Hi,
I just installed opensuse 11 Gnome. However, I could not get Cheese to read my webcam. I found out through google that the driver I needed for my webcam was gspca. Through the install software, I installed “gspca-kmp-default”, and no other package. Then I rebooted. Now Cheese shows a black screen, but it takes pictures fine. Similarly, Skype also shows a black screen, but I am sure the other person can see me well.
What should I do?
Thanks.
What webcam do you have?
it is a generic Vimicro 303b.
check by linuxtv.org, they make also distribution independent webcam drivers. You will need Mercurial and don’t be afraid to compile it. Often there are patches around the net for still unsupported drivers. I did it in order to get dvb drivers working. Automatically my webcam started also working, after removing the distribution driver. 
If you get your webcam working, save the folder you compiled, because the developper tree changes almost every few hours.
good luck.
hi,
first thanks for the reply.
i have some more information that could help you.
Ekiga softphone reads the webcam fine. i can see myself, and the quality is also nice.
i also tried running “gstreamer-properties” command, to test if it reads my cam. there i selected “Video 4 linux” as the input plugin. it read my cam in the “Device” section then. however, when i clicked “test”, it showed a black screen.
now i am new to linux generally, but if one application is being able to read my cam and input video fine, how come the others are showing a black screen?
please guide me here.
thanks a lot.
and also, i visited linuxtv.org and got highly intimidated.
as i said, i am very new to this.
what should i do?