[mythtv-users] Failure loading firmware on reboot - Please help

[Praveen Shenoy]

On Mar 25, 2006, at 2:18 PM, Justin The Cynical wrote:

> Praveen Shenoy wrote:
>
> *snip*
>
>> too. And the problem seems to be only with
>> initrd as if I I put the original initrd back, everything seems to  
>> be  working fine with X display showing up on the
>> TV thru the TV-OUT of PVR-350. So, the issues is only about  
>> getting  the boot messages to show up on the TV so that
>> I can almost totally get rid of the monitor unless I really run  
>> into  issues for which I need a monitor.
>
> Now that is interesting.  I wonder if the version of initrd is  
> messing with the /etc/hotplug/firmware.agent file.  Ever look at  
> what the FIRMWARE_DIR is set to?
>
> It shouldn't mess with that file, but this is ReaHat after  
> all.  :-)  It almost seems like initrd is loading the IVTV drivers  
> before the filesystem that holds the firmware files is mounted.

I checked to see if what you are referring to exists. This is what I  
found...

On my FC4 install:
there is not hotplug.agent (used find)
echo $FIRMWARE_DIR is empty

Referring to your last statement, as I understand the firmware is  
part of the initrd and should be loaded from the ramdisk and not from  
the filesystem. I checked the initrd image to make sure the firmware  
files exist. I also remember reading that, ivtv 0.4.3 should be  
loading the firmware from /lib/firmware instead of /lib/modules.  
When I looked at the initrd that was created using the mkinitrd-ivtv  
patch, the structure reflects the pre ivtv 0.4.3 structure which is  
the firmware being in the /lib/modules directory. So, I am guessing  
this might be one reason. So, I tried creating an initrd image that  
also had lib/firmware and copied the firmware inot that dir and  
repackaged the initrd image. This did not make any difference. Maybe  
developers oon the ivtv list will be able to shed some light on this.

Praveen