[mythtv-users] Solved: One PVR-250/pcHDTV combination

[Robert Tsai]

On Sun, Jun 11, 2006 at 01:08:29PM -0500, Mercury Morris wrote:
> Upgrading to MythTV 0.19, kernel 2.6.16.20, and ivtv 0.6.2, I ran
> into a problem.
> 
> With no consistency, the PVR-250 card would be either /dev/video0 or
> /dev/video1. The pcHDTV card would sometimes get /dev/video0 first,
> so that MythTV would mark /dev/video0 offline/unavailable.
> 
> Here's what I did to (more or less) assure that /dev/video0 would be
> the PVR-250. In /etc/rc.d/rc.local, I added commands to do these
> steps:
> 
>   - remove all /dev/video devices . . . . . . . . rm -f /dev/video*
> 
>   - unload kernel module ivtv . . . . . . . . . . rmmod ivtv
> 
>   - re-load kernel module ivtv  . . . . . . . . . modprobe ivtv
> 
>   - sym-link /dev/video0 to /dev/video1 . . . . . ln -s /dev/video1
>   /dev/video0
> 
> This works even if the PVR-250 does NOT get /dev/video1 assigned to
> it, because the sym-link just fails.  The device, /dev/video0, is
> already assigned to the PVR-250.
> 
> Of course, this may not work for ALL PVR-250/pcHDTV combinations.
> Here is the specific configuration where it worked for me:
> 
>   - Motherboard  . . .  ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe
>   - PCI Slot 1 . . . .  -------------------
>   - PCI Slot 2 . . . .  pcHDTV HD-3000
>   - PCI Slot 3 . . . .  PVR-250
>   - PCI Slot 4 . . . .  -------------------
>   - PCI Slot 5 . . . .  AirStar-HD5000
> 
> There are (no doubt) other solutions to conflicts such as this one. I just
> wanted to document my experience, since it seems to have solved the problem.

I think what you want is something like the following in your
/etc/modprobe.d/aliases:

	alias char-major-81 videodev
	options ivtv ivtv_first_minor=2

This will force the ivtv devices to start with /dev/video2

--Rob