A4 Tech Web Camera not working

Hello, I am new to Linux. My A4 Tech PK-635 camera does not work with any Suse 11.1 application like Cheese. In fact, it does show some colours, but not the proper picture and is unusable. Please help.

welcome to the OpenSuse forums;

Do you know how to “open a terminal”? If so, type in

lsusb

and copy and paste the results back here; most terminals use a shift-control-c command to copy; (as oppposed to the more common control-c, so you may find it easier to select edit from the top menu, and copy …)

If you don’t know how to open a terminal, it looks like a television screen, and should be in your systems folder: we use Gnome so we use a gnome terminal)

This is what lsusb shows:

**Bus 005 Device 008: ID 0ac8:303b Z-Star Microelectronics Corp. ZC0303 Webcam**
Bus 005 Device 007: ID 046d:c312 Logitech, Inc. 
Bus 005 Device 009: ID 046d:c018 Logitech, Inc. Optical Wheel Mouse
Bus 005 Device 005: ID 058f:6377 Alcor Micro Corp. Multimedia Card Reader
Bus 005 Device 003: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 046d:0a12 Logitech, Inc. 
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 09ae:1007 Tripp Lite 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 03f0:3b11 Hewlett-Packard PSC 1300 series
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

If you go to this site it says your’s (zc3xx 0ac8:303b Vimicro 0x303b pb0330) is being tested
GSPCA V4L2 - Webcams

You can try it by downloading the tarball from here
~jfrancois/gspca: Summary](http://linuxtv.org/hg/~jfrancois/gspca/)
and compile it yourself.

I noticed you said you are new to linux, being said that it could be complicated for a beginner on how to compile it. Please don’t get offended of what I said.
If you really wanted it, it may require. lots of reading, understanding and familiarity of the things to do but in the end you will savor the fruits of your labor.

Sorry for double posting, time elapsed for editing.
I also did some compiling for my webcam to work with opensuse
It’s a ID 0ac8:301b Z-Star Microelectronics Corp. ZC0301 Webcam
It is a very clear webcam from panwest. It used to work perfectly on opensuse 10.3 but in 11 and 11.1 versions it changed and needed the compiling from tarball. to work satisfactorily, so i did. the problem is when kernel is updated it will need another compiling against the new kernel, I got tired of this. The best solution is find a webcam that is compatible with opensuse.:slight_smile:

Hah, the best way is not using opensuse 11 and 11.1. I cannot afford buying new hardware and throw away “the unusable under SUSE”.

I have a4tech viewcam pk-835 and it DOES NOT WORK, too.

Have somebody found a solution which does not include compiling software?

Yes and no, see these threads for clarification:

MSI Starcam Clip driver not installing - openSUSE Forums

Microsoft WebCam VX 1000 - openSUSE Forums


/lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/kernel/drivers/media/video/zc0301/**zc0301.ko**
alias:          usb:v**0AC8**p**303B**d*dc*dsc*dp*icFFisc*ip*

With modified gspca-driver from my kmp-package there is also:


/lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/updates/**gspca_zc3xx**.ko
alias:          usb:v**0AC8**p**303B**d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*

Thanks for the help but that doesn’t solve the problem for me.

It’s a pity, suse 11.1 is a really nice distro but without my one and only web-camera… I have to leave the Windows Vista installation intact and log-in it in order to make a simple video call.