It's a while since I communicated with you re: downloads. I came very close to giving up!!
Now I wonder whether there is a problem in the kernel.
I can't use Skype, it won't install from Automatix.
I can't use my webcam (Philips Toucam). All efforts to download end in failure. As I unzip the files and start to install the following messages appear.

I have followed previous suggestions about the webcam, but all without success.

I thought maybe of downloading an update for the kernel - without success!!
This really is an SOS.

looks like you trying to install as a non-privileged user.
Try to run as root. In a console, type
and enter the superuser password. Change to the directory where you unziped the files and go as before from here.

Which files?

Which distro do you use?

Which kernel do you use? (to know it, type uname -r)
2.6.15 ? Try to upgrade, a lot of new chipset for webcams have been added in the last ones.

Go to http://mxhaard.free.fr/download.html and get the latest version of the webcam driver. Extract the tar to a folder and "cd" to it. Then "sudo gspca_build" and all will be taken care of for you.

Thank you all for your suggestions.
In response to marazsas I did /bin/su - and got "Authentication failure" when I fed in the password. (This password successfully gets me into eg. Synaptic Package manager)

In response to nx5000 I have ubuntu 6.06 kernel 2.6.15-28-386.
I tried to update, but again the process ground to a halt at the installation stage.

In response to fragos the downloads I'm trying to get are from the website you recommend.

The constant "permission denied" does suggest that there is something wrong with the password. Is there anything to be gained from my installation cd, re installing some files?

Please update your profile to say that u use ubuntu.
Ubuntu uses sudo so what you get is normal
So do what fragos said, with sudo


Another solution would be to upgrade to a new kernel..

sudo gspca_build brings the response "command not found"

I did try to upgrade the kernel from www.kernel.org and get as far as unzipping the bunzip2 package giving me a patch document. Then I'm not sure what to do with that.
I know with tar.gz to navigate to the new document and try to install, but the commands I give aren't working in this case.

you have to go in the extracted directory
then do
chmod +x gspca_build
then
sudo ./gspca_build
No no no, that's too complicated. I was talking about ubuntu's kernel. Either you get a new kernel for the 6.06 (I dunno ubuntu so I dont know if it exist) or you take a newer ubuntu (which consequently will have a newer kernel)
If the above stuff with gspca works then maybe you just keep your kernel if its too much trouble for you.

Thank you for all your replies. I followed the advice of nx5000 and think the gspca is now installed. However camorama, which I am using to try to operate the webcam, is still giving the message "could not connect to video device (/dev/video0) Please check connection."
Should I be trying to use something else?

Open a terminal window and type "ls /de4v/vid*" and see if you have multiple video devices. If you also have /dev/video1, try that.

Thank you for that, George, but the response was "no such file or directory". Where to next?

Sorry for my typo. It should have been "ls /dev/vid*".

Thank you for your advice,fragos. While I was "playing around with things" I have made matters considerably worse. Synaptic was telling me there were some broken software links so I uninstalled those pieces of software - major disaster!! Then I decided to re install with the KDE desktop, this has not been a good idea. It is unstable. Every 5 minutes or so I have to re boot as everything starts flashing, or deleting, or simply not responding. I have examined package manager, but everything I try to do produces "dpkg was interrupted you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct this problem". I do this in Konsole and get the message "requested operation requires super user privilege". As I am the sole manager of the programmes on this computer, who/what is the Superuser? KDE desktop is proving unsatisfactory for me. Very often a piece of Word Processing is deleted with the letter c. I thinkk I would lie to return to Ubuntu but do not want to lose everything I have done since last November.

Create a separate partition for data. Move all your document and media files there. The rest of your current home folder will probably create more problems than it's worth since your system has such problems. Install the most recent Ubuntu 7.04. At some point in the install, you will be asked about partitioning. Select manual so you can tell the install not to reformat the data partition you'd created.