Plex Running on Ubuntu Not Recognizing WinTV-quadHD Tuner (pcie)

Plex Media Server
,
1

Server Version#: 1.19.4.2902
Player Version#: 4.35.1

I have Plex running on an Ubuntu server (18.04.4 LTS), and I installed a WinTV-quadHD (pcie, model 1609) card that isn’t being recognized by Plex. The loading icon spins endlessly while “looking for compatible devices”.

Using Kaffeine, the TV card works as expected.

To get things running with Plex, I followed the directions here:
https://www.hauppauge.com/pages/support/support_linux.html#plex
https://www.hauppauge.com/pages/support/support_linux.html#ppa

The relevant log entries are:

Jun 04, 2020 20:56:39.848 [0x7f1c59ffb700] INFO - [I] v4l::DeviceGetList_impl. getting v4l device list
Jun 04, 2020 20:56:39.848 [0x7f1c59ffb700] WARN - [E] v4l::DeviceGetList_impl. open failed on frontend /dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0 (13)
Jun 04, 2020 20:56:39.848 [0x7f1c59ffb700] WARN - [E] v4l::DeviceGetList_impl. open failed on frontend /dev/dvb/adapter1/frontend0 (13)
Jun 04, 2020 20:56:39.848 [0x7f1c59ffb700] WARN - [E] v4l::DeviceGetList_impl. open failed on frontend /dev/dvb/adapter2/frontend0 (13)
Jun 04, 2020 20:56:39.848 [0x7f1c59ffb700] WARN - [E] v4l::DeviceGetList_impl. open failed on frontend /dev/dvb/adapter3/frontend0 (13)
Jun 04, 2020 20:56:39.851 [0x7f1c59ffb700] INFO - [I] onetv_factory::DeviceGetListEx >>
Jun 04, 2020 20:56:39.851 [0x7f1c59ffb700] WARN - [W] onetv_factory::DeviceGetListEx. libusb_init returned an error -99

These log entries led me to believe that I had an issue with permissions. The “id plex” command returned:
uid=999(plex) gid=999(plex) groups=999(plex),44(video)

The “lspci -v” command returned:

03:00.0 Multimedia video controller: Conexant Systems, Inc. CX23887/8 PCIe Broadcast Audio and Video Decoder with 3D Comb (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Hauppauge computer works Inc. WinTV-quadHD
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 70
	Memory at fc600000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2M]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: cx23885
	Kernel modules: cx23885

04:00.0 Multimedia video controller: Conexant Systems, Inc. CX23887/8 PCIe Broadcast Audio and Video Decoder with 3D Comb (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Hauppauge computer works Inc. CX23887/8 PCIe Broadcast Audio and Video Decoder with 3D Comb
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 73
	Memory at fc400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2M]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: cx23885
	Kernel modules: cx23885

Also, the four adapters appear as expected within “/dev/dvb”

**AORUS-PRO-WIFI** : **/dev/dvb** $ ls -l
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Jun 7 16:31 **adapter0**
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Jun 7 16:31 **adapter1**
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Jun 7 16:31 **adapter2**
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Jun 7 16:31 **adapter3**

Finally, I confirmed within /lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service

User=plex
Group=plex

Do you have other ideas for what might be causing the problem?

Thanks!

1 Like
2

Looks like udev isn’t loaded.

If it were, PMS would pick that up.

There are also reports that not many PCIe tuners yet work with Ubuntu 20 . Haupauge is known to not yet be working properly.

For this issue, I would check and verify udev is installed then re-install the package and report what it outputs about the tuners (if anything)

If you do have their drivers installed, I question whether or not they’re functioning

3

You have to run the mediatree kernel. What does uname -a produce?

4

I really appreciate the replies!

uname -a produces:

bniebel@bniebel-B450-I-AORUS-PRO-WIFI:~$ uname -a
Linux bniebel-B450-I-AORUS-PRO-WIFI 5.3.0-56202005281620-generic #0+mediatree+hauppauge~hwe-Ubuntu SMP Fri May 29 18:32:07 UTC 20 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I’m not very familiar with udev, but service udev status produces:

systemd-udevd.service - udev Kernel Device Manager
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/systemd-udevd.service; static; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sun 2020-06-07 20:27:16 EDT; 14h ago

ChuckPa - which packages do you suggest reinstalling, or which logs which i check to see how udev is seeing the tuners?

5

Excuse me? Do you have evidence of this you can point me to? The only issue I’ve seen is Plex snap being installed by default and it not having access to dvb devices.

Every single Hauppauge PCIe device is in kernel 5.4. They all work fine.

6

@NDInnovations

My information comes from the LiveTV/DVR team who handles it.

As I understand SNAP, it began as and ultimately became, Canonical’s alternative to Docker. Both are container technologies with, from what I see in packaging;

  1. Devices are excluded by default in both
  2. Both being installed in their private container locations.
  3. SNAP being less extensible than Docker. (We all know how easily devices can be mapped in Docker). If I am misinformed, I will gladly be corrected and learn more.
  4. Engineering created the initial SNAP packaging definition. Like our Docker package, they maintain it. The packaging team does not have responsibility for the core YAML definitions. Maybe this needs changing?

Regarding installation, Ubuntu’s app store only offers the SNAP version. It seems Canonical is migrating the entire distro to SNAP architecture. Look at Ubuntu 20.04 as primary evidence in that regard.

As I am able to effect changes to packaging, if there something which can and should be changed, I will make it happen.

7

Ok, so the problem is snap. Plain and simple. The devices are working in Ubuntu, whether or not you install my kernel packages for 20.04. I can’t stand “snaps” personally.

1 Like
8

Personally, I think SNAPs are someone’s attempt to be “swoopy”. It has strong overtones of a marketing gimmick to me.

9

Thanks again! As you suggested, I resolved this by uninstalling the SNAP and reinstalling Plex via the dpkg.

The tuners were recognized immediately.

Thanks!

1 Like
10

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