Microsoft WebCam VX 1000

English Hardware
#1

Hello,

I am a proud owner of the Kleinweich WebCam VX 1000.

I want to use my camera with Skype under OpenSuse 11.1. The camera is listed in the yast2 hardware configuration.

I tried to test the camera with luvcview.

I only get an error message:

luvcview 0.2.4

SDL information:
Video driver: x11
A window manager is available
Device information:
Device path: /dev/video0
Stream settings:
Frame format: GREY (MJPG is not supported by device)
Frame size: 640x480
Unable to set frame rate: Invalid argument
Init v4L2 failed !! exit fatal

I already googled for help. For example here: Microsoft WebCam unter SuSE ? - openSUSE Linux - Forum - Hilfe - Anleitungen - Tutorials - aktuelle SUSE Version 11.1
I did not find any instruction, where someone had “success”.
I do not want to spend hours in trial and error.
Is here someone, who found a way to get this very popular webcam working on his linux PC?
If not, which camera is the perfect “LINUX” webcam?

Thank you for infos and help.:wink:

#2

Welcome to the OpenSuse forums

if you type in

lsusb

in a terminal:* do you know how to do that*?

and post the results back here: if you select the results in the terminal; go to the edit menu at the top of your terminal; select copy;

and paste the results back to us here;

(to try to identify the vendor ID and product ID for your webcam)

#3

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm …

vchapman very diligently tried to get a Microsoft WebCam VX1000 going, and did not seem to succeed

Microsoft Lifecam VX-1000 – Revisited - Page 2 - openSUSE Forums

Maybe you need to decide how central to your life a webcam is;

and

(as Clint Eastwood might have said … how lucky are you feeling today?)

if you can see Clint facing you with a 44 magnum,

perhaps best to go here:

Linux UVC driver & tools

choose a UVC camera that should work fine in OpenSuse 11.1

HCL/Web Cameras - openSUSE

UVC compliant webcams

Most modern webcams support the USB Video Class (UVC) and work without specialised drivers. Check the list of webcams supported by the uvc driver. If your one is supported, check the UVC Webcams page.

give up on the Microsoft

go buy yourself one of the certified UVC webcams; if you can have a proviso with the dealer you can do some sort of barter if it still plays up

#4

Hello,

sorry, I forgot to post the lsusb output:
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 045e:00f7 Microsoft Corp. LifeCam VX-1000
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 056d:0002 EIZO Corp. HID Monitor Controls
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 046d:c505 Logitech, Inc. Cordless Mouse+Keyboard Receiver
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

I think the USB detection of the cam is not the problem, rather the Kernel driver…
Perhaps I make a “donation” to a windows user and buy me a new camera with better resolution for my PC, if this can avoid a day work:).

#5

Check if this can help. I have a logitech web cam and I had to perform some extra tasks to get it working in opensuse.

Logitech quick cam not working - openSUSE Forums

#6

so vendetta18 is pointing you towards

The gspca-drivers were added to the mainline linux-kernel in 2.6.27, so openSUSE 11.1 already contains drivers for most gspca-devices.

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.

which is from this link

HCL/Web Cameras - openSUSE

so you need to make sure that

libv4l
is already installed on your system;

if not, get it from Packman; if you need to know how to do that, get back to the forum

packman home is PackMan :: home

let us know if you can implement this

are you running 32bit or 64bit Suse

#7

Problem:


Bus 003 Device 003: ID **045e:00f7** Microsoft Corp. LifeCam VX-1000

/lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/kernel/drivers/media/video/sn9c102/**sn9c102.ko**
alias:          usb:v**045E**p**00F7**d*dc*dsc*dp*icFFisc*ip*

Not a gspca-device (at least not “offically”).

When gspca was merged into the kernel, quite a few devices had “duplicate” drivers containing device IDs already covered by the “old” gspca driver, so the kernel hackers/distributors had to decide what to do with thos duplicates.

The openSUSE-Kernel is configured to use the “other” driver (in this case sn9c102.ko) instead of a gspca driver and the respective device IDs were deactivated in gspca.

Unfortunately, some of those devices don’t work well (or at all) with the alternative drivers, so one would need a gspca-driver which covers the respective device ID and as a second step take care the “other” driver is not used.

This is both possible and I will shortly describe how to do this.

  1. Blacklist the “wrong” driver (in this case sn9c102)

su -c "echo blacklist **drivername** >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.local"

with drivername = name of the module without the “.ko” ending (in this case sn9c102).

  1. Install modified gspca-kmp package.

Index of /repositories/home:/Akoellh

To find out the correct package use (as usual)


uname -r

cat /etc/SuSE-release

to find out

kernel version (2.6.27-something)

kernel “flavor” (default, pae, …)

architecture (i586 or x86_64)

and install the gpsca-kmp-whatever-package matching the above outputs.

  1. Restart the machine (yes, it would also work if one would unload the “wrong” module and load the correct gspca-module, which is one out of more than 20, so it makes no sense to explain that here.)

  2. NOW read and apply the comments with LD_PRELOAD-commands cited and discussed above.

#8

[QUOTE=Akoellh;1987075]Problem:


Bus 003 Device 003: ID **045e:00f7** Microsoft Corp. LifeCam VX-1000

/lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-pae/kernel/drivers/media/video/sn9c102/**sn9c102.ko**
alias:          usb:v**045E**p**00F7**d*dc*dsc*dp*icFFisc*ip*

Not a gspca-device (at least not “offically”).

…

Index of /repositories/home:/Akoellh

Hello, I´ve just bumped into the same problem with VX1000 webcam.
I tried your procedure - blacklisted sn9c102, installed gspca from your repository (it is now in /repositories/home:/Akoellh:/Kernelmodules/openSUSE_11.1_Update/ (since I have kernel 2.6.27.45-0.1-pae)

Now I have in the log:

Mar 16 20:43:18 pc kernel: usb 6-1: New USB device found, idVendor=045e
, idProduct=00f7
Mar 16 20:43:18 pc kernel: usb 6-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Prod
uct=1, SerialNumber=0
Mar 16 20:43:18 pc kernel: usb 6-1: Product: USB camera
Mar 16 20:43:18 pc kernel: gspca: probing 045e:00f7
Mar 16 20:43:18 pc kernel: sonixj: Sonix chip id: 11
Mar 16 20:43:18 pc kernel: gspca: probe ok
Mar 16 20:43:18 pc kernel: gspca: probing 045e:00f7
Mar 16 20:43:18 pc kernel: gspca: probing 045e:00f7
Mar 16 20:43:18 pc kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver son
ixj
Mar 16 20:43:18 pc kernel: sonixj: registered
Mar 16 20:43:18 pc kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver snd
-usb-audio

and /dev/video0 created, but I still can´t see any video (in skype or in cheese)

I´ve also noticed that the sensor is now sonixj, while gspca compatibility lists both for v1 and v2 specify ov7660 for this camera.

Could you please advice how to investigate the issue further?
TIA,
– Mark

#9

Read the whole thread carefully, as it is working for others, you obviously missed something/did something wrong.

I am no longer putting any effort into this package, so if it does not work although you did it “by the book”, bad luck.