[SOLVED] Laptop builtin camera not recognized - VAIO vgn ar250g

It looks like this is your unrecognized camera.

VendorID=05ca ProductID=1834 KERNEL-MODULE=(none)

A quick google suggests that the camera requires firmware to be loaded by the uvc driver package. There is a thread here for Ubuntu based Distributions.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...70#post9658270

Good luck. ;-)

Peacedog

thanks for helping and it appears to be WDM chipset as per.......................and not UVC
http://bitbucket.org/ahixon/r5u87x/s...del_matrix.txt

http://www.arakhne.org/ricoh/

suggests for WDM chipsets....05a:1834 being one of them.....you need the r5u870 and not the r5u87x

good luck

aus9, WDM it is. My apologies. Hopefully between the two of us we'll get Benny sorted! ;-)

Good luck. ;-)

nah no need to be sorry...I googled less quickly using the ids...glad to meet you BTW

First of all, thanks to both of you, aus9 and Peacedog for all your help!
I visited the pages linked in your posts & got a little confused. My first confusion arises probably because right now I'm using a desktop running Ubuntu 10.4 & the VAIO runs on Puppy Linux 431 (from a live cd because has no HDD). The said live cd was burnt with the option of leaving it open/able to continue burning more material in it using a Puppy Linux 421 Utility. This last Puppy version cited resides in an IDE HD from a dead? laptop, so can't access the Utility nor remember its name, the VAIO uses SATA HDs so they are incompatible.
Second, how can I verify the camera chipset in order to decide what to download?
Third, once I know what to download, in what format I should do it & how to insert it into my system? How compatible are Ubuntu & Puppy Linux with respect to drivers & applications in general?
Thanks in advanced!

Originally Posted by aus9 nah no need to be sorry...I googled less quickly using the ids...glad to meet you BTW

Glad to meet you also. ;-)

Benny7440, I believe aus9 nailed the chipset with the WDM reference. That said, if you have a newer version of Puppy it looks to be compatible with Ubuntu packages.

http://techie-buzz.com/foss/ubuntu-p...ppy-linux.html

Personally, I don't see the magic in stuffing a peg in a square. I would use a more compatible Live Distribution. There are a plethora to choose from.

Good luck. ;-)

I've a conflict here! Don't know if you were aware of another issue with this laptop. Check below:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ar250g-828679/

If I'm not wrong, both of you suggest to d/l a newer version, say 5.1 & this might resolve the issue. In the referenced post I receive the suggestion of d/l a re-worked old version to solve another issue. Now I'm thinking of discarding first a solution for both issues, if possible.

My suggestion is another distribution, not a different version of the same distro. I don't see the point in fighting with a Live version of any distribution with so many available. I would find one more compatible and run with it.

Good luck. ;-)

hi

not sure its truly a conflict maybe just confusion.

1) I have posted the info in a link showing its a wdm chipset...no need for you to attempt to validate

2) I have posted how you modify your existing kernel, what ever the distro, to build a new kernel module called r5u870

http://www.arakhne.org/ricoh/

Have you installed the linux-headers for your distro and attempted to compile that module?

3) You are welcome to look for a distro that already has that module....but mine does not

Thanks for all your help up to this point folks! Yesterday I was trying to install Puppy 431 to a 128MB CFCard & as part of the process decided to save my conf settings to the still open live cd & something was broken to the point that now all I can see when trying to boot from/with the cd is the message "no operating system found". By the way, before that even the icon for the card disappeared from the screen.
Now I'm going to download the freshest puppy, burn it from the desktop & install that one in one partition already waiting to be used. All this means that I'm going to take a couple of days to do this & then, if necessary, restart from this point on.

Thanks aus9 for your kind help! In your post #13 if I'm not wrong, you give a link where it say that 'I need configuration & interface headers' as well as other things. Well, I've a kernel with revision above the one there states as the minimum, but with respect to the other things have no clue for deciding if I've what's needed. Here I need some guidance.

Thanks!

PS. After posting the above lines decided to run a few of the commands suggested & below is the outcome of them:

# modprobe videodev
WARNING: Deprecated config file /etc/modprobe.conf, all config files belong into /etc/modprobe.d/.

# modprobe video-buf
WARNING: Deprecated config file /etc/modprobe.conf, all config files belong into /etc/modprobe.d/.
FATAL: Module video_buf not found.

# modprobe v411-compat
WARNING: Deprecated config file /etc/modprobe.conf, all config files belong into /etc/modprobe.d/.
FATAL: Module v411_compat not found.

# modprobe v412-common
WARNING: Deprecated config file /etc/modprobe.conf, all config files belong into /etc/modprobe.d/.
FATAL: Module v412_common not found.
#
Seems that I do indeed need a few things to continue with this.

ok lets refresh the issues

either your kernel has the driver (a module or inbuilt) or you need to install an extra module

so

You downloaded it from

http://download.tuxfamily.org/arakhn...rakhne0.tar.gz

On closer inspection....it appears Puppy is not supported.

so either buy an USB webcam that is supported or change your distro to Debian or Ubuntu which has downloads for this module

2) I can not (or do not have time etc) to help with puppy issues.

see

http://www.arakhne.org/ubuntu.html which might give you a hint that Puppy is not supported

I've solved the issue, finally, with the help of all of you, thanks!
The way it worked for me is as follows: 1) found the correct driver for my hardware (r5u870) --a PET file is best; b) installed the driver; c) ran the following commands from the shell: a) modprobe r5u870; b) modprobe videodev; c) mplayer://. That's it.
Hope it might be helpful for others with the same situation.

Now that the webcam issue is solved all that I need is to be able to talk via Skype but can't find a way to even record a sound with the api for that that comes with PL511.
Should I start another thread for this issue?
Thanks!

Originally Posted by Benny7440 Now that the webcam issue is solved all that I need is to be able to talk via Skype but can't find a way to even record a sound with the api for that that comes with PL511. Should I start another thread for this issue? Thanks!

You may get more looks and specific help with a new thread describing the Skype issues and any trial/error attempts.

Good luck. ;-)