RivaTV - test CVS

Clue list for clueless non-developers who want to test CVS (and other people too)

• Downloading and installing CVS
• Test
• Report bugs

Downloading and installing the CVS code

$ cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@rivatv.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/rivatv login
[when asked for a password, simply press enter]
$ cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@rivatv.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/rivatv co rivatv

If you have checked out RivaTV before, you can update using CVS like this:

$ cd rivatv/
$ cvs update -d

Now you have a bleeding edge version of RivaTV!  You can check the latest updates to CVS by reviewing the changelog.

Build and install in the same way as the "stable" code.  If there are errors during the build process, go to the 'Reporting Bugs' section below.  Two popular configure options also to consider are:

$ ./configure --enable-software-conversion --enable-agp

When the rivatv module is initialised, it sends a lot of information to your system log. Where exactly it is logged to, you can determine by examining your /etc/syslog.conf. With most distributions, it is either /var/log/messages or /var/log/syslog. Additionally, the dmesg command will probably show it too.  An example excerpt from a log:

	rivatv: Video4Linux driver for NVIDIA cards
	rivatv: Version 0.8.2
	rivatv: MMX processor extension enabled
	rivatv: nVidia card found - rivatv0
	rivatv: Identified your board as Asus V7700 TVR
	rivatv: Attempting to load module saa7113h
	i2c-core.o: driver SAA7113H registered.
	PCI: Found IRQ 5 for device 01:00.0
	rivatv: MTRR successfully enabled
	rivatv: PCI nVidia NV10 card detected (GeForce2-GTS [0x150], 32MB @ 0xF0000000)
	rivatv: I2C adapter driver for NVIDIA cards
	SAA7113H: video decoder chip found, chip version: 0x11
	rivatv: video decoder chip registered
	i2c-core.o: client [SAA7113H] registered to adapter [NVIDIA display adapter bus 1](pos. 0).
	i2c-core.o: adapter NVIDIA display adapter bus 1 registered as adapter 0.
	i2c-core.o: adapter NVIDIA display adapter bus 0 registered as adapter 1.
	rivatv: procfs file registered for rivatv0
	rivatv: allocated YUV capture buffer (812 kb)
	rivatv: AGPGART: version 0.99
	rivatv: AGPGART: aperture is 32MB @ 0xFC000000, AGP 1x 2x 4x supported
	rivatv: AGP: disabled
	rivatv: Hash table layout: 16kB (11 bits) @ 0xEE710000
	rivatv: NVdriver (nvidia) detected, DMA not supported
	rivatv: successfully requested IRQ 5
	rivatv: Video4Linux device driver registered

You are now ready for testing!

Test!

Start xawtv, or a similar application. It will likely complain about some stuff. That's OK.

Remember the video stream you were seeing in windows? Compare that to what you are seeing now. Play with the settings.

You may not see anything. The picture may have a low framerate, be too small, too large, that sort of thing.

All things you are seeing that are different from windows are relevant.

If you aren't seeing anything, you may want to check first if we have actually started working on your nVidia chip already! Because if not, we know it doesn't work as well.

If you are trying framegrabbing, also called capturing, things might be too slow for you. In that case, it is time for you to become an advanced tester!  RivaTV supports an experimental feature called DMA, which is turned off by default. To enable it, you have to load RivaTV like this:

	# insmod rivatv.o dma=1

Linux or X may crash. If your filesystem is not a journalling one (such as ext3, reiserfs, ...), make sure all your precious data is written to disk. For instance, by running sync.

Reporting Bugs

• The board you have, what nVidia chip it has and what decoder chip it has
• A bit of info on your hardware makeup; processor and chipset, how many processors
• Used video standard (NTSC/PAL)
• Your linux kernel version
• Your X version
• The driver you are using for the nVidia board, and it's version
• The (relevant) output of the rivatv modules in your log(s)
• The output of cat /proc/driver/rivatv
• The bug(s) you want fixed
• Optionally your credit card number (hee hee hee ;-)

 # tail -0f /var/log/messages > rivatv.log

Do this before you modprobe any rivatv module.

Think twice before sending a big load of information to the list. Send big stuff only when asked.

Instead of the jokingly mentioned credit card number, you could lend us hardware. It would speed up development for that particular type of board. See the FAQ for more details.

Epilogue