Ok guys, I am proud to announce that I was able to run a DVB-T tuner on my Nexus 7
If your kernel is 3.1.10-g52027f9 and your dongle is RTL2832U based
If you have a rooted Nexus 7 with kernel 3.1.10-g52027f9 (it's the latest kernel you get from the original OTG updates) and a RTL2832U based DVB-T dongle, then you can also have your dongle up and running in a matter of minutes. Here are the steps:
If you don't have the same kernel or a dongle is not supported, you will need to get the kernel source and compile the modules yourself. Here's how you do that.
Make sure you are running Linux and have make and git already installed
Download dvbn7comp and put it into a new directory. Make sure dvbn7comp is executable by running chmod +x dvbn7comp inside the folder
Invoke the script like this ./dvbn7comp <kernel_version>. For example if you want to have the modules compiled for 3.1.10-g05b777c, you would run ./dvbn7comp 3.1.10-g05b777c
Wait - it may take a while. Usually about 15 minutes depending on your network and CPU speed.
After the script finishes running, the .ko files would be put in a directory called output_3.1.10-g05b777c
That's it!
Note: The script will download the kernel source and the toolchain and it will attempt to find the commit that contains the required kernel version. Then it will configure the kernel for DVB-T support and will compile the modules and copy them to the output folder. If you run the script again and the sources are already present, it will not download them again, so any subsequent runs of the script would be faster!
How to modify the startdvb script
Code:
echo "Starting DVB support"
insmod dvb-core.ko # core support for DVB
insmod dvb-pll.ko # I am not sure if this is even needed
insmod rc-core.ko # Support for remote control, some drivers won't load otherwise
insmod dvb-usb.ko # Support for usb tuners
insmod dvb-usb-***** # Add here your driver. If more than one needed, add another line
# if firmware is needed, make sure the firmware is in the right folder, it should be /lib/firmware, but I'm not 100% sure
# Also some devices won't need the steps below
echo "Waiting for device"
sleep 5
cd /
mkdir /dev/dvb
mkdir /dev/dvb/adapter0
cd /dev/dvb/adapter0
ln -s /dev/dvb0.frontend0 frontend0
ln -s /dev/dvb0.demux0 demux0
ln -s /dev/dvb0.dvr0 dvr0
ln -s /dev/dvb0.dvr0 dvr0.ts
chmod -R 777 /dev/dvb* # The original script doesn't have it, but try adding a -R before 777 might ease things a bit
echo "DONE!"
Troubleshooting
If any error message occurs, type in dmesg in the terminal. This will give more information why something failed.
How do I know if I'm successful
To check whether you have insmoded the kernels right and after connecting the device whether it has been discovered, use dmesg and look for message similar to "Found DVB device xxx in warm state".
I got it running!!!
If you got it running, please do share with us! It seems like there's a lot of fiddling for some devices to be done so any information will prove invaluable for somebody!!!
NOTE: I don't have the time to support this thread any more, sorry if I am not responding to it! All of the directions above are still valid and working! Browse the comments, you might find that someone has compiled the correct modules for your device/kernel or you might ask someone to do it for you! If you want any of the information above to be edited, please PM me!
Hi,
Thanks for posting. it is very interesting.
can you post where did you buy the tuner from and the price?
the only one i could find with RTL2832U is priced at 27$ from ebay.
How can i compile the kernel modules for a different device?
If your device is listed as compatible somewhere here - http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-T_USB_Devices then you may be lucky You just need to know which kernel module to load with insmod (see the startdvb script to see how to do it).
If it's not there or you have a different kernel version, you will need to follow https://source.android.com/source/building-kernels.html . Except for you only need to build the modules, and you need to fiddle around with the Makefiles in order to force some of the components (like the dvb-usb.ko) to be compiled as modules. Good luck!
I couldn't find the right *.ko file in the modules you attached (it is supposed to be af9005 and af9015, and for my other dvb-t - IT9135)
Could i bother you to upload these, since i have no idea how to compile them.
I tried using af9013.ko that you attached but with no success, most likely because i had to use af9005 instead.
I added insmod af9013.ko to your script, attached is a screenshot from my emulator:
If your device is listed as compatible somewhere here - http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-T_USB_Devices then you may be lucky You just need to know which kernel module to load with insmod (see the startdvb script to see how to do it).
If it's not there or you have a different kernel version, you will need to follow https://source.android.com/source/building-kernels.html . Except for you only need to build the modules, and you need to fiddle around with the Makefiles in order to force some of the components (like the dvb-usb.ko) to be compiled as modules. Good luck!
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