hullo all, I am still having a problem with getting my webcam to start. It is an ICmedia and I already installed the spca5xx driver package, have seen that it has a module present in the appropriate dir I think. I also just tried installing gspcav1 but it doesn't seem to have 'stuck' or something because I get an error when i try to issue the spcatools or spcaview commands. I think that it is a newby mistake because it is apparent taht tha camera is installed and 'seen' but maybe there is no 'node' yet or something. I also have xawtv installed and when i try to use it the error:

# xawtv
This is xawtv-3.94, running on Linux/i686 (2.6.13-15.16-default)
can't open /dev/video0: No such file or directory
v4l-conf had some trouble, trying to continue anyway
v4l2: open /dev/video0: No such file or directory
v4l2: open /dev/video0: No such file or directory
v4l: open /dev/video0: No such file or directory
no video grabber device available

# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0923:010f IC Media Corp. SIIG MobileCam
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 056a:0011 Wacom Co., Ltd Graphire 2
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

# spcatools
-bash: spcatools: command not....

anyways I really don't know what I'm doing here even though I have been looking around for info here and there for a while now,, everything I've done has yeilded erros. any help would be great, thanks,jd

What does dmesg respond with after running the modprobe command to load the spca5xx module from a fresh boot.

Brian

hullo again and thanks for the response! below is some portions of dmesg including the end snippet which appears to indicate the problems I am currently having with the gspca driver (which I just managed to get going for some reason?) the image is very dark and slow as all heck. now I'm only urnning a 233mhz processor but using the windows driver I was still getting way better results.::

usbcore: registered new driver hiddev
usbcore: registered new driver usbhid
drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.01:USB HID core driver
Linux video capture interface: v1.00
gspca: module not supported by Novell, setting U taint flag.
/home/tsand84/Documents/gspcav1-20070508/gspca_core.c: USB GSPCA camera found. (
TV8532)
/home/tsand84/Documents/gspcav1-20070508/gspca_core.c: [spca5xx_probe:4098] Came
ra type GBGR
/home/tsand84/Documents/gspcav1-20070508/gspca_core.c: [spca5xx_getcapability:12
15] maxw 352 maxh 288 minw 160 minh 120
usbcore: registered new driver gspca
/home/tsand84/Documents/gspcav1-20070508/gspca_core.c: gspca driver 01.00.18 reg
istered

/home/tsand84/Documents/gspcav1-20070508/gspca_core.c: [spca5xx_set_light_freq:1
889] Sensor currently not support light frequency banding filters.
/home/tsand84/Documents/gspcav1-20070508/gspca_core.c: [gspca_set_isoc_ep:903] I
SO EndPoint found 0x81 AlternateSet 7
subfs 0.9
end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0



/home/tsand84/Documents/gspcav1-20070508/gspca_core.c: [spca5xx_set_light_freq:1
889] Sensor currently not support light frequency banding filters.
/home/tsand84/Documents/gspcav1-20070508/gspca_core.c: [gspca_set_isoc_ep:903] I
SO EndPoint found 0x81 AlternateSet 7
/home/tsand84/Documents/gspcav1-20070508/gspca_core.c: [spca5xx_set_light_freq:1
889] Sensor currently not support light frequency banding filters.
/home/tsand84/Documents/gspcav1-20070508/gspca_core.c: [gspca_set_isoc_ep:903] I
SO EndPoint found 0x81 AlternateSet 7
/home/tsand84/Documents/gspcav1-20070508/gspca_core.c: [spca5xx_set_light_freq:1
889] Sensor currently not support light frequency banding filters.
/home/tsand84/Documents/gspcav1-20070508/gspca_core.c: [gspca_set_isoc_ep:903] I
SO EndPoint found 0x81 AlternateSet 7
/home/tsand84/Documents/gspcav1-20070508/gspca_core.c: [spca5xx_set_light_freq:1
889] Sensor currently not support light frequency banding filters.
/home/tsand84/Documents/gspcav1-20070508/gspca_core.c: [gspca_set_isoc_ep:903] I
SO EndPoint found 0x81 AlternateSet 7
/home/tsand84/Documents/gspcav1-20070508/gspca_core.c: [gspca_set_isoc_ep:903] I
SO EndPoint found 0x81 AlternateSet 7
/home/tsand84/Documents/gspcav1-20070508/gspca_core.c: [gspca_set_isoc_ep:903] I
SO EndPoint found 0x81 AlternateSet 7

as well, I dunno why I cannot use the included tools included with the package gspca unless I was mistaking about them and still need the viewing tools and stuff, but again I already do have xawtv. cheers for any advice! jd

IIRC there is no application called spcatools. That's just the name of the package. What error do you get when you run 'spcaview'? You don't say which app you finally got working.

233MHz? I'm surprised you even have USB ports. Probably not USB2.0 tho? All these webcams were reverse-engineered to work with the linux driver. With such low-powered hardware it's not surprising the Windows driver could work better.

-bash: spcaview: command not found

that is the err- I take it to mean that it isn't installed?

I managed to get the ICmedia cam going with xawtv and the gspca driver. I think there are some tweaks that could be done to improve the picture quality but the xawtv seems like a hacked together app so was hoping to gte teh spcaview running as was built to run these sensors I assume.

I also have an older kensington webcam with the aox se-401 integrated controller ic and was just playing around with that- the driver is included in the kernel so easy going there- xawtv can fire up the camera but no apparent picture. again I would like to try another viewer but am pretty beat tonight.

at least better progress than earlier today! cheers.-bash: spcaview: command not found

By default the tools install into /usr/local/bin, so if that is not in your $PATH (the list of directories searched when you execute a command) you will get this error.

Try /usr/local/bin/spcaview instead. Apologies if you have already checked this.

Not sure as to what is going on. Contact the developers of the spca5xx. There might be faqs or even a message or forum board on their site that may help.

Brian

thanks folks for your replies! I have had a bit more progress with the cameras- the IC media now is working somewhat under xawvt but the picture is not of good quality at all- and upside-down! this was causing all sorts of confusion when the picture was alot worst and out of focus!

the kensington camera is of way better quality in my books- having onboard processing and not hogging up as much of my already tiny resources. With the already included driver it was easy to install but turned out appear in bad order because it doesn't have the case anymore and the lens assembly wasn't fixed to the sensor properly! after I figured that out and focused everything right it turned out to run better than the IC media and faster a bit also. but again only having xawtv to view. the kensinton also has onboard mic but my soundcard doesn'tw ork yet so...

I did try to find spcaview but coudln't locate it. maybe it wasn't included or something, i dunno. "m going to go back and look for more viewers cause I thought I saw a few others linked at the bottom of the site page...

I still would like to figure out why the IC media cam is upsidedown and how to resolve that- cause it would work fine if not for that.

as well, I am just assumeing taht hotswaping the cams is fine to do and the driver will be initiated appropriatley automatically?

thanks again all- jd

The applications for the gspca driver are all on this page:

http://mxhaard.free.fr/download.html

(scroll down). For example the simple viewer app is:

http://mxhaard.free.fr/spca50x/Downl...0061208.tar.gz

Google gives many reports of upside-down image with this driver e.g.:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...20/+bug/109754

which suggests it is in fact a USB problem, perhaps fixable by using a different USB port or using UHCI driver for USB instead of EHCI.

There should be no problem hotswapping webcams. Depending on your setup the kernel modules might load automatically. Otherwise you have to do it manually using modprobe command.

thanks! yeah I just am downloading the source for some of those viewers right now. Thannks for the info about the upside down cam!, I haven't tried it on the other port cause it is being used by my wacom tablet but I'll give it a go in a while. If it is indeed a problem that cannot be easily remedied then I'll just stick with the kensinton cam as it appears to be the best of the two. I also have another really cheap cool-i-cam with a stmicro image processor onboard and onboard flash or ram or something! its a shame tho bexcause the sensor or at least the way it is processed (probably because of the onboard memory) is seriously lacking and so I have never used it much- was going to try and convert it for micro use.(same with the kensinton which is why it has no case anymore.) I am just learning about image sensors tho and have a long while to go.

cheers! jd