[linux-dvb] DiB0700 firmware problems

[Laz]

My findings...

> 1) system (uname -a)
Linux vdr-tng 2.6.20-rc6 #1 PREEMPT Tue Jan 30 10:27:20 GMT 2007 i686 
GNU/Linux

(This is with DVB drivers checked out from mercurial repository on 
28/09/07.)

System is a Via Epia MII-12000 with a 1200 MHz Via Nehemiah processor.

> 2) lspci-output

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8623 [Apollo CLE266]
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8633 [Apollo Pro266 AGP]
00:0d.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host 
Controller (rev 80)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 
Controller (rev 80)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 
Controller (rev 80)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 
Controller (rev 80)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. 
VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. 
VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 
74)
00:14.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 
Controller (rev 61)
00:14.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 
Controller (rev 61)
00:14.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 63)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8623 [Apollo 
CLE266] integrated CastleRock graphics (rev 03)

Output of lsusb:

Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 007 Device 002: ID 2040:9950 Hauppauge
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 006 Device 004: ID 2040:9301 Hauppauge Hauppauge WinTV NOVA-T USB2 
(warm)
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0a81:0101 Chesen Electronics Corp. Keyboard
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000


> 3) DiB0700 device name (USB Stick, Nova-T 500)

Nova-T 500 in the only PCI slot and a Nova-T USB2 plugged into a USB port.

I have no remote connected to the Nova-T 500 and I'm using  "options 
dvb-usb disable_rc_polling=1" with the dvb-usb module to disable them 
(I'm using a LIRC remote on a serial port.)

I'm also using "options dvb_usb_dib0700 force_lna_activation=1" to enable 
the amplifiers, although I've not really tested to see whether I need to 
or not.

> 4) Application using the device (MythTV, VDR etc)

Vdr-1.5.9, using hardware MPEG-2 decoding with softdevice. The system runs 
24 h a day because it doesn't always power itself off fully for some 
reason so I can't use nvram-wakeup.

> 5) Symptoms (unusable, disconnect after x days, no problem)

When I was using the DVB drivers from this kernel (built back in January, 
I think) the system would work fine for a few days and then I would see a 
USB disconnect followed by lots of dib-usb (I think: they've now rotated 
out of my logs!) error messages because there was no data. These 
disconnects seemed to be mainly the Nova-T USB2, i.e. the external USB 
device, and would be accompanied by the LED going out. The only way to 
get it going again was to reboot: presumably it was in a warm state and 
there was no firmware upload (dvb-usb-nova-t-usb2-01.fw).

These disconnects seemed to happen pretty randomly: sometimes it would 
work for a few hours, sometimes for a week or so. I have a cron job 
running which tests to see if it's disconnected and reboots it if so. (I 
have a second Nova-T USB2 but the disconnects seemed to occur much more 
frequently with two of them connected.) If anything, the disconnects 
tended to happen a few minutes after a timed recording had started, i.e. 
possibly after tuning to a different MUX but I can't be certain of this.

I updated to the more recent drivers a few days back and I'm now using the  
dvb-usb-dib0700-1.10.fw firmware. Since updating, I haven't seen any of 
the USB disconnects but it has hung totally a few times. On a couple of 
occasions it ran perfectly for about a day or two and then hung; another 
time it only worked for about 30 minutes before it hung.

Each time it has hung there has been nothing in any log files but the LED 
on the external USB device is still illuminated, unlike when it was 
disconnecting with the older drivers + firmware.

I'll keep monitoring this...might try with two external USB devices too!

Cheers,

Laz