I tried pcr.pl -d near the start of the process, and discovered that it creates the backup directory but doesn't populate it, causing a later run to not create the backup files because the backup directory already exists. Fortunately, since I had just installed from the R5A12 CD, I just redid the installation (since my originals were blown away). I now have copies of all originals and of all the files the script writes on a different machine, so I can easily compare them.

Unfortunately, I thought I had that output preserved somewhere, but I can't find it, so now I'll have to completely reinstall from CD (since I can't get control of the machine again from its hung state, can't ssh in, and can't interrupt the autoboot sequence since I never get a LILO prompt after power on), so this'll take me at least 15 minutes to reinstall and get to the point of being abl to provide that output.

You should probably put a big caution in the script that apparently the lspci output and what the BusID should be are swapped around, since you say I apparently needed 0:7:1 instead of 1:7:0. (I didn't bother with the 0x 'cause 7 is less than 10, and I -did put a PCI: before the whole string, just in case, e.g., BusID "PCI:00:07:1".

...and I just saw your later post about svideo vs composite output. Aha! I'm trying to use composite, and asked way back in the beginning if the card just output to both at once. Apparently not. I can try fiddling with that as well. (Though the fact that the box won't even let me ssh in while in the hung state makes me wonder if it's not just that I see no output, but that's it's frozen---the pattern of black&white horizontal bars in that diagonal pattern isn't moving, but totally stuck.) Because it's totally frozen, each iteration takes -at least- 20 minutes or so 'cause I have to reinstall from CD, configure the cards & video sources, then run your script, and then get an editor into the machine (or use scp in both directions) so I can edit the configuration files. FInding a way of regaining control of the machine in the hung state is a top priority because otherwise debugging this is very, very painful. Knowing what to set output_select= -for sure- would be a big help... Any idea where this might be documented?

Do you know what the deal is with the 1=Standard vs 0=Standard stuff is in gdm.conf?
What's that supposed to mean, anyway? Tnx...

Also, note that I'm running (I think) kernel 2.6.9 or whatever comes with R5A12; I see some posts by others about a later kernel helping with the 350, but I don't know if they're otherwise running in a similar environment, so it's hard to directly compare.

And in case you're wondering why the script didn't figure out the lspci output, the relevant line from mine reads:

0000:01:07.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC15 MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

in case that's helpful. lspci -m reports that line as
01:07.0 Multimedia video controller Internext Compression Inc iTVC15 MPEG-2 Encoder 01 00 Hauppauge computer works Inc. WinTV PVR-350

Hey, if your script is supposed to output to both the PVR-350 TVout -and- to X, why does it blow away all of the stuff in XF86Config-4 that mentions my VGA configuraiton? Those lines are just -gone-; I compared the two files using diff. Is that supposed to happen, and, if so, how can it possibly therefore be enabling TVout and X at the same time?

Aha. A search for "output_select ivtv pvr-350 composite" found http://ivtv.writeme.ch/tiki-index.php?page=TvOutHowto, which seems to imply that I want output_select=0, so I"ll try that first.

Oka, here's the debugging output.(note typo in the very last word, if you care---and
"tuner typer"?)

And PS--what version of ivtvdrv.o is being loaded? Your script fetches one from your own web site, but I have no idea how that was built, or when... (Tnx!)

# perl pvr.pl -d
DEBUG: pvr.pl Version: 0.2.3
DEBUG: User=root

This script will attempt to configure your KnoppMyth
system for PVR-350 output including X display.

Because of driver and some other differences, this script
will attempt to detect the version of KnoppMyth you are
running. In the absence of an /etc/KnoppMyth-Version file,
it is assumed you are using version R4V5.

Press ENTER to continue, or CTRL-C to abort.


KnoppMythVersion detected=R5 Alpha 12
DEBUG: KnoppMyth Version = R5 Alpha 12
DEBUG: Get Driver Command=wget http://dc1.snapperworld.net/files/mytht ... _drv.o.gz;
gunzip ivtvdev_drv.o.gz;
install -c -m 0444 ivtvdev_drv.o /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/ivtvdev_drv.o;
DEBUG: Tuner Typer=2
DEBUG: Busid=
DEBUG: fb=fb0
DEBUG: creating /tmp/ivtv file.
DEBUG: Displaying ivtv file that would have been created
DEBUG: writing temp XF86Config-4 file to /tmp directory.
DEBUG: Displaying XF86Config file that would have been producted

Um, oddly enough, /etc/mythtv/modules/ivtv has no line mentioning output_select at all!

Here's mine:

alias char-major-81 videodev
alias char-major-61 lirc_i2c
options ivtv debug=1
options tuner type=2
options msp3400 once=1 simple=1
install ivtv /sbin/modprobe tuner; /sbin/modprobe msp3400; /sbin/modprobe saa7115; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install ivtv; /sbin/modprobe ivtv-fb
remove ivtv /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove ivtv && /sbin/modprobe -r saa7115 && /sbin/modprobe -r msp3400 && /sbin/modprobe -r tuner && /sbin/modprobe -r ivtv-fb


I'm -guessing- that either I want to add output_enable=1 output_select=0 to the ivtv options line, or (judging from what I see in various examples all over the net), a new line like

options saa7127 enable_output=1 output_select=0

(though I have -no- idea what "saa7127" is, and I see other four-digit numbers in other posts).

Greenstalk:

First, get the new version of the pvr utility. I made an adjustment for R4V5 and completely left off the code to detect the busid for R5A12. Sorry for that. It should now correctly detect the busid and get it workig for you (still need svideo, though).

I think the option for output_select was from a previous version of the ivtv drivers. I don't currently know what needs to be done to enable composite out. It may need to be done from within mythtv's settins where you select the different video device. I'll look into that, and if I can figure out which one it is (maybe a doc someplace has it) I will add an option to the script to select it.

As for the XFConfig file, the way the script works is it takes the "sample" pvr-350 out file as a template and uses that. Your original one is removed (and should be backed up). It then spits it back out and modifies the fb line(s) and the busid so it will work. A more complex setup with both TV and VGA is possible, I think, but I havn't gotten that to work yet, so the best I can offer is to simply automate what I know worked for me based on all the other posts so far. Enabling TVOUT and X at the same time means your TVset is used for the MythTV interface as well as live tv. I didn't mean to imply that both the vga and tv set would have usable displays. This is something that I may be able to do later on.

Thanks, I'll give the new script a try. (Btw, what version of ivtv is it downloading from your web server? And/or what date release? That might help with figuring out what options it might need.)

As for VGA vs TVout, I don't care if they mirror each other, which I assume is what you're saying, e.g., that I"ll see the same thing on the VGA out and the TV (though I guess it would be nice if the TV was the Myth interface and the VGA was just a normal console again). I'll figure that out once I get something that doesn't hang on boot and which gives anything usable on TVout... :)

Anyway, tnx; I'll give the script a whirl and report back (once I figure out where to set composite out, since I can't easily see svideo in my current setup).

It's the same driver file that the ALARSON post mentioned. I'm not sure what it is, though. At some point, I may work on getting updated versions that support more features, but I will need to do more research and get a good understanding on what is there.

Okay, I've had a semi-success and am now in a very weird situation.

Basically, I ran the new script, did -not- reboot (since I'd lose control of the box), and then started poking around. I discovered that doing
rmmod saa7127; modprobe 7127 test_image=1
gave me correct colorbars on the TV (composite video). Any options -after- test_image (such as enable_output, output_select, or debug) are apparently ignored. Putting any options -before- test_image seems to cause the test_image itself to be ignored, and I get the stairstep horizontal black & white thin horizontal lines instead. It's as if modprobe is only noticing one option on the line. Also, totally random options like thiscannotpossiblybeone are also apparently ignored.

Also, doing just rmmod saa7127; modprobe 7127 gave me the stairsteps.

I did some poking around with dd'ing input from /dev/video, then tried doing, e.g,. dd if=/dev/video of=/dev/video16, poked slightly with ivtvctl -u 0x3000 -p 4, and so forth; didn't see anything but a black screen

But -then- I discovered that rmmod saa7127; modprobe 7127 now gave me a black screen (no stairsteps). I'm unsure if any of my poking unjammed something, since I haven't tried to replicate the experiment yet.

And -then- I discovered that, if I selected Watch TV on the VGA monitor and hit return, my monitor went black, and about two seconds later, live video and audio (in sync) popped up on the TV! I can switch channels, etc, but my monitor stays black. And if I hit ESC, the video vanishes from the TV (leaving a black screen), and the Myth front panel pops back up on my VGA monitor. I can alternate as many times as I wish between the two, but one of the two is always displaying a black screen.

Is this how it's supposed to work?

I have a typescript (in a shell in Emacs) of most of the frobbing I've done, and I'm going to preserve all the files that your script touches (which I've since done some editing on), so I can at least hope to get back to this state while debugging; I could also make them available in another post after trimming down parts of the transcript that have giant sections of output (e.g., manpages, etc).

So it's clear that it's -possible- for this to work (if the alternating-screens thing is how it's supposed to work), but I'm not sure how to make it work after a boot, and I haven't yet tried rebooting to see if I'll wedge again. (Also, I'm unsure if some of those files your script modifies have really been read by anything yet, since I ran it but didn't reboot, so it's not clear what state the machine is in).

Ideas, anyone? At least it's apparent that this -can- work, and that things are wired correctly and that the hardware works...

The reason this is happening is because the modules got loaded and the mythconverg database was updated to output to TV. This is correct behavior. If you reboot, then the new XF86Config-4 file takes effect, at which point, all ouput will go to the TV. You could have also accomplished the same thing by restarting X using /etc/init.d/gdm stop, /etc/init.d/gdm start.

Also, I've noticed that the pvr card and/or drivers lock if you mess around with them sometimes. They get fixed by doing a complete shutdown and restart. This happens to me when I know the configs are correct (because I've seen it work) and then the live tv just has a blank screen.

Anyway, I think you should now be at the same point that I am...output to TV for both myth interface and live tv.

Just remember, you can always do a CTRL-ALT-F2 (or F1, F3, etc) and get a text prompt on your VGA if things go south and you need to make modifications. At least, that works for me.

First, great work on this script. I had my own little copy and paste file from R4V5 but nothing this easy and I hadn't tackled R5 really yet.

Quick question:


Is this still the case?
and am I right by saying that I would NOT be able to use X on my TV screen?

Thank you.

-Lane

[/quote]

you use X on the tv screen you just can't use it on both the tv and a monitor. at the moment from the way I understand it you have to pick one or the other.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

X worked correctly on the TV screen using R4V5 and the PVR-350 out. Not sure what broke it on this version, though. I havn't investigate this yet due to lack of time, but it's the last big problem on my list for things that worked in R4V5 but not this version. It's probably not related to KnoppMyth, though.

WOW!

One quick script to fix so much hassle.

Thanks Snap.

R5a12
PVR 350
Sketchy Intel Mobo
512 Mb RAM
Generic VGA

Glad it worked for you flatchmo. Thanks go to everyone who has posted at this site on this topic as all these helpful hints got me to where I could offer a time saving script.