gnome Webcam support

Yet again, posting my findings here hoping to gain either funcitonality or alternately to maybe(if I get this working) provide an answer for someone else…

Running openSUSE 12.2 with gnome x86

In the past I have simply had to download and install cheese to take photographs of my sexy self. but this time it showed up black on my little Acer Travelmate…

So;

to sort out what kind of camera I really had I used lsusb and hwinfo:

linux-ygng:/home/chris.thompson/Desktop/davmail-linux-x86-4.0.0-2016 # lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
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 001 Device 003: ID 04f2:b1d8 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd 
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0489:e010 Foxconn / Hon Hai 
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 1c7a:0801 LighTuning Technology Inc. 
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 046d:c05a Logitech, Inc. Optical Mouse M90

I’l be honest, I didn’t use much from the above but did poke it in google to see some of the manufacturers sites… the real info came from hwinfo


linux-ygng:/home/chris.thompson/Desktop/davmail-linux-x86-4.0.0-2016 # hwinfo --usb
03: USB 00.0: 0000 Unclassified device                          
  [Created at usb.122]
  Unique ID: lfzD.DzkH4J9oQn4
  Parent ID: ADDn.0j9+vWlqL56
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.1/1-1.1:1.0
  SysFS BusID: 1-1.1:1.0
  Hardware Class: unknown
  Model: "Chicony Electronics 1.3M WebCam"
  Hotplug: USB
  Vendor: usb 0x04f2 "Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd"
  Device: usb 0xb1d8 "1.3M WebCam"
  Revision: "55.63"
  Driver: "uvcvideo"
  Driver Modules: "uvcvideo"
  Device File: /dev/input/event11
  Device Files: /dev/input/event11, /dev/input/by-id/usb-Sonix_Technology_Co.__Ltd._1.3M_WebCam-event-if00, /dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:1a.0-usb-0:1.1:1.0-event
  Device Number: char 13:75
  Speed: 480 Mbps
  Module Alias: "usb:v04F2pB1D8d5563dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00"
  Driver Info #0:
    Driver Status: uvcvideo is active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe uvcvideo"
  Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #12 (Hub)

obviously the output was much much longer, but I stuck with this and determined that I needed to look into “uvcvideo”
my beloved tail of /var/log/messages and starting up the failing “cheese” showed me no information…

there it is… running cheese from a terminal gives me more detailed info and a lead…

chris.thompson@linux-ygng:~/Desktop/davmail-linux-x86-4.0.0-2016> cheese

(cheese:11116): GLib-WARNING **: GError set over the top of a previous GError or uninitialized memory.
This indicates a bug in someone's code. You must ensure an error is NULL before it's set.
The overwriting error message was: One or more needed GStreamer elements are missing: videobalance.

** (cheese:11116): WARNING **: cheese-main.vala:251: Error: One or more needed GStreamer elements are missing: One or more needed GStreamer elements are missing: camerabin.

the lead here was some google-fu for gstreamer camerabin
then I checked out software.opensuse.org:

and a one-click install… test again

FAIL

its the bad packages I need…

jumped in a terminal and did

sudo zypper se gstreamer | grep bad

and installed

linux-ygng:/home/chris.thompson/Desktop/davmail-linux-x86-4.0.0-2016 # zypper in gstreamer-plugins-bad

still FAIL but different this time

** (cheese:11601): WARNING **: cheese-main.vala:251: Error: One or more needed GStreamer elements are missing: One or more needed GStreamer elements are missing: videobalance.

again, google told me the above is from gstreamer-good…

linux-ygng:/home/chris.thompson/Desktop/davmail-linux-x86-4.0.0-2016 # zypper in gstreamer-plugins-good

and now moving forward still from term I get

(cheese:11661): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: gst_element_request_pad: assertion `templ != NULL' failed

I then read a thread:

http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/hardware/447948-very-new-webcam.html

and decided rather than fighting through someone elses app errors(unknown) I would try this…

sudo zypper in wxcam

started that bad boy up, and voila… though something is still wrong as I recall being much more handsome than this. in any event.