How to activate Device Drivers -> Multimedia support -> Encoders, decoders, sensors and other helper chips\VIDEO_SAA711X

[mdbananapi]

Hi!

 

Can someone please explain how can I activate the "Encoders, decoders, sensors and other helper chips\VIDEO_SAA711X" option in menuconfig from Device Drivers -> Multimedia support ?

 

I have banana pi and it is running debian wheezy kernel 3.19.3 from this link: http://mirror.igorpecovnik.com/Bananapi_Debian_2.5_wheezy_3.19.3.zip

 

I also have a easycap somagic usb video capture card and in order to install it's drivers, I need to activate all of it's dependencies from kernel otherwise when compiling the module, I get many warnings and when I try to do modprobe to the generated .ko file, it also gives me error.

 

I contacted the developers of the driver for the easycap somagic smi2021 usb card and they said that those errors are probably because dependencies upon which the driver is depending are not installed/activated.

 

Here is the full conversation (it is short): https://github.com/Manouchehri/smi2021/issues/11

 

In the folder where I downloaded and extracted debian wheezy 3.19.3 when I run make menuconfig, I need to go to "Device Drivers -> Multimedia support ->Encoders, decoders, sensors and other helper chips -> Philips SAA7111/3/4/5 video decoders" but when I go to "Multimedia Support" there is no "Encoders, decoders, sensors and other helper chips" to activate or to choose. How can I get the "Encoders, decoders, sensors and other helper chips" to be in "Multimedia Support" when I run make menuconfig?

 

 

Thanks

[mdbananapi]

Here is what I did but i think the module ( Philips SAA7111/3/4/5 video decoders ) has not been installed.

 

1. Download http://mirror.igorpecovnik.com/Bananapi_Debian_2.5_wheezy_3.19.3.zip

2. Extract in folder linux-3.19.3

3. cd to folder linux-3.19.9

4. run make menuconfig

5. Go to Device Drivers/Multimedia Support and unselect "Autoselect ancillary drivers (tuners, sensors, i2c, frontends)" and a new list appears

6. I go to the Encoders, decoders, sensors and other helper chips and press "Y" key to sellect the needed modules, in my case: Philips SAA7111/3/4/5 video decoders and a few others.

7. I save the configuration as .config in the same folder linux-3.19.3 and exit

8. I run make and it is compiling for about 2 hours

9. I run make modules

10. I run make modules_install

11. I run make install

12. I run reboot

 

And fter the rebopot it seems that the Philips SAA7111/3/4/5 video decoders are still not installed as the program smi2021 which requires the modules is still giving the same errors like there is no Philips SAA7111/3/4/5 video decoder installed.

 

Is there a way to check for sure on my kernel is the Philips SAA7111/3/4/5 video decoder is installed?

 

Also, am I compiling the kernel correctly?

 

Thanks!

[Igor]

Also, am I compiling the kernel correctly?

 

Short answer. No.

 

You can compile on a image the driver if you have a source and required dependencies.

 

If you manage to compile a driver the usual output is:

 

something.ko

 

than you load it with

 

insmod something.ko

 

if you got no error, try to insert a hardware and check what is kernel telling you with:

dmesg 

 

But you will probably need a whole source and build a kernel with all dependencies if this is not so. I recommend you to compile on some X86 machine otherwise you will compile whole day.

 

The proper start would be here:

https://github.com/igorpecovnik/lib

 

Stick to latest stable kernel 4.1.3 but still you might run into troubles.

[mdbananapi]

Hi Igor!

 

Thank you for your quick reply.

 

I have looked up into https://github.com/igorpecovnik/liband it is a really big library. I will continue to study it.

 

But in the meantime, if I download the 4.1.3 kernel from you, how can I install it without changing my current desktop environment? I have created some files there, installed some programs, etc. If I install the new kernel, will that delete all of that data?

 

Also, when I compiled the kernel with the method I wrote earlier, in the boot folder, it created 3 new files: vmlinuz-3.19.3 and 2 more files. There was also a vmlinuz-3.19.3-bananapi and the zImage was a link to it. So I thought that if I change link of the zImage to the newly created vmlinuz-3.19.3, I will be able to use the new kernel, but I was wrong. Now the Linux does not even boot.

 

I have placed my sd card in my windows pc and copied back the old zImage which is pointing to vmlinuz-3.19.3-bananapi but it still does not boot. Do you know how can I make my linux boot again? And if it is possible, can I boot it from vmlinuz-3.19.3 as when I compiled it, in menuconfig I added extra options which were needed when installing the standalone smi2021 module.

 

Basically, I need a kernel that will have the options of Philips SAA7111/3/4/5 video decoders from menuconfig installed or tuned on, by default.

[mdbananapi]

Now when I start my banana pi I get

Bad linux ARM zImage magic!

Script Failed.

continuing

 

I think that somehow I corupted the zImage. Is there any possibility to make it work again and if possible, to boot the vmlinuz-3.19.3 image?

 

Thanks!

[Igor]

If you have serial console you can manually execute boot commands to boot any kernel. And if you upgrade / downgrade kernel it should not affect what you have installed on the system.

 

If you can't boot is probably because of not proper U-boot. You always need to install that to. (I wrote FAQ to minimize such troubles).

[mdbananapi]

Thank you very much Igor!

 

I will try to execute manually boot.