Quickcam messenger doesn't work on 64 bit (Ubuntu 9.10)
 

On my Ubuntu 9.10, 64 bit system, Quickam messenger doesn't work. A
typical error I get is exhibited when I try to run cheese

** (cheese:11361): WARNING **: Failed to open /dev/video0: Engedély
megtagadva

(which means: permission denied)

But I have

$ ls -l /dev/video0
crw-rw----+ 1 root video 81, 0 2009-11-23 23:48 /dev/video0
$ whoami
apu
$ grep video /etc/group
video:x:44:dori,marci,apu

Also

$ lsusb |grep -i quick
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 046d:08da Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Messanger
$ lsmod |grep vid
videodev 43360 1 gspca_main
v4l1_compat 16804 1 videodev
v4l2_compat_ioctl32 13344 1 videodev
video 23612 1 i915
output 3680 1 video

The same camera works fine on my laptop which also runs 9.10, but it is
32 bit.

When I run camorama, it reports: "Could not connect to video device
(/dev/video0)" and when I try preloading v4l2convert, so I run

$ env LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l2convert.so camorama

compatibility, at least I get the camorama window, but I also get an
error window saying "Cannot capture image".

The camera was working fine under 9.04

Any help appreciated

Apparently this whole thing is caused by a kernel/v4l bug. The solution is to change the permissions on the file

/dev/shm/usb-0000\:00\:1a.0-2\:USB\ Camera\ \(046d\:08da\)

or similar. By default, its ownership is root.root, and the perms is set to 600. Set it to 666. I have no idea what this file is. On my 32 bit laptop running the same Ubuntu 9.10, the camera works out of the box, so I am assuming the device file is created by one of the 32 bit compatibility packages.

ok try terminal type (gstreamer-properties) click enter click video
try v4l1 or v4l2
click the bottom test for each
get cheese and or wxcam