Arch Linux

stmok

Member

From: Sydney, Australia

Registered: 2006-11-19

Posts: 72

Issue with Sigma Designs Hollywood Plus (DXR3) and Arch

So far, my Arch experience has been pretty good. I got my Hauppauge PVR-150 card and MCE USB remote working without issue, but I've run into an obstacle. I'm trying to get this DVD decoder card working, as I want to use the TV-Out for it.

My system is...

Sempron 2800+ (Socket 754, E6-stepping)
Abit NF8-V (nForce 250Gb chipset)
2x 512MB DDR400 Corsair ValueRAM
Hauppauge PVR-150 capture card
SB Audigy
Sigma Designs Hollywood Plus
GeForce 5900XT
Intel i82559 NIC (10/100Mbit)
Sony DVD burner
Seagate 7200.8 80GB HDD
MS MCE USB Remote (Rev 2)

The driver and utilities for the Hollywood Plus card are found in the Community repository. (Thanks to the maintainer: swiergot).

They can be installed simply by typing:
=> pacman -S em8300 em8300-utils

The issue I'm having is getting them to load up the modules every time I start up the system.

The modules that you need are: adv717x.ko and em8300.ko

When I load them manually like this:
=> modprobe adv717x
=> modprobe em8300

The system is OK.

BUT, when I put adv717x and em8300 into the MODULES=() section of rc.conf such that it looks like this:
=> MODULES=(adv717x em8300)

The system is unable to boot to KDE. It freezes and locks up the system as KDE is just finished starting up. (I see the desktop and taskbar loaded, but the animation for the mouse cursor stops).

If I just load adv717x in rc.conf its fine. However, when I include em8300 in rc.conf the system locks up.

Is anyone else suffering from the same issue?

I'm also getting an error message if I run em8300setup
=> Cannot read audio : em8300 Driver returned 22 (unknown)

Should I try something else OR compile the driver myself?

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The most important thing the hacker community does is write better code. Our deeds are the best propaganda we have. -Eric S. Raymond

swiergot

Member

From: Kraków, Poland

Registered: 2005-01-08

Posts: 145

Re: Issue with Sigma Designs Hollywood Plus (DXR3) and Arch

Perhaps it has something to do with nvidia driver (you are using it, right?). You can try to load it in rc.conf before adv717x and em8300.

stmok

Member

From: Sydney, Australia

Registered: 2006-11-19

Posts: 72

Re: Issue with Sigma Designs Hollywood Plus (DXR3) and Arch

Perhaps it has something to do with nvidia driver (you are using it, right?). You can try to load it in rc.conf before adv717x and em8300.

Yes, I'm using nvidia 1.0.8776-1.

I just tried the following in rc.conf
=> MODULES=(nvidia adv717x em8300)

Didn't make any difference, KDE still froze during boot up.

For KDE, I only installed the basics:
kde-common-3.5.5-1
arts-1.5.5-1
kdebase-3.5.5-6
kdelibs-3.5.5-5

Would it help if I install the whole KDE solution?

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The most important thing the hacker community does is write better code. Our deeds are the best propaganda we have. -Eric S. Raymond

swiergot

Member

From: Kraków, Poland

Registered: 2005-01-08

Posts: 145

Re: Issue with Sigma Designs Hollywood Plus (DXR3) and Arch

I don't think so but you can try, or before you do this first check if the same happens if you run other window manager. Also try to upgrade the nvidia driver.

stmok

Member

From: Sydney, Australia

Registered: 2006-11-19

Posts: 72

Re: Issue with Sigma Designs Hollywood Plus (DXR3) and Arch

Installed the full KDE, but that didn't help. (So scratch that).

I goofed up in regards to updating...I enabled Testing respository, (only wanting to update the Nvidia driver) and now my whole system is updated to Testing.  :oops: So I'm using Kernel 2.6.19...Does the em8300 package support 2.6.19?

I've looked through the archive of DXR3 mailinglist in regards to my Cannot read audio : em8300 Driver returned 22 (unknown) issue...When you compiled the package for em8300, did you include ALSA option? Or is it OSS?

OT: I guess I really should learn to build my own package. (Good learning experience and help contribute to Arch Linux in the future). 

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The most important thing the hacker community does is write better code. Our deeds are the best propaganda we have. -Eric S. Raymond

swiergot

Member

From: Kraków, Poland

Registered: 2005-01-08

Posts: 145

Re: Issue with Sigma Designs Hollywood Plus (DXR3) and Arch

Stupid me, I have uploaded em8300 for 2.6.19 into community... I will fix that later today so now you can just install em8300 from community and it will work with 2.6.19.

As for the audio issue, you can enable OSS with dsp_num=2 audio_driver=oss options.

Have you tried running X with other window manager yet?

stmok

Member

From: Sydney, Australia

Registered: 2006-11-19

Posts: 72

Re: Issue with Sigma Designs Hollywood Plus (DXR3) and Arch

Stupid me, I have uploaded em8300 for 2.6.19 into community... I will fix that later today so now you can just install em8300 from community and it will work with 2.6.19.

Ok, cool.

As for the audio issue, you can enable OSS with dsp_num=2 audio_driver=oss options.

OK. Thanks.

Have you tried running X with other window manager yet?

Not yet. Its 1:30am here in Sydney.
I'll try Gnome and Xfce after I get some sleep first! 

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The most important thing the hacker community does is write better code. Our deeds are the best propaganda we have. -Eric S. Raymond

stmok

Member

From: Sydney, Australia

Registered: 2006-11-19

Posts: 72

Re: Issue with Sigma Designs Hollywood Plus (DXR3) and Arch

Ok, I'm back. I waited until the drivers were 2.6.19 ready before trying.

I've just tested it with Xfce and Gnome...And they boot up fine!

There seems to be an issue with KDE and em8300 kernel module. (The adv717x module is fine).

As for the dsp_num=2 audio_driver=oss options...Where do I enable that? In the rc.conf file with the MODULES entry?

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The most important thing the hacker community does is write better code. Our deeds are the best propaganda we have. -Eric S. Raymond

byte

Member

From: Düsseldorf (DE)

Registered: 2006-05-01

Posts: 2,046

Re: Issue with Sigma Designs Hollywood Plus (DXR3) and Arch

No, 'man modprobe.conf'.

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1000

stmok

Member

From: Sydney, Australia

Registered: 2006-11-19

Posts: 72

Re: Issue with Sigma Designs Hollywood Plus (DXR3) and Arch

OK...Thanks byte, I'll give that a shot.

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The most important thing the hacker community does is write better code. Our deeds are the best propaganda we have. -Eric S. Raymond

stmok

Member

From: Sydney, Australia

Registered: 2006-11-19

Posts: 72

Re: Issue with Sigma Designs Hollywood Plus (DXR3) and Arch

Update on this issue.

I'm using the current drivers to all components, and kernel 2.6.19 (regular one)

I tried only loading the adv717x in Modules of rc.conf...Then I went into KDE and in a terminal window, enter this as root: modprobe em8300 audio_driver=oss

I then tried em8300setup, just to check if everything was OK. I still get the error message: Cannot read audio : em8300 Driver returned 22 (unknown) and on the TV (via S-Video connection), its a green screen.

At this point, I think I'm gonna compile the DXR3 driver myself (or try Debian "Sid" or Unstable), as this is clearly not working for me.

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The most important thing the hacker community does is write better code. Our deeds are the best propaganda we have. -Eric S. Raymond