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PedroReina

Member

From: Madrid, Spain

Registered: 2019-01-13

Posts: 269  

Website

Conexant CX23418 on Toshiba Qosmio G30

Hi everyone.

I'm trying to get working the Conexant CX23418 DVB-T tuner found in my Toshiba Qosmio G30 computer. I can't. I think that is a kernel related issue, not an specific Devuan one. So, I'm posting in Off-topic.

I thought, reading https://www.linuxtv.org/lists.php, that the linux-media mailing list could be the right place to ask, so I suscribed and sent a message. But I got no answer.

So, any of you can point me another place to ask? Or may be a suggestion to keep digging?

Thanks.

Dutch_Master

Member

Registered: 2018-05-31

Posts: 285  

Re: Conexant CX23418 on Toshiba Qosmio G30

First, see if the kernel already knows about your tuner: run lshw (as root) and scan the output for your device showing up*. If it does, the kernel knows about it and you'll only need firmware to get it operational. If it doesn't show up, there's no easy way of getting your tuner to work I'm afraid.

*the best way of doing this (you need to install the lshw package in any case) is to redirect the output to a text file, then scan the file at your leisure:

lshw > lshw.txt
cat lshw.txt | grep tuner

Or use Pluma (text viewer) to open the file and search for the tuner.

PedroReina

Member

From: Madrid, Spain

Registered: 2019-01-13

Posts: 269  

Website

Re: Conexant CX23418 on Toshiba Qosmio G30

see if the kernel already knows about your tuner ... you'll only need firmware to get it operational

Yes, kernel knows and firmware are in place. You can see the logs in https://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-med … 50597.html.

If it doesn't show up, there's no easy way of getting your tuner to work I'm afraid.

This is the very reason I'm stuck: I get errors loading the firmware.

Thank you, Dutch_Master.

Dutch_Master

Member

Registered: 2018-05-31

Posts: 285  

Re: Conexant CX23418 on Toshiba Qosmio G30

Here's the key error from your log:

[    6.201782] xc2028 4-0060: Incorrect readback of firmware version.

Ensure you have the correct firmware extracted from the script, perhaps download the latest Win-OS driver (again) to restart the extraction process. You also mentioned you didn't/don't have the directory /dev/dvb, try creating that manually and rerun the extraction script to see if it puts the various firmware blobs in the correct place.

PedroReina

Member

From: Madrid, Spain

Registered: 2019-01-13

Posts: 269  

Website

Re: Conexant CX23418 on Toshiba Qosmio G30

Here's the key error from your log:

Agreed.

Ensure you have the correct firmware extracted from the script

I did it a few times. And downloaded the file from somewhere, but all the md5 hashes matched, so I think that the file is the correct one.

perhaps download the latest Win-OS driver

I think that this could be exactly the root of the issue. At stated at https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/ … 028/XC2028,

The Xceive firmware has an internal version number; the newest of which, to the best of
knowledge, is version 2.7, for xc2028/xc3028 and version 3.6 for the low power variants (xc3028l).
 In theory, this particular firmware can be the same one that is used for all xc3028 based devices.
However, in practice, there are some devices that might require an older firmware version
(e.g. this is the case with the tm6000 based 10moons device, which requires firmware version 1.e).
 If you happen to know that the Windows ".sys" driver file for your device is supplied with a version
 2.7 firmware, then in all likelihood you can use the perl script above (which extracts the firmware
 from the specific hcw85bda.sys file), and this should work properly for your device...of course,
 not many end users are going to know that information. So, without further theoretical explanations,
 the bottom line is that you should just try the above method first, and, if that proves to be unsuccessful,
 then proceed to try to figure out the reason why. 

So, I tried to find somewhere the file hcw85bda.sys to extract the firmware, but could not find it. Interesting fact: the previous owner of the computer had the analog tuner working with the original OS, but when in our country TV went digital, it stoped working and he needed the help of Toshiba technicians to download and install new drivers. I keep the old HDD with a fresh install of the former OS, but the file hcw85bda.sys is not there, for sure. I've been searching for it a lot of time before posting, with no success.

You also mentioned you didn't/don't have the directory /dev/dvb, try creating that manually and rerun the extraction script to see if it puts the various firmware blobs in the correct place.

I have just manually create the directory with mkdir /dev/dvb and reboot the computer, but then the directory had gone! (Really, I'm not drinking)

Thank you again, Dutch_Master.