Webcam recognized by Linux but not cheese or camorama- help?

Logomachist · 09-24-2009, 02:58 AM

I have a webcam that isn't working. It is an old one, but it worked in Windows and Linux recognizes it. Running lsusb identifies it as a Logitec Quickcam (which it is). However when I run cheese it says that no webcam is detected, and when I run camorama it says "could not connect to video device (/dev/video0) Please check connection".

The cheese help window recommends running "dmesg" to see if it recognises the camera, and it does. Is there anything else I can do to get the camera working?

business_kid · 09-24-2009, 04:47 AM

From memory
http://mxhaard.free.fr

Is _the_ source for linux drivers for webcams. Try looking there for ideas or drivers

Logomachist · 09-24-2009, 08:14 PM

Thanks for the suggestion. I downloaded the driver but I am afraid I am not smart enough to get it working.

The driver includes the following instructions:

Quote:

The driver module can be built without modifying your kernel source tree.

Before trying to compile the driver, ensure that you've configured your
kernel, and updated the dependencies:
'make [config|menuconfig|xconfig]; make dep'.

Make sure, when compiling the driver, you use the same version of compiler as
was used to compile your kernel. Not doing so can create incompatible binaries.

as root
goes to gspcav1 directory and run:
./gspca_build

if all goes right the module is compiled and load in memory
if not, errors messages can be found in kgspca.err You should post this file to the maintainer
or in the sourceforge project bugs report: http://sourceforge.net/projects/spca50x/ .

Typing 'make [config|menuconfig|xconfig]; make dep' results in a few different errors: "[menuconfig: not found" "xconfig: not found" "no rule to make target '[config' Stop." "No rule to make target 'dep' Stop."

Obviously, unable to get that to work I haven't tried the following steps yet.

business_kid · 09-25-2009, 03:38 AM

I would cd to the kernel source, run

make clean
make (x/menu)config if required
make

no need to install - that's the kernel you already have, isn't it?
Then try his stuff.

Logomachist · 09-26-2009, 01:02 AM

Where is the "kernal source"?

business_kid · 09-27-2009, 05:52 AM

The kernel source is the source code which compiles a kernel. Your nearest mirror is
ftp://ftp.<your-country-code>.kernel.org/, in my case, ftp.ie.kernel.org
Grab the source from there, or install it from your distribution package (linux-version or kernel-source-version). Then cp in your config-version from boot and rename it to .config.

This will usually land in /usr/src/linux-version. You can simply copy in the config file from boot, and run
make clean && make

If this fails, you don't have compile tools installed. We'll go there.

Logomachist · 10-14-2009, 01:19 AM

I'm sorry but could you dumb it down a little further? What's "Then cp in your config-version from boot and rename it to .config."

What should I type on the command line?

business_kid · 10-15-2009, 04:50 AM

Post in newbie in future.

What's your distribution?
What does uname -r report?

Shadow_7 · 10-15-2009, 12:01 PM

Just how old of a webcam? Some are only supported in v4l1, and not v4l2. Which might be the issue if those other apps expect / only work with v4l2. Perhaps v4l1_compat module or other things are not in use? Or you might be limited to things like xawtv and others to use your devices. Assuming that it works in the first place.

Logomachist · 10-23-2009, 08:00 AM

uname -r outputs "2.6.28-15-generic"

I'm running the latest version of Kubuntu; 9.04 I think.

The webcam is ancient. Like, from 2000 or so.

business_kid · 10-24-2009, 04:19 AM

Are we still looking at making a kernel to add the webcam modules?
install your kernel source package from your distribution's install disks - usually linux-version. Check also that you have gcc and make

which gcc
which make

If you don't have them, install them. If you have yum, you can do
yum list <pachage>
yum install <package>

Then run this
cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.28.15
cp /boot/config-2.6.28.15-generic .config #The '.' is very important
make

That last one should hopefully set a lot of work going. Then come in with your webcam modules, and follow _their_ instructions.