Plextor ConvertX PX-TV402U-NA - causes kernel oops

[jnorth]

Please note:

Thanks to jelle in posts starting here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...24#post6661524 - this is running on Intrepid. See the original posting below the line for instructions on past Ubuntu versions.

For full copy/paste instructions to install on Intrepid, start at this post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...90#post6781890

I am running this as of 17 May 2008 on kernel 2.6.27-14-generic

================================================== ====
NOTICE!!! I believe this may be resolved (at least it works no on my box, though on a slightly older kernel. See post 4 for more)

BTW - I have searched I've spent 2 weeks so far on this device trying to get it to work, with several reinstalls.

EDIT: Don't worry about the rule/forum announcement on having me run commands on my box. I'm a perfectly capable and discerning Linux user, and this box is a non-critical one at this point as I have no valuable data on it yet (and have already reloaded several times in the past 2 weeks!).

Without further ado, the details. Any assistance or hints are appreciated, no matter what!

I have a Plextor ConvertX PX-TV402U-NA that I am(was) using with an Apple MacMini Intel coreduo as a MythTV box. Up until a couple weeks ago, I had Gutsy installed and running perfectly with this setup, with the exception of a known issue getting the apple IR device to work. I upgraded to Hardy to fix the IR issue (it did!), but now am having problems with the TV capture. Additionally, I have attempted these same instructions on a Sony Vaio (VGN-SZ220) with the exact same results (just differing lsmod's etc), so I know it's not the Macmini's fault

Relevant details are below (I've linked to files on my server rather than paste all this in the forum to make it easier to read and comprehend.)

This device worked properly on 7.10 and previous with the patched files from Nikosapi's site. This site has instructions and claims to work on hardy, but no luck so far. If I can get it working I'll try to get the wiki updated! The section with Ubuntu-specific details is here.

System details: (fresh install of Mythbuntu 8.04 - but I have also tried vanilla Ubuntu)
See the output of my lsmod before installation here.

jnorth@mc01:~$ uname -a
Linux mc01 2.6.24-17-generic #1 SMP Thu May 1 14:31:33 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

I ran through the installation as instructed, and attached the output of the make command here, and the make install command here.

So, once installed per the directions, with no major errors, I follow the test procedure with the following results:

jnorth@mc01:~$ gorecord -input 0 -duration 20 test-video.avi
Unable to read /sys/bus/usb/drivers/go7007: No such file or directory
Is the go7007-usb kernel module loaded?

Sure - no problem, according to the instructions I should manually load the firmware this time:

jnorth@mc01:~$ sudo /usr/sbin/go7007_firmware_load
ERROR: Make sure usbfs|usbdevfs is mounted on /proc/bus/usb

Again, no worries - the instructions have a fix for that:

jnorth@mc01:~$ cp /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh ~/Desktop/
jnorth@mc01:~$ cd wis-go7007-linux-0.9.8-2
jnorth@mc01:~/wis-go7007-linux-0.9.8-2$ wd=`pwd`; sudo patch -d /etc/init.d -p0 -i "$wd"/patches/mountdevsubfs.sh-usbfs.patch
patching file mountdevsubfs.sh
jnorth@mc01:~/wis-go7007-linux-0.9.8-2$ sudo /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh start
jnorth@mc01:~/wis-go7007-linux-0.9.8-2$

Let's try loading the firmware again:

jnorth@mc01:~$ sudo /usr/sbin/go7007_firmware_load
Firmware loaded successfully!

Awesome - we're golden now right? Not quite - I tried a short test record with no luck:

jnorth@mc01:~$ gorecord -input 0 -duration 20 test-video.avi
Driver loaded but no GO7007 devices found.
Is the device connected properly?

Ok - I'm intermediate to advanced on most things Linux, so I'll snoop around. I pull dmesg for the firmware load here, and another lsmod after the load here. lsusb just hangs after the attempted firmware load.

I've done a lot of other stuff too, but nothing relevant that I see. If you have something that I should pull that you think might help me troubleshoot, I am all ears (and hands - more than willing to do whatever it takes to get this device working again!)

Darn, so close. I've been through all sorts of searches and old sites trying to find a working fix for this with no luck.

This thing worked like a charm on 7.10, but lirc wouldn't work (appleir/macmini driver problems with making the hiddev0 device and using it) so I wiped it out and reinstalled a fresh Hardy, and here is where I am stuck.

I'm "this close" to having the perfect MythTv setup using my MacMini.

Any ideas from you pro's? I'd greatly appreciate any advice, even if it means reinstalling from scratch - I don't have everything loaded back on this machine yet so I can afford to muck around with it.

[jnorth]

Update - I was browsing around on launchpad and finally found some other people with this issue. Bug report is located here

Looks like the solution for now it to just downgrade the kernel - bummer. I updated the launchpad report in an effort to keep it open until resolution.

[Call Me Ben]

J,

I'm running into the exact same problem and my proposed solution was to recompile the kernel with ALSA enabled (since that's where the oops is generated).

I'll let you know if that works at all.

Ben

[jnorth]

YES!!! Thanks to comments in that bug report I was able to get this going. These are the steps I took AFTER going through the first post above. Should be able to copy/paste the code blocks here for the most part. If you haven't yet gone through the above post you can do it during the second section of code below to fix the usbfs and all that stuff.

cd $HOME
wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/linux-2.6/linux-headers-2.6.24-1-686_2.6.24-6_i386.deb
wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/linux-2.6/linux-headers-2.6.24-1-common_2.6.24-6_i386.deb
wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/linux-2.6/linux-image-2.6.24-1-686_2.6.24-6_i386.deb
wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/linux-kbuild-2.6/linux-kbuild-2.6.24_2.6.24-1_i386.deb
wget http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/linux-2.6/linux-2.6_2.6.24.orig.tar.gz
sudo apt-get install gcc-4.1
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.24-1-686_2.6.24-6_i386.deb linux-headers-2.6.24-1-686_2.6.24-6_i386.deb linux-headers-2.6.24-1-common_2.6.24-6_i386.deb linux-kbuild-2.6.24_2.6.24-1_i386.deb linux-headers-2.6.24-1-686_2.6.24-6_i386.deb 
sudo reboot

IMPORTANT!!! UNPLUG your Plextor device before it boots back up! When the computer comes back up, hit escape to go into the grub menu and be sure to go down and select the kernel you just installed (2.6.24-1) and NOT the default 2.6.24-16 or -17.

Now, once you are back up, more steps, we're going to rebuild the modules...

wget http://nikosapi.org/software/WIS_Go7007/wis-go7007-linux-0.9.8-2.tar.bz2
tar -xjvf wis-go7007-linux-0.9.8-2.tar.bz2
cd wis-go7007-linux-0.9.8-2
make
sudo make install USE_UDEV=y

Now - cross your fingers and plug your Plextor back in. Run a dmesg and you should see that it successfuly loaded. Run the test record program just to verify, and viola! (at least for me ).

Hope this helps!

EDIT: I was so happy to get this up I forgot to note that you'll need to clean up your old kernels and put a hold on the version so you don't accidentally break it during regular updates.

To do so, run the following:

sudo apt-get remove linux-image-generic linux-generic linux-headers-2.6.24-16 linux-headers-2.6.24-16-generic linux-image-2.6.24-16-generic linux-image-generic linux-restricted-modules-2.6.24-16-generic linux-restricted-modules-common linux-restricted-modules-generic linux-source-2.6.24 linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-16-generic linux-headers-2.6.24-17 linux-headers-2.6.24-17-generic linux-image-2.6.24-17-generic linux-image-generic linux-restricted-modules-2.6.24-17-generic
sudo rm -r /lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/
sudo rm -r /lib/modules/2.6.24-17-generic/
sudo rm -r /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.24-16-generic/
sudo rm -r /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.24-17-generic/
sudo rm -r /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.24/
sudo rm -r /usr/src/linux
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo update-grub

And that should do it. Let me know if I missed anything.

EDIT2:

Dangit! Forgot to lock down the kernel version so you don't break it.
Easiest (GUI) method is to open Synaptic package manager and pin the kernel version. You could also edit your /etc/apt/preference file.
In synaptic though, do a search for "linux-image-2.6.24-1-686". Highlight it, and from the "Package" menu, choose "Lock Version".

I think that's it now.

[jnorth]

J,

I'm running into the exact same problem and my proposed solution was to recompile the kernel with ALSA enabled (since that's where the oops is generated).

I'll let you know if that works at all.

Ben

Hey I cross-posted on you just now, I was so happy to see this thing working again that I had to post what I did to resolve it.

Let me know how your story goes if you go the recompiling way, I was trying to avoid that but had just come home from work planning to try it when I found this other solution. I don't mind running an older kernel for the moment until the new gets fixed.

[sullyt]

Hey, thanks for the information. I have exactly the same issue. Sadly, the Plextor ConvertX is poorly support with Linux. I've had an issue with every upgrade over the last 3 years. That said, the unit is rock solid once it recognized by Linux. MPEG4 hardware compression is great and I believe this is the only unit that does this (at least the only USB unit).

Did you try out any of the other Kernel at the Debian FTP site? Did you try compiling your own? I am asking out of curiosity. The solution you put out there gets the TV402U working. However, I lost lirc and NVIDIA because I need to add new Kernel modules for each. Perhaps, this weekend I will have time to resolve this issue and add an update to this page.

/Cheers

[sullyt]

Tried to get the NVIDIA driver to work with the 2.6.24.1 kernel and having some difficulties. There does not seem to be a Debian package for the NVIDIA modules for this Kernel. (I may not be familiar enough with Debian respository). I got the commercial version of the NVIDIA driver and compiled it against the headers. Everything compiled fine but the driver did not load. I do not understand Ubuntu's restrict driver architecture.

Any ideas?

[sullyt]

Okay, took another approach and decided to find out the root cause. Checked the config-2.6.24-16-generic file in Ubuntu and # CONFIG_SND is not set. I have no idea why it off.

I will recompile the Kernel this weekend with this SND options turned on and see what happens.

-Cheers

[bwilson]

I'm using the Plextor TV402U in Gutsy PPC. I installed the patched driver from http://nikosapi.org/wiki/index.php/W...7_Linux_driver. This page was immensely helpful.

Everything works OK -- except for one annoying detail. When I boot up with the TV402U powered on and connected the driver doesn't load. If I do a disconnect/connect cycle of either the USB or power cable then the driver loads and all is well. D'oh!

Any ideas?

Thanks.

[Call Me Ben]

Finally got around to rebuilding the kernel. WHAT A PAIN!

But in the end adding the CONFIG_SND (and OSS MIXER directives) worked wonders. I did have to rebuild Lirc too.

Now the only problem I see is that after changing channels the left side of the screen is garbled.

Ben