[KLUG Members] webcam and linux

[Miles Pschigoda]

komal wrote:
> Is there any hassle free way to use webcam in Linux?
> 
> Thank you
> 
> Komal

I'm happily running a webcam from my Linux box here on campus with very 
few problems.  It was simpler then I was expecting.  The first thing to 
worry about is your hardware, have you bought the camera or capture card 
yet and do you have it working?

I don't have much experience with capture equipment, thankfully it has 
"just worked" most of the time.  I've got a brand-x Booktree-compatible 
tuner/radio card [I think, kernel module: bttv], and I have an old IBM 
Brand USB camera [kernel module: ibmcam].

To make them work, all I had to do was re-compile the kernel with 
video4Linux, and the bttv module or ibmcam module.


On the software side, the simplest solution I have found is "webcam", 
which is part of the xawtv package.  webcam is very simple, all it does 
is grab a frame, optionally store it locally, add some text, and 
optionally ftp it to a remote site. It does not, to the best of my 
knowledge do white balance, which is something I am looking for, if 
anyone knows another software solution.

xawtv is available from http://linux.bytesex.org/xawtv/

--MilesP