1 Introduction

KSWbt848x1 is a Solaris device driver package designed for Brooktree Bt848/Bt878 and Conexant Fusion878 chipset, and is part of "Video4Linux for Solaris" suite. Main component of this package is bt848x driver, which is derived from Linux BTTV 0.7.x driver. It provides Video4Linux1 compatible APIs under Solaris.

1.1 Implemented and Unimplemented Features

1.1.1 Implemented Features

• Video4Linux Version 1 compatible API set
• video capture
• video control capability (signal selection, picture control)
• S-Video and composite video input
• multiple norms (NTSC, PAL, SECAM)
• read(2) interface
• mmap(2) interface (zero-copy read)
• tuner control
• radio
• limited analog audio control (signal selection)

1.1.2 Implemented-But-Not-Tested Features

• amd64 support – I have Sun W1100z, but it has PCI-X slot only ;-(
• SPARC v7 support – I have Sun Blade100, but 32-bit kernel doesn't run on it ;-(
• VBI (vertical blanking interval) data capture
• limited analog audio control (volume control, mixing)
• SMP support
• 64-bit PCI bus

1.1.3 Unimplemented Features

• overlay support
• subcapture support
• power management and system suspend
• select(2) / poll(2) interface
• digital audio interface

1.2 Content of package

KSWbt848x1 (for SPARC) contains following files:

/platform/sun4u/kernel/drv/bt848x

Kernel mode driver. (32 bit module)

/platform/sun4u/kernel/drv/sparcv9/bt848x

Kernel mode driver. (64 bit module)

/platform/sun4u/kernel/drv/bt848x.conf

Driver configuration file. (refered as driver.conf)

KSWbt848x1 (for x86) contains following files:

/platform/i86pc/kernel/drv/bt848x

Kernel mode driver. (32 bit module)

/platform/i86pc/kernel/drv/amd64/bt848x

Kernel mode driver. (64 bit module)

/platform/i86pc/kernel/drv/bt848x.conf

Driver configuration file. (refered as driver.conf)

1.3 Requirements

1.3.1 Hardware Requirement

• Capture card which uses Bt8x8 chipset: Following chipset are supported:
  • Brooktree Bt848 series, Bt849 series
  • Conexant Fusion878 series
• Antenna cable: You need anntenna cable if you want to watch broadcast TV or cable TV.
• Audio cable: You need external audio cable (bt848x driver does not have digital audio recording capability). Connect audio-out of capture card to line-in of sound card or other audio instrument.
• SPARC workstation or x86/x64-based PC with 32-bit PCI slot: For SPARC platforms you may need UltraSPARC (or of later generation) processor system for PCI support. Driver should run on SMP systems, but I did not test it actually.

1.3.2 Software Requirement

• Solaris 10: Tested platform is Solaris 10 GA. Maybe Solaris 8 and 9 is OK.
• KSWv4lcmn package
• root privilege

1.3.3 Optional Requirement for Developing

• C compiler: You can use Sun C compiler and GCC.
  • C99 syntax should be supported to compile driver.
  • Compiler and linker should be 64-bit ready to create 64-bit driver.
  • GCC-2.x is not supported in building driver.

  As a result, you probably choose Sun Studio 10 C compiler or GCC 3.x. Sun Studio 10 C compiler is now freely available; visit http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/tools/sun_studio_tools/. GCC 3.x with amd64 support is bundled with Solaris10 GA.

• sourceforge Account: CVS committer must be sourceforge user.

1.4 Getting Latest Package

bt848x driver and “Video4Linux for Solaris” are still in developing. Latest package can be obtained via anonymous CVS. Visit http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/bt848x/captors-2/.

Relatively stable version can be found at download site http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=68093.