Newbie and Ubuntu 14.04

[speeda...@googlemail.com]

Hello to everybody in this group.

I upgraded my Ubuntu system to 14.04 and got an EasyCap002 (Somagic).

Following the instructions at http://code.google.com/p/easycap-somagic-linux/wiki/GettingStarted I did the following:

A) lsusb: 1c88:0007 Somagic, Inc

B) Got and installed official releases:  somagic-easycap_1.1_i386.deb and somagic-easycap-tools_1.1_i386.deb via apt-get

C) Extracted firmware from WindowsXP-driver: SmiUsbGrabber.sys -> /lib/firmware/somagic_firmware.bin

D) Initialized the EasyCap: somagic-init

Result

1) lsusb: 1c88:003e Somagic, Inc.     -     looks OK

2) somagic-capture --test-only: return code 0     -     looks OK

The following questions I have:

a) I just did step B) with official packages. I didn't do source packages from tar.gz or git-sources: is that correct????

b) I have no /dev/videoX     -     looks NOK

c) sudo somagic-capture -c --iso-transfers 100 --pal --sync=1 | mplayer -nocache -vf yadif -demuxer rawvideo -rawvideo "pal:format=uyvy:fps=25" -aspect 4:3 -       -     looks NOK

           mplayer: could not connect to socket

           mplayer: No such file or directory
           Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

           Playing -.

           Reading from stdin...

          -no reaction on screen-

d) I am not aware of having done a kernel compilation or loading of modules..... (I even do not know how to do that)

So: I would appreciate any help you might be able to provide to a Newbie. THANKS!!!!!

speedmaster

PS: uname -a: Linux basement 3.13.0-32-generic #57-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jul 15 03:51:12 UTC 2014 i686 athlon i686 GNU/Linux

      dmesg: usb 2-1: new high-speed USB device number 6 using ehci-pci

                  usb 2-1: New USB device found, idVendor=1c88, idProduct=003e

                  usb 2-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3

                  usb 2-1: Product:  SMI Grabber Dev

                  usb 2-1: Manufacturer:  Somagic, Inc.

                  usb 2-1: SerialNumber: SMIVIDEO3E9876543210

[Jon Arne Jørgensen]

Hi,

On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 4:02 PM, <speeda...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hello to everybody in this group.
> I upgraded my Ubuntu system to 14.04 and got an EasyCap002 (Somagic).
>
> Following the instructions at
> http://code.google.com/p/easycap-somagic-linux/wiki/GettingStarted I did the
> following:
>
> A) lsusb: 1c88:0007 Somagic, Inc
> B) Got and installed official releases: somagic-easycap_1.1_i386.deb and
> somagic-easycap-tools_1.1_i386.deb via apt-get
> C) Extracted firmware from WindowsXP-driver: SmiUsbGrabber.sys ->
> /lib/firmware/somagic_firmware.bin
> D) Initialized the EasyCap: somagic-init
>
> Result
> 1) lsusb: 1c88:003e Somagic, Inc. - looks OK
> 2) somagic-capture --test-only: return code 0 - looks OK
>
> The following questions I have:
> a) I just did step B) with official packages. I didn't do source packages
> from tar.gz or git-sources: is that correct????
> b) I have no /dev/videoX - looks NOK

This is expected, the /dev/video device will only appear if you had
built the kernel-module.
There is no deb package for the kernel module, so you had known if you
had built it :)

> c) sudo somagic-capture -c --iso-transfers 100 --pal --sync=1 | mplayer
> -nocache -vf yadif -demuxer rawvideo -rawvideo "pal:format=uyvy:fps=25"
> -aspect 4:3 - - looks NOK
> mplayer: could not connect to socket
> mplayer: No such file or directory
> Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your
> remote control.
> Playing -.
> Reading from stdin...
>
> -no reaction on screen-
>

I'm not sure why this isn't working. I don't use the somagic-capture
program, so I can't help you here.
Hope someone else can see what's wrong.
Is mplayer supposed to warn about "could not connect to socket" and
"No such file or directory"?

Does your device have multiple inputs, are you feeding video to the
correct cvbs input?

> d) I am not aware of having done a kernel compilation or loading of
> modules..... (I even do not know how to do that)

You would know it if you had tried to compile the kernel-module :)

>
>
> So: I would appreciate any help you might be able to provide to a Newbie.
> THANKS!!!!!
>
> speedmaster
>
>
> PS: uname -a: Linux basement 3.13.0-32-generic #57-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jul 15
> 03:51:12 UTC 2014 i686 athlon i686 GNU/Linux
> dmesg: usb 2-1: new high-speed USB device number 6 using ehci-pci
> usb 2-1: New USB device found, idVendor=1c88,
> idProduct=003e
> usb 2-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2,
> SerialNumber=3
> usb 2-1: Product: SMI Grabber Dev
> usb 2-1: Manufacturer: Somagic, Inc.
> usb 2-1: SerialNumber: SMIVIDEO3E9876543210
>

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--
Jonarne
http://jonarne.no

[tosiara]

He Jon,
did you make any progress with patchwork? Is there any recent source code for testing?

[speeda...@googlemail.com]

Thank you Jon!

I do see, I have to go through the Kernel thing at https://code.google.com/p/easycap-somagic-linux/wiki/BuildingKernelModule

Unfortunately, I am already stopped at git am smi2021v3.patch:

Wende an: Add a driver for the Somagic smi2021 chip
error: Anwendung des Patches fehlgeschlagen: drivers/media/usb/Kconfig:28
error: drivers/media/usb/Kconfig: Patch konnte nicht angewendet werden
error: Anwendung des Patches fehlgeschlagen: drivers/media/usb/Makefile:21
error: drivers/media/usb/Makefile: Patch konnte nicht angewendet werden
Anwendung des Patches fehlgeschlagen bei 0001 Add a driver for the Somagic smi2021 chip
Die Kopie des fehlgeschlagenen Patches befindet sich in:
   /...../v4l-dvb/.git/rebase-apply/patch
Wenn Sie das Problem gelöst haben, führen Sie "git am --continue" aus.
Falls Sie diesen Patch auslassen möchten, führen Sie stattdessen
"git am --skip" aus.
Um den ursprünglichen Branch wiederherzustellen und die Anwendung der
Patches abzubrechen, führen Sie "git am --abort" aus.

Any idea on to overcome that thing (Errors in Kconfig, Makefile)?

[Jon Arne Jørgensen]

That specific error is that the Kconfig and Makefile doesn't match the
patchfiles expectations.
The patch is only adding a couple of lines in those files, so you can
probably fix them your self.

Another problem is that these patches are really old, so they will
probably not work on a reasonably new kernel.
I'm working on updating the patches, but I have limited time to work
on this, so it's dragging out.

I hope someone can help you with why somagic-capture isn't working for
you, because at the moment that is the best way to use this device
under linux.
I will post an update to this list when I have a working version of
the kernel-module again.

[calamari]

On Monday, July 28, 2014 7:02:49 AM UTC-7, speeda...@googlemail.com wrote:

c) sudo somagic-capture -c --iso-transfers 100 --pal --sync=1 | mplayer -nocache -vf yadif -demuxer rawvideo -rawvideo "pal:format=uyvy:fps=25" -aspect 4:3 -       -     looks NOK

           mplayer: could not connect to socket

           mplayer: No such file or directory
           Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

           Playing -.

           Reading from stdin...

Two questions:

1) Can you play other videos using mplayer? Please try from the same directory you ran the above command from.

2) What happens when you run this command for a few seconds then press Ctrl+C? Do you get any errors? Does it fill "output.dat" with data? sudo somagic-capture -c --iso-transfers 100 --pal --sync=1 > output.dat

Jeff

[speeda...@googlemail.com]

Hi Jeff,

Q1: mplayer does play e.g. a movie file (.avi)

Q2: command doesn't seem to run even: "somagic-capture: Failed to submit request #86 for transfer: Cannot allocate memory"

      output.dat is ZERO consequentialy

But basically, I am now trying to even start with the driver and building the kernel..... I am currently stuck as you see above.

speedmaster

[calamari]

Sorry, I can't help you with the kernel, I only worked on the userspace capture tools.

Just noticed something though.. that iso transfers value you were trying to use is insanely high.

Run the following command (it defaults to pal and composite):
sudo somagic-capture > output.dat

Jeff

[Jon Arne Jørgensen]

Hi,
I would also suggest that you get the somagic-capture program running
before you try to use the kernel-module.
If you can't get the userspace tools working, you will never get the
kernel-module working...

[speeda...@googlemail.com]

Hi Jeff,

I'll focus on getting the somagic-capture program running.

I ignored all parameters and let it run with the output going to output.dat.

It ran with no errors (and needs to be terminated by ctrl-c), but output.dat stays ZERO even it got created newly.

If I unplug the USB-capture device, the somagic-capture reports errors "USB device 1x88:003c/f was not found". So the stick at least gets recognized if plugged in.

I only connected a video source to input 1 (out of 4). Is that maybe a source of the misbehavior?

speedmaster

[speeda...@googlemail.com]

Jon,

Thanks for the advice. Will focus on the somagic-capture program for the time being.

speedmaster 

[Jeffry Johnston]

Possibly. Try each input. I seem to remember it defaulting to input 2?
Make sure you are also running somagic-init after you plug in the USB
device. Jeff

[speeda...@googlemail.com]

Hi Jeff,

I for sure did the init (otherwise it comes with the not connected device error).

BUT you made it: I connected the source to input 2 and I do get some data in output.dat!!!!! Sounds strange, as I thought no input just will deliver a noise video stream...... Nevertheless....

So I move a step ahead and tried 

sudo somagic-capture -c --iso-transfers 10 --pal --sync=1 | mplayer -nocache -vf yadif,screenshot -demuxer rawvideo -rawvideo "pal:format=uyvy:fps=25" -aspect 4:3 -

I am getting errors from somagic-capture: 

bad sync on line 0 @0 (0000)
bad sync on line 0 @0 (0000)
resync after 355 @354(0162)
bad sync on line 0 @190 (00be)
bad sync on line 0 @0 (0000)
resync after 71 @70(0046)
bad sync on line 0 @54 (0036)
bad sync on line 0 @0 (0000)
resync after 441 @440(01b8)
bad sync on line 0 @740 (02e4)
bad sync on line 0 @0 (0000)
bad sync on line 0 @0 (0000)
resync after 37 @36(0024)
bad sync on line 172 @536 (0218)
bad sync on line 172 @0 (0000)
resync after 701 @700(02bc)
bad sync on line 187 @1000 (03e8)
bad sync on line 187 @0 (0000)
bad sync on line 187 @0 (0000)
resync after 345 @344(0158)
bad sync on line 264 @660 (0294)
bad sync on line 264 @0 (0000)
bad sync on line 264 @0 (0000)
resync after 31 @30(001e)
bad sync on line 63 @354 (0162)
bad sync on line 63 @0 (0000)
resync after 549 @548(0224)
bad sync on line 78 @848 (0350)
bad sync on line 78 @0 (0000)
bad sync on line 78 @0 (0000)
resync after 171 @170(00aa)
bad sync on line 264 @218 (00da)
bad sync on line 264 @0 (0000)
resync after 441 @440(01b8)
bad sync on line 279 @740 (02e4)
bad sync on line 279 @0 (0000)
bad sync on line 279 @0 (0000)
resync after 27 @26(001a)

and mplayer drives these outputs (and no video)

MPlayer 1.1-4.8 (C) 2000-2012 MPlayer Team

mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing pal:format=uyvy:fps=25.
File not found: 'pal:format=uyvy:fps=25'
Failed to open pal:format=uyvy:fps=25.

Playing -.
Reading from stdin...

rawvideo file format detected.
rawvideo: width or height not specified!




Exiting... (End of file)

[Jeffry Johnston]

I suggest you run somagic-capture --help and then copy and paste the PAL example to avoid typos. Jeff