[mythtv] [announce] dummy-v4l2 driver

[Colin Cross]

A few months ago I was trying to debug a problem in mythbackend, but I 
didn't want to take down my production backend.  So I started writing a 
dummy V4L2 driver that creates a test pattern.  After some adventures in 
user mode linux, I finally got a workable driver done.

The driver provides multiple inputs, each of which is a different test 
pattern.  So far I've implemented three test patterns: a standard NTSC 
color bar pattern, a bouncing ball, and a text box describing the 
current settings and counting the frame number.

MythTV will only use V4L2 for the cx88 driver, so to test it with this 
driver you'll need to apply the quick hack from 
http://chestnut.mit.edu/mythtv-v4l2.patch
The driver tarball is available at 
http://chestnut.mit.edu/dummy-v4l2-0.1.tar.gz
It will only compile against 2.6.10 or newer kernels, and it has only 
been tested on 2.6.11.3.
If you have any qualms about your system crashing, I strongly advise you 
to run it in UML (user mode linux).  If there is interest, I'll write a 
howto on setting up mythbackend with a dummy-v4l2 driver in UML for 
debugging.