Webcam installation

Ole Erik · 2006-09-06 14:54:09

Hello.. How do I use my Creative Instant Webcam? Anyway to test it?

And.. what is the best msn client with cam support?

lumiwa · 2006-09-06 14:56:43

Ole Erik wrote:

Hello.. How do I use my Creative Instant Webcam? Anyway to test it?
And.. what is the best msn client with cam support?

I don't know for msn but Ekiga is very good.

jaboua · 2006-09-06 15:21:24

I have the same webcam model, and the spca5xx driver works fine here.

I use mercury messenger ( 1.8 ) and the webcam works fine in MSN. I also heard some while ago that kopete supported webcams too, but it requires KDE.

Ole Erik · 2006-09-06 15:32:16

Thank you jaboua How do i install the driver.. and how do i install mercury.. the aurbuild package is fucked..

jaboua · 2006-09-06 16:49:34

"spca5xx" should be available through pacman (in the "community" repo). It should then be loaded with "modprobe spca5xx" as root, or you can put spca5xx in the MODULES array in /etc/rc.conf to automaticly load it at boot.

You might also need to load video4linux drivers, but I'm not sure what they are called as I use a custom kernel and have the video4linux system compiled directly into the kernel.

I have uploaded mercury 1.8 to my repo some time ago, you can fetch it with pacman if you have this in your pacman.conf:

[jaboua]
Server = http://www.freewebtown.com/jaboua/Pacman/

Getting webcams to work (after it works with the system itself!) is explained here:
http://www.mercury.to/index.php?page=Wi … tallingJMF

%programdir% is in /usr/lib/mercury.

If you want a systray icon, you got to do some extra work too:
http://www.mercury.to/index.php?page=Wi … Linux_Tray

Good luck!

Ole Erik · 2006-09-07 14:58:43

Thank you.. Where is pacman.conf?

and.. How do i know if it works in the system?

chrismortimore · 2006-09-07 15:47:13

For msn, you could try "amsn", it supports webcams, although I've not used it myself.
EDIT: and you're looking for /etc/pacman.conf

jaboua · 2006-09-08 19:00:44

Ole Erik wrote:

and.. How do i know if it works in the system?

After installing and loading the webcam driver, install "spcaview" (from AUR I think) and run "spcaview" in a terminal. If you can see yourself, it works

Ole Erik · 2006-09-08 20:59:09

Ok.. Now i need help again

Initializing SDL.
SDL initialized.
bpp 3 format 15
Using video device /dev/video0.
Initializing v4l.
ERROR opening V4L interface
: No space left on device

... i also got a device in /dev/video .... Maybe it is using wrong?

EDIT: I am trying to install V4L now

EDIT2: It didnt work.. Trying gv4l

EDIT3: gv4l didnt find any videodevices.. Maybe i need v4l? How do i install it?

chrismortimore · 2006-09-08 21:31:51

Are you part of the "video" group?

Ole Erik · 2006-09-09 07:24:35

Hmm.. Dont think so.. Cant even access it as root.. "Permision denied"

jaboua · 2006-09-09 07:47:55

If you are not a part of the video group (I think you are...), open the file /etc/group as root and browse down to the line that says video and add your username behind it like this:

video:x:91:username1,username2,username3

If you think it's a permission problem (as it says "no space left on device" when you use spcaview as a user and not "permission denied", I doubt it) run this as root and try again:

chmod 777 /dev/v4l/video0 /dev/video0

And another question, does the webcam still work on windows machines?

Ole Erik · 2006-09-10 17:24:21

Now mercury etc works just great!! Still one problem.. When I am trying to start v4l i am just getting this error:

[~] v4l-conf
v4l-conf: using X11 display :0.0
WARNING: Your X-Server has no DGA support.
mode: 1280x1024, depth=24, bpp=32, bpl=5120, base=unknown
can't open /dev/video0: No space left on device

Anyone?

jaboua · 2006-09-11 14:31:49

Mercury works great you say, does that mean that you got the webcam to work with it or that everything else works great?

What do you want to do with v4lconf? I've never used it, but if it is what I think it is - then you should know that you can change resolution, brightness etc in the mercury settings. That "no space left on device" message is still making me scratch my head - as I asked earlier, does it work on windows computers? If not, it might be the camera that is borked...

Ole Erik · 2006-09-11 14:59:52

jaboua wrote:

Mercury works great you say, does that mean that you got the webcam to work with it or that everything else works great?
What do you want to do with v4lconf? I've never used it, but if it is what I think it is - then you should know that you can change resolution, brightness etc in the mercury settings. That "no space left on device" message is still making me scratch my head - as I asked earlier, does it work on windows computers? If not, it might be the camera that is borked...

Everything else than cam works great on Mercury

Since i am so smart... Well.. My friend google is so smart.. Whatever..
I now know why I got the problem! When other USB devices are present on the same host controller bus as the camera, the bandwidth requirements of the spca5xx driver are not being met..

I know how to fix this problem.. Use the modified version of the driver..

http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php? … 1157487906
There is a automated script for compiling it... I will edit this post if I need more assistans Thank you!

EDIT: I see my self with spcaview.. But I am getting this "error" from Mercury/JMF:

Looking for video capture devices...
- Finished detecting V4LAuto classes.
Starting detected classes... (This might take some time)
- Done.

There are no video capture devices present.

...

EDIT2:
I think I fixed it.. The errorlog was good

17:18:11:036 JMF > Mercury was unable to copy /usr/lib/mercury/jni/linux/jmf/libjmutil.so to /opt/java/jre/lib/i386/libjmutil.so.
JMF > You might want to do this manually...

jaboua · 2006-09-11 16:52:02

Good job!

The errors can also be omitted by starting mercury once as root everytime you install a plugin.

Ole Erik · 2006-09-11 17:35:21

Well.. I got a new problem! When I start my cam on mercury it uses 100% of my cpu and mercury shuts down..

With aMSN it works at 2% cpu..

Anyone?

Arch Linux

#1 2006-09-06 14:54:09

Webcam installation

#2 2006-09-06 14:56:43

Re: Webcam installation

#3 2006-09-06 15:21:24

Re: Webcam installation

#4 2006-09-06 15:32:16

Re: Webcam installation

#5 2006-09-06 16:49:34

Re: Webcam installation

#6 2006-09-07 14:58:43

Re: Webcam installation

#7 2006-09-07 15:47:13

Re: Webcam installation

#8 2006-09-08 19:00:44

Re: Webcam installation

#9 2006-09-08 20:59:09

Re: Webcam installation

#10 2006-09-08 21:31:51

Re: Webcam installation

#11 2006-09-09 07:24:35

Re: Webcam installation

#12 2006-09-09 07:47:55

Re: Webcam installation

#13 2006-09-10 17:24:21

Re: Webcam installation

#14 2006-09-11 14:31:49

Re: Webcam installation

#15 2006-09-11 14:59:52

Re: Webcam installation

#16 2006-09-11 16:52:02

Re: Webcam installation

#17 2006-09-11 17:35:21

Re: Webcam installation

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