Marvel G450 eTV Mini-HOWTO

1. install Matrox mgadriver and configure kernel

• You need the following kernel options to work your card properly (kernel version 2.4.X and XFree 4.X required):
  CONFIG_VIDEO_DEV=m
  CONFIG_VIDEO_PROC_FS=y
  CONFIG_DRM=y
  CONFIG_DRM_MGA=y
  CONFIG_AGP_VIA=y
  CONFIG_AGP=y
  CONFIG_I2C=y
  CONFIG_I2C_ALGOBIT=y
  CONFIG_I2C_CHARDEV=y
  CONFIG_I2C_PROC=y
  CONFIG_FB_MATROX=y
  CONFIG_FB_MATROX_G100=y
  CONFIG_FB_MATROX_I2C=m
  CONFIG_FB_MATROX_G450=m
• Get the latest mgadriver from Matrox and install it (untar mgadrivers-2.0.tgz and run ./install.sh).
• You may need PowerDesk tool from Matrox to configure your XFree 4.X in an easy way. You can download Linux version from here. Install it and run mgapdesk to configure your XFree.

2. install marvel driver

• You have to get marvel driver from http://marvel.sf.net. You need the latest version, so get it from the CVS. You can find driver here also. This one checkouted from CVS at 5 Apr. 2002.
• If you use kernel version 2.4.18 or higher, you have to patch driver with this patch (by Gergely Kis).
• If you would like to get rid of kernel messages of the "non-GPL module", attach the following line to the end of each appropriate files:
  MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");
• You can download a working, patched version of the marvel driver without GPL-warning messages from here.
• Compile modules with make mjpeg.
• You need video devices (E.g.: /dev/video0), so run MAKEDEV to make some video device. You have to do this with root privileges.
• Insmod modules: run ./iv4l1
• If every appropriate modules loaded, you have to get some similar screen after lsmod:
  $ lsmod

Module Size Used by Tainted: P

mgajpg 11424 0 (autoclean)
mgacap 7264 0 (autoclean) [mgajpg]
i33 7012 0 (autoclean) [mgajpg]
mgavideo 6740 0 (autoclean) [mgajpg mgacap i33]
mgagrab 11140 1 (autoclean) [mgacap mgavideo]
zr36060 13120 0 (autoclean) [mgajpg i33]
mga_core 39364 4 (autoclean) [mgajpg mgacap i33 mgavideo mgagrab zr36060]
ks0127 10144 1 (autoclean) [mga_core]
msp3400 14320 1 (autoclean) [mga_core]
i2c-algo-ks 7276 1 (autoclean) [mga_core]
tuner 3972 1 (autoclean) [mga_core]
i2c-core 12896 0 (autoclean) [mga_core ks0127 msp3400 i2c-algo-ks tuner]
videodev 4576 2 (autoclean) [mgajpg mgacap]
rtc 5720 0 (autoclean)

• You can make this step automatically run each time when you use /dev/video0. Copy iv4l1 and rv4l1 to /usr/local/sbin and put the following lines into /etc/modules.conf:
  #i2c
alias char-major-89 i2c-dev
options i2c-core i2c_debug=0
options i2c-algo-bit bit_test=1
post-install i2c-dev modprobe i2c-algo-ks
options i2c-algo-ks i2c_debug=0 bit_scan=1

# videodev
alias char-major-81 videodev
alias char-major-81-0 mgajpg
post-install /usr/local/sbin/iv4l1

  And then depmod -a.

3. install xawtv

• Download Xawtv-3.74 from Bytesex.org
• Patch it with this patch (by Paul Slootman) against xawtv-3.74. You can find a patched source here if you do not familiar with patching source code.
• Compile it and install xawtv-files.
• Debian-users can make their life easier with debian/ruls binary. This will make xawtv deb-packages. After building packages one can install deb-files with dpkg -i *.deb
• There are debian-packages available with xawtv compiled for Debian Woody here. So you have to download only and then use dpkg -i *.deb to install them.

4. record video

That's it ;-).

If you have a Marvel G450 eTV and you have problems with it, try this steps and write me your experiences. Any info about G450 are welcome. This is a BETA description, feel free to mail me if you have a better one.

You can find my contact at http://zso.lt