FM Radio doesn't work, only TV

Same problem. Have Pinnacle Systems PCTV 50i PCI card (saa7134 based) that worked on all Ubuntu versions from Hardy through Maverick. Tried to install different frontend CLI and GUI apps (gnomeradio, kradio, ncurses-radio etc to no avail). It looks like the audio part of saa7134 driver works fine (through loud static noise i can hear badly tuned FM stations on some "default" frequency), it is frequency tuning problem (VIDIOCGAUDIO, VIDIOCSFREQ errors are visible in all apps when running from terminal). The issue was solved by downgrading linux kernel from 2.6.38-8 to 2.6.35-22 (had to temporarily change "natty main" to "maverick main" in /etc/apt/sources.list to do that).

Don't know is this related to driver of saa7134, cause I've got Winfast TV2000XP which is based ( is what dmesg is saying )

TDA9887

Same problems like nihilus have. Did't tried with older kernel.

This is lspci output about my card:

05:01.0 Multimedia video controller: Conexant Systems, Inc. CX23880/1/2/3 PCI Video and Audio Decoder (rev 05)

Until now, the only application which works fine with my board on newer kernel is mplayer, compiled from source with such parameters (the mplayer binary package, which can be obtained via repository is apparently compiled WITHOUT radio support):
./configure --enable-radio --enable-radio-capture.
Currently i'm successfully using SMplayer as a frontend to it.

Forgot to mention - to play your stations in smplayer - add such entries in the playlist:
radio://101.50/capture
- where 101.50 is your FM frequency in MHz.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Expiriencing on Oneiric.
apps: radio, kradio
kernel: 3.0.0-12-generic

well

> V4L2 in Linux 2.6.39
> The old VIDIOC_*_OLD symbols and V4L1 support were removed.
http://linuxtv.org/downloads/v4l-dvb-apis/hist-v4l2.html#id3107990

So we have a bunch of apps that was not actually ported to V4L2 or simply doesn't work without V4L1.

Most importantly they are the only applications that play FM radio

I confirm the error on radio package of xawtv (mentioned as nurce radio above)

Hi all,

to my (current) knowledge, this bug is not an issue of the V4L1 API dropped in recent Linux kernels, since particularly KRadio supports V4L2. Furthermore, even mplayer does not solve the problems on such systems.
Those V4L2 drivers seem to report an invalid frequency range (0 to 0 Hz).

The problem seems to be at least narrowed down on the LKML since November 2011:

   https://lkml.org/lkml/2011/11/11/257
   https://lkml.org/lkml/2011/12/15/177

... unfortunately without answers to those posts on the LKML yet.

Therefore, I'd propose to consider this bug as a kernel bug - unfortunately without any clue how to further approach a solution of this issue.

Best regards,

   Martin

Hi all,

This bug is solved in the Kernel Linux version 3.2.0-24.

Thanks to all!

Hi

I can not confirm that this bug is fixed. In 12.04 with recent kernel 3.2.0-30-generic-pae FM Radio is not working with gnomeradio. I can only hear an annoying noise. When booting Lucid kernel 2.6.32-42-generic (in 12.04) gnomeradio works out of the box.

booting kernel 3.2.0-30:
~$ v4l2-ctl -d /dev/radio0 --all -L
Frequency range : 0.0 MHz - 0.0 MHz
~$ dmesg
tuner 2-0061: Tuner -1 found with type(s) Radio TV

booting kernel 2.6.32.42:
~$ v4l2-ctl -d /dev/radio0 --all -L
Frequency range : 65.0 MHz - 108.0 MHz
~$ dmesg
tuner 2-0061: chip found @ 0xc2 (bt878 #0 [sw])

ThomasB

In 12.10 all works fine.

$ uname -a
Linux <...> 3.5.0-15-generic #22-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 19 20:06:19 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux

$ v4l2-ctl -d /dev/radio0 --all -L
Driver Info (not using libv4l2):
        Driver name : bttv
<...>
Tuner:
        Name : Radio
        Capabilities : 62.5 Hz stereo
        Frequency range : 65.0 MHz - 108.0 MHz
<...>

I tried in 12.10, booted from iso file quantal-desktop-i386.iso. I couldn't get the GUI working so I booted into text mode and used fmtools. I hear my favourite radio station.

$ uname -a
Linux ubuntu 3.5.0-15-generic #22-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 19 20:06:19 UTC 2012 i686 athlon i686 GNU/Linux

$ fm 99.05
Radio tuned to 99.05 MHz (radio does not support volume control)

$ fm on
Radio on (radio does not support volume control)

$ v4l2-ctl -d /dev/radio0 -all -L
Driver Info (not using libv4l2):
 Driver name : bttv
 Card type : BT878 radio (Hauppauge (bt878))
 Bus info : PCI:0000:02:08.0
 Driver version: 3.5.4
 Capabilities : 0x00010000
  Tuner
Video input : 0 (Radio: ok)
Audio input : 0 (Radio)
Frequency: 1584799 (99.049937 MHz)
Tuner:
 Name : Radio
 Capabilities : 62.5 Hz stereo
 Frequency range : 65.0 MHz - 108.0 MHz
 Signal strength/AFC : 25%/0
 Current audio mode : stereo
 Available subchannels: stereo
                           mute (bool) : default=0 value=0

Then I booted ubuntu-12.04.1-desktop-i386.iso from iso file. Radio is not working
$ uname -a
Linux ubuntu 3.2.0-29-generic-pae #46-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 27 17:25:43 UTC 2012 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

$ fm 99.05
fm: Frequency 99.0 MHz out of range (0.0 - 0.0 MHz)

$ fm on
Radio on (radio does not support volume control)

$ v4l2-ctl -d /dev/radio0 --all -L
Driver Info (not using libv4l2):
 Driver name : bttv
 Card type : BT878 radio (Hauppauge (bt878))
 Bus info : PCI:0000:02:08.0
 Driver version: 3.2.24
 Capabilities : 0x00010000
  Tuner
Video input : 0 (Radio: ok)
Audio input : 0 (Radio)
Frequency: 0 (0.000000 MHz)
Tuner:
 Name : Radio
 Capabilities : 62.5 kHz
 Frequency range : 0.0 MHz - 0.0 MHz
 Signal strength/AFC : 0%/0
 Current audio mode : mono
 Available subchannels:
                           mute (bool) : default=0 value=0

Hello,

I have the same problem with a Hauppauge WinTV PVR card (bt878 with radio).

Since 2.6.39.x radio is broken => No Frequency range :

v4l2-ctl -d /dev/radio0 --all -L
kernel 2.6.32.x:
----------------
Driver Info (not using libv4l2):
        Driver name : bttv
        Card type : BT878 radio (Hauppauge WinTV PV
        Bus info : PCI:0000:02:0a.0
        Driver version: 0.9.18
        Capabilities : 0x00010000
                Tuner
Video input : 0 (Radio: ok)
Audio input : 0 (Radio)
Frequency: 0 (0.000000 MHz)
Tuner:
        Name : Radio
        Capabilities : 62.5 Hz stereo
        Frequency range : 65.0 MHz - 108.0 MHz
        Signal strength/AFC : 13%/0
        Current audio mode : stereo
        Available subchannels: mono
                           mute (bool) : default=0 value=1

kernel 2.6.38.x:
----------------
Driver Info (not using libv4l2):
        Driver name : bttv
        Card type : BT878 radio (Hauppauge WinTV PV
        Bus info : PCI:0000:02:0a.0
        Driver version: 0.9.18
        Capabilities : 0x00010000
                Tuner
Video input : 0 (Radio: ok)
Audio input : 0 (Radio)
Frequency: 0 (0.000000 MHz)
Tuner:
        Name : Radio
        Capabilities : 62.5 Hz stereo
        Frequency range : 65.0 MHz - 108.0 MHz
        Signal strength/AFC : 0%/0
        Current audio mode : stereo
        Available subchannels: mono
                           mute (bool) : default=0 value=1

kernel 3.0.x:
----------------
Driver Info (not using libv4l2):
        Driver name : bttv
        Card type : BT878 radio (Hauppauge WinTV PV
        Bus info : PCI:0000:02:0a.0
        Driver version: 0.9.18
        Capabilities : 0x00010000
                Tuner
Video input : 0 (Radio: ok)
Audio input : 0 (Radio)
Frequency: 0 (0.000000 MHz)
Tuner:
        Name : Radio
        Capabilities : 62.5 kHz
        Frequency range : 0.0 MHz - 0.0 MHz
        Signal strength/AFC : 0%/0
        Current audio mode : mono
        Available subchannels:
                           mute (bool) : default=0 value=1

3.2:
-----
Driver Info (not using libv4l2):
        Driver name : bttv
        Card type : BT878 radio (Hauppauge WinTV PV
        Bus info : PCI:0000:02:0a.0
        Driver version: 3.2.27
        Capabilities : 0x00010000
                Tuner
Video input : 0 (Radio: ok)
Audio input : 0 (Radio)
Frequency: 0 (0.000000 MHz)
Tuner:
        Name : Radio
        Capabilities : 62.5 kHz
        Frequency range : 0.0 MHz - 0.0 MHz
        Signal strength/AFC : 0%/0
        Current audio mode : mono
        Available subchannels:
                           mute (bool) : default=0 value=1

I will test it with the quantal kernel (3.5.x) too, which is also available in proposed under precise.

Udo Steinberg bisected the commit:
Link and message: https://lkml.org/lkml/2011/11/11/257
I've bisected the problem. The commit that breaks things is:

commit cbde689823776d187ba1b307a171625dbc02dd4f
Author: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <email address hidden>
Date: Fri Feb 4 1...

I can confirm that with kernel 3.5.7 (ubuntu kernel 3.5.0-18-generic
#29~precise), my radio is working again.

v4l2-ctl -d /dev/radio0 --all -L
Driver Info (not using libv4l2):
         Driver name : bttv
         Card type : BT878 radio (Hauppauge WinTV PV
         Bus info : PCI:0000:02:0a.0
         Driver version: 3.5.7
         Capabilities : 0x00010000
                 Tuner
Video input : 0 (Radio: ok)
Audio input : 0 (Radio)
Frequency: 0 (0.000000 MHz)
Tuner:
         Name : Radio
         Capabilities : 62.5 Hz stereo
         Frequency range : 65.0 MHz - 108.0 MHz
         Signal strength/AFC : 13%/0
         Current audio mode : stereo
         Available subchannels: mono
                            mute (bool) : default=0 value=1

Is there the possibility to backport to Long-Term-Stable kernels and
so to solve the problem in kernel 3.2.x?