Linux setup - Help a Windows user...

[prothed]

I had been running NPVR for years on a small Windows 7 box (Asus E35M1-I, 4GB, hdd, TBS6981 DVB-S tuner, Hauppauge WinTV-duet DVB-T tuner) and I remember just installing NPVR and the tuner drivers and away it goes.
I recently wanted to swap to Linux and google says that there are Linux versions of all the packages I need...
No - not so easy...
First I downloaded a few Linux distributions and tried to install NPVR using the .deb file - failed each time with errors about missing os files and so on.
Then I thought I'd start with the device drivers - to find that this apparently involves finding files scattered around the web and recompiling the kernel to include the required drivers.  What? I must have this wrong.  How can this be so difficult?
I remember doing this sort of thing back in the 1980s but I had thought that modern Linux systems and software 'just worked' rather like, err, Windows?

Anyway - Can anyone recommend a proven recipe using any specific Linux version in order to get me going?

Thanks.

[sub]

First I downloaded a few Linux distributions and tried to install NPVR using the .deb file - failed each time with errors about missing os files and so on.

What Linux distribution and version are you using? With mainstream distributions (like ubuntu 22.04), running that .deb install will usually take care of everything related related to installing the app for you, installing any pre-requisites etc.

Then I thought I'd start with the device drivers - to find that this apparently involves finding files scattered around the web and recompiling the kernel to include the required drivers. What? I must have this wrong. How can this be so difficult?
I remember doing this sort of thing back in the 1980s but I had thought that modern Linux systems and software 'just worked' rather like, err, Windows?

Linux tuner support is a bit patchy. Thankfully, I don't think recompiling the kernel to get a tuner working is common these days.

A lot of common tuners are supported in most distros, but you'll often need to download a firmware file for the device, and copy it to /lib/firmware. If you run dmesg you'll often see messages telling you if the firmware is not found.

Some manufacturers like Hauppauge provide alternative ways to install support for their tuners under linux https://www.hauppauge.com/pages/support/...linux.html

[prothed]

Sub - Thank you. I will start again using ubuntu 22.04 server.

[mvallevand]

If you want a client and a server LibreELEC might be a better choice everything is installed as add-ons

[prothed]

Progress report - Installed Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS Server then ran the .deb file with only one error -

N: Download is performed unsandboxed as root as file '/home/dave/nextpvr-helper.deb' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)

and the NPVR web page does now open!


Tuner drivers next...

[mvallevand]

Yes that warning is just because you installed from a user folder it shouldn cause a problem better to install from /tmp but you should be able to load the te web page. It is not auto launched.

[prothed]

Some progress with my linux setup -
- Started new install from /tmp directory. No error this time. Thanks mvallevand.
(The installation tutorial from snagglewest https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=60875 is also very helpful).
The response from the linux system is much snapier than from Windows 10 on the same hardware and the cpu load seems much lower.

- Drivers. To my amazement, the Hauppauge USB tuner was detected by Ubuntu. It appears within NPVR as a 'DiBcom7000PC'.
Less luck with the TBS6981. It seemed to be detected and appeared as 'Connexant CX24117/CX24132' in NPVR, but a scan of Astra 28.2E found no channels. Some googling (and sub) suggested that a firmware file needed to be copied to /lib/firmware. Assuming a missing .fw file, google was consulted again and I located 'dvb-fe-cx24117.fw' on some mystery github page. There are also a bunch of .fw files in the linux driver package from TBS, so I copied those into /lib/firmware as well for good measure. (Desperation was setting in by now). Reboot, and this time a number of DVB-S channels were found. (Not all of them though, so I suspected that the tuning file was not up-to-date). Do I have the correct DVB-S driver setup? Maybe not - the channels play ok, but tuning to a channel is very slow (10 secs) so I'm not sure the driver is correct.

- Tuning files. I downloaded the latest Astra 28.2E tuning file (.ini) from www.kingofsat.net and copied it to /opt/nextpvr/system/data/tuning/DVB-S. I also deleted all the .ini files for unneeded satellites - just leaving 0282.ini. However, when I go to scan the device in the NPVR settings, every satellite in the world is still listed exept my 'new' one! ?? I have previously edited the tuning files under Windows with no problem, but maybe the list of satellites is stored/generated differently under linux?

So - progress, but some mysteries still remain...

[mvallevand]

Linux doesn't use those tuning files, but I am pretty sure DVB-S frequencies are probably static enough and it will be signal related. I suggested LibreELEC to avoid installing drivers and getting working firmware and getting an optimized client which you won't find for Ubunutu.

Sometime DVB-S scanning does take more than one scan (yes scanning is slow) I don't know about 10 seconds tuning but Windows in general will be supported more by the vendors although almost all tuning devices are obsolete right now so you cant make direct comparisons. Tuning on the same mux will likely be much faster. Not sure if keeping Astra 28.2 tuner primed is a good idea.

Martin

[sub]

On Linux it's using the tuning files that come with your Linux distribution. These can be found in /usr/share/dvb/dvb-s.

If you've got a slow tuner, it might be a factor in why some channels are not being found.

[prothed]

Thanks for this Martin. Unfortunately the included Astra 28.2 tuning data is now of little use - for example, only the BBC SD channels are found, and they are currently just placeholders telling you to retune to new HD frequencies. In fact I've scanned twice now and no HD channels from any broadcaster show up... Signal is good and under Windows all HD channels were there. Keeping the tuner primed or not makes no difference - the 'starting device' message displays for several seconds before data starts.

I see there is an unofficial version of Libreelec with DVB drivers (https://cvh.libreelec.tv/). I could try that, but it would still leave the NPVR linux tuning problem.