6205 and linux driver installation

[squirrelpie]

Hi, I just bought a TBS6205 and have installed the hardware but am confused about the software needed for linux. I run openSUSE, currently v42.3, and am familar with linux but not with TV hardware. The card came with no documentation at all, so I'm reliant on what I find online, but I can't find a basic explanation and what I do find seems contradictory. Can anybody tell me what I need to do?

I found https://www.tbsdtv.com/download/?path=14&id=9 and I downloaded both the Use Manual and the TBS Open Source Linux Driver Offline Package v180206 and looked at https://github.com/tbsdtv/linux_media/wiki but they don't seem to match. Since I don't fully understand what I need to do, I can't resolve the differences.

The instructions that come with the driver start by saying 'sudo rm -rf /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/media/', which I think is asking me to remove a bunch of software from my machine that has nothing to do with the TBS card. There's no way I'm going to do something like that without a very convincing explanation. The rest of the instructions there are relatively simple if and when I learn to trust them.

The instructions on the web pages seem much more complicated and involve using git and performing many more stages. What is the reason for the differences?

[squirrelpie]

haha two years ago you wrote this and they havent even bothered to respond. TBS makes products that are total absolute garbage. Good luck ever getting it to work.

Well, I resolved the problem with help from TBS and CrazyCat that wasn't on this thread, and its worked well ever since, so I'd disagree with your conclusion. A different attitude may help you fix any problems you're experiencing.

[quad4]

I strongly agree with the matter and the attitude. Also why include linux-media stack devices in installation process, which are NOT your own products? Unneccesary disk space used. I opted in for simpler DKMS solution: https://github.com/janbar/tbs-dvb-driver

[Delta]

As a user who is not familiar with C/C++ and compilation, I do not understand why TBS does not launch a standalone driver package for its own product, but had to include linux-media stack devices. But what's more important to me is getting my TBS devices to function.

It is worth noting that TBS products are aimed at professional users with certain knowledge. And these products are supported by TBS staff and the user community. Therefore the traditional form of "user manual" does not apply to such products. The fact that TBS staff are very friendly to provide users 1-on-1 assistance according to their requirements, which seems to be much better than some traditional product-supporting format.

In fact, many Linux TBS users do not understand what they are doing and what do they need. In this case, it is not wise to make subjective choices of environment and operating procedures. This is precisely the reason I decided to write a series of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 (aka CentOS) driver installation guides. Ubuntu and Fedora (etc.) are both radical OS that adopt the latest kernels so as drivers may not be updated in time. SUSE and other niche Linux distributions do not have broad community support. Non-developer users do not need tampers and changes. What they need is a stable service environment and fool-proof installation steps for their purchases, which is exactly what I am contributing to the community.

Therefore, rather than being confused or complaining, it is better to properly understand the product/community nature, then contribute and help.