Hi all,

I have just been introduce to the open source world. However im having some difficulties in understanding how it all works. Is there some sort of procedure? For instance once I download the software( say a video capture program) and I want to compile,build..... the code in order to integrated in to my already existing project, I always run into many problems, since the downloaded codes already come with a bunch of make, configure. on and on..........


Ps if you guys wrote any code to capture from a usb camera on linux, please let me know it would be greatly appriciated.

Thanks alot.
maldini1010

If you download a "source" package (usually called [something].tar.gz) you will have to read the "README" and "INSTALL" files. the "INSTALL" file usually says "These are generic instructions" at the top, if it does say that then you can bet it will tell you to do this:

1. Extract the archive:
cd /path/to/[something].tar.gz
gunzip -v [something].tar.gz
cd ./[something]
./configure
make
su
[password]
make install

Read any errors that may occur carefully, errors usually mean something else (a "dependancy") is required on your system.
If all goes well then your software is correctly installed.

As for video capture software, you will have to search the forums. Your camera should, when plugged in, have created a node in /dev folder; usually something like /dev/video0 or /dev/input/video0, any piece of software can now access your camera.
I use mplayer
Here is my code for using mplayer to display the output of my camera:
To capture the stream:
(mencoder is part of mplayer)

thank you, mplayer was very useful