Firewire Channel changing in Linux

[wayner]

I get nothing for lsmod.

But within the docker it seems like some of the firewire packages are installed:

root@Hoylake:/# apt list --installed |grep 1394

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

libavc1394-0/now 0.5.4-4 amd64 [installed,local]
libdc1394-22/now 2.2.4-1 amd64 [installed,local]
libraw1394-11/now 2.1.1-2 amd64 [installed,local]

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by wayner

I get nothing for lsmod.

But within the docker it seems like some of the firewire packages are installed:

root@Hoylake:/# apt list --installed |grep 1394

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

libavc1394-0/now 0.5.4-4 amd64 [installed,local]
libdc1394-22/now 2.2.4-1 amd64 [installed,local]
libraw1394-11/now 2.1.1-2 amd64 [installed,local]

Right, that's what I was referring to earlier. The appropriate packages are in the recent docker containers - but it still requires the /dev/fw node to be created and managed by the drivers IN the unraid kernel. I did some talking to Neil (they guy who builds the unRAID DVB kernels) about adding firewire drivers to it, so at some point, we may have a solution - I just need to learn how a kernel is built, and how to add that to it.... ;-)

[wayner]

I think there may be one more package - something like lib1394-tools that provides the panelctl program that gentuner uses for firewire.

One problem may be that a lot of the firewire stuff in linux isn't being updated as firewire is kind of dying out. When you search for firewire and linux you can see people having issues with getting their hardware working when they upgrade to newer distros.

[Fuzzy]

I don't believe you need gentuner to use firewire control with sage. I think firewire control is built into sage, and it would be talking directly to the /dev/fw node itself. WRX4ME would know better though.

[wayner]

Your probably right as that is what it sounded like in his post yesterday when he got it working, it just appeared as a tuning option. That makes it somewhat easier than Win where you had to use EXEmultituner along with the channel.exe (or channelw.exe) program for actually changing channels.

[Wrx4me]

Correct, gentuner is not needed for the firewall tuning option in Linux I think it communicates directly with dev/fw* as Fuzzy mentioned.

[Wrx4me]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Do you happen to know what would need to be added to the kernel to get firewire support at the server level? It may be possible to get the linuxserver.io guys to add it into their kernels.

I am not sure but I believe regular Slackware distros (which unRAID is built on) has firewire1394 drivers enabled in their Kernel, maybe looking at what's included there could help.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Wrx4me

Correct, gentuner is not needed for the firewall tuning option in Linux I think it communicates directly with dev/fw* as Fuzzy mentioned.

Can you specify parameters like the ID for your box? In Windows there were two ways to do this - either a device number created by the OS that was something like 1,2,3,4 or a longer ID called a UniqueID that was about an 8 digit hex number. I always found using the UniqueID preferable as the other numbers could occasionally change on you and you would be tuning the wrong box.

[Wrx4me]

My firewire shows up in the tuning selection screen with a long OS assigned Hex number after the word Firewire.
But even if you had to control multiple boxes wouldn't you need individual firewire cables attached to each box going to separate firewire ports on your server? You can add them one after the other to keep track of things.

[wayner]

Ok, that sounds easy enough. That sounds kind of like the HD-PVR which gets an 8 digit Hex number assigned although it isn't clear to me if that number comes from the device itself or from the OS.

[Wrx4me]

Now I think about it I am not sure if it is OS assigned or from the device being detected. I will take a closer look at the #'s when I get home later.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Wrx4me

I am not sure but I believe regular Slackware distros (which unRAID is built on) has firewire1394 drivers enabled in their Kernel, maybe looking at what's included there could help.

I can't really verify (since I don't have a firewire port), but based on Wayner NOT having a /dev/fw node, I'm guessing it is not enabled in the kernel shipping with unRAID. If you check modules.builtin on your host, I think you'll find the list quite a bit shorter than most distros. I have a feeling for simplicity, speed, and footprint, limetech has slimmed down the kernel as much as possible.

[Wrx4me]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I can't really verify (since I don't have a firewire port), but based on Wayner NOT having a /dev/fw node, I'm guessing it is not enabled in the kernel shipping with unRAID. If you check modules.builtin on your host, I think you'll find the list quite a bit shorter than most distros. I have a feeling for simplicity, speed, and footprint, limetech has slimmed down the kernel as much as possible.

That's exactly my understanding about the unRAID packaging, firewire drivers happened to be one of the items not supported.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I can't really verify (since I don't have a firewire port), but based on Wayner NOT having a /dev/fw node, I'm guessing it is not enabled in the kernel shipping with unRAID. If you check modules.builtin on your host, I think you'll find the list quite a bit shorter than most distros. I have a feeling for simplicity, speed, and footprint, limetech has slimmed down the kernel as much as possible.

Originally Posted by Wrx4me

That's exactly my understanding about the unRAID packaging, firewire drivers happened to be one of the items not supported.

But you'd think it would be enabled in the LIbreElec kernel, no? the unRAID kernel is very lean, but the LibreElec kernel is a media kernel (I have to use it for the hdpvr) and I'd be surprised if it didn't have firewire enabled.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stuckless

But you'd think it would be enabled in the LIbreElec kernel, no? the unRAID kernel is very lean, but the LibreElec kernel is a media kernel (I have to use it for the hdpvr) and I'd be surprised if it didn't have firewire enabled.

If one of you linux heavies can determine exactly what options need to be done in the kernel to get it going, than Neil (CHBMB) said he'd have no problem enabling it in future builds (his build scripts are on github, so if you can determine what needs done, you can can create an issue there (or even a pull request if you feel extra helpful).