Cannot connect to camcorder with dvgrab or kino

danielph · 06-30-2008, 01:05 PM

Hi,

Begging for some help with a dv camcorder.

I have a PV-GS200 Panasonic Camcorder. The DV connection works in XP and in Ubuntu with the same PC, camera and cable. With Archlinux it fails. I have searched the forums and it seems that other people have gone through simular problems, none of the threads helped me to get this working. It must be a config issue or a difference in kernel / modules. Is there any clear documentation for setting up dv devices?

I have also tried this on 2 Archlinux i686 machines and both have the same problem. Here are some details.

The problem

Quote:

dvgrab
Error: no camera exists

as root:

Quote:

dvgrab
Error: no camera exists

kino reports

Quote:

WARNING: raw1394 kernel module not loaded or failure to read/write /dev/raw1394

the same when run as root

in terminal it loops on:

Quote:

iec61883Reader::StartThread on port 0

The config

Quote:

tail -f /var/log/messages

Jun 30 16:23:05 egypt firewire_core: created device fw1: GUID 0080458051262199, S100
Jun 30 16:23:05 egypt firewire_core: phy config: card 0, new root=ffc1, gap_count=5
Jun 30 16:23:05 egypt ieee1394: raw1394: /dev/raw1394 device initialized
Jun 30 16:23:05 egypt NOTE: The dv1394 driver is unsupported and may be removed in a future Linux release. Use raw1394 instead.

Quote:

lsmod |grep 1394
dv1394 17244 0
raw1394 24028 0
ohci1394 28720 1 dv1394
ieee1394 79288 3 dv1394,raw1394,ohci1394

Quote:

ls -l /dev/raw1394
crw-rw---- 1 root video 171, 0 2008-06-30 16:23 /dev/raw1394

Quote:

groups
lp wheel network video audio optical storage camera users

thanks for any suggestions

resetreset · 07-02-2008, 04:12 AM

This is *just an opinion* - it's not just the kernel module, but the higher layers (it's name is probably "HAL") need to be activated before any software will see specifically your *camera*. In Fedora, I think "ntsysv" will let you turn it on if it's off - but I think at least 3 things need to be enabled - please look through the little text at the bottom if your distro has it or simply enable everything

(I have never used Archlinux). Kino *may* be getting this wrong. Please try it

danielph · 07-02-2008, 11:42 AM

I am sure you are on the right lines, it must be something that isn't configured right. Arch does require manual configuring for most things. You are correct, it is HAL, but is it running as you can see here:

Code:

lshal |grep 1394
  info.product = 'PCI4510 IEEE-1394 Controller'  (string)
  pci.product = 'PCI4510 IEEE-1394 Controller'  (string)
udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/ieee1394_guid424fc0002a875c10'
  ieee1394.device = '/dev/fw0'  (string)
  ieee1394.guid = 4778248836609432592  (0x424fc0002a875c10)  (uint64)
  ieee1394.product = 'Juju'  (string)
  ieee1394.product_id = 1  (0x1)  (int)
  ieee1394.vendor = 'Linux Firewire'  (string)
  ieee1394.vendor_id = 13634846  (0xd00d1e)  (int)
  info.capabilities = {'ieee1394'} (string list)
  info.subsystem = 'ieee1394'  (string)
  info.udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/ieee1394_guid424fc0002a875c10'  (string)

Also, the distro is fairly "mature" as in I have been running it a while, so most things are enabled. This is all done in one file on Archlinux (rc.conf) and daemons are taken care of with this line

Code:

DAEMONS=(syslog-ng !network net-profiles !netfs laptop-mode !i8kmon @openntpd @crond @acpid !cpufreqd @alsa @hal @sshd fam kdm)

and modules with this

Code:

MODULES=(b44 mii slhc eeprom_93cx6 !i8k acpi-cpufreq cpufreq_ondemand rt2500 ac97_bus snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm-oss snd-page-alloc snd-pcm snd-timer snd snd-ac97-codec snd-intel8x0 snd-intel8x0m soundcore)

still in the same file.

Thanks for your reply

danielph · 07-06-2008, 05:57 AM

OK I have done some testing and found that a 3rd machine amd64 with archlinux actually works without issue. I noticed this difference when powering up the camcorder

Working machine:

Code:

Jul 6 11:26:34 kenya NOTE: The dv1394 driver is unsupported and may be removed in a future Linux release. Use raw1394 instead.
Jul 6 11:26:34 kenya ieee1394: raw1394: /dev/raw1394 device initialized
Jul 6 11:35:28 gconfd (dan-5757): GConf server is not in use, shutting down.
Jul 6 11:35:28 gconfd (dan-5757): Exiting

Machine with problem

Code:

Jul  6 12:29:44 morocco firewire_core: phy config: card 0, new root=ffc1, gap_count=5
Jul  6 12:29:44 morocco firewire_core: created device fw1: GUID 0080458051262199, S100
Jul  6 12:29:44 morocco NOTE: The dv1394 driver is unsupported and may be removed in a future Linux release. Use raw1394 instead.

The difference is this line is not present

Code:

Jul 6 11:26:34 kenya ieee1394: raw1394: /dev/raw1394 device initialized

on the machine not working

Can anyone tell me what this means?

tredegar · 07-06-2008, 06:30 AM

Quote:

Can anyone tell me what this means?

It means:
Your working machine is using the raw1394 module.
The broken machine is using the dv1394 module and is telling you that this is unsupported, may be removed in a future Linux release and that you should use raw1394 instead.
So, wherever arch sets up its modules, you need to remove, or blacklist dv1394 and modprobe raw1394 instead.

danielph · 07-06-2008, 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tredegar

So, wherever arch sets up its modules, you need to remove, or blacklist dv1394 and modprobe raw1394 instead.

rc.conf

Code:

MOD_BLACKLIST=(dv1394)

and loading raw1394 results in the following:

Code:

Jul  6 14:45:22 morocco firewire_core: phy config: card 0, new root=ffc1, gap_count=5
Jul  6 14:45:23 morocco firewire_core: created device fw1: GUID 0080458051262199, S100
Jul  6 14:45:23 morocco logger: udev load-modules: ieee1394:ven00008045mo00803303sp0000A02Dver00010001 is blacklisted

I think the working machine uses dv1394 also, as this displays the same warning, but it works.

tredegar · 07-06-2008, 08:10 AM

You have the right idea, but it is difficult for me to help you as I know nothing about how arch handles modules.

I suspect that dv1394 is somehow linked or aliased with raw1394 so by blacklisting one, you have blacklisted the other.

I think the working machine is aware that dv1394 driver is unsupported so it just ignores it and uses raw1394.

danielph · 07-06-2008, 08:18 AM

raw1394 module is loaded ok as shown with lsmod

Quote:

raw1394 24028 0
ohci1394 28720 0
ieee1394 79288 2 raw1394,ohci1394

Perhaps I should have mentioned it is when I switch the camera on that it tries to load ieee1394 but seems unable to without dv1394. The other system is running the almost the same system (almost - it is arch64).

tredegar · 07-06-2008, 11:05 AM

From your posting above you have both raw1394 and ieee1394 loaded
So what happens when you turn the camera on?
Anything useful printed to /var/log/messages ?

Quote:

The other system is running the almost the same system (almost - it is arch64).

Now I'm getting confused: You have XP & Ubuntu (which work) and 2 Archlinux (which don't) but "The other (which?) system is running the almost the same system almost - it is arch64."
??

danielph · 07-08-2008, 02:56 AM

I take the blame for the confusion entirely

I have 2 machines running Archlinux i686 (not working) and a 3rd running Archlinux 64 (working). Dual booting with Ubuntu LiveCD or into XP works on either.

However, this is irrelevant now as I got it working BIG CHEER.It was a configuration problem and I have learned a little.

Currently there are two 1394 frameworks available and Archlinux has them both. One is still in development and uses firewire_core and firewire_ohci. This is likely to replace the current system, but is not needed or wanted if you are still using the older stable framework, as I am.

Solution: Out with the new, in with the old

Blacklist the firewire_core and firewire_ohci (and dv1394 as it is old and not needed) to prevent them loading.
Ensure the modules ieee1394, raw1394 and ohci1394 are loaded (I also loaded them in that order).
Take a note that you did this as you will most likely want to use the new firewire modules in future.

Now it fires up and works everytime.

@tredegar Thanks for your help here, apprieciate it.

MarianP · 02-14-2009, 07:28 AM

Hello,

today I tried to download video from my camcorder the first time after a complete OS reinstallation (because of a failing system disk). So I just started my old reliable script for downloading video which essentially just calls dvgrab with a given set of parameters. And it failed with "Error: no camera exists". Sometimes, it reported that it "Found AV/C device with GUID 0x..." but did nothing else. After spending 40 minutes with searching the web and trying the Firewire cable, I realised that I have a different version of dvgrab installed now. Before the OS reinstallation, I had dvgrab 3.2, now I have dvgrab 3.3. So I uninstalled dvgrab 3.3 (make uninstall) and downloaded, compiled and installed dvgrab 3.2. Then I tried the video again - and it worked!

Conclusion: Before buying a new Firewire cable or hacking the kernel, try dvgrab 3.2. You can download dvgrab from http://www.kinodv.org/. Installation is the simpliest one: ./configure --- make --- sudo make install.

Note:
The camcorder I have is Sony DCR-TRV320E.