USB cam compatible with video4Linux?

badgerbox76 · 04-02-2006, 02:07 PM

Hello i am running ubuntu and would like to get my cam running. i am not sure what brand it is but here is a picture of what is looks like http://www.auction-warehouse.com/lot...style%20MG.jpg If it is compatible what driver should i use and how can i tell if my kernel has video4linux loded on it. I am thinking about using gqcam and then leter streaming the cam to my site and running a program like motion.

Thanks for your help

unSpawn · 04-02-2006, 05:58 PM

i am not sure what brand it is
Unfortunately most of the time a picture (esp without any discriminating marks) will not do.
What you need to know is the chipset it uses, if not available check the box and documentation for any scrap of info about the vendor, manufacturer, website or even wintendo installed driver info or whatever else that looks like something you could feed the LQ HCL search, the LQ site search or any searchengine. If that doesn't give any info attach the cam and look in your system logs for any USB device errors. You're looking for where it says it doesnt have any vendor info to match. If unsure post the lines from your syslog.

badgerbox76 · 04-02-2006, 07:45 PM

I did some searching and i think the camera might have been made by Sdat. I could not find there web site.

Here is a lspci scan of my hardware.

Code:

admin@monitorwaves:~$ lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8601 [Apollo ProMedia] (rev 05)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8601 [Apollo ProMedia AGP]
0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] (rev 40)
0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 1a)
0000:00:07.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 1a)
0000:00:07.4 Bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI] (rev 40)
0000:00:07.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
0000:00:08.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)
0000:00:09.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV5M64 [RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro] (rev 15)
0000:00:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
admin@monitorwaves:~$

unSpawn · 04-03-2006, 07:39 AM

I could not find there web site.
s d a t g r o u p d o t c o m ?

Here is a lspci scan of my hardware.
Cool. Really, looks nice.

badgerbox76 · 04-03-2006, 11:39 AM

So what driver should i use?

unSpawn · 04-04-2006, 10:54 AM

So what driver should i use?
You'll still have to find out. You didn't tell us if you have any box, documentation, wintendo driver or other info. You probably didn't visit their website (if it is) for info. And I havent seen any syslog info.
What I told you to do is:

Quote:

Originally Posted by me in my first reply:

(..) check the (1) box and (2) documentation for any scrap of info about the vendor, manufacturer, website or even (3) wintendo installed driver info or whatever else that looks like something you could feed the LQ HCL search, the LQ site search or any searchengine. If that doesn't give any info (4) attach the cam and look in your system (5) logs for any USB device errors. You're looking for where it says it doesnt have any vendor info to match. If unsure post the lines from your syslog.

If unsure about commands or whatever else, just post your questions.
If you don't have any stuff, just say you havent any.
But please dont go off running commands we dont need now.

badgerbox76 · 04-04-2006, 06:41 PM

Good news, i found the disk! Ok it says CIF Digital Camera Driver Disk. The company name is Sakar International INC.
http://www.sakar.com/ They have a support number on the front (877-397-8200) but i dont think they would know how to help me with a linux driver. Sorry about my past pontless posts i hope this post is more useful.

unSpawn · 04-05-2006, 08:17 AM

Good news, i found the disk!
Excellent, excellent.

The company name is Sakar International INC.(...) but i dont think they would know how to help me with a linux driver.
Well, that's why you're here, innit? There's a few ways you can find out more info. Recheck my reply and work on points 3, 4 and 5 and add (6): Look again for any identifying marks on the camera, in text on the disk or manual but best is a type number, product number, unique code or if you can't find anything else the EXACT brandname, type and version it's branded as. Now email digitalcameras at sakar dot com with that info and ask what chipset they use for this particular camera and in case they don't know ask where you should redirect your enquiries to. BTW, I already checked one manual at their site but it doesn't show any chipsets.

* Please note that if your reply doesn't include replies wrt to points 3, 4 *and* 5 and if point 6 doesnt give enough info you should consider buying a cam that is supported under Linux. That will save time and aggrevation. Check the LQ HCL.

Sorry about my past pontless posts i hope this post is more useful.
They're not useless, it's just that reading a post and following leads and steps *exactly* is so much more efficient.

badgerbox76 · 04-07-2006, 12:54 PM

I have sent an email to the company asking for there chip set so lets hope they know. I have also looked all over the cam and could not find any markings of any kind.

badgerbox76 · 04-10-2006, 07:32 PM

Here is what i got from the company:

CMOS Sensor 100K (352 x 288 pixels) with 16 MB internal SDRAM flash
memory

-----Original Message-----
From: Zac [mailto:admin@somesitelikemine.com]
Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 1:44 PM
To: Customer Service
Subject: I Need to know more about your camras

Hello i believe that i have
http://www2.sakar.com/modules.php?na...id=484&start=0

Its a camera/web cam that is purple and has a stand. Would you please
tell me what chip set this camera uses and if you don't know could you
please redirect my enquirers to some one who would. Thanks much for your
time.

unSpawn · 04-10-2006, 08:42 PM

The fact they took the time to answer is, well, more than I thought you'd get.

Let's build the picture:
Sakar International,
KidzCam Digital Camera,
product ID 88379,
CMOS 100K (352 x 288),
IIGC I'll add:
USB vendor tag: 0x2770:0x905c
Chipset: SQ905 or SQ905C

Now hook up the cam to your computer (like I told you to a long time ago) and get us the log excerpts we need so we can verify stuff. If it does use the SQ905C, look at this. Not impossible, but with some restrictions.

badgerbox76 · 04-11-2006, 03:42 PM

sorry for the question but how would i get a log out put to post here? lspci?

unSpawn · 04-12-2006, 05:30 AM

sorry for the question
Yes, you should be... :-] I've posted instructions here http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...41#post2181341 and here http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...68#post2183668

* With syslog I mean the files that are logged to using Syslogd. Look in /etc/syslog.conf which ones they are. Usually it's one called "messages". Look for messages that contain "usb" (like "grep -i usb /var/log/messages).

badgerbox76 · 04-12-2006, 08:35 PM

Here is the information you wanted. I hope this is all you need but if you need more just ask. Once again thanks for helping me out

By the way i was looking around and found this module http://www.rastageeks.org/ov51x-jpeg....php/Main_Page i could not tell if it would work for me but mybe you could tell if it would work or not.

lsusb

Code:

admin@monitorwaves:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0979:0224 Jeilin Technology Corp., Ltd
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

lspci

Code:

admin@monitorwaves:~$ lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8601 [Apollo ProMedia] (rev 05)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8601 [Apollo ProMedia AGP]
0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] (rev 40)
0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 1a)
0000:00:07.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 1a)
0000:00:07.4 Bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI] (rev 40)
0000:00:07.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
0000:00:08.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)
0000:00:09.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV5M64 [RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro] (rev 15)
0000:00:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

grep -i usb /var/log/messages

Code:

admin@monitorwaves:~$ grep -i usb /var/log/messages
Apr 10 16:03:51 monitorwaves kernel: [4294671.533000] SLPB PCI0 USB0 USB1 UAR1 ECP1
Apr 10 16:03:51 monitorwaves kernel: [4294678.309000] usbcore: registered new driver usbfs
Apr 10 16:03:51 monitorwaves kernel: [4294678.309000] usbcore: registered new driver hub
Apr 10 16:03:51 monitorwaves kernel: [4294678.312000] USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v2.2
Apr 10 16:03:51 monitorwaves kernel: [4294678.313000] uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.2: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller
Apr 10 16:03:51 monitorwaves kernel: [4294678.375000] uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
Apr 10 16:03:51 monitorwaves kernel: [4294678.375000] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
Apr 10 16:03:51 monitorwaves kernel: [4294678.378000] uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.3: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (#2)
Apr 10 16:03:51 monitorwaves kernel: [4294678.440000] uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.3: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
Apr 10 16:03:51 monitorwaves kernel: [4294678.440000] hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
Apr 12 21:26:11 monitorwaves kernel: [4486961.069000] usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2

syslog.conf file

Code:

#  /etc/syslog.conf	Configuration file for syslogd.
#
#			For more information see syslog.conf(5)
#			manpage.

#
# First some standard logfiles.  Log by facility.
#

auth,authpriv.*			/var/log/auth.log
*.*;auth,authpriv.none		-/var/log/syslog
#cron.*				/var/log/cron.log
daemon.*			-/var/log/daemon.log
kern.*				-/var/log/kern.log
lpr.*				-/var/log/lpr.log
mail.*				-/var/log/mail.log
user.*				-/var/log/user.log
uucp.*				/var/log/uucp.log

#
# Logging for the mail system.  Split it up so that
# it is easy to write scripts to parse these files.
#
mail.info			-/var/log/mail.info
mail.warn			-/var/log/mail.warn
mail.err			/var/log/mail.err

# Logging for INN news system
#
news.crit			/var/log/news/news.crit
news.err			/var/log/news/news.err
news.notice			-/var/log/news/news.notice

#
# Some `catch-all' logfiles.
#
*.=debug;\
	auth,authpriv.none;\
	news.none;mail.none	-/var/log/debug
*.=info;*.=notice;*.=warn;\
	auth,authpriv.none;\
	cron,daemon.none;\
	mail,news.none		-/var/log/messages

#
# Emergencies are sent to everybody logged in.
#
*.emerg				*

#
# I like to have messages displayed on the console, but only on a virtual
# console I usually leave idle.
#
#daemon,mail.*;\
#	news.=crit;news.=err;news.=notice;\
#	*.=debug;*.=info;\
#	*.=notice;*.=warn	/dev/tty8

# The named pipe /dev/xconsole is for the `xconsole' utility.  To use it,
# you must invoke `xconsole' with the `-file' option:
# 
#    $ xconsole -file /dev/xconsole [...]
#
# NOTE: adjust the list below, or you'll go crazy if you have a reasonably
#      busy site..
#
daemon.*;mail.*;\
	news.crit;news.err;news.notice;\
	*.=debug;*.=info;\
	*.=notice;*.=warn	|/dev/xconsole

lsmod

Code:

admin@monitorwaves:~$ lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
rfcomm                 34972  0
l2cap                  22404  5 rfcomm
bluetooth              43012  4 rfcomm,l2cap
cpufreq_userspace       4444  0
cpufreq_stats           5124  0
freq_table              4484  1 cpufreq_stats
cpufreq_powersave       1920  0
cpufreq_ondemand        5916  0
cpufreq_conservative     6820  0
video                  16004  0
tc1100_wmi              6916  0
sony_acpi               5516  0
pcc_acpi               11392  0
hotkey                  9508  0
dev_acpi               11396  0
i2c_acpi_ec             5760  0
button                  6672  0
battery                 9604  0
container               4608  0
ac                      4996  0
ipv6                  217408  26
af_packet              20232  2
wlan_wep                5888  1
floppy                 52692  0
pcspkr                  3652  0
rtc                    11832  0
ath_pci                69148  0
ath_rate_sample        14344  1 ath_pci
wlan                  120988  4 wlan_wep,ath_pci,ath_rate_sample
ath_hal               148432  3 ath_pci,ath_rate_sample
snd_seq_dummy           3844  0
snd_seq_oss            29440  0
snd_seq_midi            8608  0
snd_seq_midi_event      6656  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                44688  6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_via82xx            25792  4
gameport               14472  1 snd_via82xx
snd_ac97_codec         72188  1 snd_via82xx
snd_pcm_oss            46368  0
snd_mixer_oss          16128  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                78344  4 snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer              21764  3 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc         10120  2 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm
snd_mpu401_uart         6784  1 snd_via82xx
snd_rawmidi            22816  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device          8204  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi
snd                    48644  17 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
soundcore               9184  1 snd
pci_hotplug            24628  0
via_agp                 9472  1
quota_v1                3200  4
dm_mod                 50364  1
evdev                   9088  0
tsdev                   7616  0
agpgart                32328  1 via_agp
via686a                17816  0
eeprom                  7184  0
i2c_sensor              3456  2 via686a,eeprom
i2c_isa                 2176  0
i2c_viapro              7696  0
i2c_core               19728  6 i2c_acpi_ec,via686a,eeprom,i2c_sensor,i2c_isa,i2c_viapro
psmouse                26116  0
mousedev               10912  1
parport_pc             31812  1
lp                     11460  0
parport                32072  2 parport_pc,lp
md                     40656  0
ext3                  115976  3
jbd                    48536  1 ext3
thermal                13192  0
processor              23100  1 thermal
fan                     4740  0
8139too                23552  0
8139cp                 18432  0
mii                     5248  2 8139too,8139cp
uhci_hcd               28048  0
usbcore               104188  2 uhci_hcd
ide_cd                 36996  0
cdrom                  33952  1 ide_cd
ide_disk               16128  5
ide_generic             1664  0
via82cxxx              12188  1
ide_core              125268  4 ide_cd,ide_disk,ide_generic,via82cxxx
unix                   24624  912
vesafb                  8088  0
capability              5000  0
commoncap               6784  1 capability
vga16fb                12232  1
vgastate                8320  1 vga16fb
softcursor              2432  2 vesafb,vga16fb
cfbimgblt               2944  2 vesafb,vga16fb
cfbfillrect             3840  2 vesafb,vga16fb
cfbcopyarea             4480  2 vesafb,vga16fb
fbcon                  34176  72
tileblit                2560  1 fbcon
font                    8448  1 fbcon
bitblit                 5248  1 fbcon

unSpawn · 04-12-2006, 09:06 PM

grep -i usb /var/log/messages
If this is a grep from *after* you connected the device to your computer then it's dead. If a device is not recognized you would expect messages like these (example Bluetooth device):

Code:

Aug  8 21:56:49 kernel: hub.c: new USB device 00:0c.0-1, assigned address 2
Aug  8 21:56:49 kernel: usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0xa12/0x1) is not claimed by any active driver. 
Aug  8 21:56:52 kernel: usb-uhci.c: ENXIO 80000280, flags 0, urb daec2a00, burb daec2700
Aug  8 21:56:52 kernel: usbdevfs: USBDEVFS_CONTROL failed dev 2 rqt 128 rq 6 len 9 ret -6
Aug  8 21:56:52 kernel: usb-uhci.c: ENXIO 80000280, flags 0, urb daec2a00, burb daec2700
Aug  8 21:56:52 kernel: usbdevfs: USBDEVFS_CONTROL failed dev 2 rqt 128 rq 6 len 18 ret -6
Aug  8 21:56:52 kernel: usb-uhci.c: ENXIO 80000280, flags 0, urb daec2700, burb daec2a00
Aug  8 21:56:52 kernel: usbdevfs: USBDEVFS_CONTROL failed dev 2 rqt 128 rq 6 len 193 ret -6
Aug  8 21:56:52 kernel: usb-uhci.c: ENXIO 80000280, flags 0, urb daec2a00, burb daec2700
Aug  8 21:56:52 kernel: usbdevfs: USBDEVFS_CONTROL failed dev 2 rqt 128 rq 6 len 9 ret -6
Aug  8 21:56:52 /etc/hotplug/usb.agent: ... no modules for USB product a12/1/828

(ad nauseam)
It starts by acknowledging adding a device: "new USB device". Next a vendor string match is done: "usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0xa12/0x1)" and, as expected, no match was found: "is not claimed by any active driver.". This vendor string is the final piece of information to confirm the device is the one you're looking for (wrt to earlier info) and it's what you need for locating supporting modules. I hope that clears up a bit why you need to plug it into your computer and grep for info.