I got things working this weekend with the latest Fedora 4 and the old rev 0.2 Air2PC HDTV tuner now on ebay. So far, "working" means basic HDTV OTA reception, recording, and playback. Still some issues to resolve, and I haven't set up a remote, SPDIF, or even a non-VGA display.
My basic approach followed the Jarod Wilson HOWTO, but that doesn't quite apply to the rev 0.2 card. I used a combination of these resources:
* For overall sequence of installation, choice of distro/repositories, and generally impressive thoroughness: Wilson's howto at
http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php and its links to
http://www.mythtv.org/docs/
* For getting latest Air2PC drivers and dvb-apps from linuxtv.org: Angel Li's howto at
http://www.rsmas.miami.edu/personal/...2pc-howto.html (but don't get the FC4 kernel source that way)
* For explict treatment of Air2PC rev 0.2 drivers and firmware, "shinchy" at
http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5551 (uses Knoppix/Debian so requires some translation for linux noobs; thus, also not a reference for FC4 kernel source)
* Basic instructions on getting FC4 kernel source and building modules at
http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/releas...-packages-core and at
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/doc...ule-HOWTO.html
* Some signs of encouragement from Dan Rampton and blammo at
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/list...v/users/141645
* General FC4 advice, especially with nvidia video and upgrading kernels, at
http://stanton-finley.net/fedora_cor...s.html#Monitor
Some ATSC guidance in MythTV setup from
http://www.digitalregime.com/mythdvb/setup/
I wanted to stay with FC4 because I have a tiny amount of Red Hat 8 experience, and because the Wilson howto seemed the most popular and complete, therefore probably the most reliable. But the air2pc 0.2 drivers and firmware aren't built into kernels before 2.6.13, while FC4 is only on 2.6.12.x so far. Thus, I had to divert from/add to the Wilson howto in the following ways. Initially, in addition to the basic installation packages, install kernel development tools. Then, between steps 8 and 9 of the Wilson howto ("Audio setup" and "Get and isntall MythTV"):
* Install kernel source (from a /fedora/core/updates/4/SRPMS/kernel-2.6.12-1.1456_FC4.src.rpm from a fedora mirror site). Follow directions in the FC4 release notes, linked above. [Note that as of three days ago (9/29), there seems to be a 2.6.13.* version, so maybe "yum upgrade" will work for you and make much of this obsolete.] This includes get the correct .config file to make your kernel with, and make a backup of the clean source. You'll create a /usr/src/linux-2.6.x directory. In my case, x=12.
* Get the latest source for dvb-apps and dvb-kernel from linuxtv.org. This adds modules and firmware for the air2pc's bcm3510 frontend. Use "cvs" like Shinchy tells you to, but instead of "server:" in the cvs command, I needed "\\:\\pserver:", i.e., add a colon and a P [which might have been stripped out of his code by something that thought it was a smiley]. Also, instead of applying the patch from /usr/src and -p0, I had to apply it from /usr/src/linux-2.6.12 with -p1. Read the man page for "patch" if this doesn't make sense, and look inside the patch files to see why this change was needed (hint: "orig"). If you're so new to Linux that you can't recognize where Shinchy has you using "patch", read up on pipes in the bash shell, then look again.
* Incorporate the new code into the .config file. Use "make menuconfig" to modify the .config file to use the changes to dvb-apps, and in particular the bcm3510 frontend. The basic idea is that you want modules for air2pc card and frontend to be built and installed. The config file governs this by letting you choose whether each module is built or not, and whether it's built to be loadable or as part of the base kernel. The menuconfig has a GUI and is supposed to detect and (via its help options) explain dependencies with a text-based GUI. Unfortunately, I found it buggy. In particular, the available choices of frontends was inaccurate. You're supposed to be able to select frontends appropriate to the dvb modules you choose, but almost no combination enabled the bcm3510 module. (I suppose it's possible I botched applying the patch, but I found this problem with menuconfig and dvb modules after two different clean installs.) In the end I selected both dvb core and its first sublevel (sorry not more specific, doing this from memory) to be built into the kernel, i.e., not just LKM's with the "M" option but builtins choosing "Y". This combination selected almost all of the frontends to be built as modules (even several that did not have their dependencies met!), but at least it had all the ones the air2pc required, and in particular the bcm3510, so I moved on.
* Decide whether to keep your current kernel version. I modified the EXTRAVERSION variable in the kernel Makefile. I think it comes set by default to "prep" or "-prep"; I changed mine to "-1.1456_FC4" to match the current kernel. Note that this aligns the Makefile output to your current kernel, so that "make" rebuilds it. This is risky and not usually recommended. I got bold because I had an earlier working kernel on this machine that I could boot into if this failed, was going to wipe and reinstall if the patch didn't take, looked carefully through the patch file and saw it was limited to dvb stuff, and initially was hoping not to rebuild the kernel at all (later gave up on that). So, you might want to skip this option. But if you build using the simple "make modules_install" without correcting EXTRAVERSION, and also don't rebuild your kernel, this difference will cause the fresh modules to be installed into a new directory in /lib/modules and will make them incompatible with your current kernel due to "version magic" problems. This is all very basic Linux, and makes sense once you read about it, but is not obvious to a newbie. Full disclosure: I built the modules once without changing EXTRAVERSION, which wasn't all bad: I didn't get my changes into the kernel but did at least confirm that the patched code was buildable.
* From /usr/src/linux-2.6.12 (or the equivalent for your version), as root, run "make" to rebuild both the kernel and modules. Then run "make modules_install" to have the modules installed and become loadable.
* If you did build a new kernel version, remember to update your boot loader to make it an option. (Shinchy and Li show examples using lilo and grub.) You might also need to confirm that your video drivers are installed, etc.--see the stanton-finley.net link.
Reboot and check dmesg to see that your card got recognized. Check Dan Rampton's posts (link above) for example of the approximate output you want.
* Test your card. Use the "DVB Applications" of Angel Li's howto to install a
version of dvb-apps that includes azap. (Note that as of a couple of weeks ago, at least for the atrpms and freshrpms repositories used in the Wilson howto, yum could upgrade dvb-apps, but not to the version you need.) Find a station that you get strong signal on, and make a note of it for configuring MythTV later. (You can set up myth with a default starting channel, and it helps to have that be a station you know you can/should receive.)
* Once you have your card recognized by the kernel and getting a signal lock, continue with the Wilson howto and install MythTV. You can now skip step 10, capture card drivers, unless of course you have other cards to install.
Other tips/complaints:
* If setting up a zap2it account, leave out any analog stations unless you have an analog tuner. (Obvious, but I missed it.)
* I still haven't worked out channels to my satisfaction. I can tune to channels added via the digitalregime instructions, linked above, but those don't work with the program guide. Instead, "mythfilldatabase" creates a parallel set of channels imported from zap2it--and both types of channel entries use a different notation than antennaweb.org! For example, channels added by the transport scan for, say, antennaweb's channel "25.1" will look like "251" from the transport scan and "25_1" from zap2it. I tried to compensate for this by going into the mythconverg database's channel table and manually adding certain transport-related fields from the "251" entries to the "25_1" entries, but I haven't fully tested that, or even googled for ideas yet.
* I've had some segmentation faults from mythfrontend, especially when trying to tune channels of the "25_1" style. Looking into that.
* The first few seconds of tuning a new channel can be choppy.
* The program guide runs fine, but the OSD causes choppiness.
* I haven't properly set up audio yet. Works fine for "Live TV," even though I've never even opened the alsa mixer yet. Audio lags in the recordings by 2-3 sec, but apparently the mythtv.org docs discuss this and how to fix. Will also be configuring SPDIF to my receiver.
* Was hoping to use an Atheros "Super-G" 108Mbps wifi on a USB thumb adapter, at least until got Ethernet laid. But from my early searches, seems Atheros USB wifi-g is not yet mature.
* So far, I'm watching on a 1280x1024 LCD monitor, not a proper HDTV set. This works fine for Fox sports broadcast in 720p. Haven't tried much CBS 1080i, but at least once got a segmentation fault in mythfrontend when it tried to change the X resolution to 1920x1088 (sic), which the monitor doesn't support. For all I know, this might be an easily corrected setting; I haven't looked into it. (After I tuned in Red Sox/Yankees, I quit fiddling for the weekend.)
Overall, it's been a gradually satisfying experience. There were several setbacks, but mostly because I'm so new. When sensibly configured, the hardware has worked well. The case could be quieter (at $40 including power supply, it's only temporary), but it's already quieter than my DTR laptop.
Hope this helps the next noob.