Hello, and thank you in advance should you have an answer ! :-) This is long
winded, but I hope it actually helps your diagnosis.

After a severe windows problem I have recently installed Slackware 9.0 and
am enjoying it alot, I've even managed to create bootable CDs of my system.
(I was preparing for a full move to linux in 2004 the windows problem
simply sped up the process) I now have Redhat 7.2 as a server and Slack 9.0
as a desktop.

System: Asus mobo (ak-7 I think), via chipset, P-III 650, 512Mb ram, PCTV
pinnacle, Ensonique 32, D-link nic, 2930HBA, Plextor scsi writer, generic
DVD, WD 20Gb ide, Geforce 4 64Mb (video works good even though supposedly
unsupported) also tho I use a configuration program called xwin to setup
video so far works like a charm on most video systems tested, it is on my
bootable CD-roms.

Question 1: On a fresh boot, my PC uses just under 100Mb of ram, mostly
being consumed by "X", as the PC operates the ram cache slowly grows and
grows, like right now it is hovering around 183Mb total + 96Mb for system,
the system ram is the usual 100Mb, but I thought it was supposed to clear
the cache itself regularly when no programs are running?

Question 1a: Is this normal? I have attempted to seek out answers, however
it is unclear. I thought it may be possible to maybe open a terminal and
type something to clear the ram cache? or do I have a config problem that I
am unaware of?

Question 2: I have a pinnacle PCTV tuner card, the system appears to
recognize it fine at boot up, I can see what appears to be many positive
messages from the kernel, however, I can only convince the "Composite1"
input to work, the tuner only reports no signal, I disabled signal
detection and can almost see an image, but still no channels, only fuzz and
snow. I am attempting both TVtime and xawtv. (personal note: I like TVtime
better)

(Note: I have not attempted kernel re-compile as of yet, if this is
necessary I welcome advice on config selections)

(Note: I have seen some websites that inform of 3 specific selections when
rebuilding kernel, again this has not been done as of yet.)

For technicality, M-Player DVD works great !!! Video is extremely crisp,
playback smooth as glass and crystal clear.

Question 2 Additional notes: Cable company "Comcast" New Hampshire USA. I am
uncertain that, that would effect the situation, however I also realise the
most information I can provide will help with an answer you may provide.
The tuner did work with Win 2k in an experiment while troubleshooting the
other windows issue I was experiencing, so it should work.

Question 2a: Is it, maybe better to re-install my 32Mb ATI-All in wonder
card? I have heard ATI was extremely difficult to get working, and I never
did even try to get it working, bought PCtv, because it appeared to have
good success w/linux, based on info I read on many websites. Or is there a
better TV card? If so I would rather get that, especially if the
manufacturer is more linux friendly.

Thanks

Ken

P.S. Not actually pertinent to the questions.

If you are curious to my windows issue? Sometime last month (october) Roxio
5 simply stopped working on curiously specific burn configurations that I
needed and had run fine previously till then. I re-installed both 98se and
2k fresh, virus scanned, fdisked, all the normal stuff, altered from IDE
burner to SCSI burner no luck, (in fact I did this with both PCs even
switched components back and forth, even bought more ram to exclude it and
rebuilt several times, took 4 days) Thank God I still had Redhat 7.2 on my
server running for all the online reading and downloading. Nero works fine
on the now rebuilt 2k box with scsi 20Gb drive, intel onboard nic, ATI all
in wonder, on board crytal sound, PC is an IBM intellistation dual P-II
400, w/256Mb ram, w/ generic DVD, works fine and is now my portable
win-gaming PC to use in potential lan/internet games.

--
http://www.ken-zoe.net
Ken-Zoë M. Stevenson

Ken-Zo wrote :

> I thought it was supposed to clear the cache itself regularly when no
> programs are running?
>
The idea behind the way Linux handles RAM is that free RAM is wasted
RAM. Programs and files stays in the cache because quite often people
need these again shortly after. But its just as a cache, the very moment
your computer needs those KB the cache is cleared and the RAM is free
for use.
--
Thomas O.

This area is designed to become quite warm during normal operation.

"Ken-Zoë M. Stevenson" <ken-zoe@mathbox.com> wrote:
> Question 2: I have a pinnacle PCTV tuner card, the system appears to
> recognize it fine at boot up, I can see what appears to be many positive
> messages from the kernel, however, I can only convince the "Composite1"
> input to work, the tuner only reports no signal, I disabled signal
> detection and can almost see an image, but still no channels, only fuzz
> and snow. I am attempting both TVtime and xawtv. (personal note: I like
> TVtime better)

It sounds to me like there is something wrong with your tuner settings.

I have an old Hauppage card myself, from the good old days when they used
the bttv chipset. The modules is loaded manually on my Slackware 8 box
like this:

/sbin/modprobe bttv card=2 tuner=5
/sbin/insmod msp3400
insmod tuner type=5

Which modules and options you are supposed to use is probably to find
somewhere in /usr/src/linux-2.4.5/Documentation/video4linux/bttv

regards Henrik
--
The address in the header is only to prevent spam. My real address is:
hc2(at)uthyres.com Examples of addresses which go to spammers:
info@mailman.se christianprispress@hot.ee root@localhost

On Wed, 26 Nov 2003 11:59:22 -0500, Ken-Zoë M. Stevenson wrote:

> Question 2: I have a pinnacle PCTV tuner card, the system appears to
> recognize it fine at boot up, I can see what appears to be many positive
> messages from the kernel, however, I can only convince the "Composite1"
> input to work, the tuner only reports no signal, I disabled signal
> detection and can almost see an image, but still no channels, only fuzz and
> snow. I am attempting both TVtime and xawtv. (personal note: I like TVtime
> better)

You are not loading the modules properly, sounds like a PAL problem.

A good start is.
http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/BTTV.html

--
If the Linux community is a bunch of theives because they
try to imitate windows programs, then the Windows community
is built on organized crime.

Regards Richard
pa3gcu@zeelandnet.nl
http://people.zeelandnet.nl/pa3gcu/

Ken-Zoë M. Stevenson wrote:
>
> Question 2: I have a pinnacle PCTV tuner card, the system appears to
> recognize it fine at boot up, I can see what appears to be many positive
> messages from the kernel, however, I can only convince the "Composite1"
> input to work, the tuner only reports no signal, I disabled signal
> detection and can almost see an image, but still no channels, only fuzz and
> snow. I am attempting both TVtime and xawtv. (personal note: I like TVtime
> better)

For the TV card put these module commands in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules

/sbin/modprobe videodev
/sbin/modprobe -a i2c-algo-bit
/sbin/modprobe -a bttv

Never seen TVtime use XawTV.

Thanks Tomas,

That is something I did consider was happening, however was not sure, thanks
for the confirmation.
Ken


Thomas Overgaard wrote:

> The idea behind the way Linux handles RAM is that free RAM is wasted
> RAM. Programs and files stays in the cache because quite often people
> need these again shortly after. But its just as a cache, the very moment
> your computer needs those KB the cache is cleared and the RAM is free
> for use.

--
www.ken-zoe.net
Ken-Zoë M. Stevenson

Thanks Henrik

Will look into it.

Ken


Henrik Carlqvist wrote:

>
> I have an old Hauppage card myself, from the good old days when they used
> the bttv chipset. The modules is loaded manually on my Slackware 8 box
> like this:
>
> /sbin/modprobe bttv card=2 tuner=5
> /sbin/insmod msp3400
> insmod tuner type=5
>
> Which modules and options you are supposed to use is probably to find
> somewhere in /usr/src/linux-2.4.5/Documentation/video4linux/bttv
>
> regards Henrik

--
www.ken-zoe.net
Ken-Zoë M. Stevenson

Thanks Richard

Will do, it does work in composite fine and Im watching Enterprise on UPN so
it aint all bad, using vcr as tuner.

Thanks

Ken


Richard Adams wrote:

>
> You are not loading the modules properly, sounds like a PAL problem.
>
> A good start is.
> http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/BTTV.html
>

--
www.ken-zoe.net
Ken-Zoë M. Stevenson

Thanks R.

Will give that a whirl, I've managed to have some good luck editing modules,
that looks good, I'll get it in during commercials on Enterprise.

xawtv is pretty good, tvtime is relatively similar in usage appearance,
however the navigation and control interfaces are different and have very
different tuning features. I did say both are installed, and almost work,
I'll be using xawtv at times.

Ken

R. wrote:

> For the TV card put these module commands in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules
>
> /sbin/modprobe videodev
> /sbin/modprobe -a i2c-algo-bit
> /sbin/modprobe -a bttv
>
> Never seen TVtime use XawTV.

--
www.ken-zoe.net
Ken-Zoë M. Stevenson

Ken-Zoë M. Stevenson wrote:
>
> Question 2: I have a pinnacle PCTV tuner card, the system appears to
> recognize it fine at boot up, I can see what appears to be many positive
> messages from the kernel, however, I can only convince the "Composite1"
> input to work, the tuner only reports no signal, I disabled signal
> detection and can almost see an image, but still no channels, only fuzz
> and snow. I am attempting both TVtime and xawtv. (personal note: I like
> TVtime better)
>

I sorta had a problem (if you could call it that) with my Hauppauge 401
tuner on tvtime. The problem was that tvtime seems to use the signal
strength to determine if there is signal. For example if I tune in to
channel 2 (CA), I don't get good reception on that channel so it tells me
there is no signal and I get a blue screen. If I change to channel 11, I
get enough signal for it to let me watch it. If you hit F1 you get a menu
on tvtime. Go to Station Management - Disable signal detection and this
lets me watch channel 2 and I can see the static clearly. I don't know if
its what you are experiencing but it stumped me for a few minutes.