11.2 (32bit) and Ricoh R5U870 webcam driver

English Hardware
1

I guess that the R5u870 webcam is not too common, but I wonder if anybody
has been able to make this work in opensuse 11.2.
I tried the driver and firmware from the enzokiel repository and although
this worked in 11.1 it does not in 11.2.

Running as root the command: dmesg | grep r5u870
returns the following:

10.098191] usbcam: registering driver r5u870 0.11.3
10.098222] r5u870-0: Detected Sony VGP-VCC2 (VAIO AR)
10.098588] usb 1-8: firmware: requesting r5u870_1834.fw
10.321498] r5u870-0: registered as video2
10.321549] usbcore: registered new interface driver r5u870

So the webcam seems to be detected, yet it is not seen by skype or kopete.
In wonder why it is video2 instead of video0 or 1?

Any ideas?
Thanks

-G-

2

webcam on my sony vgn-cr23g is not detected, please help

lsusb results in

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 05ca:1839 Ricoh Co., Ltd Visual Communication Camera VGP-VCC6 [R5U870]

3

I’m getting the exact same problem, dmesg indicates that everything is fine but no application can find the webcam.

Any ideas ?

4

rajnish71 , my guess is your webcam needs the r5u870 webcam driver. I do not know if that is installed by default in openSUSE kernel. If not included in the Kernel, I do NOT know the best place to get that driver.

I did a search on webpin for the r5u870 and obtained this: Webpin search for r5u870

That gives hits to user enzokiel who has packaged applications for openSUSE_11.2 . Maybe that will work for you? So IF the r5u870 support is not included in the kernel, then my suggestion is to try an install from that repository r5u870-firmware and also install r5u870-kmp-yourkernel. ie if you have a

  • default kernel, then install package r5u870-kmp-default (0.11.3_2.6.31.5_0.1)
  • pae kernel, then install package r5u870-kmp-pae (0.11.3_2.6.31.5_0.1)
  • desktop kernel, then install package r5u870-kmp-desktop (0.11.3_2.6.31.5_0.1)
    Do NOT install everything. ONLY install the bare minimal (else it will NOT work).

If your PC is connected to the internet, and you have the “default” kernel, then for example you install this by typing (copy and paste this to a terminal with root permissions):

zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/enzokiel/openSUSE_11.2_Update webcam

zypper install r5u870-firmware r5u870-kmp-desktop 

zypper rr webcam

Reboot and test.

Note the commands will be different for a pae or desktop kernel.

You can tell what kernel you have installed by typing:

uname -a

Note - I do NOT have this webcam. I’m just trying to be a helpful volunteer.

5

oldcpu wrote:
> I did a search on webpin for the r5u870 and obtained this: ‘Webpin
> search for r5u870’ (http://tinyurl.com/ygpdvqc)
>
> That gives hits to user enzokiel who has packaged applications for
> openSUSE_11.2 . Maybe that will work for you? So IF the r5u870 support
> is not included in the kernel, then my suggestion is to try an install
> from that repository r5u870-firmware and also install
> r5u870-kmp-yourkernel. ie if you have a
> - default kernel, then install package r5u870-kmp-default
> (0.11.3_2.6.31.5_0.1)
> - pae kernel, then install package r5u870-kmp-pae
> (0.11.3_2.6.31.5_0.1)
> - desktop kernel, then install package r5u870-kmp-desktop
> (0.11.3_2.6.31.5_0.1) Do NOT install everything. ONLY install the bare
> minimal (else it will
> NOT work).
>

Thank you oldcpu,

I reinstalled 11.2 but this time x86_64.
I have the enzokiel repo added and have the necessary r5u* files installed,
but unfortunately the webcam still does not work.
It used to do in 11.1 32 bit :-/

I would contact enzokiel, but I do not know his email address, how would I
find this out? Maybe he is just packaging the driver and he is not the
developer?

If anybody finds a way of sorting this out, please post here.
Many thanks.

-G-

6

Please a silly question. … What tests did you do in order to confirm this does not work? What applications did you try?

7

oldcpu wrote:

> -G-;2082122 Wrote:
>> I reinstalled 11.2 but this time x86_64.
>> I have the enzokiel repo added and have the necessary r5u* files
>> installed,
>> but unfortunately the webcam still does not work.
>>
> Please a silly question. … What tests did you do in order to confirm
> this does not work? What applications did you try?

Hi oldcpu,
I tried skype (both in a 32 bit and 64 bit install) (used to work in 11.1)
Cheers

-G-

8

-G- wrote:
> I tried skype (both in a 32 bit and 64 bit install) (used to work in 11.1)

Sorry I should have been more clear. “Does not work” means that the camera
is not listed in the devices available in the skype Options panel.

Cheers

-G-

9

I never use skype so I do not know how reliable its webcam detection may be. You could install some v4l apps, and also the various packman gstreamer apps. And for testing try applications such as amsn, camorama, wxcam, cheese … to see if your webcam works with any of them.

Reference the precise gstreamer and v4l apps, I can not help there. For my Phillips webcam I have the following v4l installed (which is likely overkill):

libpt2-plugins-v4l2-2.6.5-2.5.x86_64
pwlib-plugins-v4l2-1.10.10-121.3.x86_64
libv4l-32bit-0.6.1-2.2.x86_64
v4l-conf-3.95-211.1.x86_64
libv4l-0.5.9-10.pm.12.1.x86_64
v4l-tools-3.95-211.1.x86_64
libv4l-devel-0.5.9-10.pm.12.1.x86_64

and I have various gstreamer apps. I had to run gstreamer-properties (for example) to get my webcam running under cheese. My experience was amsn did the best job of recognizing my webcam.