How to get Hauppage firmware running on Linux Mint

[Higgo]

Does anyone have any clues about how to get Hauppage TV tuner firmware working on Linux?
I've spent many hours on this and haven't made much progress.  See description below...

I've installed Linux Mint and the Linux version of NextPVR.  It detects all the DVB-T TV capture 'devices' showing them as adapterN/frontend0 (SiliconLabs Si2168) (where N is numbered 0 to 3).
However, Scan channels shows nothing in the dropdown box and clicking the Scan button does nothing.
It appears I am having trouble with the firmware for the hauppage firmware.

Running sudo dmesg in Terminal returns a lot, including:
tveeprom: Hauppauge model 166101, rev B4I6, serial# 4036145726
tveeprom: tuner model is SiLabs Si2157 (idx 186, type 4)
si2168 11-0064: Silicon Labs Si2168-B40 successfully identified
si2168 11-0064: firmware version: B 4.0.2
si2168 11-0066: Silicon Labs Si2168-B40 successfully identified
si2168 11-0066: firmware version: B 4.0.2
si2157 12-0062: Silicon Labs Si2157 successfully attached

and 12 repeats of these two lines:
Direct firmware load for dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw failed with error -2
firmware file 'dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw' not found

From: https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=65785, mvallevand suggested running
sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-hauppauge in Terminal. This advice is repeated on https://www.hauppauge.com/pages/support/...linux.html, but running it returns:
E: Unable to locate package linux-firmware-hauppauge
From: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/linux...-hauppauge, I downloaded:
http://ppa.launchpad.net/b-rad/kernel+me...cal.tar.gz
Drilling into that, I discovered the archive contains the needed dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw firmware file.  Being a Linux newbie, I had no idea what to do about it or where to put the file.
At: https://www.techtimejourney.net/usb-tv-t...#more-5227 I found an instruction on how to copy firmware files to the correct location:
sudo cp ./Downloads/dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw /lib/firmware/dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw
Couldn't get that to work, so I had to open the lib/firmware folder as root user and copied and pasted this manually
Rerunning sudo dmesg in Terminal still returns 12 repeats of these two lines:
Direct firmware load for dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw failed with error -2
firmware file 'dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw' not found

Returning to the Hauppage support page, I followed instructions to run:
1. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:b-rad/kernel+mediatree+hauppauge
2. sudo apt-get update
assuming Linux Mint is not HWE (I didn't know how to discover that)
3. sudo apt-get install linux-mediatree but that returns:
E: Unable to locate package linux-mediatree
That's where I've ended up.
I will be grateful for any advice!

[mvallevand]

I would avoid building a new mediatree and use a device with kernel support.

For the firnware issue consider this thread https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.ph...#pid600481 There must be more than one version of this device.

Martin

[Higgo]

Thanks Martin!
I am a complete newcomer to Linux, so I have very little idea of how to do things! I don't know what "use a device with kernel support" means.
As you suggested, I downloaded the version of dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw from http://palosaari.fi/linux/v4l-dvb/firmwa...-b40-01.fw
put it in /lib/firmware/ after renaming the previous version.
It made no difference: I still get 12 repeats of these two lines:
Direct firmware load for dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw failed with error -2
firmware file 'dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw' not found

Regards,

[mvallevand]

Sorry I draw the line at supporting Linux but are you rebooting to reinitialize the driver.

Martin

[Higgo]

Hi Martin,
I have rebooted.
Now running sudo dmesg in Terminal returns the following 2 lines 4 times:
downloading firmware from file 'dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw'
si2168 6-0064: firmware version: B 4.0.25.
That seems an improvement, but NextPVR still won't scan for channels.
rerunning sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-hauppauge still returns
E: Unable to locate package linux-firmware-hauppauge

[mvallevand]

It could be many things, perhaps the tuning file, without logs I can't help further.

Martin

[bgowland]

rerunning sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-hauppauge still returns
E: Unable to locate package linux-firmware-hauppauge

Is that the official Hauppauge stuff? Yeah, ignore that. I'm running Debian and from memory I didn't need that.

What channel scan file are you using? Try it with the auto-Default or auto-With167kHzOffsets as Martin says post your logs.

Cheers,
Brian

[Higgo]

Thanks Brian and Martin,
log files now attached.
Any help will be greatly appreciated!

[mvallevand]

Perhaps the install failed try

sudo apt install dtv-scan-tables


Martin