skype not detecting my webcam - pls help

Hi all,

Skype does not detect my webcam, despite other programs such as aMSN and Kopete being able to detect my webcam.

The ‘lsusb’ command says the following regarding my webcam.
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 046d:08ac Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Cool
I’m using Skype version 2.1.0.81 beta which is the latest version.
I’m running Opensuse version 11.3 the 64 bit version.

Can someone please point me in the right direction to assist me.

Thank you.

Have you tried rebooting with your camera plugged in, or are you expecting Skype to see it when you plug it in to a USB port? I found my Quickcam for Notebooks didn’t appear in the list of video devices initially, but restarting solved the problem. I’ve also found that if I plug the camera in to a USB port, it will not appear in the list, but it will work anyway.

Hi,

I have rebooted with the camera plugged in. This webcam does appear to work in other programs such as aMSN and Kopete, just not Skype.
Would installing some type of driver help. I am currently looking at this page, considering whether I should install it qc-usb: Linux Driver for Quickcam USB cameras

Regards,

Paul

It seems like you have a driver. No need to install another one. When you press on on the “Test” button you get nothing? No green, static? Just nothing?

Do you have the 32-bit v4l libraries installed?

Hi,

When I press on the Test Button in Skype, there is no webcam image shown.
I have just attempted a test conversation, whereby I clicked the “show my video” icon The webcam light turned on, though the actual image on the receiving side just stated that the video was loading, without having had the video image load (despite waiting 1 minute).

I have also finished installing the vfl4 32 bit libraries and have had no success.

I’m still stuck!

What happens if you type the following command:
env LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /usr/bin/skype
?

What happens if you type the following command?

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

Hi there,

When I type in that command it loads up skype, then when pressing the Test Button, I am able to see myself.

Does this mean that I need to start this up from the command line each time this way?

How can I make it commence with these options each time??

Thank you.

So it works, good for you :). To start with these options each time, I modified the properties of the application in Control Center / Main Menu (I use GNOME). I don’t know how you would do that in KDE.

In KDE right click the menu button and select Menu editor

Thank you!!!

This works, I’m sooo grateful!! much much appreciated!!

Not to highjack, but I have a stupid question. I have skype autostart at boot. When I try to edit the /usr/bin/skype binary with okteta, I just see jibberish characters. Where can I add this so it is preloaded with skype?

What I did was create an executable script in ~/bin called “skype2” (no quotes). The content is:


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

I then autostart skype2.

Doh! Thanks for jump starting my brain. That worked great.

Hi, I am having the same problem with my Microsoft webcam using Linux (OpenSuse 11.2 on a 32bit system) only that when applying your code Skype shows a green test screen (at least better than no reaction from the webcam as before) and I get the following error messages from the shell I ran the code from:

bv4lconvert: Error decompressing JPEG: fill_nbits error: need 1 more bits
libv4lconvert: Error decompressing JPEG: fill_nbits error: need 1 more bits
libv4lconvert: Error decompressing JPEG: fill_nbits error: need 1 more bits
libv4lconvert: Error decompressing JPEG: unknown huffman code: 0000ffff
libv4lconvert: Error decompressing JPEG: fill_nbits error: need 1 more bits
libv4lconvert: Error decompressing JPEG: fill_nbits error: need 1 more bits
libv4lconvert: Error decompressing JPEG: fill_nbits error: need 1 more bits
libv4lconvert: Error decompressing JPEG: fill_nbits error: need 1 more bits
libv4lconvert: Error decompressing JPEG: unknown huffman code: 0000ffff
libv4lconvert: Error decompressing JPEG: fill_nbits error: need 1 more bits
libv4lconvert: Error decompressing JPEG: fill_nbits error: need 1 more bits
libv4lconvert: Error decompressing JPEG: fill_nbits error: need 1 more bits
libv4lconvert: Error decompressing JPEG: fill_nbits error: need 1 more bits

I am a newbie to Linux but eager to learn, so any hint that I can follow to help myself is very welcome!

Try the code without specifically pointing to the /usr/bin directory? Doubt it will do anything, but worth a try.

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

Have you managed to try it out with something else? A webcam app like Cheese or Kopete?

Which brand of webcam are you running? I have a LifeCam NX 6000 I believe, and got it to work at various times (on various distros).