Cant make webcam work please help

English Hardware
1

lasha@linux-wmk8:~> lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 008: ID 046d:08dd Logitech, Inc. QuickCam for Notebooks
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Hi guys above is my result of the usb port scan I guess and 8th one is my webcam
i was looking around for 24 hours in a row how to make it work on my OpenSuse 11.3 Gnome 64bit and couldnt really find the working way

I tried lots of drivers and stuff but doesnt work anyway so if anyone knows please i need to make my webcam work! and i am also totally new to linux so be very specific about what do do how otherwise I wont understand (that was the case in most of my research)

Thank you very much I will check back later !

Lasha

2

Did you try it with the Cheese application in Gnome? It is said to work with that program.

Thank You,

3

Thanks for reply, I did try cheese, I also tried skype but none of those can see it unfortunately :\

4

I don’t know how you want to go with this, but I found the following page that indicates support can be set as a kernel compile option.

Linux Kernel Driver Database: CONFIG_USB_GSPCA_ZC3XX: ZC3XX USB Camera Driver

I have a script file that could compile kernel 2.6.36.2, but you would have to use the menuconfig GUI option in SAKC to find and set the required options. If you have never worked with kernels like this before, I am not sure if you would have success or not.

S.A.K.C. - SUSE Automated Kernel Compiler - Version 2.00

Message #17 has the most recent version of SAKC. It can’t hurt to upgrade your kernel, but I have never looked at this option and finding it in the configuration will be interesting to say the least. Kernels have several hundred configuration options. There is some logical groupings, but is still hard to find your way through it all. To force a device driver to load, press the space bar on the option and an asterisk “*” will appear, which forces that driver to be loaded.

Thank You,

5

On Sat, 25 Dec 2010 10:06:01 +0530, Geo Lasha
<Geo_Lasha@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:

> Thanks for reply, I did try cheese, I also tried skype but none of those
> can see it unfortunately :\

i’ve experienced this when cameras can’t talk to the webcam driver
included in the present kernel. these need the package libv4l (included in
the OSS repo). for skype, which is a 32bit application, you also need
libv4l-32bit.

if you don’t have these packages (and their dependencies) on your system,
install them via yast or zypper, then start cheese with the following
command:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib64/libv4l/v4l1compat.so cheese

and skype with this one:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype

no guarantee, but i suspect your app.s will recognize your webcam & work
then.

–
phani.

6

On Sat, 25 Dec 2010 10:36:02 +0530, jdmcdaniel3
<jdmcdaniel3@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:

>
> I don’t know how you want to go with this, but I found the following
> page that indicates support can be set as a kernel compile option.
>
> ‘Linux Kernel Driver Database: CONFIG_USB_GSPCA_ZC3XX: ZC3XX USB Camera
> Driver’ (http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/USB_GSPCA_ZC3XX.html)
>
> I have a script file that could compile kernel 2.6.36.2, but you would
> have to use the menuconfig GUI option in SAKC to find and set the
> required options. If you have never worked with kernels like this
> before, I am not sure if you would have success or not.
>
> ‘S.A.K.C. - SUSE Automated Kernel Compiler - Version 2.00’
> (http://tinyurl.com/235q4jw)
>
> Message #17 has the most recent version of SAKC. It can’t hurt to
> upgrade your kernel, but I have never looked at this option and finding
> it in the configuration will be interesting to say the least. Kernels
> have several hundred configuration options. There is some logical
> groupings, but is still hard to find your way through it all. To force
> a device driver to load, press the space bar on the option and an
> asterisk “*” will appear, which forces that driver to be loaded.
>
> Thank You,
>

i thought kernel support for webcams was enabled by default? there are a
group of webcams though that don’t work with this driver; apparently most
of the w.cams i can get here in india fall into this category. i’ve always
had to use the lib4vl libraries, as explained in my other post in this
thread. before compiling another kernel with special options, i’d try the
solution i posted there.

–
phani.

7

Thank you guys very much! especially to <phanisvara> It works but there is one issue, if i close and reopen either skype or cheese without using terminal and your code it doesnt work so is it the only way to make it work to open it with terminal everytime ?

Thank you very much !

Lasha

8

On Sat, 25 Dec 2010 11:36:02 +0530, Geo Lasha
<Geo_Lasha@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:

> Thank you guys very much! especially to <phanisvara> It works but there
> is one issue, if i close and reopen either skype or cheese without using
> terminal and your code it doesnt work so is it the only way to make it
> work to open it with terminal everytime ?

yes, but no need to type it via terminal every time. how do you start
skype normally? via a shortcut icon on your desktop perhaps? in that case,
right-click on that shortcut, ->properties ->application. normally there
would be only “skype” as ‘command’. replace that with the full thing, i.e,
env “LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype”, and when you click
on that shortcut, skype will be started with webcam support.

–
phani.

9

This is an excellent support thread !

I think this could be a useful thread for users with a similar such web cam. As GEO_Lasha noted, the ‘lsusb’ command provided essential information to indentify the web cam.

Then based on that jdmcdaniel3 was able to find a page indicating the spca driver might work with the webcam and made a couple of excellent posts with good advise (using the “046d:08dd” to search for precise information on this Quickcam webcam):

Where on that page it notes :

"lkddb usb 046d 08dd … … 0000 ffff :: CONFIG_USB_GSPCA CONFIG_USB_GSPCA_ZC3XX :: drivers/media/video/gspca/zc3xx.c "

And then further to that, if one searches independently, and goes to the Logitech (?) Quickcam page for non UBC webcams here after searching for 08dd one will note this line:

08DD VC302 Logitech QuickCam for Notebooks spca Work in progress thread]

Where the thread reference brings one to a forum thread with all sorts of discussion on that webcam.

Unfortunately on the openSUSE HCL webcam page the link to the SPCA/GSPCA driver has not been updated to reflect the support/functionality of the 046d:08dd webcam that is actually present. BUT the openSUSE webcam HCL page does have the preload commands that jdmcdaniel3 noted was needed, and I quote from that page:

However, some applications still don’t work very well together with the new drivers, a workaround is to preload a libv4l-compat library:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so <application>

before starting the respective application, i.e. for kopete you would type:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so kopete

This compat-library can be found in the package “libv4l”, which is available from OSS-Repo or (recommended) from Packman. (see - Additional YaST Package Repositories)

If you have a 64 bit system, you preload the library with:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib64/libv4l/v4l1compat.so <application>

If you want to run a 32 bit application (i.e. skype) on a 64 bit system, you first need to install “libv4l-32bit” (only available in the Packman repository) and run the preload-command used for 32 bit.

If this works for you, you can add the LD_PRELOAD-command to the startup command of your menu entry/desktop shortcut via menu editor or with right-clicking the desktop icon => properties => application => command respectively.

In fact if one does a general search on google for the 046d:08dd one will stumble across many Ubuntu links of Ubuntu users struggling, and some solving the riddle of this webcam.

It was good to read the above thread and see a solution was found. My thanks to all for an excellent forum thread. Good timing for Christmas and Merry Christmas to all !

10

ok man thank you very much ! appreciated :slight_smile: people like you make things work generally ^^

11

On Sat, 25 Dec 2010 12:29:37 +0530, phanisvara <listmail@phanisvara.com>
wrote:

> On Sat, 25 Dec 2010 11:36:02 +0530, Geo Lasha
> <Geo_Lasha@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
>> Thank you guys very much! especially to <phanisvara> It works but there
>> is one issue, if i close and reopen either skype or cheese without using
>> terminal and your code it doesnt work so is it the only way to make it
>> work to open it with terminal everytime ?
>
> yes, but no need to type it via terminal every time. how do you start
> skype normally? via a shortcut icon on your desktop perhaps? in that
> case, right-click on that shortcut, ->properties ->application. normally
> there would be only “skype” as ‘command’. replace that with the full
> thing, i.e, env “LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype”, and
> when you click on that shortcut, skype will be started with webcam
> support.
>

i’m sorry, copy & pasting the command above, i made a mistake: there’s a
surplus “env” in there, which i don’t know where it comes from. that’s not
supposed to be there. for command line or ‘command’ in desktop or other
shortcut icons, use

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib64/libv4l/v4l1compat.so cheese

or, for the 32bit app. skype,

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype

no ‘env’ in there.

[replying to a private message; since others might read this, it’s better
to rectify this in the forum i think.]

–
phani.

12

thank you phanisvara but i still got an error strangely. dunno whats the mystical problem here cause the same command works from terminal and not from shortcut file. I tried using just ( LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib64/libv4l/v4l1compat.so cheese ) but it says the following directory doesnt exist and when I got to that directory there are no files there actually. I added my screenshot for more details http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/5620/problemshot.png

thank you again and sorry for confusion but i have no clue why this is going on and i wonder if there are no files in that directory then why does it launch successfully from the terminal hehe

13

Try modifying your shortcut command to:

bash -c "LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib64/libv4l/v4l1compat.so cheese"

Does that work?

14

haha thanks at last it works as if nothing ever went wrong :slight_smile: ! thank u very much ah7013! this is post is now solved :slight_smile:

15

You are very welcome :slight_smile: