TVH 4.2.4, kernel upgrade from 4.4.132-53 to 5.3.18 - Anything I need to watch out for?

Anders Gustafsson

Box is 64 bit and just used for TVHeadend and Oscam. Any gotchas?

I need the 5.x kernel to support the Sony CXD2837ER slave demodulator.

Saen Acro

No problems with TVH, just with tuner drivers is more complicated.

Anders Gustafsson

Can you elaborate? What is more complicated? I just have USB tuners and the push to upgrade is because my new stick is not supported.

Saen Acro

Tuner drivers depend on Kernel, and if developer not update newer dependency's nothing work as expected.

Anders Gustafsson

OK. Yes. That is exactly why I am updating. The 5.x kernel supposedly support both the sony and MN-whatever secondary demodulator of the astrometa stick.

I also have two other rtl-sticks, but they are DVB-T only and will be retired.

I can always downgrade back if something goes pear-shaped. I am making complete backup as I type.

Ron L

I'm up to 5.10 at the moment and noticed no negatives.

Anders Gustafsson

"I'm up to 5.10 at the moment and noticed no negatives."

Good to know. Thanks!

Saen Acro

Ron L wrote:

> I'm up to 5.10 at the moment and noticed no negatives.

It's good to say device brand and model device you have.

Also make diference with in-kernel or external drivers.

example:
All tv tuner drivers "in-kernel" are limited to 8 devices, each next is invisible, brand/model no matter.
(15+ years old bug)

Ron L

I was not aware there was such a thing as external drivers. Even TBS drivers are compiled as kernel modules.

I don't have the same devices as OP so cannot commend on drivers.

Only comment is nothing seems to have changed in DVB core that has affected TVH in any negative way. SNR now reports in dB for those drivers updated and signal in dBm which gives more useful info that old stats. Kodi does not report any signal stats if using new stats, but that is not a TVH issue and old stats can be forced in TVH should you desire.

Anders Gustafsson

"All tv tuner drivers "in-kernel" are limited to 8 devices, each next is invisible, brand/model no matter."

OK. You mean DIFFERENT devices, ie different drivers?

FWIW, what I have now is one PCTV Si2168 based. One Hanf/Tek "Astrometa" with the MN88743 secondary and two rather anonymous RTL2832-based DVB-T, nit T2 capable that I plan to retire. I alos have a"Astrometa" with the Sony secondary tuner.

Saen Acro

Soon all external kernel modules aka "drivers" will need UEFI certification to work with newer motherboards.

When report devices report also VID:PID, not a parts, colors and connector types.

Ron L

Can't you just disable secure boot? Win 10 drivers are supposed to all be signed but everyone just puts their machine into test mode so they can run Crazycat driver.

Saen Acro

Ron L wrote:

> Can't you just disable secure boot? Win 10 drivers are supposed to all be signed but everyone just puts their machine into test mode so they can run Crazycat driver.

There is will no such option soon.

See intel 11-gen mobo there is no legacy already
See also intel linux https://clearlinux.org no way to start it without secure boot.

Anders Gustafsson

OK. I sense seome thread drift here. Perhaps the question of secure boot coluld go in another thread? :)

Meanwhile am I still interested in how the 8-driver/card limit affects me?

Saen Acro

Anders Gustafsson wrote:

> Meanwhile am I still interested in how the 8-driver/card limit affects me?

If you have octo DVB-S2 and want to attach DVB-T/C tuner guess what happens.

Anders Gustafsson

OK. So the 8-tuner limit is counting physical tuners? Good to know.

No, I do not have any DV-S, nor do I plan to. I guess four tuners will do for me. Two DV-T2 and two DVB-C.

The 5.x kernel does indeed support the sony chip and now it also reports strength and SNR for them.

Kernel: 5.3.18-lp152.63-default
One TripleStick Si2168
One Astrometa/Hanftek MN88473

One Astrometa/Hanftek CXD2837

The Astrometas are good value for money, but there is absolutely no way to know what you get, without opening the case.

Ron L

Eight adapters is just the default config. If you require more recompile your kernel and set CONFIG_DVB_MAX_ADAPTERS= to number of adapters you need.

Sorry to bring this up again, but if you recompile your kernel then you need to turn off secure boot in your UEFI settings or else sign your kernel and drivers.

Saen Acro

Ron L wrote:
> Eight adapters is just the default config. If you require more recompile your kernel and set CONFIG_DVB_MAX_ADAPTERS= to number of adapters you need.
>

> Sorry to bring this up again, but if you recompile your kernel then you need to turn off secure boot in your UEFI settings or else sign your kernel and drivers.

No need to touch noting in kernel. Problem is set in Kernel source code, used in compilation process of tuner module, witch can be patched for this "problem"

ex:

http://support.digital-devices.eu/index.php?article=163

can be used 10 octo card's with no problem's /80 tuners/

Teddy Thomas

You may want to take a look at this ticket https://tvheadend.org/issues/5625 where people (including me) experienced higher continuity error counts with the Sony Astrometa tuner.
As part of this ticket, a commit was pushed to tvheadend 4.3 and I believe the kernel driver developer also committed something to help with this issue (commit https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/d9aeaa6d4ca44df5fae745fd47aede8b3f6137f1, which is part of kernel 5.5). I have not tested the combination of both the kernel fix and the tvheadend fix.
I cannot test this anymore as I am away from a DVB area, but as mentioned in the ticket, when checking "Force old status" for the Sony Astrometa tuner in Tvheadend the continuity error issue went away. [I think I tested this on both tvheadend 4.2 and 4.3 (master), but can't quite remember)]
Also, although to take with a grain of salt due to lack of testing time: even with the "Force old status" checked, I remembered seeing slightly more continuity errors with the Sony Astrometa compared to another tuner. I was testing on a Raspberry Pi 3 with kernel 5.4.

Anders Gustafsson

Thanks! I will definitely check that out!

Currently having a GRUB problem, so I have to boot the box from an older distro and then run the new kernel from there :)