iSight under Linux using Fedora Core 3
I'm tearing my hair out trying to my iSight camera working on my linux box (FC3)
I'm pretty sure it's possible based on some internet searches, but as others have posted here there does not seem to be any explanation anywhere of the steps needed to make it happen. So I thought I'd post here the steps I took (in vain) to get the isight working, and hopefully someone can come up with some additional suggestions. Some notes on my system: 1.) It's not a clean install of FC3 - the box started as a RH9 box, then was upgraded to FC2, then FC3. There numerous tweaks that I made along the way, and it is possible that one these tweaks is preventing the isight from working properly. 2.) I have an external firewire hard drive that is working with no problems. It didn't work in FC2, because FC2 lacked firewire support without a patch. So a note to FC2 users trying to install an isight - Google around a bit first to make sure you've got firewire itself working. So here is what I did: First, installed all of firewire and video drivers that I think are necessary, again based on some Google research Code:
modprobe raw1394 Code:
Module Size Used by Code:
ieee1394: Reconnected to SBP-2 device Code:
mkdir /dev/video1394 So now I try to grab some camera output using dvgrab and I get: Code:
Error: no camera exists That's where I am so far - any suggestions for changing/adding next steps would be greatly appreciated! |
I finally got the camera working. I installed Coriander to do so - you will need Gnome and a bunch of other dependencies, but once you get Coriander installed, you will be able to see the iSight. When I compiled Coriander I edited the configure file so that it would not chekc for the SDL library, it would just include it. The SDL library was installed on my box - but configure didn't recognize it.
Now I am trying to get vloopback to work - this in theory, along with the Coriander V4L feature, will allow the isight to show up as a /dev/videoX device. |
I'm running a mostly RH9 system upgraded here and there to make 2.6.8.1 (or 2.6.10) run.
V4L shouldn't be needed anymore with coriander (gscanbus is also a useful utility), you just have to specify video1394 not raw1394 . My libs and coriander are likely 3-4 months old. I also use ffmpeg that can (as of back 6 months or so?) grab 1394video directly without the need for v4l. What is still missing as far as I know (and that I'd really like) is a microphone driver (ALSA?) that will pull the sound out of the dual mics (do the directional processing etc). My biggest problems with the iSight is that it seems very sensitive to cable noise (where the cable runs, what type it is etc) which can cause the device to not be seen or to work pretty well (even when working well I get a smattering of kernel errors about missing tlables and yadda yadda). |
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