Installing media build drivers for additional TV tuner support in Linux

The drivers for the different devices in Linux are included in the Linux kernel. In case you want to add support for new devices, you will need to add the drivers into the Linux kernel. This is somewhat cumbersome, especially for areas where new devices pop up quickly. On the other hand, support is easy – if you have new enough kernel, you have the drivers.

Technotrend CT2-4400 USB TV tuner

However, there are certain occasions when you want to keep running your existing Linux kernel, but you would need support for additional devices. For TV tuners and other multimedia devices there’s something called media_build. Installing media build will add the additional drivers for these multimedia devices from the later kernels. For example, let’s assume that you are running Linux kernel 3.14 but you have just bought a TechnoTrend CT2-4400v2 USB DVB tuner. This tuner is supported only in kernel 3.19. You basically have two options: upgrade the kernel from 3.14 to 3.19 or install the media_build.

More often than not, installing media build will be easier. Here I will give you simple instructions for installing media_build in order to add support for latest TV tuners. The installation is pretty much the same on different Linux distributions, but I’m giving specific installation instructions for a few distributions. In case yours is not listed, you need to adapt a bit. Basically the installation process is the same, but you might need to install certain tools to actually compile the source code. Installation of software is typically different on each distribution.

Ubuntu Linux

First you will need to install a few basic tools, if they are not already installed on your system already. The following command will install some basic required tools for compiling media_build. If some of these are already installed on your system, it does not do any harm to run the command as is.

sudo apt-get install libproc-processtable-perl git patchutils

After the installation of these essential tools is complete, you can download and compile the source code for the latest media_build drivers.

git clone git://linuxtv.org/media_build.git
cd media_build 
./build

This will compile the new drivers. After the compilation is successfully completed, you can install the drivers. After the installation it is usually easiest just to reboot the system and let it load the new drivers.

sudo make install
sudo reboot

If you like, you may delete the media_build directory now where the source code for the drivers is. The drivers are now installed.

Linux Mint

First you will need to install a few basic tools, if they are not already installed on your system already. The following command will install some basic required tools for compiling media_build. If some of these are already installed on your system, it does not do any harm to run the command as is.

sudo apt-get install libproc-processtable-perl git libc6-dev

After the installation of these essential tools is complete, you can download and compile the source code for the latest media_build drivers.

git clone git://linuxtv.org/media_build.git
cd media_build 
./build

This will compile the new drivers. After the compilation is successfully completed, you can install the drivers. After the installation it is usually easiest just to reboot the system and let it load the new drivers.

sudo make install
sudo reboot

If you like, you may delete the media_build directory now where the source code for the drivers is. The drivers are now installed.

Fedora

First you will need to install a few basic tools, if they are not already installed on your system already. The following command will install some basic required tools for compiling media_build. If some of these are already installed on your system, it does not do any harm to run the command as is.

sudo yum install git gcc patch lsdiff wget kernel-headers kernel-devel
sudo yum install patchutils perl-Digest-SHA perl-Proc-ProcessTable

After the installation of these essential tools is complete, you can download and compile the source code for the latest media_build drivers.

git clone git://linuxtv.org/media_build.git
cd media_build 
./build

This will compile the new drivers. After the compilation is successfully completed, you can install the drivers. After the installation it is usually easiest just to reboot the system and let it load the new drivers.

sudo make install
sudo reboot

If you like, you may delete the media_build directory now where the source code for the drivers is. The drivers are now installed. If you have problems, check that your kernel-headers version matches the kernel version.

uname -a
yum list installed kernel*

If the kernel-headers for your current kernel are not installed, correct the situation, remove the media_build directory and start again.

More reading

In case you are interested in reading more about the topic, there’s a page in the LinuxTV.org wiki page about the installation procedure of the V4L/DVB device drivers (media_build that is).

6 Responses

  1. aspik says:

    Hi,
    i recently bought the same tuner and I’m using it together with the NUC i3 Haswell (D34010WYKH). Unfortunately the tuner is not running stable for me, but I’m on windows and my media center software is MediaPortal. Sometimes the tuner is locked and I can’t tune a channel. I’ve done same testes on other laptops with this tuner, and the problem seems to only occurs only on the NUC. I suspect that the USB ports on NUC sometimes are not delivering enough power for the tuner. How is your tuner running? Rock stable or did your experience also problems? Thanks!

  2. Olli says:

    Hi aspik, I’m running the CT2-4400v2 tuner in my living room as my main tuner and it works really solid, no problems observed. I have it connected directly to one of the USB ports in the rear. But as said, I’m running Linux.

    One thing to check is that you have the latest drivers for your device. If you installed the ones that came on the CD with the device they might not be the latest ones. In that case go to TT website and download the latest ones.

  3. aspik says:

    Hi Olli,
    thanks for the replay! I never install the drivers from the attached CD, always go to the manufacture page and download the latest driver, so I’m definitely have the newest driver installed. I’m already contacted TT support, they told me that this is a MediaPortal problem, on the MediaPortal board I was told, that this is a driver problem… But since I tested the tuner on two different laptops (win 8.1 and win 7) and there was the tuner running without a problem, I suspecting that the problem might be the NUC. Do you know maybe something about power management on the USB ports in the NUC? I’m wondering, if I can go further and report the problem to Intel.. :|

    • Olli says:

      Sorry, I have not heard of such problems. Anyway, if you suspect power issues, try connecting the tuner to a powered USB hub.

      And just to be clear, I have also a D34010WYK that I’m running on. Using the latest BIOS version, but it’s been stable on earlier versions as well.

      Is it stable using any other software? Maybe try NextPVR or other PVR software just for testing…

  4. aspik says:

    Stupid question: which ports are powered? I’m already tried all available ports, even the internal USB 2.0, all with the same result. Yesterday I order a “USB Detector Power” so I can measure if the power is stable.

    Thanks for the tip, I’m already consider to test the tuner on the NUC with other PVR software, will have to do it finally.

    • Olli says:

      I believe that all of the ports can provide power (just not all ports provide power when the system is powered off). Mine is currently in the lower rear USB port. Hopefully you get it sorted out!

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