Webcam in Ubuntu

I have a cheap webcam I bought last year! it's a Mikomi 1.3mp webcam with mic.When I type "lsusb" I get this "0c45:612c Microdia PC Camera (SN9C110)". It won't work with Kopete, but it will work with Ekiga?.

I am thinking of buying a Logitech Quickcam 3500. I get conflicting opinions from the web, some say it will work some say it won't. Even Logitechs website confuses the situation (well it does me). I am not knocking Logitech though because I think it's great they seem to be looking into helping Linux users :-)

So; back to my cheap camera. I haven't given up on it because it seemed to me that if it works with Ekiga, then there must be a way of getting it going. Basically I wanted to use it with Skype. I downloaded Skype for Ubuntu from Skypes website (they also do Debian, Suse, and a few more which is great). Of course as you might expect the camera doesn't work; in fact Skype crashed!

So I did some searching on the internet and after what seemed a very long time, I found a little post somewhere (wish I had bookmarked it!) that said "My webcam wouldn't work under Ubuntu 8.10 until I tried LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype". He also said that whatever application you need to run, delete skype and set the name of the application there, and don't close the terminal or the application will close!

Well, I didn't hold much hope out but I had a go. I opened the terminal and typed LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype, and my skype login window opened. I looged in and went straight to "options" and found the section on testing the webcam! I couldn't believe it ... it didn't crash! and there was my ugly mug looking back at me!

I dare say some intelligent person here could write a script to do this, but at the mo, I don't mind doing it this way! I may still get a logitech camera though as they are cheap! I will have a look and decide when I go to the supermarket tonight! I wonder if this idea above will work with any flavour Linux?