If the stick was first connected to Ubuntu 11.04 (where it works) and then attached to Ubuntu 11.10 I get a different dmesg output from Ubuntu 11.10. 

But nevertheless it doesn't work.

What makes me uncertain that linux (or v4l) is the culprit...

1. the stick worked on a ubuntu 11.0 daily release from 08.10.2011 and I informed Sebastian Pölsterl (developer of the Gnome DVB-Daemon, https://launchpad.net/gnome-dvb-daemon) that the dvb-daemon 0.24 works great in Ubuntu 11.10

2. after some release upgrades (but no kernel-upgrade) it refused to work. My guess is it has to to with udev (but it's only a guess)

3. pulling latest v4l from git and installing it doesn't bring the stick alive (maybe I should try again with a 'clean' stick first attached on ubuntu 11.04)

dmesg from ubuntu 11.10 (with stick attached on ubuntu 11.04 before)

 1109.944072] usb 1-7: new high speed USB device number 5 using ehci_hcd
[ 1110.174387] IR NEC protocol handler initialized
[ 1110.176419] IR RC5(x) protocol handler initialized
[ 1110.178675] IR RC6 protocol handler initialized
[ 1110.180559] IR JVC protocol handler initialized
[ 1110.182728] IR Sony protocol handler initialized
[ 1110.183248] dib0700: loaded with support for 20 different device-types
[ 1110.183423] dvb-usb: found a 'Hauppauge Nova-T Stick' in cold state, will try to load a firmware
[ 1110.185627] lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, major 249 
[ 1110.186041] IR LIRC bridge handler initialized
[ 1110.186993] dvb-usb: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-usb-dib0700-1.20.fw'
[ 1110.388296] dib0700: firmware started successfully.
[ 1110.892187] dvb-usb: found a 'Hauppauge Nova-T Stick' in warm state.
[ 1110.892253] dvb-usb: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream to the software demuxer.
[ 1110.892309] DVB: registering new adapter (Hauppauge Nova-T Stick)
[ 1111.095550] DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (DiBcom 7000PC)...
[ 1111.221176] DiB0070 I2C write failed
[ 1111.221673] DiB0070 I2C write failed
[ 1111.222173] DiB0070 I2C write failed
[ 1111.222672] DiB0070 I2C write failed
[ 1111.223173] DiB0070 I2C write failed
[ 1111.223672] DiB0070 I2C read failed
[ 1111.224177] DiB0070 I2C write failed
[ 1111.224673] DiB0070 I2C write failed
[ 1111.225172] DiB0070 I2C write failed
[ 1111.240433] DiB0070 I2C read failed
[ 1111.240924] DiB0070 I2C write failed
[ 1111.241423] DiB0070 I2C read failed
[ 1111.241930] DiB0070 I2C write failed
[ 1111.242425] DiB0070 I2C write failed
[ 1111.242923] DiB0070 I2C write failed
[ 1111.256433] DiB0070 I2C read failed
[ 1111.256924] DiB0070 I2C write failed
[ 1111.256927] DiB0070: successfully identified
[ 1111.280009] Registered IR keymap rc-dib0700-rc5
[ 1111.280193] input: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-7/rc/rc0/input6
[ 1111.280268] rc0: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-7/rc/rc0
[ 1111.280426] dvb-usb: schedule remote query interval to 50 msecs.
[ 1111.280431] dvb-usb: Hauppauge Nova-T Stick successfully initialized and connected.
[ 1111.280574] usbcore: registered new interface driver dvb_usb_dib0700


BTW. the Hauppauge Wintv mini works great (but it is equipped with other hardware)

dmesg for Hauppauge wintv mini on ubuntu 11.10

[ 1979.716025] usb 1-1: new high speed USB device number 7 using ehci_hcd
[ 1980.492039] smscore_set_device_mode: firmware download success: sms1xxx-hcw-55xxx-dvbt-02.fw
[ 1980.492281] sms_ir_init: Allocating rc device
[ 1980.492289] sms_ir_init: IR port 0, timeout 100 ms
[ 1980.492293] sms_ir_init: Input device (IR) SMS IR (Hauppauge WinTV MiniStick) is set for key events
[ 1980.516037] Registered IR keymap rc-hauppauge
[ 1980.516197] input: SMS IR (Hauppauge WinTV MiniStick) as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-1/rc/rc2/input8
[ 1980.516705] rc2: SMS IR (Hauppauge WinTV MiniStick) as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-1/rc/rc2
[ 1980.517506] rc rc2: lirc_dev: driver ir-lirc-codec (smsmdtv) registered at minor = 0
[ 1980.520850] DVB: registering new adapter (Hauppauge WinTV MiniStick)
[ 1980.520998] DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (Siano Mobile Digital MDTV Receiver)...
[ 1980.528643] usbcore: registered new interface driver smsusb