How to Install USB Camera in RedHat 9
 

I was trying to install a USB camera in Redhat 9, but had problems installing it. The following is what I did to be able to install it successfully.

These instructions should (I hope) work for digital cameras set up to use USB Mass Storage.

As root:
1. a) Create the directory /mnt/camera
b) Add the following line to /etc/fstab
NB Each gap is a tab, follow the lines in the existing fstab

2. c) You should now be able to mount the camera, using "mount /mnt/camera"
d) Find the pictures and copy them to you hard drive
e) unmount the camera.


Note:
1) You can use graphical programs such as gPhoto, but my camera wont work.
2) These instructions do work with my camera
3) The camera must be set up to use "mass storage." Consult your manual

Hope this helps
From Ian

still have troubles with USB digital camera
 

Added the following line to /etc/fstab


code:
/dev/sda1 /mnt/camera vfat rw,suid,dev,noexec,noauto,user,async 1 2

I tried mounting the camera, using "mount /mnt/camera"

I installed that code into the /etc/fstab file but it didn't work. I cold booted the computer with the camera turned on and setup for file transfer. As it booted i noticed something new that i don't usually see at startup, it was the camera being identified at bootup at the end of what i saw on scrolling display it paused for a while where the camera was identified, then it said that it would modify the /etc/fstab file to include the camera but after about a minute it said that it failed to complete it. I checked to see if /etc/fstab was modified, but i saw no change to the file after boot up. At least I know that the camera is identified at boot up but I don't understand why the /etc/fstab file was not modified successfully to include the camera. Any help would much be appreciated for installing this USB digital camera. I know that the camera is compatible with Linux as a USB Mass Storage Device which I saw at http://www.teaser.fr/~hfiguiere/linux/digicam.html
i checked the hardware browser but I didn't find the camera. The only time I see the camera is on bootup when it tries to add a line to the /etc/fstab file but fails.

here is the /var/log/messages



Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: hub.c: new USB device 00:07.2-1, assigned address 3
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 40x/40x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: resize_dma_pool: unknown device type -1
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: Attached scsi generic sg0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0, type -1
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: resize_dma_pool: unknown device type -1
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: usb-uhci.c: interrupt, status 3, frame# 1290
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: scsi: device set offline - not ready or command retry failed after bus reset: host 0 channel 0 id 0 lun 0
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: USB Mass Storage support registered.
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: usb-uhci.c: ENXIO 80000380, flags 0, urb cf581f80, burb cf581e80
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: usb.c: error getting string descriptor 0 (error=-6)
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: usb-uhci.c: ENXIO 80000380, flags 0, urb cf581f80, burb cf581e80
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: usb.c: error getting string descriptor 0 (error=-6)
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: usb-uhci.c: ENXIO 80000380, flags 0, urb cf581e80, burb cf581f80
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: usb-uhci.c: ENXIO 80000380, flags 0, urb cf581e80, burb cf581f80
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: usb-uhci.c: ENXIO 80000380, flags 0, urb cf776100, burb cf581f80
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: scsi2 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000004
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: printing eip:
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: d08e70d3
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: *pde = 00000000
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: Oops: 0000
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: sg sr_mod ide-scsi ide-cd cdrom usb-storage scsi_mod keybdev mousedev hid input usb-uhci usbcore ext3 jbd
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: CPU: 0
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: EIP: 0060:[<d08e70d3>] Not tainted
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: EFLAGS: 00010246
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel:
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: EIP is at sg_open [sg] 0x73 (2.4.20-8)
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: eax: 00000000 ebx: 00000800 ecx: ffffffed edx: cfa8e600
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: esi: cf929480 edi: fffffff0 ebp: c1b02340 esp: cf695f04
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: ds: 0068 es: 0068 ss: 0068
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: Process updfstab (pid: 1869, stackpage=cf695000)
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: Stack: 00000000 d08e7000 cf126700 cf6da005 00000003 00000000 cf0c1580 cf695f84
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: cf6da000 00000000 00000000 cfeb4700 cf0c1580 c1b02340 c014792e cf0c1580
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: cfeb4700 cfeb4700 cf0c1580 ffffffe9 c0145fb3 cf0c1580 cfeb4700 00000800
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: Call Trace: [<c014792e>] chrdev_open [kernel] 0x5e (0xcf695f3c))
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: [<c0145fb3>] dentry_open [kernel] 0xd3 (0xcf695f54))
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: [<c0145edd>] filp_open [kernel] 0x6d (0xcf695f70))
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: [<c0146273>] sys_open [kernel] 0x53 (0xcf695fa8))
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: [<c0109537>] system_call [kernel] 0x33 (0xcf695fc0))
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel:
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel:
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: Code: 8b 40 04 85 c0 74 14 ff 40 10 8b 06 8b 40 10 8b 40 24 8b 40
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: <4>usb-uhci.c: interrupt, status 3, frame# 1149
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE,EPP]
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: parport0: irq 7 detected
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000004
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: printing eip:
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: d08e70d3
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: *pde = 00000000
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: Oops: 0000
Dec 17 11:40:52 localhost kernel: sg sr_mod ide-scsi ide-cd cdrom usb-storage scsi_mod keybdev mousedev hid input usb-uhci usbcore ext3 jbd

do you have the usb mass storage driver loaded?

modprobe usb-storage

you have to mount it as a sda device, something like this:

mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/camera

Of course you must load the following drivers:

uhci-usb
usb-storage
all scsi drivers

but as I can see you have them built-in the kernel, so don´t worry. You must check you support vfat filesystem as well.

Be lucky

I finally have USB camera working
 

There was a bug in kernel 2.4.20-8 that affected USB devices. I downloaded the kernel upgrade from redhat, kernel 2.4.20-24-9. I downloaded the kernel update from ftp://updates.redhat.com/9/en/os/ . I have a pentium II so I use an i686. When i downloaded the kernel update this was the latest, but kernel-2.4.20-28-9 is, at this writing, the latest.

I typed the following into the /etc/fstab file:

/dev/sda1 /mnt/camera vfat noauto,user,rw 00

Once I did this, and I booted up with the new kernel, I typedthe following into a terminal/shell (bash) to mount the camera:

mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt


I was then able to access the pictures on the USB camera in /mnt/camera .

note to newbies, when installing the new kernel, use

rpm -ivh <filename.rpm>

Use the -ivh switch, if you don't want to delete your previous kernel, since it will not delete your previous kernel, and you can then boot with either kernel at bottup time choosing which you want to use from grub, i don't use lilo in redhat 9, so I don't know how you would choose which kernel to boot-up with. grub has a graphical interface so it is easy to use, you just select which kernel you want to bootup with the arrow keys and press enter.

Edit /boot/grub/grub.conf and change the default entry to "default=0"
for Lilo, edit /etc/lilo.conf

Do not use "rpm -Uvh" as that will remove your running kernel binaries from your system. You may use "rpm -e" to remove old kernels after determining that the new kernel functions properly on your new system.

I have a lucent win-modem, so i need the older kernel so that i can use the driver for my modem. That is one example where your old kernel would be of practical use.