Lenovo EasyCamera on N500 detected, but no output.

tomythius · 08-16-2009, 11:02 AM

Hi all,

Just bought a Lenovo N500 and installed Kubuntu. Pretty much everything worked out of the box and I'm really pleased with it. The only thing that isn't working is the built-in webcam.

Cheese displays colour bars and "white-fuzz" as if there weren't a camera connected, but in the preferences menu the camera drop-down selector is populated by one entry: "Lenovo EasyCamera (/dev/video0)"

lsusb says:

Code:

tom@tom-laptop:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 5986:0205 Acer, Inc
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0a5c:2150 Broadcom Corp.
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Which doesn't seem to contain any reference to a camera.

Has anyone had any success in using the built-in webcam on an N500? Or any other Lenovo laptop?

aus9 · 08-16-2009, 07:36 PM

hi

5986:0205 Acer

http://linux-uvc.berlios.de/#footnote-9

yours may be uvc compliant in which case first use root powers to load the module uvcvideo

tomythius · 08-18-2009, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aus9

yours may be uvc compliant in which case first use root powers to load the module uvcvideo

Thanks for the suggestion aus - you got me set off in a new direction.

Since:

Code:

tom@tom-laptop:~$ uname -r
2.6.28-11-generic

And:

Quote:

Linux 2.6.26 and newer includes the Linux UVC driver natively.

I figured I didn't need to download anything new and just added uvcvideo to /etc/modules. I now get this:

Code:

tom@tom-laptop:~$ lsmod | grep uvcvideo
uvcvideo               63240  0
compat_ioctl32          9344  1 uvcvideo
videodev               41600  1 uvcvideo
v4l1_compat            21764  2 uvcvideo,videodev

That 0 (IIRC) indicates that nothing is using the module.

Any other thoughts? Not quite sure where to go from here... :s

Tom

aus9 · 08-19-2009, 07:47 PM

http://sidux.com/index.php?module=Wi...ag=Webcamlinks

tomythius · 08-25-2009, 02:58 PM

I eventually got my webcam working by forcing uvcvideo to use quirksmode=2.

This can be done from the shell...

First see if uvcvideo is loaded:
Code:
lsmod | grep ^uvcvideo
You'll get a single line returned if it is, and nothing if it isn't.

If it's loaded, you'll need to unload it before continuing:
Code:
sudo modprobe -r uvcvideo
We now need to load it with our new 'quirks' setting:
Code:
sudo modprobe uvcvideo quirks=2
And see if it works. If it does, you'll probably want to make it permanent - keep reading.

Or by editing /etc/modules:

By adding/modifying one line in /etc/modules, we can make this a permanent thing. Open it up in your favourite text editor (remembering root privileges) and look for a line with uvcvideo on it. If you find one, change it, otherwise put this on a new line:
Code:
uvcvideo quirks=2

Hopefully this will be useful to someone out there.

tredegar · 08-25-2009, 03:17 PM

Pleased you got it working, and thanks for the follow-up.

iRon74 · 10-08-2009, 06:27 PM

tomythius, great solution, thank you!

small problem: cannot make it permanent. I'm not a linux/terminal guru, but I did the following:
1. cd /etc
2. sudo gedit modules
it contained only one row: lp
I put a new row at the end: uvcvideo quirks=2
saved the file
3. more modules
checked if it has really changed - it displayed the wanted content
4. ls -l
checked if the right has not changed -» still -rw-r--r-- 1 root root modules, OK
5. restart ubuntu
6. test camera with skype - nothing happens :-(
7. manual modprobe in terminal -» camera works with skype!

What did I wrong?

aus9 · 10-08-2009, 09:02 PM

hi

Assuming its a webcam on a usb cable??

create a script that you place on the desktop.
put uvcvideo into your /etc/modprobe.d/ (some blacklist filename)

copy and paste the following into a text file...change bin/sh to /bin/bash or dash or whatever you normally use if /bin/sh is not on your system...put into a code box merely to highlight it

Code:

#! /bin/sh   
# a file to run with root powers
/sbin/modprobe uvcvideo quirks=2
exit 0

name file webcam, move it to /home/yourname/Desktop

open a terminal

Code:

$ cd /home/yourname/Desktop
su (or sux)(to get root powers)
chmod + x webcam
chown root webcam

IF you are on a sudo system change above to
sudo chmod + x webcam

2) put in webcam...run script it MUST ask for root password
Then test your software.

3) If that worked? then you automate with the creation of an udev rule...I do not have an inbuilt webcam so not sure if udev rule will work for those types but it could be worth a try if you feel up to it?