New Drivers Released - Might fix issue with latest firmware

[XertroV]

New drivers: https://storage.avermedia.com/web_release_www/CL511HN/Generic_Ubuntu_CL511HN_Drv_2.0.1.zip

Note: the drivers were "published" on https://www.avermedia.com/professional/download/cl511hn#ans_part except that the link to download them is the same as 1.0.0031

I'm going to try and replicate your patches now. I flashed my gc573 with the latest firmware this evening and I can't get the current master to work (I'm using ubuntu 20.04). I noticed the latest firmware was released after the 1.0.0031 drivers were released.

[derrod]

Thanks for the heads up, my main machine is on Windows so I haven't checked if this still works since originally publishing the repo. Also the AverMedia website currently doesn't work from Europe for some reason so I couldn't check for new drivers either...

Edit: also just for the record, there's no downgrade protection on the firmware. I might have to add a guide on how to downgrade it in case that's needed.

[derrod]

Seems like the board/ code is now precompiled in the new drivers, rather than being editable. So that'll make it a bit more annoying. I will see to either provide a simple binary patch or check if simply reusing the old board code still works, possibly by diffing the old and new ones to see if they actually changed anything there.

[XertroV]

Hmm, that is annoying. I have a repo with the upstream changes merged in here: https://github.com/XertroV/lg4k-linux/tree/patched_20201104-merge

I've tested this and the device doesn't even show up for me anymore, so I might try with the old board code quickly to see if that works.

Edit: also just for the record, there's no downgrade protection on the firmware. I might have to add a guide on how to downgrade it in case that's needed.

Good to know!

If the old board code doesn't work I'll try downgrading (I guess there's an .exe in the drivers installer/unzipper-thing)

Update: not looking good on replacing AverMediaLib_64.a (and it6664_EDID.h) with the previous versions (at least not on my current firmware)

[XertroV]

I have it working! However, I think that the firmware update doesn't complete if you don't fully power down (a reboot isn't good enough). When I logged back into windows to downgrade the firmware, the avermedia program told me I was still on 2018 firmware. So none of my earlier results were valid.

I patched to 2019.12.xx (whatever it was) and powered down fully. Then powered up to confirm, rebooted to Ubuntu, and recompiled the drivers as they are in master -- they still work.

I'm going to test the new firmware now b/c if that works it should fix the pixel mode issues.

[XertroV]

Looks like the new firmware still works with the drivers in master:

❯ dmesg | grep chip_version
[   13.496280] chip_version:20200811

The video formats that work in OBS (using my switch as test input) are:

• YUYV 4:2:2
• YU12 (Emulated)
• YV12 (Emulated)

BGR12 BGR3 (Emulated) does not work. The video is just frozen.

Setting the frame rate to other values seems to work too.

Audio works too:

[derrod]

Yeah based on the changelog it appears that RGB was only fixed with the new driver. Try applying this patch (with bspatch) to the AverMediaLib_64.o file in the driver/ directory: https://we.tl/t-kNXH7JqjyM

That's still missing the stuff to load the driver automatically, but see if that works at least. The other parts of the driver haven't really been modified by me anyway.

[XertroV]

Cool, will do now.

---

dumping some useful commands here to make them easy to find later to update readme

• echo -n "0000:03:00.0" | sudo tee /sys/bus/pci/drivers/CL511H/unbind -- replace with pci id/address/thing; can be found w/ lspci | grep -i aver

Firmware upgrade / downgrade - run the driver installer for the version respective firmware version, then run C:\Program Files (x86)\AVerMedia\AVerMedia GC573 PCIe Device\LiveGamer4KUpdate.exe with admin rights

[XertroV]

Should I be using https://github.com/delphidabbler/bdiff to apply the patch btw? I didn't find anything looking for an appropriate linux package (and patch doesn't work).

(Rebooting to windows now)

[derrod]

At least on Debian/Ubuntu there should be the bsdiff package, which also includes bspatch.

[XertroV]

Thanks - bsdiff was the ticket (the package I linked didn't work)

I'm now running into some compiler errors with AverMediaLib_64.o

I tried applying the patch in a few ways. One thing I noticed just now, though, it looks like the cl511_20201104 drivers just work on their own. (Though BGR3 still isn't working -- note I typo'd it as BGR12 before)

Sample of some compiler errors:

  CC [M]  /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_alsa.o
  LD [M]  /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//cx511h.o
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_config.o):(.data+0x0): multiple definition of `BOARD_NAME'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_config.o:(.data+0x40): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_config.o):(.data+0x20): multiple definition of `id_table'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_config.o:(.data+0x20): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_config.o): in function `board_probe':
board_config.c:(.text+0x0): multiple definition of `board_probe'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_config.o:board_config.c:(.text+0x0): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_config.o): in function `board_suspend':
board_config.c:(.text+0x596): multiple definition of `board_suspend'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_config.o:board_config.c:(.text+0x550): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_config.o): in function `board_resume':
board_config.c:(.text+0x767): multiple definition of `board_resume'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_config.o:board_config.c:(.text+0x680): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_config.o): in function `board_remove':
board_config.c:(.text+0xa3a): multiple definition of `board_remove'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_config.o:board_config.c:(.text+0x870): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_config.o): in function `board_init':
board_config.c:(.text+0xb12): multiple definition of `board_init'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_config.o:board_config.c:(.text+0x920): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_config.o): in function `board_exit':
board_config.c:(.text+0xb8a): multiple definition of `board_exit'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_config.o:board_config.c:(.text+0x9a0): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_i2c.o): in function `board_get_i2c_bus_name':
board_i2c.c:(.text+0x0): multiple definition of `board_get_i2c_bus_name'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_i2c.o:board_i2c.c:(.text+0x0): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_i2c.o): in function `board_i2c_init':
board_i2c.c:(.text+0x29): multiple definition of `board_i2c_init'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_i2c.o:board_i2c.c:(.text+0x20): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_i2c.o): in function `board_i2c_read':
board_i2c.c:(.text+0x3aa): multiple definition of `board_i2c_read'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_i2c.o:board_i2c.c:(.text+0x290): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_i2c.o): in function `board_i2c_write':
board_i2c.c:(.text+0x6d5): multiple definition of `board_i2c_write'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_i2c.o:board_i2c.c:(.text+0x500): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_gpio.o): in function `board_gpio_init':
board_gpio.c:(.text+0x0): multiple definition of `board_gpio_init'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_gpio.o:board_gpio.c:(.text+0x0): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_gpio.o): in function `board_set_gpio':
board_gpio.c:(.text+0xa3): multiple definition of `board_set_gpio'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_gpio.o:board_gpio.c:(.text+0x60): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_gpio.o): in function `board_get_gpio':
board_gpio.c:(.text+0x134): multiple definition of `board_get_gpio'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_gpio.o:board_gpio.c:(.text+0xd0): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_v4l2.o): in function `board_v4l2_init':
board_v4l2.c:(.text+0x206f): multiple definition of `board_v4l2_init'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_v4l2.o:board_v4l2.c:(.text+0x19b0): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_v4l2.o): in function `board_v4l2_suspend':
board_v4l2.c:(.text+0x256d): multiple definition of `board_v4l2_suspend'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_v4l2.o:board_v4l2.c:(.text+0x1d30): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_v4l2.o): in function `board_v4l2_resume':
board_v4l2.c:(.text+0x2754): multiple definition of `board_v4l2_resume'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_v4l2.o:board_v4l2.c:(.text+0x1e80): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_alsa.o): in function `board_alsa_recv_data':
board_alsa.c:(.text+0x4f6): multiple definition of `board_alsa_recv_data'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_alsa.o:board_alsa.c:(.text+0x120): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_alsa.o): in function `board_alsa_init':
board_alsa.c:(.text+0x1a7): multiple definition of `board_alsa_init'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_alsa.o:board_alsa.c:(.text+0x170): first defined here
ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o: member /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(pic_bmp.o) in archive is not an object
make[2]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:446: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//cx511h.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [Makefile:1757: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver/] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-5.4.0-54-generic'
make: *** [Makefile:60: build] Error 2
make: Leaving directory '/home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver'
cp: cannot stat 'driver/cx511h.ko': No such file or directory

[XertroV]

I'm not sure I'm applying the patch to the right files.

Going to dump some configurations here with details.

---

applying to vanilla 20201104 drivers

Error: ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/cl511_20201104/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o: member /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/cl511_20201104/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(pic_bmp.o) in archive is not an object

~/src/avermedia/cl511_20201104 
❯ sha256sum AverMediaLib_64* driver/AverMediaLib_64.o
a5141ab3254585e0778210e4a9685044cf57c72754e5d6f9f69a13b04202d32e  AverMediaLib_64.a
5b1b178aa1fd9243a2479a5316d98204d325a29fb2f3bff3a078908e983bc964  AverMediaLib_64.bpatch
db267163acf017ea8f3f6d5cdc9f1bc5d0d63bc85d4f31b421a82c32cfb31310  AverMediaLib_64-original.a
a5141ab3254585e0778210e4a9685044cf57c72754e5d6f9f69a13b04202d32e  driver/AverMediaLib_64.o

---

Applying patch to master: modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'cx511h': Exec format error

---

Applying patch to patched_20201104-merged: ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o: member /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(pic_bmp.o) in archive is not an object

---

Applying patch to patched_20201104-merged w/ patched version of AverMediaLib_64.a copied from cl511_20201104

More of:

ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(board_config.o):(.data+0x0): multiple definition of `BOARD_NAME'; /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//board//cx511h/board_config.o:(.data+0x40): first defined here

One thing I just thought of: I uncommented some lines in driver/Makefile about board sources b/c I had some errors about missing files before. That might be the source of multiple definitions.

Update: ahh, after fixing that I get ld: /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o: member /home/xertrov/src/avermedia/lg4k-linux/driver//AverMediaLib_64.o(pic_bmp.o) in archive is not an object

[XertroV]

So given that I have things working with the current master on the latest firmware (20200811) and I'm not getting anywhere with the above, I'm going to close this issue.

Thanks @derrod for being responsive. Hope the above notes help you or someone else down the road.

[derrod]

I'm going to keep this open since getting the new driver to work is still something I want.

I was able to make it work (turns out I had to patch AverMediaLib_64.a not the .o one...) However, it only works-ish. The new driver version keeps spamming dmesg and also does not work in OBS (ffplay works however, even with RGB24!).

Before properly updating to the new driver I'll have to figure out why it doesn't work in OBS, and maybe create another patch to silence the debug output a little bit.