Skystar2 rev 2.3 / rev 2.6B / rev 2.6C driver for Linux

Skystar2 rev 2.3 / rev 2.6B / rev 2.6C driver for Linux

These informations are outdated, please check [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...] for more recent developments.

Still many people insist to the opinion that the Skystar2 cards do not work with Linux. This is not true. Here you can find some basic instructions, how to make them work with a newer kernel (>=2.4.20 or 2.6).

Before we start, please note that the Technisat Skystar1 is a totally different card. It is based on the TechnoTrend design and should be fully supported by the linuxtv.org drivers for ages. The following information only applies to the Skystar2, which is based on B2C2 Sky2PC design.

1. There are two revisions of the Skystar2 sold in Europe: 2.3 (Mitel VP310/MT312 based tuner) and 2.6B (STV0299 based tuner). It's ASIC core is a FlexCop II or IIb (which makes no difference for the user). Rev. 2.6B is also known as 2.68 since the B is easily mistaken for an 8. There is also a new revision of the 2.6, the 2.6C. This card is in principle identical to the 2.6B and is also supported (see below). The cards are sold under the names "SkyStar II TV", "SkyStar II PVR", "SkyStar II PCI", "Technisat DVB-S PCI" and the like.

2. The card is not equipped with a MPEG decoder. Thus you would want to use it as a second card together with a "full featured" card or you have to use some kind of software decoder like xine, mplayer etc.

3. Linux DVB drivers from linuxtv.org in the releases 1.0.0 and 1.0.1 do only support rev. 2.3 cards. Furthermore even these cards can suffer from heating problems. Thus you have to use the latest release 1.1.0!

4. As an alternative you can also use the (unstable) dvb-kernel drivers from CVS:
cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@linuxtv.org:/cvs/linuxtv login
(Just hit enter at password promt.)
cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@linuxtv.org:/cvs/linuxtv co dvb-kernel
This creates a directory named dvb-kernel in your current working path. Change to dvb-kernel and follow the README found there. Note that this works only with a kernel newer that 2.4.20 or with a kernel 2.6.

5. There are rumours, that the Skystar2 cards have problems working together with SiS mainboard chipsets, eps. with SiS 650/651. If you have details information on this, please consider reporting them to me, so I can publish them here.