Web Cam: GearHead WC735i - Vimicro USB Camera (Altair) (0ac8:3450) and Winbook WB-7142 04f2:a14
 

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// Please note that i was not able to get the original camera to work . instead in the post #15 i documented steps to how to get Winbook WB-7142 (04f2:a143) to work under Centos 5.5.
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Hello,
i cave in and bought a webcam GearHead Model WC735i. To my surprise Centos5.2 (2.6.18-194.17.1.el5.centos.plus) identified it:
and i was able to get video from it without an issue by pointing to the /dev/video device.

But i can't get it to record a sound.
I have other questions regarding the things i see in the log here, but for now i just need to get the sound working.
I also checked http://mxhaard.free.fr/, but it's ( 3450 ) is not on the list.
Please advise.

I tried a few options with no much success:

hmmm, is it possible that i need to load spca5xx module ?

so it doesn't see it...

it was suggested to insert snd_usb_audio module.
did it - nothing changed...

I was able to put some more hours towards this annoyance.
I went a purchased a few more cameras 0 WinBook WB-7142, Quick 1.3 MP WebCam with night vision ( by GearHead) and Microsoft LifeCamVX-6000 v1.0.
I loaded snd_usb_audio:
As of right now i'm playing ( and referring here ) to WinBook.
first - i can get the video without an issue from that camera using mplayer command (see above).
The trouble with sound :
-- PC was booted ~8:30 pm..
And at the same time :
based on above i concluded that i have alsa controlled device 1 and i should read from port( or whatever it's called ) 0 :
and:
I still remember the embarrassment I felt after spending ridiculous amount of time, trying to enable the sound in xwindow. And the key was - to start the KMIX. Now i'm very aware of the existence of this little evil app.
So i clicked on it - but i'm afraid that KMIX options are beyond my understanding (at least now, at 1am in the morning) - is light green means the option is on? what if the dark read is clicked ?? I'm totally confused with KMIx plus it seemed to point to Intel ICH card, not to USB one.

uvcvideo module
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...79&postcount=4
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...nux/+bug/56171
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...nux/+bug/56171

eddy, thank you for posting the info about vx6000.

You did read the whole thing it's supposed to be fix with solution.

Hmm, my understanding is that's the fix for ms camera only. Am I wrong?

Post #16 and also explained at launchpad link at the end.

recap : guy had trouble with VX-6000 (PCI ID 045E:00F4) which were not recognized by usb subsystem.
Solution: he compiled the sn9c20x.ko ( from repo.or.cz/r/microdia.git" for 2.6.28-8 kernel.

But i'm trying to get the gearhead models and/or winbook to work.

Do you think this driver (sn9c20x.ko) can help ?

not sure if this will help... but
 

I found that site initially when doing a search on the output of lsusb realting to my video device. After reading what was here, I decided to try something else.

lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0ac8:3450 Z-Star Microelectronics Corp.

Oddly enough, my unit with that ID is configured as a video microscope. I'd seen references to uvcvideo, and did a quick look using:
aptitude search uvc

on the basis that just because it would make sense to have uvcvideo installed by default in our respective distros doesn't mean that it is.

I assume the rpm based distros have an equivalent command for repository search.

This is what I installed:

sudo aptitude install luvcview guvcview uvccapture

if you do this from a netbook or laptop with built-in webcam, you'll have to select the video device, and you'll need to use guvcview because luvcview doesn't allow choice of video sources. I think the uvccapture and the dependencies it picked up was the critical part.

So my video microscope (really a webcam using fixed focus 10x magnifying optics.) went from not working to working with multiple apps, it's open in the kopete video config window right now.

for more information, go to http://www.ideasonboard.org/uvc/

That is the project dealing with the increasing number of UVC spec USB video devices coming out. Their project works with v4l2 (NOT v4l) but is not part of it.

So just because a UVC video device isn't listed on the v4l2 site is no cause for alarm now that you know where you should be looking. Long list of UVC devices supported at the URL.

This might solve the audio problem as well.

Good luck.

Alizard, thank you for the link. the site above is pointing to linuxTV project. I didn't look into why they spawned it. Outside of this this is what i've been trying to do - i'm trying to compile the l4v2 drivers. And because i have centos it is not going as smooth as i hoped for.

But thank you for sharing your positive experience - a some light @ the end of the tunnel ..

I changed from an rpm-based distro
 

(Fedora Core) to Debian-based distros over driver issues 3 or so years ago. I had a new motherboard for which there were *no* rpm-based video drivers and the source builds just weren't working out.

While IMO, what the best server distro is is arguable, if one is an end user whose immediate concern is keeping a desktop workstation going with maximum uptime and a minimum of hassle, I see no downside to Debian-based distros. Other than the three miserable days it took me to switch from Fedora to Debian. Apt-get works a lot better for me better than yum ever did, or even setting up apt-get to run in Fedora.

I now run Kubuntu 10.10.

Note that there are tarballs available at the uvcvideo site I pointed you at, though they probably won't help if you don't have v4l2 running first.

I spent some completely inappropriate amount of time trying things from recompiling the v4l and patching the source code of drives to rebooting the poor pc zillion times. anyway, enough of b%ing.

Here are the results of my work:
1. I'm sure i was able to produce video ( post 1),but now, using the same model, just physically different unit, i can't reproduce my own results. in other words - for GearHead Model WC735i - Vimicro USB Camera (Altair) (0ac8:3450) product i have inconclusive results for Centos.
2. I was able to get the WinBook WB-7142 (04f2:a143) to work.
3. I didn't try to get MS cam to work, but according to EDDY1 ( post #6 ) that should be working too.

Everything below this line concerns only Winbook camera (04f2:a143).
1. I run Centos 5.52. lspci ( only relevant portion)
3. lsusb:
4. and the log is :
Make sure that ehci picked up your camera or you will "enjoy" jerky self with quite some delay. Note that the camera is recognized as UVC - sort of important...

5. installed kernels:
1. i plugged the cam in and got the results ( see above). Camera didn't produce any exciting behviour once been attached to the source of energy - it didn't jump, didn't sign, didn't even lit it's "ears" with the special green light of excitement. Oh well...
2. as a regular user :
and this is where the fun begun for me.
first, i had no clue what the params in bold were. In other words - i had to learn how ALSA works (from user's perspective) and how to get ALSA and then later mencoder to record from the 2nd sound card.
Before i could get the sound to be recorded i had to :
<tab> to "Capture" and increase the volume to 100.
also check that snd_usb_audio is loaded ( lsmod is your friend)

now let's go back to the options in bold above:
alsa:forceaudio:adevice=hw.1,0 -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -lameopts fast:preset=standard
here you say - for audio input use alsa system; i don't care what you (v4l) know about device, but you will do what i say; use card 1 ( second card) with port 0. For video output use lavc codec, for audio output use mp3lame. and i selected to use "standard" option for all other (mp3lame) parameters and found it working pretty well.

As you can see -it's easy once you know how to get it to work. But the path for me was way too long.
hope this long and boring thread will be helpful to somebody.
// Off to virtual drinking party (cuba libre rocks) with my friend on another side of the globe.
cheers!