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I'm running Mythbuntu 14.04.

I've had two PCTV 290 usb tuners working just fine for a while in the same box. I had to replace one recently and ended up with a 292e. The 292e is supported in kernel 3.16, and requires firmware. so:

1 - I installed kernel 13.16.0-30-generic from packages found in aptitude. The new kernel boots up fine and the old 290 tuner is working.

2 - I downloaded (from github) the firmware file dvb-demod-si2168-02.fw and copied it to /lib/firmware. This is consistent with using the correct driver.

The result in syslog is that the new 292 tuner is recognised apparently correctly and then I get:

si2168 11-0064: si2168: found a 'Silicon Labs Si2168' in cold state
si2168 11-0064: si2168: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-demod-si2168-02.fw'
si2168 11-0064: si2168: found a 'Silicon Labs Si2168' in warm state
si2168 11-0064: si2168: found a 'Silicon Labs Si2168' in cold state
si2168 11-0064: si2168: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-demod-si2168-02.fw'
si2168 11-0064: si2168: found a 'Silicon Labs Si2168' in warm state
si2168 11-0064: si2168: found a 'Silicon Labs Si2168' in cold state
si2168 11-0064: si2168: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-demod-si2168-02.fw'
si2168 11-0064: si2168: found a 'Silicon Labs Si2168' in warm state

Note that the device has been correctly recognised and is loading the correct firmware.

I'm guessing, but doing it three times is not a good sign.

If I ask for a channel scan on the 292 I get the above messages ad infinitum.

Plus, from MythTV, I get this, over and over again:

mythbackend: message repeated 5 times: [ mythbackend[1893]: E SignalMonitor recorders/dvbchannel.cpp:1026 (GetSignalStrength) DVBChan[17](/dev/dvb/adapter1/frontend0): Getting Frontend signal strength failed.#012#011#011#011eno: Operation not supported (95)]

The 292 device appears as a new dvb adaptor but is not usable by MythTV. I am following instructions from many sources. Or maybe I'm not. Lots of other people say it works, but not, apparently, for me.

I am at a loss for what to do next - does anyone have any ideas?

Mike Sandford
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1 Answers1

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The problem was that I was using an out of date version of MythTV, for which I can only apologise.

It turns out that was assuming that the error messages were a function of the driver but, by installing the latest version of MythTV 0.27 the messages went away and MythTV was able to scan for channels.

One learning point - Use a scanner such as dvbv5-scan to confirm that the hardware and driver are or are not working. I did this when I built the system in the first place, but forgot all about it.

One other point to note - the driver appears to load the firmware when the device has been inactive for a while. The mass messaging about downloading firmware was presumably because MythTV was failing to get the device started properly. I still get some of these messages, but not nearly as many as I first reported.

I'm sorry to have put something up with such an obviously trivial answer, but thanks to those who looked at the question and gave it some thought.

Mike Sandford
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