How to get Webcams to work in Puppy

[NickBiker]

Hi

NEW:I have now written a WIZARD which will try to automatically set up a webcam for you in Puppy.

It checks everything, downloads and installs the best driver etc. It is a DotPup file, so basically you download it and click on it to install.

You can find it here:

http://www.moyo.me.uk/pupplinux/camwizard-1.0.pup

If there is a problem, it creates a file in "my-documents", called camwiz.txt. You can email this to me to see if I can work out what is going on!

I have also written a step-by-step gudie to getting a webcam to work on your Puppy distro - along with ready compiled drivers and test applications.

You can find it here:

http://www.moyo.me.uk/pupplinux

My web page has the guide as a PDF you can download, plus an in-line database to find the right driver for your USB camera.

Hope it helps! Let me know how you get on!!

[ilia_kv]

Thanks a lot! Now my new Logitech STX works!

But there are a few things:
1) Image quality is not as good as under Windows XP. A lot of control settings are missing.

2) gqcam is good to find out that your cam is working, but it is not as good for using it for serving jpeg pictures for web site, because the lack of camera control

3) According your manual, I put startup commands into rc.local file and Puppy just refused to start! Perhaps I need to try with clean puppy again.

[NickBiker]

Thanks a lot! Now my new Logitech STX works!

But there are a few things:
1) Image quality is not as good as under Windows XP. A lot of control settings are missing.

The drivers for the various webcams have been written by volunteers without any help at all from the manufacturers. This may be the reason that some control settings are missing. The basic Brightness, White Balance, Contrast, Hue and Color adjustments are normally provided. What other settings would you like to see?

2) gqcam is good to find out that your cam is working, but it is not as good for using it for serving jpeg pictures for web site, because the lack of camera control

For this you need the "webcam" utility provided as part of "xawtv". I will provide this compiled, along with some notes on my site in a day or so!

3) According your manual, I put startup commands into rc.local file and Puppy just refused to start! Perhaps I need to try with clean puppy again.

Make sure you put the extra script in /etc/rc.d/rc.local0 (a zero on the end), at the "#personal boot script here", something like:

depmod -a
modprobe videodev
modprobe [your driver name with no ".o" on the end!]

Not sure why it hangs. Maybe the script got corrupted?

Good luck!

[Lobster]

And Lobster is closer (but not quite there - glad to see the improved drivers and HTML

You will see in the below script I deleted the text file but was not sure about the sound driver . . .

Code: Select all

I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   8 Ivl=255ms
T:  Bus=02 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#=  4 Spd=12  MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 1.00 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff MxPS= 8 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=046d ProdID=0840 Rev= 1.00
S:  Product=Camera
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=500mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff Driver=(none)
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=01(Isoc) MxPS=   0 Ivl=1ms
E:  Ad=82(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   1 Ivl=16ms
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 1 #EPs= 2 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff Driver=(none)
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=01(Isoc) MxPS=1023 Ivl=1ms
E:  Ad=82(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   1 Ivl=16ms
T:  Bus=01 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=480 MxCh= 6
B:  Alloc=  0/800 us ( 0%), #Int=  0, #Iso=  0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=01 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 2.04
S:  Manufacturer=Linux 2.4.29 ehci_hcd
S:  Product=VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0
S:  SerialNumber=00:10.3
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=40 MxPwr=  0mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   2 Ivl=256ms
# ls /usr/lib/modules/usb/media
qcam.o    qcam.txt
# cp /usr/lib/modules/usb/media/* /lib/modules/2.4.29/usb/media
# depmod -a     
depmod: /lib/modules/2.4.29/usb/media/qcam.txt is not an ELF file
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.29/sound/oss/viaudiocombo.o.g                              z
# depmod -a
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.29/sound/oss/viaudiocombo.o.g                              z
# modprobe videodev
# modprobe qcam    

when I do lsmod the driver seems loaded

Code: Select all

# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
qcam                  117156   0 
videodev                5888   0  [qcam]
nls_cp437               4316   0  (autoclean)
usb-storage            62336   0 
sg                     31100   0  (unused)
snd-mixer-oss          12184   0  (autoclean)
snd-via82xx            12928   0 
snd-ac97-codec         52472   0  [snd-via82xx]
snd-pcm                56168   0  [snd-via82xx snd-ac97-codec]
snd-timer              13636   0  [snd-pcm]
gameport                1596   0  [snd-via82xx]
snd-mpu401-uart         3248   0  [snd-via82xx]
snd-rawmidi            12832   0  [snd-mpu401-uart]
snd-seq-device          3924   0  [snd-rawmidi]
snd                    32164   0  [snd-mixer-oss snd-via82xx snd-ac97-codec snd-       pcm snd-timer snd-mpu401-uart snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device]
soundcore               3588   1  [snd]
snd-page-alloc          4840   0  [snd-mixer-oss snd-via82xx snd-pcm snd-timer s       nd-rawmidi snd-seq-device snd]
parport_pc             15108   0 
parport                23880   0  [parport_pc]
sr_mod                 14488   0  (unused)
ide-cd                 29504   0 
cdrom                  27744   0  [sr_mod ide-cd]
unionfs                66912   1 
nls_iso8859-1           2812   0  (autoclean)
sd_mod                 11404   0 
usb-uhci               21936   0  (autoclean) (unused)
ehci-hcd               17516   0  (autoclean) (unused)
usbcore                59596   1  (autoclean) [qcam usb-storage usb-uhci ehci-hc       d]
via-rhine              12336   1  (autoclean)
mii                     2320   0  (autoclean) [via-rhine]
crc32                   2896   0  (autoclean) [via-rhine]
scsi_mod               93972   4  [usb-storage sg sr_mod sd_mod]
# cat /proc/bus/usb/devices
T:  Bus=04 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=12  MxCh= 2
B:  Alloc=  0/900 us ( 0%), #Int=  0, #Iso=  0

as soon as I locate my other webcam - will have a go with that . . .
Anyone else having a go?

[NickBiker]

And Lobster is closer (but not quite there - glad to see the improved drivers and HTML

You will see in the below script I deleted the text file but was not sure about the sound driver . . .

Hi

So does it now work with the gqcam application?

What is the output from:

Code: Select all

cat /proc/bus/usb/devices

as it is cut short above!

Did you check,

Code: Select all

cat /var/log/messages

and find if there were any messages from the qcam driver?

I am not sure about the sound driver - that looks like it is something else!

A few people have emailed me to say they have had success already!!

Let me know!

[NickBiker]

1) Image quality is not as good as under Windows XP. A lot of control settings are missing.

Hi

I have added a section on changing the quality settings at on my guide.
There is now a small utility called 'qset' included in the downloads - hope that helps?

[ilia_kv]

I have problems with xawtv:

# xawtv
This is xawtv-3.95, running on Linux/i686 (2.4.29)
WARNING: no plugins found [/usr/local/lib/xawtv]
WARNING: Your X-Server has no DGA support.
/dev/video0 [v4l]: no overlay support
v4l-conf had some trouble, trying to continue anyway
no video grabber device available

Video works well, using your util. Any ideas what is wrong?

[NickBiker]

I have problems with xawtv:

Hi
Sorry, I left out the libraries in the package - you need to uninstall, then download the new package which is here at my web site.

I get the same errors as you except for the last line "no video grabber device available"! Hopefully, this will be resolved with the libraries.

Good luck.

[Lobster]

Hi
So does it now work with the gqcam application?

No [sob] - . . . however I am nearly there. I can feel it in my whiskers . . . I have to have a short break but will be back on it soon.

Glad to hear you are having a go at a dot pup - MU's script makes it easy

[ilia_kv]

I have problems with xawtv:

Hi
Sorry, I left out the libraries in the package - you need to uninstall, then download the new package which is here at my web site.

I get the same errors as you except for the last line "no video grabber device available"! Hopefully, this will be resolved with the libraries.

Good luck.

I downloaded the new package and followed your instructions, but what I have now:

# xawtv
This is xawtv-3.95, running on Linux/i686 (2.4.29)
WARNING: Your X-Server has no DGA support.
/dev/video0 [v4l]: no overlay support
v4l-conf had some trouble, trying to continue anyway
Warning: Cannot convert string "7x13bold" to type FontStruct
Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-ledfixed-medium-r-*--39-*-*-*-c-*-*-*" to type FontStruct
open /usr/local/share/xawtv/Index.map: No such file or directory

Any other thoughts? BTW what does DGA support mean?

[GuestToo]

i had xawtv working in Puppy a long time ago ... the only problem i had was that it didn't seem to change channels properly, and often crashed when i changed channels ... mplayer seemed to work well with my tv card, so i didn't bother to try solving the tuner problem, i've been using mplayer instead

i think i had some screenshots of xawtv, hosted on tinypic ... anyway, i have a screenshot of mplayer displaying the output of my tv card, here:
http://www.murga.org/~puppy/viewtopic.php?p=7394#7394

[NickBiker]

I downloaded the new package and followed your instructions, but what I have now:

# xawtv
This is xawtv-3.95, running on Linux/i686 (2.4.29)
WARNING: Your X-Server has no DGA support.
/dev/video0 [v4l]: no overlay support
v4l-conf had some trouble, trying to continue anyway
Warning: Cannot convert string "7x13bold" to type FontStruct
Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-ledfixed-medium-r-*--39-*-*-*-c-*-*-*" to type FontStruct
open /usr/local/share/xawtv/Index.map: No such file or directory

Any other thoughts? BTW what does DGA support mean?

Hi

I have fixed the xawtv package - it is now a .PUP - so you can download it, click in it, and it installs itself! You can find it XAWTV for Puppy PUP Package.

DGA= Direct Graphics Access. If you do not have the drvier for your graphics card installed, you will get this message. The software will still work.

You can run xawtv as

Code: Select all

 xawtv -nodga 

I found on my pc I had to use the -noxv option to get it to work - as I do not think xawtv probes the video hardware properly!

Hopefully it is all working now?

[ilia_kv]

Thanks again! It is working now.

[NickBiker]

And Lobster is closer (but not quite there - glad to see the improved drivers and HTML

Hi Mr Lobster!

To make life easier try my new wizard which automates the process of installing a webcam. You can find it at:

http://www.moyo.me.uk/pupplinux/camwizard-1.0.pup

It is a DotPup file, so basically you download it and click on it to install. Then run the wizard and it will take you through the process step-by-step!

Good luck - let me know how it works out!

[Lobster]

Well - eh - this was the first thing that happened - after I plugged in my camera

========== camwiz.txt

Wed May 3 16:55:15 PUP 2006 Welcome to version 1.0
Wed May 3 16:55:18 PUP 2006 /proc/version PASSED
Wed May 3 16:55:18 PUP 2006 OSNAME Linux
Wed May 3 16:55:18 PUP 2006 VERSION 2.4.29
Wed May 3 16:55:18 PUP 2006 Write check passed for .
Wed May 3 16:55:18 PUP 2006 Write check passed for /root/my-documents
Wed May 3 16:55:18 PUP 2006 Do not have write permission to /usr/lib/modules/usb/media
Wed May 3 17:02:50 PUP 2006 User Exit

======== end


Really do appreciate your hard work very much

[Indy]

Hi NickBiker,

Your wizard got my webcam to work! Fantastic!

I have a Creative Labs webcam.

At first, I got the same problem as Lobster.

I noticed that I didn't have the /usb/media folders, so I applied the BFI Method (Brute Force and Ignorance), created those folders, then tried your wizard again.

This time, it went all the way to the end and finally saw my smiling face on my monitor.

Thanks!

[Lobster]

===========
following Indys advice - got me much further
in fact right through the wizard
BUT the xawtv prog did not work
here are some outputs

Will uninstall and try again later perhaps
Hope others give it a go - once refined this Wiz Wiz needs to be in Puppy
Great piece of work so far
Glad to hear of people having success

==========

usb.c: registered new driver quickcam
quickcam: QuickCam USB camera found (driver version QuickCam USB $Date: 2004/07/29 18:12:39 $)
quickcam: Kernel:2.4.29 bus:2 class:FF subclass:FF vendor:046D product:0840
quickcam [49.259775]: poisoning qc in qc_usb_init
quickcam: Probing HDCS-1000/1100: expecting 08, got 40
quickcam: Probing HDCS-1020: expecting 10, got 40
quickcam: Probing PB-0100/0101: expecting 64, got 00
quickcam: Probing VV6410: expecting 19, got 40
quickcam: Probing VV6450: expecting F0, got 40
quickcam: unsupported sensor
quickcam: QuickCam USB camera found (driver version QuickCam USB $Date: 2004/07/29 18:12:39 $)
quickcam: Kernel:2.4.29 bus:2 class:FF subclass:FF vendor:046D product:0840
quickcam [49.271563]: poisoning qc in qc_usb_init
quickcam: Probing HDCS-1000/1100: expecting 08, got 40
quickcam: Probing HDCS-1020: expecting 10, got 40
quickcam: Probing PB-0100/0101: expecting 64, got 00
quickcam: Probing VV6410: expecting 19, got 40
quickcam: Probing VV6450: expecting F0, got 40
quickcam: unsupported sensor


==========

# ./xawtv
This is xawtv-3.95, running on Linux/i686 (2.4.29)
WARNING: Your X-Server has no DGA support.
can't open /dev/video0: No such device
v4l-conf had some trouble, trying to continue anyway
v4l2: open /dev/video0: No such device
v4l2: open /dev/video0: No such device
v4l: open /dev/video0: No such device
no video grabber device available
#

[NickBiker]

Hi NickBiker,

Your wizard got my webcam to work! Fantastic!

I have a Creative Labs webcam.

At first, I got the same problem as Lobster.

I noticed that I didn't have the /usb/media folders, so I applied the BFI Method (Brute Force and Ignorance), created those folders, then tried your wizard again.

This time, it went all the way to the end and finally saw my smiling face on my monitor.

Thanks!

Hi!
Great news!!

Yes, a silly error in the wizard checks to see if you can write to the directory, but forgets to check it exisits first! Fixing that and will issue a new wizard!!

Glad it is working. I am looking a doing more webcam apps - like gnome meeting - have you seen any you like/use?

[Lobster]

One step closer . . .

Tried again this is the output of my camwiz.txt
Could the 3D driver I installed be interfering?

====
Thu May 4 09:20:31 PUP 2006 Welcome to version 1.0
Thu May 4 09:20:33 PUP 2006 /proc/version PASSED
Thu May 4 09:20:33 PUP 2006 OSNAME Linux
Thu May 4 09:20:33 PUP 2006 VERSION 2.4.29
Thu May 4 09:20:33 PUP 2006 Write check passed for .
Thu May 4 09:20:33 PUP 2006 Write check passed for /root/my-documents
Thu May 4 09:20:33 PUP 2006 Write check passed for /usr/lib/modules/usb/media
Thu May 4 09:20:33 PUP 2006 Write check passed for /lib/modules/2.4.29/usb/media
Thu May 4 09:20:33 PUP 2006 Write check passed for /root/my-applications/bin/wiz/
Thu May 4 09:20:33 PUP 2006 Found file passed depmod
Thu May 4 09:20:33 PUP 2006 Found file passed insmod
Thu May 4 09:20:33 PUP 2006 Found file passed rmmod
Thu May 4 09:20:33 PUP 2006 Found file passed mount
Thu May 4 09:20:33 PUP 2006 Found file passed whoami
Thu May 4 09:20:33 PUP 2006 Found file passed chmod
Thu May 4 09:20:33 PUP 2006 Found file passed mknod
Thu May 4 09:20:34 PUP 2006 Found file passed grep
Thu May 4 09:20:34 PUP 2006 Found file passed cat
Thu May 4 09:20:34 PUP 2006 Found file passed awk
Thu May 4 09:20:34 PUP 2006 Found file passed gawk
Thu May 4 09:20:34 PUP 2006 Found file passed wget
Thu May 4 09:20:34 PUP 2006 Found file passed tar
Thu May 4 09:20:34 PUP 2006 Found file passed sed
Thu May 4 09:20:34 PUP 2006 Found file passed gzip
Thu May 4 09:20:37 PUP 2006 Passed all file checks
Thu May 4 09:20:37 PUP 2006 Checking USB
Thu May 4 09:20:41 PUP 2006 USB Host driver passed
Thu May 4 09:20:41 PUP 2006 USB driver passed MOD_HCD=0 DEV_USB=0
Thu May 4 09:20:41 PUP 2006 Checking video driver
Thu May 4 09:20:41 PUP 2006 Videodev not loaded. Modules were: iptable_mangle iptable_nat ipt_REJECT ip_conntrack_ftp ip_conntrack_irc iptable_filter ipt_state ip_conntrack ip_tables snd-mixer-oss snd-via82xx snd-ac97-codec snd-pcm snd-timer gameport snd-mpu401-uart snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device snd soundcore snd-page-alloc parport_pc parport ide-cd sr_mod cdrom unionfs nls_iso8859-1 sd_mod usb-uhci ehci-hcd usbcore via-rhine mii crc32 scsi_mod
Thu May 4 09:20:54 PUP 2006 Loaded videodev with results: Linux video capture interface: v1.00
Thu May 4 09:21:10 PUP 2006 Simple USB bus search for camera ok
Thu May 4 09:21:10 PUP 2006 Webcam found D: Ver= 1.00 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff MxPS= 8 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=046d ProdID=0840 Rev= 1.00
S: Product=Camera vendor=046d prodid=0840 manufacturer=
Thu May 4 09:21:17 PUP 2006 Trying to go online
Thu May 4 09:21:17 PUP 2006 searching for the right driver http://www.mindsitech.com/cgi-bin/wizwe ... rodID=0840
Thu May 4 09:21:17 PUP 2006 Found driver. Entries=192 Descr=Logitech QuickCam Driver=qcam Link=http://www.moyo.me.uk/pupplinux/puppy-qc-usb.tar.gz Time=Wed May 3 10:22:12 2006 file=puppy-qc-usb.tar.gz
Thu May 4 09:21:27 PUP 2006 Downloading driver package
Thu May 4 09:21:29 PUP 2006 Package /root/my-applications/bin/wiz/puppy-qc-usb.tar.gz downloaded
Thu May 4 09:21:35 PUP 2006 Found 4 in the package
Thu May 4 09:21:37 PUP 2006 DEPMOD was completed
Thu May 4 09:21:37 PUP 2006 Unloading modules if required
Thu May 4 09:21:38 PUP 2006 Loading new modules
Thu May 4 09:21:38 PUP 2006 Loaded qcam with results: usb.c: registered new driver quickcam
quickcam: QuickCam USB camera found (driver version QuickCam USB $Date: 2004/07/29 18:12:39 $)
quickcam: Kernel:2.4.29 bus:2 class:FF subclass:FF vendor:046D product:0840
quickcam [38.109298]: poisoning qc in qc_usb_init
quickcam: Probing HDCS-1000/1100: expecting 08, got 40
quickcam: Probing HDCS-1020: expecting 10, got 40
quickcam: Probing PB-0100/0101: expecting 64, got 00
quickcam: Probing VV6410: expecting 19, got 40
quickcam: Probing VV6450: expecting F0, got 40
quickcam: unsupported sensor
quickcam: QuickCam USB camera found (driver version QuickCam USB $Date: 2004/07/29 18:12:39 $)
quickcam: Kernel:2.4.29 bus:2 class:FF subclass:FF vendor:046D product:0840
quickcam [38.120518]: poisoning qc in qc_usb_init
quickcam: Probing HDCS-1000/1100: expecting 08, got 40
quickcam: Probing HDCS-1020: expecting 10, got 40
quickcam: Probing PB-0100/0101: expecting 64, got 00
quickcam: Probing VV6410: expecting 19, got 40
quickcam: Probing VV6450: expecting F0, got 40
quickcam: unsupported sensor
Thu May 4 09:22:06 PUP 2006 Video major device=81 minor device=0
Thu May 4 09:22:06 PUP 2006 Final application testing
Thu May 4 09:22:11 PUP 2006 File required not found - xawtv
Thu May 4 09:22:19 PUP 2006 User request download /root/my-applications/bin/wiz/ http://www.moyo.me.uk/pupplinux/xawtv-3.95.pup
Thu May 4 09:22:24 PUP 2006 xawtv-3.95.pup was downloaded
====

[NickBiker]

One step closer . . .

Tried again this is the output of my camwiz.txt
Could the 3D driver I installed be interfering?
====

Hi

I have updated the Wizard to do a bit more analysis of the debug output from the driver. You might like to re-download and run?

Sadly, I think that the SENSOR inside your webcam is not supported by this driver. Although the camera identifies as the correct type, they are made with a range of different sensors. The drivers, written by volunteers, decode some, but not all, of these devices. The problem has been that manufacturers claim that the information is "secret" and will not release teh tech. specs, making it a tough job to write the Linux code to support them. I suspect that Microsoft has no such problem...

Anyway, keep going!!

p.s. no the 3d driver will not be affecting the results.