Mini HOWTO for WEBCAMS (gspcav driver)

Hi.

Since openSuSE 11.1 most of webcams who use the gspcav1 driver don’t work anymore, we have to use the “libv4l” library instead.

The easiest way (and the only one I’ll provide)

  1. Open YasT > Software repositories and Add Packman’s repo.

  2. Install libv4l (Press Install/Uninstall Software in Yast and search for it)

In order to be able to use it:

Case a. From a Terminal/Konsole execute the following code:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so <your.app>

where your app is any video application like skype, camorama, aMSN. etc. 64 bit useres reffer to this Blog and watch almost at the end.
hansdegoede: Fedora 9, kernel 2.6.27 and webcams

Case b. From a Terminal/Konsole with an “alias”

edit $HOME/.bashrc and add some alias as follows:

alias 2skype="LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype" ## or the alias you preffer. Whe finishing editing you must relogin so changes take effect.

Case c. A desktop icon:

Right click anywhere in your desktop and create a launcher
In the command line add:

env LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so <name-of-yourapp>

The same code could be added to any application using the Menu editor

Enjoy

Troubleshooting:

For some reasson I don’t know, sometimes a GSTREAMER complain arises. (some other complains; as far as I know, are problems with memory but they are painless)
Install gstreamer-extra and gstreamer-ugly

NOTE1: Use it at your own risk rotfl!

NOTE2: Take in mind that I’m a Linux user with Basic skills so don’ expect too much assistance from my side. I’m only posting my experiences and how I fixed them. In most cases with no particular help.

UPDATE.

If you install aMSN SVN (from packman) The video works right out of the box.

There is no need to preload it.

Luis

Could you outline how aMSN SVN is installed from packman? I can not access my webcam in openSuse 11.1.

Hi.
You must add Packman’s repository with YasT
open Yast >Software Repositories > Add …Select on Community Repositories and tickle on Packman Repository > Next and Accept the certificate.
Now (in Yast) select Add/Remove Software . In the search box write “amsn” (without quotes) and you will see aMSN SVN and aMSN Stable, so choose SVN and that’s it.
It will come with the patched version. I’ve not tried the stable one, so maybe it’s already patched… who knows

I hope this helps you

Luis

Any extra hints on how to get this working on x64, with 32 bit apps (eg skype). That blog says to use Yum to download the 32b version of libv4l… Yum… in Suse… I thought that Smart used to download 32b in a 64b environment, but it’s not finding it at the moment…
Thanks, John.

You can use YasT > Install/Uninstall Software or

sudo zypper install libv4l.386

in a terminal/konsole (although I don’t know if this will work the same way as Fedora. You can try it and if this does not work, someone else can give us the right direction).
But this is specifically for skype or for 32 bits apps running on a x86_64 system.
You don’t need smart or yum, but if you please you can install them :).

NOTE: If you install aMSN, libv4l is installed automatically.

Cheers

Luis

iam facing a webcam problem you can find it at :
webcam problem Logitech, Inc. OrbiCam - openSUSE Forums

and after doing what you said, i got the cam working like this
take a look to the 2 pics

http://www.6rp.net/upload/download/d61b08d866213b57a6c7d05974707635/Screenshot.gif

http://www.6rp.net/upload/download/ead99d560ddac7e724f617f4ca5c94a8/Screenshot-1.gif

any help?!

Hi.

Well, in the other thread you have recieved help from one of the smartest guys in video (oldcpu)… I guess there is nothing I can say except to follow his advice.

Have you tried to start the app from the command line and check what it complains from?.. maybe it’s only a missing plugin… who knows but it’s worth to try tho

okay thank you
i’ll try it and give you the results in the other topic

i’ve removed the libv4l

and tried to open cheese from terminal to see the error
and here it is:

elkhedewy@Elkhedewy-Host:~> cheese
The program ‘cheese’ received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was ‘BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)’.
(Details: serial 58 error_code 11 request_code 140 minor_code 19)
(Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)

The proposed solution also worked for me. Just after installing webcam worked without preloading.