. if you get FE_HAS_LOCK messages, then the Card is installed.

Copy the channels.conf-dvbs-astra to the hidden ./xine directory in your user's home directory and rename it to channels.conf

If i start Xine i get sound but no video.

$ xine -V xshm dvb://25

fixes that problem, you should get video and audio and see Pro7.
Xine should keep that "xshm" thing in his config file.
Dont forget to turn DeInterlaceing on.

Thats All Folks ....
LaKing
http://www.D250.hu

[vipinanand]

hi
i am using HD5000 airstar to pc card
and my linux version is 2.6.11-1.1369_FC4
in /dev/dvb/adaptor0 is is showing only ca0 dmux0 and there is no frontend0 and dmesg message shoows like this---

drivers/media/dvb/b2c2/skystar2.c: FlexCopIIB(rev.195) chip found
drivers/media/dvb/b2c2/skystar2.c: the chip has 38 hardware filters
driver_initialize MAC address = 00:d0:d7:0e:a5:fe:00:00
DVB: registering new adapter (SkyStar2).
i2c_readbytes: i2c read error (addr 0a, err == -121)
mt352_read_register: readreg error (reg=127, ret==-121)
mt312_read: ret == -121
skystar2: A frontend driver was not found for device 13d0/2103 subsystem 13d0/2103

what shoud i have to do for getting frontend driver and its entry in /dev/dvb/adapter0/ dir.

Thanks
vipin