Hello, I am on a mandriva 2006 computer and I have a usb webcam with built in microphone support. I don't need the video, but I do need the microphone support. I can plug it and gnome meeting will recognise "usb camera", but when i speak into it, garbage is printed out.

When I run lsusb i get:
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 05a9:8519 OmniVision Technologies, Inc.
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 058f:9360 Alcor Micro Corp.
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 1241:1177 Belkin F8E842-DL Mouse
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0461:0347 Primax Electronics, Ltd Primascan Colorodao 2600u/Visioneer 4400 Scanner
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000


I'm pretty sure that

"Bus 002 Device 005: ID 05a9:8519 OmniVision Technologies, Inc."

is my camera. In fact, i am sure as when I remove it that entry goes away.

So does anyone know how i can get the microphone to work?I think I need the "ov51x driver" but I'm not sure where to get or install it.

uname -a gives:

Linux localhost 2.6.12-14mdk #1 Tue Dec 20 15:45:27 MST 2005 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+ unknown GNU/Linux



Thanks for any help.

yea having the best driver 'might' help lol

but i have a webcam with mike too (usb) and the sound won't work AT all... so i use a seperate mic for now.

when i get around to it i will put the sound in the same /dev as the video-- since my vid works (you can't do that in gui, you'll have to find the config files).

good luck, lettuce know.

Well, i've got the driver installed and I can get video working but gnomemeeting is the ONLY program which can access the sound. Gnomemeeting definately works for the sound but any other programs don't recieve any sound, so it's like your problem, but the sound does work - kinda.

Do you know any way which would allow me to get the sound to be seen by other programs? Thanks.

well if your systems sounds are ok then you need to address each other program individually.

some are easier to adjust the settings.

ie if your system is set to (normally) use oss, then xine will at least need the oss for it to function, and you may even need to 'tell it' to use oss as the default.

also some programs like vlc require the sound server to be OFF in order to have sound.

and i suppose you can still try my idea of setting the /dev in each prog to the same /dev as your video since it is from the same source (ie the cam).

however dev's are a pain and may 'refresh' itself after each re-boot.

i dunno off the top of my head how to fix that, other than writing some script to be activated at boot time.. or pull some other some other sorta trick on dev..

again good luck.