hi Jens,
Paule Wrote:I own a 6981 since 2 weeks now, so far I'm very happy with card.
Paule Wrote:The only problem I noticed is the one that blckcat already reported (no signal in VDR if you first tune to a HDTV channel after turning on the PC)...
it's still standing what i asked "blckcat" here:
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=107#p553because at least i can't reproduce that issue with using "szap-s2" (turn on the PC, lock with "szap-s2" to HD channel/DVB-S2 signal and it's working OK), which suggests it's not driver problem, because "szap-s2" as any other DVB application in Linux is using the standard S2API for DVB-S2 hardware. however, it's important you to check if you can reproduce the problem with "szap-s2" in your environments/setups, because it could be that something else is causing the issue like your LNB local oscillator stability, etc, which means it's not only isolated problem to your environments/setups, but it's not even software bug (in the drivers or the way how VDR handles the dual DVB-S2 card).
Paule Wrote:Anyway, the reason for my post is about the future of the linux driver.
as Linux user myself i understand very well your concerns about it and i'm glad you're asking about it.
Paule Wrote:At the moment we get excellent support from you, e.g. new drivers when a new kernel is released, I also noticed that you helped a user who needed drivers that are not in the v4l repository
it's good to hear that you appreciate my effort to provide as mush as possible pleasant Linux user experience with TBS products.
Paule Wrote:But what will happen in one, two or three years? Will you continue to release new drivers for each kernel? Will it slow down or stop in the worst case?
Is there any chance that the driver will make it into the kernel in near future (which requires 100% open source code).
Why is the driver not completely open source? Is it to protect your work or are NDAs the reason that prevent you from releasing the source code?
i answered those questions in e-mails many times about TBS 6980 and since 6981 is 6980 with updated hardware circuit, but all major integrated circuits on 6981 that the driver controls are the same as on 6980 let me just copy and paste such e-mail, which i believe will give answers to all those questions, but the very short answer is that it will go GPL in the future for sure:
- Code: Select All Code
very small part of the current Linux driver for TBS 6980 is not-open-source and it's a binary module instead. TBS 6980 uses some very new chips (actually, it's the only product on the market that is using the latest second generation of DVB-S2 chips made by NXP/Conexant) and more specific what we can't open-source at this point in time, for number of reasons, and that part of the driver is a binary module, is the driver for the DVB-S2 front-end (DVB-S2 tuner + demodulator), but the rest of the driver is fully open source.
most of our Linux customers already have tested the driver and are very satisfied with it - at the beginning they were also concerned that it's not entirely open-source, but after tried it in practice they changed their mind, because actually, the small part that is not-open-source is not a limitation at all and that doesn't prevent the driver to work with different Linux distributions and kernels and we officially provide Linux support in case of troubles.
as i mentioned unlike other manufacturers TBS provide dedicated Linux support and when it's possible we release our drivers as open-source, for example:
http://linuxtv.org/hg/v4l-dvb/file/e0cd9a337600/linux/drivers/media/dvb/frontends/ds3000.c
and we will also fully open-source TBS 6980 driver when the time is right and we are permitted to do that.
so, to summarize about your questions:
* Linux driver for TBS 6980 supports all Linux distributions and all Linux kernels (to be more specific we have tested it will all major Linux kernel versions released in the last two years)
* in case of troubles or if you have some specific request about missing features in the driver we provide dedicated Linux support
