Arch Linux

As announced, I'll delete my media_tree, and media_build repos. I'm done with them a couple of weeks earlier then excpected. I don't need those repo's anymore, same goes for you archers.

Hi Everyone,
Since I moved a year ago to New Zealand I have much less time to keep my AUR packages maintained and keep my system tweaked. Arch Linux is just too bleeding edge to make a comfortable low maintenance multimedia server platform and I now need a server which will continue to run for years in a very boring reliable way without much input from me. Also the frequent surprises that happen when Arch updates to something new are not as fun as they should be. I recently made the switch to CentOS7 on my main server which is running FFdecsawrapper and will stay on a 3.10 kernel probably for the next 8 years.

This is the time for me to bow out as I can not longer test this package. So this package needs a new owner. I will miss the learning fun that ArchLinux has given me. But I'll keep a little fun as my remote frontends will still run Arch.

Yeah, and that's not all, you can build it into any media stack, including the official TBS, Luis Alves'or my branches.
Though I don't think I'll keep mine. I think that when I'm done, these media repo's will just be a bunch of overhead.

And there is more: if you don't need a media stack, you can compile it intree in any >=3.10 kernel as well. All from the same repo.

So only one dvbloopback repo needed for any situation, thus only one dvbloopback package to maintain.

As for the ffdecsawrapper binary: install it one time and keep it. Unless your glibc and friends get updated, in that case you should recompile. But normal updates should only happen if and when a severe bug in the binary is addressed.

Cheers!

@bas-t,

Interesting stuff. So if I follow you right, the loopback module will at one time be incorporated into and then built with the media stack.

Thanks for keeping the old package combined for now. Although using two GIT repo's wouldn't be a big deal.

Hi p-we,
Just a heads-up:

I'm splitting FFdecsawrapper into two repo's.
One for the kernel module and one for the actual prog.
Imo they should not have shared the same repo in the first place,
but for historical reasons they did.

I'm not going to remove the FFdecsawrapper repo, but any improvements/bugfixes to either the prog or the kernel module will go into their respective repo's from now on.

As long as FFdecsawrapper repo serves your needs, you don't have to change anything. However, in the long run, I guess you should split your packages too.

I've got well tested patches for the v4l tree, implementing the dvbloopback module directly into the tree and taking care of caveats such as the one I reported in my last comment. If you feel like it, I can apply them to the arch branch you are using. That of course only makes sense if you first create a new package for the prog. This can be done by adding "--module=no" to the original FFdecsawrapper package, or by changing repo from

https://github.com/bas-t/ffdecsawrapper.git

to

https://github.com/bas-t/descrambler.git

the latter one being the new 'prog only' repo. It produces a regular ffdecsawrapper binary. I did not feel the need to change it's name.

TODO: for those who don't need any kind of v4l (based) sources, add proper documentation on how to build the dvbloopback module out of the kernel tree.

Mind you: this practice is NOT reccommended and should not be used at all. (imo)
Even if you can do without it, if you don't need v4l (based) sources, by all means recompile your kernel.

Anyhow, since it can be done, I'll document it, some day.

The day I finish the howto on compiling the module directly into the kernel tree, FFdecsawrapper will be EOL. I'm somewhat short on time right now, so it will probably not be done before july, maybe even later.

The out of tree instructions will follow later.

Tycho.

Thanks again bas-t. Will implement shortly

Hi p-we,
Mauro has pushed a couple of commits with a new api that crashes dvbloopback module, and the kernel with it.
To avoid that, you have to do:

sed -i 's/CONFIG_MEDIA_CONTROLLER_DVB=y/# CONFIG_MEDIA_CONTROLLER_DVB is not set/' v4l/.config

just after 'make allyesconfig'

Cheers!

media_tree is rebased.... (again)

This will keep happening untill antti's silabs patches are pulled into upstream.
The only reason that those patches are not pulled yet is some miscommunications between the author and the guy that is supposed to pull them.

Upside: you archers are fully up to speed again.

arch branches of media_tree and media_build are rebased.
you probably need a fresh checkout.

Issue below fixed

There is an issue with the newest pacman 4.2 and configure syntax in TBS driver package. This also includes similar syntax in related V4L branches including V4l, media_build, linux_media, and bas-t's media_tree. I will be working on patching up a solution shortly. See discussion here:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1489378#p1489378

bas-t has asked for a change in order for him to clean up his collection of GIT forks, repos etc. A small ask for his big contribution to TBS drivers and of course FFdecsawrapper.

Now building from arch branch of bas-t/media_tree and bas-t/media_build (replaces linux_media)

Important! You must still wipe all previous GIT directories and start fresh

New Update:
1) Now building from arch branch of bas-t/linux_media and bas-t/media_build
2) Drivers/firmware for TBS 6281 and 6285 included with option to use DVB-C mode only

Important! You must wipe all previous GIT directories and start fresh

@p-we:
About the 6281/6285 drivers:
I own those, so I can test and maintain a direct clone of the official v4l media_tree repo. I've only added a small portion of the saa716x budget driver, plus firmware for si2168 and si2157, both of which are already supported upstream. And I added the dvbdev.c patch.

As long as upstream does not break the portion of the saa716x driver I need, I guess 6281/6285 will be supported.

The repo is bas-t/media_tree branch 'arch', unless you need to set them to DVB-C permanently. In that case use branch 'personal'
To be in sync, use media_build branch 'personal'

From my point of view, this does not sound complicated at all:-)
Firmware is still in firmware_extra dir.

@p-we
Latest upstream changes will cause LOTS of work for Luis Alves. As it is, he seems demotivated to keep up to speed anyway, even without these changes. As a consequence, I've created a new branch in my media_build repo. It's called 'arch' and as long as Luis does not merge upstream into latest, you should use the new 'arch' branch.

Come to think of it, just stay on it, I'll update the branch according to the progress in Luis' repo.

Furthermore, TBS 6281 and TBS 6285 won't work from this package, due to lacking firmware for si2168 and si2157. You might add an option to use the 'personal' branch of my linux_media repo. It supports only TBS 6281 and TBS 6285 with newer firmware. The new format firmware is in the 'firmware_extra' dir and this branch does not need the dvbdev.c patch, as it is already applied.

The dvb* firmware files are for the TBS 6281/5 chips, the v4l* file is for my DVBSky adapters

Changes:
1) Improved dvbdev.c patch
2) Can be configured to work with more than DVB 4 tuners
3) Now using bas-t's modified GIT forks. They work.

Thanks to bas-t for his contribution for all of the above

I've had some weird things happen with the --depth=1 linux_media tree. This package is now back to AUR VCS git versioning.

Luis Alves has been active again updated the media lib's so this package compiles again against current V4L GIT master. Some of the TBS driver's themselves have been update as well.

If there is anyone out there who uses this package and values the TBS drivers in it, it would be good to give Luis Alves a contribution for his efforts. This package will most likely die soon if no donations come his way.

The following has recently appeared at J Alves GIT mirror:

"The motivation (and donations) to keep updating the media tree and adding new cards is none"

So it looks like no further development. The fixed media_build git checkout will remain to keep this working. However, this is probably the beginning of the end as the older checkout might become too old for newer kernels heading into the future.

Added "git checkout 23dfa5a2b8965d0a9ffd5725b867217ece25909e" as a fix to media_build to force older v4l lib's until upstream problem with linux_media is fixed

Change to manual downloading of the linux_media GIT branch as the automated VCS function for GIT in pacman does not allow the --depth=1 parameter which saves about 700MB in downloading size.

Note: The package does not currently build with upstream mismatches from media_build and linux_media. I'm sure they will fix it soon.

Added tweak to speed up module compression
Thanks to Sunday.

2 changes:
1) New TBS driver package v140707 (firmware only)
2) Will use the master branch for FFdecsawrapper for now as it is even better than stable. Master is now based on old sasc-ng ver 620 codebase plus other good improvements by bas-t

This is a FFdecsawrapper package compiled with L.J. Alves unofficial open source drivers for some of the TBS DVB TV cards. These drivers should be considered experimental. Currently the following models are reported to work depending on hardware versions etc: 6280 6284 6922 6925 6980 6981 6982+SE 6984 6985

Upside: Use latest V4L Git lib's with possible improved performance
Downside: A few extra make dependancies, large download size, experimental: YMMV

More on: https://github.com/ljalves/linux_media/wiki

FFdecsawrapper tsbuffer preset to 64 as this helps my TBS cards