Need firmware for AfaTech AF9015 DVB-T stick with TDA18218 tunerchip

[Holger Koch]

Binary package hint: linux-firmware-nonfree

The AfaTech AF9015 DVB-T stick with TDA18218 tunerchip is not yet supported by linux-firmware-nonfree. There used to be a hack that worked like charm in Lucid but no more for Maverick and Natty.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9110467#post9110467

[Holger Koch (atarax)]

Sorry, false alarm. The adapter might not be supported by linux-firmware-nonfree but it is already supported by the current linux-kernel. After having installed Natty, I was offered to install the prorietary dvb-t drivers, so I installed them, but they spoiled the drives from the kernel. After uninstalling linux-firmware-nonfree I have full dvb-t support now.

[Holger Koch (atarax)]

Well, the alarm was not so false as it seemed at first sight. Strangely DVB-T worked after uninstalling the firmware package, but not for long. After a few reboots of the system, the DVB-T adapter was not found anymore, so I concluded that there is actually no driver in the kernel but some remnants of the firmware package might have been left after unstalling to make DVB-T work. Anyhow, I have no real idea, what made the adapter work.

Now the situation is this: I have installed the firmware package and the adapter is working. I can only use VLC as a client. Totem cannot read its own configuration file and Kaffeine doesn't show any programs at all. In VLC I have full access to all selected programs. BUT: after some time (something between five and fifteen minutes, never constant) without any obvious cause first the sound disappears and then I have to be quick to close VLC or I'll get a complete system freeze within seconds. I can only "shut down" the machine by disconnecting it from the power supply. This happens always, only the delay between starting VLC and the crash varies.

[Holger Koch (atarax)]

Surprisingly, in most cases when I had luckily managed to kill the VLC process before my system fell frozen, and I started VLC a second time to watch DVB-T, it operated stable. Not always, but in about 80 - 90 % of the cases. Maybe this helps to locate the cause of this bug. Maybe it is not a driver issue at all but a VLC issue, but I don't know.

What does not make a difference is when I simply terminate a healthy VLC process and restart the application. Then the bug reappears as usual.
VLC had to have crashed before it performs in a stable way. This is just an observation of mine. I wouldn't go as far as to say this is a sure indicator of some underlying principle of the bug.

[Holger Koch (atarax)]

Recently there was an update of VLC to version 1.1.9-1ubuntu1.2 and this buggy behaviour seems to have been resolved.
See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vlc/+bug/743323
I'm not sure yet if this was the cause, it needs a few more VLC sessions before this can be confirmed, but I am hopeful...

[Holger Koch (atarax)]

Well, after a few days of testing, I would consider this bug to be invalid... Mea culpa.