ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Rudy Zijlstra]

Dears,

I have a ddbridge device:

03:00.0 Multimedia controller: Device dd01:0003
         Subsystem: Device dd01:0021
         Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 17
         Memory at f0900000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
         Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
         Capabilities: [90] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
         Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0000 Rev=0 
Len=00c <?>
         Kernel driver in use: DDBridge

The kernel recognises as seen in dmesg:

[    1.811626] Digital Devices PCIE bridge driver, Copyright (C) 2010-11 
Digital Devices GmbH
[    1.813996] pci 0000:01:19.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[    1.816033] DDBridge driver detected: Digital Devices PCIe bridge
[    1.816273] HW 0001000d FW 00010004

But /dev/dvb remains empty, only /dev/ddbridge exists.

Any pointers are much appreciated

Cheers


Rudy

Re: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Rudy Zijlstra]

Hi Rene,

DVB-S2

I would have expected the relevant modules to be loaded after detecting 
the bridge, and after ddbridge detecting the relevant HW behind. This is 
apparently not happening, so how to trigger?

Cheers


Rudy

On 18-07-14 16:27, René wrote:
> Hi Rudy,
>
> ddbridge is a ... bridge. So it is an interface between PCIe and a 
> "DVB" device. So missing info is what frontend and demux (at least) 
> devices type. Is it DVB-C(2)/T(2)/S(2) ?
>
> René
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Rudy Zijlstra" <rudy@grumpydevil.homelinux.org>
> Sent: Friday, July 18, 2014 3:28 PM
> To: "Linux Media Mailing List" <linux-media@vger.kernel.org>
> Subject: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6
>
>> Dears,
>>
>> I have a ddbridge device:
>>
>> 03:00.0 Multimedia controller: Device dd01:0003
>>         Subsystem: Device dd01:0021
>>         Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 17
>>         Memory at f0900000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
>>         Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
>>         Capabilities: [90] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
>>         Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0000 
>> Rev=0 Len=00c <?>
>>         Kernel driver in use: DDBridge
>>
>> The kernel recognises as seen in dmesg:
>>
>> [    1.811626] Digital Devices PCIE bridge driver, Copyright (C) 
>> 2010-11 Digital Devices GmbH
>> [    1.813996] pci 0000:01:19.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
>> [    1.816033] DDBridge driver detected: Digital Devices PCIe bridge
>> [    1.816273] HW 0001000d FW 00010004
>>
>> But /dev/dvb remains empty, only /dev/ddbridge exists.
>>
>> Any pointers are much appreciated
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>>
>> Rudy
>> -- 
>> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe 
>> linux-media" in
>> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
>> More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html 

Re: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Rudy Zijlstra]

On 18-07-14 17:01, René wrote:
> To know which modules shall be detected, we need at least the make and 
> model of the device.
> If you can read the references on the chips on the board, it would be 
> great ...
I see. What would happen if I build a monolithic kernel with all DVB 
modules included?

I'll check if i can read the chip references...

Re: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Rudy Zijlstra]

On 18-07-14 17:39, Rudy Zijlstra wrote:
>
>
> On 18-07-14 17:01, René wrote:
>> To know which modules shall be detected, we need at least the make 
>> and model of the device.
>> If you can read the references on the chips on the board, it would be 
>> great ...
> I see. What would happen if I build a monolithic kernel with all DVB 
> modules included?
>
> I'll check if i can read the chip references...
>
It's a Digital Devices Cine S2

If i made no reading mistakes:
STV0900B
Lattice LFE3 - 17EA

The tuners are below soldered shielding with the text "Digital Devices 
Tuner 1" and "Digitial Devices Tuner 2". As i am not good in soldering, 
i prefer not to remove the shielding

Re: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Rudy Zijlstra]

On 18-07-14 19:13, René wrote:
> Had you a look to the linuxtv.org wiki page ?
> If not read 
> http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Linux4Media_cineS2_DVB-S2_Twin_Tuner 
> if this correspond to your device you are may be missing the firmware 
> file (bottom of the page)
>

The ngene and the ddbridge are both bridge drivers. Checking the driver 
source, the ngene driver needs the ngene fw, the ddbridge does not need 
any firmware.

I did find something to check, but i need daylight to do so, as i am 
checking to get extermal power to the cards.

Cheers


Rudy

Re: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Thomas Kaiser]

On 07/18/2014 03:28 PM, Rudy Zijlstra wrote:
> Dears,
>
> I have a ddbridge device:
>
> 03:00.0 Multimedia controller: Device dd01:0003
>           Subsystem: Device dd01:0021
>           Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 17
>           Memory at f0900000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
>           Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
>           Capabilities: [90] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
>           Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0000 Rev=0
> Len=00c <?>
>           Kernel driver in use: DDBridge
>
> The kernel recognises as seen in dmesg:
>
> [    1.811626] Digital Devices PCIE bridge driver, Copyright (C) 2010-11
> Digital Devices GmbH
> [    1.813996] pci 0000:01:19.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
> [    1.816033] DDBridge driver detected: Digital Devices PCIe bridge
> [    1.816273] HW 0001000d FW 00010004
>
> But /dev/dvb remains empty, only /dev/ddbridge exists.
>
> Any pointers are much appreciated
>
> Cheers
>
>
> Rudy

Hello Rudy

I use a similar card from Digital Devices with Ubuntu 14.04 and kernel 3.13.0-32-generic. Support for this card was not build into the kernel and I had to compile it myself. I had to use media_build_experimental from Mr. Endriss.

http://linuxtv.org/hg/~endriss/media_build_experimental

Your card should be supported with this version.

Regards, Thomas

Re: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Bjoern]

> Hello Rudy
> 
> I use a similar card from Digital Devices with Ubuntu 14.04 and kernel 3.13.0-32-generic. Support for this card was not build into the kernel and I had to compile it myself. I had to use media_build_experimental from Mr. Endriss.
> 
> http://linuxtv.org/hg/~endriss/media_build_experimental
> 
> Your card should be supported with this version.
> 
> Regards, Thomas

Hi Rudy,

What Thomas writes is absolutely correct...

This is unfortunately the worst situation I've ever run across in
Linux... There was a kernel driver that worked and was supported by
Digital Devices. Then, from what I read, changes to how the V4L drivers
have to be written was changed - Digital Devices doesn't like that and
they force users to use "experimental" builds which are the "old
style". 

This is total rubbish imo - if this is how it was decided that the
drivers have to be nowadays then adjust them. Why am I paying such a lot
of money others right, these DD cards are really not cheap?

Some attempts have been made by people active here to adapt the drivers
and make them work in newer kernels, but so far no one has succeeded.
Last attempt was in Jan 2014 iirc, since then - silence.

I wish I could help out, I can code but Linux is well just a bit more
"difficult" I guess ;-)

Cheers,
Bjoern

Re: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Antti Palosaari]

On 07/30/2014 08:13 AM, Bjoern wrote:
>> Hello Rudy
>>
>> I use a similar card from Digital Devices with Ubuntu 14.04 and kernel 3.13.0-32-generic. Support for this card was not build into the kernel and I had to compile it myself. I had to use media_build_experimental from Mr. Endriss.
>>
>> http://linuxtv.org/hg/~endriss/media_build_experimental
>>
>> Your card should be supported with this version.
>>
>> Regards, Thomas
>
> Hi Rudy,
>
> What Thomas writes is absolutely correct...
>
> This is unfortunately the worst situation I've ever run across in
> Linux... There was a kernel driver that worked and was supported by
> Digital Devices. Then, from what I read, changes to how the V4L drivers
> have to be written was changed - Digital Devices doesn't like that and
> they force users to use "experimental" builds which are the "old
> style".
>
> This is total rubbish imo - if this is how it was decided that the
> drivers have to be nowadays then adjust them. Why am I paying such a lot
> of money others right, these DD cards are really not cheap?
>
> Some attempts have been made by people active here to adapt the drivers
> and make them work in newer kernels, but so far no one has succeeded.
> Last attempt was in Jan 2014 iirc, since then - silence.
>
> I wish I could help out, I can code but Linux is well just a bit more
> "difficult" I guess ;-)

I have one of such device too, but I have been too busy all the time 
with other drivers...

Basically these DTV drivers should be developed in a order, bridge 
driver first, then demod and tuner - for one single device. After it is 
committed in tree, you could start adding new devices and drivers. If 
you try implement too big bunch of things as a once, you will likely 
fail endless reviews and so.

I don't know what is change in development process which causes these 
problems. What I remember there has been only few big changes in recent 
years, change from Mercurial to Git and reorganization of directories/files.

regards
Antti

-- 
http://palosaari.fi/

Re: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Antti Palosaari]

On 07/30/2014 04:00 PM, Antti Palosaari wrote:
>
>
> On 07/30/2014 08:13 AM, Bjoern wrote:
>>> Hello Rudy
>>>
>>> I use a similar card from Digital Devices with Ubuntu 14.04 and
>>> kernel 3.13.0-32-generic. Support for this card was not build into
>>> the kernel and I had to compile it myself. I had to use
>>> media_build_experimental from Mr. Endriss.
>>>
>>> http://linuxtv.org/hg/~endriss/media_build_experimental
>>>
>>> Your card should be supported with this version.
>>>
>>> Regards, Thomas
>>
>> Hi Rudy,
>>
>> What Thomas writes is absolutely correct...
>>
>> This is unfortunately the worst situation I've ever run across in
>> Linux... There was a kernel driver that worked and was supported by
>> Digital Devices. Then, from what I read, changes to how the V4L drivers
>> have to be written was changed - Digital Devices doesn't like that and
>> they force users to use "experimental" builds which are the "old
>> style".
>>
>> This is total rubbish imo - if this is how it was decided that the
>> drivers have to be nowadays then adjust them. Why am I paying such a lot
>> of money others right, these DD cards are really not cheap?
>>
>> Some attempts have been made by people active here to adapt the drivers
>> and make them work in newer kernels, but so far no one has succeeded.
>> Last attempt was in Jan 2014 iirc, since then - silence.
>>
>> I wish I could help out, I can code but Linux is well just a bit more
>> "difficult" I guess ;-)
>
> I have one of such device too, but I have been too busy all the time
> with other drivers...
>
> Basically these DTV drivers should be developed in a order, bridge
> driver first, then demod and tuner - for one single device. After it is
> committed in tree, you could start adding new devices and drivers. If
> you try implement too big bunch of things as a once, you will likely
> fail endless reviews and so.
>
> I don't know what is change in development process which causes these
> problems. What I remember there has been only few big changes in recent
> years, change from Mercurial to Git and reorganization of
> directories/files.

Device I have seems to be:
DD Cine S2 V6.5 - Twin Tuner Card DVB-S/S2 (PCI Express Card)
DD DuoFlex C/C2/T/T2 Expansion (V3) - Twin Tuner Expansion-modul DVB-C/T/T2

I will start looking DVB-S/S2 support at the very first as it is the 
bridge needed in any case. I have no experience from PCIe devices...

regards
Antti

-- 
http://palosaari.fi/

Re: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Rudy Zijlstra]

On 19-07-14 19:49, Thomas Kaiser wrote:
>
> Hello Rudy
>
> I use a similar card from Digital Devices with Ubuntu 14.04 and kernel 
> 3.13.0-32-generic. Support for this card was not build into the kernel 
> and I had to compile it myself. I had to use media_build_experimental 
> from Mr. Endriss.
>
> http://linuxtv.org/hg/~endriss/media_build_experimental
>
> Your card should be supported with this version.
>
> Regards, Thomas
>
>
Hi Thomas,

thank you for the information.

Is there a preferred kernel for the experimental?

Cheers


Rudy

Re: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Antti Palosaari]

On 07/30/2014 11:56 PM, Raymond Jender wrote:
> Get me off this list!  D A M I T !!!!!

> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-media" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> <mailto:majordomo@vger.kernel.org>
> More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

-- 
http://palosaari.fi/

Re: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Rudy Zijlstra]

On 30-07-14 22:52, Antti Palosaari wrote:
>
>
> On 07/30/2014 04:00 PM, Antti Palosaari wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 07/30/2014 08:13 AM, Bjoern wrote:
>>>> Hello Rudy
>>>>
>>>> I use a similar card from Digital Devices with Ubuntu 14.04 and
>>>> kernel 3.13.0-32-generic. Support for this card was not build into
>>>> the kernel and I had to compile it myself. I had to use
>>>> media_build_experimental from Mr. Endriss.
>>>>
>>>> http://linuxtv.org/hg/~endriss/media_build_experimental
>>>>
>>>> Your card should be supported with this version.
>>>>
>>>> Regards, Thomas
>>>
>>> Hi Rudy,
>>>
>>> What Thomas writes is absolutely correct...
>>>
>>> This is unfortunately the worst situation I've ever run across in
>>> Linux... There was a kernel driver that worked and was supported by
>>> Digital Devices. Then, from what I read, changes to how the V4L drivers
>>> have to be written was changed - Digital Devices doesn't like that and
>>> they force users to use "experimental" builds which are the "old
>>> style".
>>>
>>> This is total rubbish imo - if this is how it was decided that the
>>> drivers have to be nowadays then adjust them. Why am I paying such a 
>>> lot
>>> of money others right, these DD cards are really not cheap?
>>>
>>> Some attempts have been made by people active here to adapt the drivers
>>> and make them work in newer kernels, but so far no one has succeeded.
>>> Last attempt was in Jan 2014 iirc, since then - silence.
>>>
>>> I wish I could help out, I can code but Linux is well just a bit more
>>> "difficult" I guess ;-)
>>
>> I have one of such device too, but I have been too busy all the time
>> with other drivers...
>>
>> Basically these DTV drivers should be developed in a order, bridge
>> driver first, then demod and tuner - for one single device. After it is
>> committed in tree, you could start adding new devices and drivers. If
>> you try implement too big bunch of things as a once, you will likely
>> fail endless reviews and so.
>>
>> I don't know what is change in development process which causes these
>> problems. What I remember there has been only few big changes in recent
>> years, change from Mercurial to Git and reorganization of
>> directories/files.
>
> Device I have seems to be:
> DD Cine S2 V6.5 - Twin Tuner Card DVB-S/S2 (PCI Express Card)
> DD DuoFlex C/C2/T/T2 Expansion (V3) - Twin Tuner Expansion-modul 
> DVB-C/T/T2
>
> I will start looking DVB-S/S2 support at the very first as it is the 
> bridge needed in any case. I have no experience from PCIe devices...
>
> regards
> Antti
>
When you have patches that can be tested, willing to help test

Cannot promise to test immediate though

Cheers


Rudy

Re: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Thomas Kaiser]

On 07/30/2014 11:03 PM, Rudy Zijlstra wrote:
> On 19-07-14 19:49, Thomas Kaiser wrote:
>>
>> Hello Rudy
>>
>> I use a similar card from Digital Devices with Ubuntu 14.04 and kernel
>> 3.13.0-32-generic. Support for this card was not build into the kernel
>> and I had to compile it myself. I had to use media_build_experimental
>> from Mr. Endriss.
>>
>> http://linuxtv.org/hg/~endriss/media_build_experimental
>>
>> Your card should be supported with this version.
>>
>> Regards, Thomas
>>
>>
> Hi Thomas,
>
> thank you for the information.
>
> Is there a preferred kernel for the experimental?
>
> Cheers
>
>
> Rudy

Hello Rudy

I don't know!
I use it with Ubuntu 14.04 and kernel 3.13.0, right know. But I used it with older Ubuntu Versions (13.10, 13.04) and there kernels, too. I think it should compile with the newest kernel also.

Thomas

Re: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Bjoern]

On Do, 2014-07-31 at 09:38 +0200, Ralph Metzler wrote:
> Bjoern writes:

> I don't know anything about any "old or new style".
> Digital Devices did not submit any changes to the kernel tree.

Why does that not happen? Wouldn't it be easier for your consumers? Plug
in your card and voila, it works "out of the box"? But fine, Oliver
indeed has done some attempts there it seems.
 
> Oliver Endriss did and afterwards some strange things happened.

That something changed in V4L I found here (after I bought the devices):
http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Digital_Devices_DuoFlex_C%26T

> E.g. the CI driver (cxd2099) is still in staging for no valid reason. The
> reasons given apply only to ddbridge. Why isn't ddbridge in staging?

What are the reasons?

And if that is the case - _who is responsible_ for this still being in
staging? Then we can ask that person what is going on - if there is no
reason then that is bad and wrong. And I hope there is not only one
single person who decides what leaves staging, some backup should be
around I hope?

> It is not like drivers are not available and supported, just
> not in the mainline kernel tree. 

Right... and I hope that can be changed. I really really like the DD
hardware I have, but always having to rebuild everything with a new
kernel is just not my idea of how hardware should run in 2014 on Linux
anymore.

> Regards,
> Ralph

Regards,
Bjoern

Re: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Georgi Chorbadzhiyski]

On 8/1/14 7:54 AM, Bjoern wrote:
> On Do, 2014-07-31 at 09:38 +0200, Ralph Metzler wrote:

>> It is not like drivers are not available and supported, just
>> not in the mainline kernel tree. 
> 
> Right... and I hope that can be changed. I really really like the DD
> hardware I have, but always having to rebuild everything with a new
> kernel is just not my idea of how hardware should run in 2014 on Linux
> anymore.

I have more than 30 ddbridge dvb-s devices and more than 30 dvb-c/t devices.

The fact that the drivers are not in the main tree is the biggest problem
with these devices. The hardware is great (never had a problem with it)
but having to install experimental media build is just stupid.

When I bought the devices I knew that the driver is not in the main tree
but I really hoped that this would change. Now 3 years later it is still
not the case. That's bullshit.

Come on Digital Devices, you have the drivers, please, pretty please, submit
them upstream, go through the merge process and make us - our clients a
happy bunch.

Like Bjoern said, it's 2014, you have the drivers, keeping them out
of main kernel and having your customers go through hoops to get them
working is not acceptable.

-- 
Georgi Chorbadzhiyski | http://georgi.unixsol.org/ | http://github.com/gfto/

Re: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Thomas Kaiser]

On 08/01/2014 07:08 AM, Georgi Chorbadzhiyski wrote:
> On 8/1/14 7:54 AM, Bjoern wrote:
>> On Do, 2014-07-31 at 09:38 +0200, Ralph Metzler wrote:
>
>>> It is not like drivers are not available and supported, just
>>> not in the mainline kernel tree.
>>
>> Right... and I hope that can be changed. I really really like the DD
>> hardware I have, but always having to rebuild everything with a new
>> kernel is just not my idea of how hardware should run in 2014 on Linux
>> anymore.
>
> I have more than 30 ddbridge dvb-s devices and more than 30 dvb-c/t devices.
>
> The fact that the drivers are not in the main tree is the biggest problem
> with these devices. The hardware is great (never had a problem with it)
> but having to install experimental media build is just stupid.
>
> When I bought the devices I knew that the driver is not in the main tree
> but I really hoped that this would change. Now 3 years later it is still
> not the case. That's bullshit.
>
> Come on Digital Devices, you have the drivers, please, pretty please, submit
> them upstream, go through the merge process and make us - our clients a
> happy bunch.
>
> Like Bjoern said, it's 2014, you have the drivers, keeping them out
> of main kernel and having your customers go through hoops to get them
> working is not acceptable.
>

I would love to see the driver in the kernel mainline tree for the above mentioned reasons!

Thomas

Re: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Bjoern]

On Fr, 2014-08-01 at 08:08 +0300, Georgi Chorbadzhiyski wrote:
> On 8/1/14 7:54 AM, Bjoern wrote:
> > On Do, 2014-07-31 at 09:38 +0200, Ralph Metzler wrote:
> 
> >> It is not like drivers are not available and supported, just
> >> not in the mainline kernel tree. 
> > 
> > Right... and I hope that can be changed. I really really like the DD
> > hardware I have, but always having to rebuild everything with a new
> > kernel is just not my idea of how hardware should run in 2014 on Linux
> > anymore.
> 
> I have more than 30 ddbridge dvb-s devices and more than 30 dvb-c/t devices.
> 
> The fact that the drivers are not in the main tree is the biggest problem
> with these devices. The hardware is great (never had a problem with it)
> but having to install experimental media build is just stupid.
> 
> When I bought the devices I knew that the driver is not in the main tree
> but I really hoped that this would change. Now 3 years later it is still
> not the case. That's bullshit.
> 
> Come on Digital Devices, you have the drivers, please, pretty please, submit
> them upstream, go through the merge process and make us - our clients a
> happy bunch.
> 
> Like Bjoern said, it's 2014, you have the drivers, keeping them out
> of main kernel and having your customers go through hoops to get them
> working is not acceptable.
> 
The biggest and most irritating problem for me is having to use external
"experimental" drivers.

And now I'm going ahead to make this situation at least a tiny bit
better, at least I think it will be.

My approach (for the moment):
- Get the normal V4L code via git
- Merge the patches based on Maik Broemme's suggested patches in
November 2013 as well as Oliver Endresse's experimental driver into v4l
- Create any patch files needed
- automate the process so that end-users can simply enter some
"update_v4l" command which would retrieve the updated git code, re-apply
the patches and compile and install them
- Patches would be updated if needed

Doing this would allow us to at least be able to use the normal and
current V4L code and to test it. Especially Georgi could a good resource
here with his 30 devices. Secondly, this may help us get this code into
V4L at some point. And thirdly, any DVB card that is supported in V4L
but not in the experimental drivers will also work of course. So quite a
few "pro" arguments here I guess?

Right now I actually was able to compile the 0.9.10 ddbridge driver on a
3.15.8 kernel using V4L git code :) Took me 8 hours approximately...

And yes, my DD Cine-S2 v6.5 actually reports all 4 DVB-S2 inputs
available AND yes, I also have a picture :D

So now I'll do the jump from 0.9.10 to the latest one available
(0.9.15a).

Once that is done I will give an update here - send me an email and I'll
give you a link where you can get the patches from (unless that's also
allowed here in the ML?). Yes, in the long term I would indeed also
submit them here but I have ZERO knowledge how that is done here...

Best regards,
Bjoern

Re: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Bjoern]

On Sa, 2014-08-02 at 13:02 +0200, Bjoern wrote:
> Once that is done I will give an update here - send me an email and I'll
> give you a link where you can get the patches from (unless that's also
> allowed here in the ML?). Yes, in the long term I would indeed also
> submit them here but I have ZERO knowledge how that is done here...
> 
> Best regards,
> Bjoern
> 
Looks like Antti beat me to it by some hours ;) So then I'll stop my
attempts and let him do this :)

-Bjoern

Re: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Antti Palosaari]

On 08/02/2014 02:02 PM, Bjoern wrote:
> On Fr, 2014-08-01 at 08:08 +0300, Georgi Chorbadzhiyski wrote:
>> On 8/1/14 7:54 AM, Bjoern wrote:
>>> On Do, 2014-07-31 at 09:38 +0200, Ralph Metzler wrote:
>>
>>>> It is not like drivers are not available and supported, just
>>>> not in the mainline kernel tree.
>>>
>>> Right... and I hope that can be changed. I really really like the DD
>>> hardware I have, but always having to rebuild everything with a new
>>> kernel is just not my idea of how hardware should run in 2014 on Linux
>>> anymore.
>>
>> I have more than 30 ddbridge dvb-s devices and more than 30 dvb-c/t devices.
>>
>> The fact that the drivers are not in the main tree is the biggest problem
>> with these devices. The hardware is great (never had a problem with it)
>> but having to install experimental media build is just stupid.
>>
>> When I bought the devices I knew that the driver is not in the main tree
>> but I really hoped that this would change. Now 3 years later it is still
>> not the case. That's bullshit.
>>
>> Come on Digital Devices, you have the drivers, please, pretty please, submit
>> them upstream, go through the merge process and make us - our clients a
>> happy bunch.
>>
>> Like Bjoern said, it's 2014, you have the drivers, keeping them out
>> of main kernel and having your customers go through hoops to get them
>> working is not acceptable.
>>
> The biggest and most irritating problem for me is having to use external
> "experimental" drivers.
>
> And now I'm going ahead to make this situation at least a tiny bit
> better, at least I think it will be.
>
> My approach (for the moment):
> - Get the normal V4L code via git
> - Merge the patches based on Maik Broemme's suggested patches in
> November 2013 as well as Oliver Endresse's experimental driver into v4l
> - Create any patch files needed
> - automate the process so that end-users can simply enter some
> "update_v4l" command which would retrieve the updated git code, re-apply
> the patches and compile and install them
> - Patches would be updated if needed
>
> Doing this would allow us to at least be able to use the normal and
> current V4L code and to test it. Especially Georgi could a good resource
> here with his 30 devices. Secondly, this may help us get this code into
> V4L at some point. And thirdly, any DVB card that is supported in V4L
> but not in the experimental drivers will also work of course. So quite a
> few "pro" arguments here I guess?
>
> Right now I actually was able to compile the 0.9.10 ddbridge driver on a
> 3.15.8 kernel using V4L git code :) Took me 8 hours approximately...
>
> And yes, my DD Cine-S2 v6.5 actually reports all 4 DVB-S2 inputs
> available AND yes, I also have a picture :D
>
> So now I'll do the jump from 0.9.10 to the latest one available
> (0.9.15a).
>
> Once that is done I will give an update here - send me an email and I'll
> give you a link where you can get the patches from (unless that's also
> allowed here in the ML?). Yes, in the long term I would indeed also
> submit them here but I have ZERO knowledge how that is done here...

Most hardest part mainlining all that stuff is absolutely API issues. 
Designing new APIs is a lot of work. Due to that I decided remove all 
the problematic stuff in order to proceed.

API related issues:
* DVB modulator API
* some unusual CI stuff
* network streaming
* own device node (I left it as for now as it was there already)
* DVB-C2 API (it is still there, but if it looks hard to specify I will 
disable it too)

Driver related issues:
* MaxLinear MxL5x, demod + tuner driver needs to be upstreamed
* STMicroelectronics STV0910, demod + tuner driver needed. Should be 
study if existing kernel drivers could be changed easily to support that 
chip too, if not upstream drivers.
* STMicroelectronics STV0367, kernel has driver already. Device profile 
needed.


regards
Antti

-- 
http://palosaari.fi/

Re: ddbridge -- kernel 3.15.6

[Ralph Metzler]

Antti Palosaari writes:
 > Most hardest part mainlining all that stuff is absolutely API issues. 
 > Designing new APIs is a lot of work. Due to that I decided remove all 
 > the problematic stuff in order to proceed.
 > 
 > API related issues:
 > * DVB modulator API

Yes, we definitely need a general API for this.

 > * some unusual CI stuff

This is only the extra CI (formerly misused SEC) device which has
no API, just basic read/write.

 > * network streaming
 > * own device node (I left it as for now as it was there already)

Mainly for firmware updates and debugging.

 > * DVB-C2 API (it is still there, but if it looks hard to specify I will 
 > disable it too)

Needs some extending for proper scanning but is good enough for basic tuning.

 > Driver related issues:
 > * MaxLinear MxL5x, demod + tuner driver needs to be upstreamed
 > * STMicroelectronics STV0910, demod + tuner driver needed. Should be 
 > study if existing kernel drivers could be changed easily to support that 
 > chip too, if not upstream drivers.

STV090x shares many features but has many slight differences in registers
and handling. Could be worth merging but might turn out to need many 
conditionals.


Regards,
Ralph