[SOLVED] LifeCam VX-1000

berndbausch · 04-18-2020, 03:23 AM

This is on Fedora 28 with Gnome. LifeCam VX-1000 is an older USB web cam that matches the gscpa_sonixj driver. When I plug it in, I see this in the message buffer:

Code:

[10979.278043] usb 2-1.2: new full-speed USB device number 4 using ehci-pci
[10979.357630] usb 2-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=045e, idProduct=00f7, bcdDevice= 1.01
[10979.357646] usb 2-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=1, SerialNumber=0
[10979.357653] usb 2-1.2: Product: USB camera
[10979.361500] gspca_main: sonixj-2.14.0 probing 045e:00f7
[10979.363070] input: sonixj as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/input/input18
[10979.513347] retire_capture_urb: 5 callbacks suppressed

The driver is then loaded.

I test it with the Cheese program. Trying to take a photo, it turns out all black. The LED on the camera is not lit. However, when I press the camera's button, Cheese starts the countdown and takes a snapshot (all black again).

How can I troubleshoot this?

frankbell · 04-18-2020, 07:52 PM

If it doesn't work with Cheese, test it with GUVCVIEW.

I would be surprised if GUVCVIEW is not in the Fedora repros, but, if it is not, it's likely in the EPEL repros.

berndbausch · 04-19-2020, 01:51 AM

Thanks frankbell. I found guvcview on Fusion, not EPEL.

When looking at its manpage and its option -d, which selects the device, I had an epiphany. My laptop has three video devices /dev/video[012]. When I unplug the camera, /dev/video2 disappears. guvcview -d /dev/video2 does the trick (horribly picture quality, but that is of secondary importance).

cheese also has a -d option, but when I select it, I get a black image as before.

For now, problem solved.