Installing my webcam under Debian

Mondus · 07-31-2005, 02:22 AM

Hi... I just tried installing my Logitech Clicksmart 310 on Debian.. But I ran into a problem... The driver is on this page:

http://spca50x.sourceforge.net/spca50x.php?page=faq

I use a 2.6.8 kernel......

Here is the INSTALL file:

Module compile outside the kernel tree but need the source of your running
kernel installed and configured.
be sure your kernel include usb and v4l stuff
Kernel 2.4.x
configure your kernel
make dep
go to the spca5xx directories
make clean (to be sure)
make
if all goes right as root :
make install
Kernel 2.6.x
make clean
make
if all goes right as root :
make install
To test please use the command line spcaview you need libsdl installed with the
header from your distro or goto http:www.libsdl.org
plug the cam
as root
lsmod
spca5xx should be load with videodev, if not somethings goes wrong,
verify that your cam is supported if not and you are sure for a Sunplus
chip goto irc.freenode.net channel #spca50x and ask for help
if yes run spcaview with this parameters (maybe read the readme is the
best)
spcaview -f yuv
if you have a bttv card use the -d parameters to change the video
setting
that should work
Enjoy !!

Here's what I did:
I downloaded the experimental driver..
I typed make clean.. and pressed enter
typed make and pressed enter..
typed make install and pressed enter..
After that I tryed pressing lsmod, and pressed enter
and after that tried pressing spcaview -f yuv.. which didn't work.. it said there was no such command... I looked up and saw the thing with the kernelheaders.. .but I'm not sure how to do that... Can someone help?

rarsa · 08-02-2005, 11:29 PM

spcaview is just one of the tools that you can use to test the WebCam I actually tested with Gnomemeeting.

But before you can test, you have to load the drivers. I guess you skipped reading the readme file.

Here is an excerpt of the readme. I would recommend to go back and read it all

Quote:

Making sure the usb and v4l stuff is there
==========================================
For the module to function correctly, the video for linux subsystem needs to
be loaded. As root, check the output of lsmod for videodev. If its not there,
do: modprobe videodev.
Also, you need to make sure that the usbcore module is loaded (or compiled
into your kernel) and similarly the module appropriate for your usb controller
(uhci or ohci).

Loading it
==========
If you have compiled the module, but haven't done 'make install' you can load
the module in the top build directory by doing as root: insmod spca5xx.o

If you have made install, do as root: modprobe spca5xx

There are several parameter that can be passed in:
etc etc etc...

What this means is that you execute

Code:

lsmod

and see if videodev is in the list shown, if it's not, you add it with

Code:

modprobe videodev

Then you load the spca driver with

Code:

modprobe spca5xx

Now you are ready to test with whatever program that uses the webcam, e.g. gnomemeeting

Mondus · 08-03-2005, 04:05 AM

Hey thanks man... it worked.... But do you know any programs for Linux which support the webcam capabilities in MSN... so that I can use my webcam when speaking to people using MSN.... like for example Gaim (damn irritating it doesn't support webcam)

rarsa · 08-03-2005, 09:21 AM

There is a fork of Gaim that has the capability of receiving video, It does not sent video yet.

GnomeMeeting work very smoot. It's counterpart in the Windows World is NetMeeting.

You don't need to be in a directory to have a video conference, so, If you are chatting with someone in Gaim and want to start the video conferencing, just ask them to start NetMeeting or GnomeMeeting respectively and you can 'call' them to their IP address.

Just make sure that the appropriate ports are open in the respective firewalls.

Mondus · 08-03-2005, 09:57 AM

And which ports would this be?

rarsa · 08-03-2005, 12:10 PM

Oh, sorry I did not add it because it's very easy to find what ports need to be open by doing a Google search.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/Net...r4/default.asp

Mondus · 08-14-2005, 03:15 PM

Ok.. This is kinda irritating... I just changed kernel from 2.6.8-2-386 to 2.6.11-1-686-smp .. And now my webcam doesnt work of course... But then I follow the install as I did before, and what you said above (lsmod and modprobe stuff)... but then this comes:

Michael:/home/mondus/spca5xx-20050701# modprobe spca5xx
FATAL: Error inserting spca5xx (/lib/modules/2.6.11-1-686-smp/kernel/drivers/usb/media/spca5xx.ko): Invalid module format

Why doesn't it work? What am I doing wrong?

rarsa · 08-14-2005, 08:18 PM

You need to recompile the spca5xx module every time you change your kernel.

rarsa · 08-15-2005, 09:34 PM

By The way, I think you would be interested in This thread.

Mondus · 08-16-2005, 02:21 AM

Ok.. The recompiling isn't working... I went in to the directory and did the following:

make uninstall (just to be sure)
make clean
make
make install (all of the above steps were done as root)

lsmod
modprobe videodev (because it wasn't there)
modprobe spca5xx

After the last command, the same error came again:

Michael:/home/mondus/spca5xx-20050701# modprobe spca5xx
FATAL: Error inserting spca5xx (/lib/modules/2.6.11-1-686-smp/kernel/drivers/usb/media/spca5xx.ko): Invalid module format

Btw.. thanks for the link.. I can really use that

floschi · 09-05-2005, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Raul Suarez
spcaview is just one of the tools that you can use to test the WebCam I actually tested with Gnomemeeting.

But before you can test, you have to load the drivers. I guess you skipped reading the readme file.

Here is an excerpt of the readme. I would recommend to go back and read it all

What this means is that you execute

Code:

lsmod

and see if videodev is in the list shown, if it's not, you add it with

Code:

modprobe videodev

Then you load the spca driver with

Code:

modprobe spca5xx

Now you are ready to test with whatever program that uses the webcam, e.g. gnomemeeting

Sorry, that I'm asking again. But that didn't work in my case.
I have videodev and so on runnin' but it won't startup yet.
I still get error, that spca5xx.ko is not a valid format.
What could be wrong?

Here an excerpt of compiling it:

Quote:

Building SPCA5XX driver for 2.5/2.6 kernel.
Remember: you must have read/write access to your kernel source tree.
make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build SUBDIRS=/home/fosses/spca5xx/modules/spca5xx modules
make[1]: Gehe in Verzeichnis »/usr/src/kernel-headers-2.6.11-kanotix-11«
CC [M] /home/fosses/spca5xx/modules/spca5xx/drivers/usb/spca5xx.o
In file included from /home/fosses/spca5xx/modules/spca5xx/drivers/usb/spca5xx.c:763:
/home/fosses/spca5xx/modules/spca5xx/drivers/usb/mr97311.h: In function 'pcam_start':
/home/fosses/spca5xx/modules/spca5xx/drivers/usb/mr97311.h:391: warning: ISO C90 forbids mixed declarations and code
/home/fosses/spca5xx/modules/spca5xx/drivers/usb/spca5xx.c: In function 'spca50x_configure':
/home/fosses/spca5xx/modules/spca5xx/drivers/usb/spca5xx.c:5908: warning: 'defaultpipe' may be used uninitialized in this function
/home/fosses/spca5xx/modules/spca5xx/drivers/usb/spca5xx.c:5907: warning: 'defaultrows' may be used uninitialized in this function
/home/fosses/spca5xx/modules/spca5xx/drivers/usb/spca5xx.c:5906: warning: 'defaultcols' may be used uninitialized in this function
CC [M] /home/fosses/spca5xx/modules/spca5xx/drivers/usb/spcadecoder.o
LD [M] /home/fosses/spca5xx/modules/spca5xx/spca5xx.o
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST
CC /home/fosses/spca5xx/modules/spca5xx/spca5xx.mod.o
LD [M] /home/fosses/spca5xx/modules/spca5xx/spca5xx.ko

Any ideas? please HELP!!

rarsa · 09-05-2005, 10:20 PM

Have you installed the sources for your new kernel?

It seems that you are still compiling with the old kernel sources.