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I have a Lenovo W500 (which doesn't have a camera installed) and my 2003 external iSight firewire camera which I would like to keep in service together. Wikipedia (of all places) reports iSight should work out of box with Linux kernel v3. Just plugging it in is not enough though.
Also, I would naturally like to use it as a web cam. Any recommendations from the Archlinux list?
Last edited by xtian (2014-11-30 17:07:16)
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Following a 2010 post kino, firewire problems I performed some of my due diligence:
$ lspci
15:00.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 04)
$ lsmod
firewire_ohci 43373 0
firewire_core 56700 1 firewire_ohci
crc_itu_t 12347 1 firewire_core
The unit has the green light and works when connected to my 'ol mac. Nothing when connected to the Arch-box.
I suppose it could also be the connector. The mac uses 6pin while the Lenovo uses 4pin to the iSight's 6 pin, so I have to use a different cable.
Where else would a signal be sent when I connect the iSight so I can check if hardware is operational?
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what's the dmesg output when you plug it in? I don't know about external iSights, but I do know that the internal ones in older models needed a firmware blob for the driver to work. It can be extracted from Mac OS. see https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Macbook#iSight for details
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what's the dmesg output when you plug it in? I don't know about external iSights, but I do know that the internal ones in older models needed a firmware blob for the driver to work. It can be extracted from Mac OS. see https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Macbook#iSight for details
The links suggest the external iSight case is not the same. dmesg doesn't show any additions from before output to after output... Is there a live message stream? Like top?
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uh, sorry, i just realized you're talking about a firewire cam. the internal iSights were connected internally via USB, i think.
i've never used firewire, a quick google search gave me this: https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread. … susb-lspci
the link there is broken but this one works https://user.in-berlin.de/~s5r6/linux13 … _v20070103
maybe you can try it and see if you get more info...
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I just looked at the top of my post and I realized the links I referred to in my last reply aren't there! I must have posted them somewhere else.
Here's the Wikipedia link that says the iSight should work with 3.0 Linux kernel.
I also read somewhere else, I can't find the link, that the firmware issue only relates to the internal iSight.
Thanks for the links, I'll check them out.
LOL. user oldcpu is having that conversation all with himself! What a generous soul.
Last edited by xtian (2014-11-26 17:54:56)
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Update.
I downloaded and tried out the bash script, which threw this error. And I could not find firewire/1394 resources in this directory.
./ls1394_v20070103.sh
ls1394: /sys/class/ieee1394_host/: No such directoryI'm not knowledgeable about hardware related issues, and I am unclear of the significance of this error.
A 2011 (not) bug report mentions additional module, firewire-sbp2, need to be loaded to support firewire hdd. Since this is practically at the point of linux 2 to 3 kernel, I don't know how if this is relevant today. I will continue to look for more info on necessary modules.
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LOL. user oldcpu is having that conversation all with himself! What a generous soul.
Trying to get old firewire devices work with linux seems to be a lonesome business, as you might have realised already :-)
As I said, I'm not experienced with firewire (and the lack of response by other people suggests I'm not alone), but if you really want to sort this out, first I would try to rule out a hardware problem. Can you test if the cam works on a MS Windows machine? the connector might be a problem:
"The 6-conductor powered connector, now referred to as an alpha connector, adds power output to support external devices." and "1394a also standardized the 4-conductor alpha connector developed by Sony and trademarked as "i.LINK", already widely in use on consumer devices such as camcorders, most PC laptops, a number of PC desktops, and other small FireWire devices. The 4-conductor connector is fully data-compatible with 6-conductor alpha interfaces but lacks power connectors." (source: wikipedia on firewire)
it might be simply the case that your cam does not even power up (which would explain why its status light stays dark). maybe this could be fixed by some kind of firewire hub that has a 6 pin output with power and 4-pin connection to your computer.
regarding that script: i kind of expected it not to work since it seems to be quite old ... in any case you'll have to get more diagnostics on the connected firewire devices. maybe digging in the /sys/ subdirectories is a good start.
as much as i share your enthusiasm for hardware hacking, i'm inclined to suggest you'll be better off buying a new shiny USB webcam (with HD resolution etc.) ;-)
Last edited by wombat23 (2014-11-27 23:16:30)
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"your cam does not even power up"
I think you have it!
The cam works--my Powerbook has the requisite connector, and the camera works well.
I think this mystery is solved, for now. Thanks for your help wombat!
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