To begin with, I may have this posted in the wrong forum -- if so I apolgize. Anyway...

I'm trying to get aMSN working, as I need webcam capabilities and that is the only IM platform I have found so far with that ability (any suggestions on that front would be appreciated!). I've got my NAT router ports configured, but when I try to change my webcam settings, I get "Currently, no devices are installed". I checked my device manager, and it shows my webcam installed, I think -- showing:

info.linux.driver strlist ov511

among other things. Looks like the whole advanced tab is populated. I really have no idea if the webcam is working otherwise, since I have no other apps that use it as yet. aMSN's FAQ's/Help was absolutley worthless in helping me with this; it only told me to use test.tcl, which is nowhere to be found. I downloaded the package files not the binaries, since I was informed that the test.tcl file was only in the package. There was nothing else I could find in the FAQ's about this issue.

I am aware that I am most likely forgetting/missing something important, and will probably feel like a real goober when you generous (NO sarcasm implied there! Entirely heartfelt!) people help me with this vexation. I am still a newbie, but day by day working my way up the food chain!

Distro/kernel:
Ubuntu Dapper/2.6.15-26-k7

System:
AMD Duron 1.2Ghz
K7SOM+ mobo
768mb RAM

Webcam:
Omni Vision Technologies ov518


Any help would be appreciated, and if you need any other info to help me resolve this let me know.

(I've managed to get two of my three teenagers to switch to linux -- yay!, I must be raising them right!)

I checked out Ekega, and it is also tellng me "no devices installed", so something is obviously wrong. I checked out the boot log, and I believe this is the pertient section:


Jul 30 01:11:25 perry kernel: [17179594.628000] Linux video capture interface: v1.00
Jul 30 01:11:25 perry kernel: [17179594.676000] drivers/usb/media/ov511/ov511.c: USB OV518+ video device found
Jul 30 01:11:25 perry kernel: [17179594.680000] drivers/usb/media/ov511/ov511.c: Device revision 2
Jul 30 01:11:25 perry kernel: [17179594.712000] drivers/usb/media/ov511/ov511.c: Compression required with OV518...enabling
Jul 30 01:11:25 perry kernel: [17179595.132000] parport: PnPBIOS parport detected.
Jul 30 01:11:25 perry kernel: [17179595.132000] parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778), irq 7, dma 3 [PCSPP,TRISTATE,COMPAT,ECP,DMA]
Jul 30 01:11:25 perry kernel: [17179595.336000] drivers/usb/media/ov511/ov511.c: Sensor is an OV7620AE
Jul 30 01:11:25 perry kernel: [17179595.940000] drivers/usb/media/ov511/ov511.c: Device at usb-0000:00:03.0-1 registered to minor 0
Jul 30 01:11:25 perry kernel: [17179595.940000] usbcore: registered new driver ov511
Jul 30 01:11:25 perry kernel: [17179595.940000] drivers/usb/media/ov511/ov511.c: v1.64 for Linux 2.5 : ov511 USB Camera Driver
Jul 30 01:11:25 perry kernel: [17179595.944000] usbcore: registered new driver hiddev
Jul 30 01:11:25 perry kernel: [17179595.960000] usbcore: registered new driver snd-usb-audio


I wasn't sure that the ov511 driver will work with this webcam. On to the Google search. Good news: A few sites show up listing compatible drivers. Bad news: They all are broken links. But I did manage to see that the ov511 driver is (supposed to be) compatible, so the question is a) if the boot log shows the camera being loaded, and b) the driver is compatible, why is nothing seeing it as being loaded? This is one of the two remaining issues keeping me from ditching Windows forever.

Try installing camorama and seeing if you can use your webcam with that. If you can't then it's a driver problem. Unfortunately I haven't had any experience with your webcam model and so can't suggest a driver.

Edit: can also try "ls /dev/vid* " to see if a video device is recognized.

OK...Camorama did not work, "could not connect to video device "vid0", please check your connection. The green light on my webcam is lit, that usually indicates that it is in fact connected. The "ls /dev/vid*" showed a file named "vid0" and a soft link to that file. I checked the file and it was 0 bytes. So I guess the question is, do I have to configure the device myself, or is the driver supposed to do it? I have found that the ov119 driver is supposed to work also, I just have to find it if that is the case. Thank you all so much for your help, someday I will get to the point that I'm answering questions instead of asking them!