| Since a lot of Planetsky customers
use Twinhan VisionDTV Sat DVB cards, the following is a short guide
to make the card work with Linux. Most popular Linux distributions such
as Fedora Core, Mandrake (Mandriva), Gentoo etc. are shipped with modern
2.6 kernel, so this guide is written for the 2.6.11 kernel which is latest
at the moment and already contains up to date DVB drivers.
Requirements
- x86 PC with at least one empty PCI slot
- Twinhan VisionDTV Sat DVB card properly installed into the PCI slot
and connected to LNB
- Any modern Linux distribution initially running 2.6 kernel
- 2.6 kernel source distribution
- linuxtv-dvb-apps distribution
Getting software
Download the latest kernel source (2.6.11 at the moment)
from kernel.org site or from one
of its mirrors via HTTP or
FTP with your favorite download manager. For example:
wget -c -t0 http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.11.10.tar.bz
Download the linuxtv-dvb-apps distribution (version 1.1.0)
from our site. For example:
wget -c -t0 http://faq.planetsky.com/files/soft/linuxtv-dvb-apps-1.1.0.tested.kern2.6.11.tgz
After downloading kernel source and linuxtv-dvb-apps distribution proceed
to the next step.
Configuring and installing a new kernel
Move your kernel source distribution to its common location (usually
/usr/src) and extract it. Then check if the kernel source directory exists
and change the working directory into it. On completion issue "make
menuconfig" command and prepare for further configuration. Screenshot:
Please note than kernel sources extraction can take some time depending
on your CPU speed, hard drive speed and/or overall system performance. After
"make menuconfig" command you should get the kernel configuration
menu:
Proceed to "Device Drivers" section, then to "I2C Support"
section. Set "I2C Support" to be built as module:
Then return to "Device Drivers" section and proceed to "Sound"
section. Enable "Sound card support" to be built as module:
Then return to "Device Drivers" section and proceed to "Multimedia
devices" section. Proceed to "Video For Linux" section
and enable "Video For Linux" to be built as module:
In "Video For Linux" subsection enable "BT848 Video For
Linux" to be built as module:
Then return to main "Video For Linux" section and proceed to
"Digital Video Broadcasting Devices" subsection. Enable "DVB
For Linux", "DVB Core Support", " and "Nebula/Pinnacle PCTV PCI cards"
to be built as modules:
Then configure the kernel for your system, include everything needed,
go back to main menu and save new kernel configuration.
^M
To compile the kernel, issue a command:
make
If the build process passes sucessfully, issue the following command to install new modules:
make modules_install
If the installation process passes sucessfully, proceed to the next step.
Save your current kernel! For example, if your current kernel version is "2.6.11.10"(to check your current kernel version issue "uname -r" command), change your working
directory to /boot, then backup "System.map-2.6.11.10" and "vmlinuz-2.6.11.10" files. Screenshot:
Install new kernel:
cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.11.10
make install
If the kernel installation passes without errors, make sure you can still use the old kernel image. The following example shows how to configure GRUB loader. If you use any other boot loader, please refer to its configuration manual.
Open the /boot/grub/grub.conf file. You should see something like this:
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# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda1
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.11.10)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11.10 ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.11.10.img
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Copy the appropriate lines, for example:
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title Fedora Core (2.6.11.10)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11.10 ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.11.10.img
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Add these lines to the end of file and make them refer to the backup kernel:
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title Fedora Core (2.6.11.10) backup
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11.10.work ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.11.10.img
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Reboot your system with the new kernel.
The following lines should appear in the system boot log file (/var/log/dmesg):
If the lines shown above are absent, that means your DVB card was not detected.
In this case check your DVB card and try installing it to another PCI slot.
Compile linuxtv-dvb-apps.
Download and extract a DVB card startup script.
The script archive contains "channels.conf" file also. Put it to the "/etc" directory. The included "channels.conf" contains sample card settings for PAS-7 Planetsky transponder.
Edit the script and set the following variables:
- DVB_MAC - your DVB card MAC address (colon separated)
- DVBNET_PATH - path to "dvbnet" binary
- SZAP_PATH - path to "szap" binary
Run the script: "./run_dvb.sh start"
The card should start and lock to the satellite:
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