Receiving MSG with Linux.

For receiving and processing MSG on Linux 5 programs are needed:

A program to control the satellite tuner, and to catch data from the tuner
A program to handle encryption, in combination with the Eumetsat USB key
A program to handle communication with encryption software
A program to put received data on the harddisk
A program to convert the received data into usable (picture) files

Notes:

5: E.g. xrit2pic.
1: For Windows this program comes with the Skystar2 tuner.
2-4: These programs, together with the key, have to be ordered at Eumetsat.

You can choose between 2 sets of programs: for Windows or for Linux. Fortunately, the Linux package also contains tuner-software for the Skystar2 tuner, for several distributions/kernel releases.

Needed programs for Linux.

(Note next picture is maybe not correct!)

[tuner] --> b2c2 --> pcscd --> tellicast --> [harddisk] --> xrit2pic
                       ^
                       |
                       v
                     etokend

b2c2 and b2status (alternatives are linuxtv and pentaval, also present in the Linux package.)
etokend
pcscd
tellicast
xrit2pic (see my webpage; this is NOT Eumetsat software!)

The software delivered by Eumetsat (first 4 items) is easy to install; in case of problems there is a trouble-shooting document, and otherwise Eumetsat is very helpfull with solving your installation problems. Normally there is no need to rebuild the kernel!

Programs started at boot.

Installation is done in such a way that the programs b2c2, etokend and pcscd are started at boot, in the correct order. In case of Redhat (9) this is done by /etc/rc, using links present in /etc/rc3.d and /etc/rc5.d, e.g.:

S19etokend -> /etc/init.d/etokend
S21pcscd -> /etc/init.d/pcscd
S70b2c2 -> /etc/rc.d/init.d/b2c2

Programs to start manually.

The program tellicast will put received data on your harddisk. You can start/stop it as normal user!

The program b2status generates tuner-status information (ASCII) such as signal strength, lock indication, BER etc. Unfortunately this program needs root privilege to run.

But with a simple trick you can run it as a normal user: As root:

copy /usr/local/b2c2/bin/b2status to the user account (e.g. to ~/bin)
set the s-bit:
chmod +s b2status

msgreceive

This is a simple gui-utility to show most important tuner status info, and to start/stop Tellicast.
Currently the commands are fixed built-in; start with option -h for more info.

Used tuner-software for status: b2status
Directory where data is dumped by Tellicast: ~/from_msg