[KLUG Members] web cams

[Marr]

On Friday 13 January 2006 11:41pm, Tony Gettig wrote:
> On 1/13/06 11:51 PM, "britz at whitemice.org" <britz at whitemice.org> wrote:
> > I am fiddling with my parents old IBM pc 365 dual PPro, and am running
> > red hat 9.0 I believe (shrike version). They want to use a wed cam, and
> > picked up a logitech quickcam. In order for it to work do you have to
> > call someone or can you go to a site to test it. I am trying to use gnome
> > meeting (video conferencing). Seems to be the only choice under this
> > linux version. Or is there something in the archives on this very
> > subject. I did not find anything, but I could have overlooked it.
>
> I fiddled with a Quickcam 4000 for a long time under SuSE 9.3 but got
> nowhere. If you get it working, please do share how you did it. From what I
> remember, it required messing with the kernel and the person that
> maintained the module was bitter at the kernel team or something. I think
> he was discontinuing support for it too. Maybe I'm remembering that
> incorrectly, but it was something like that. It could just be late as I
> type this too. :)

I have a Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 (USB). I was able to use the 'camstream' 
application (under Slackware 9.1, which was a 2.4.x kernel version and later 
on under Slackware 10.1, while still using a 2.4.x kernel):

   http://www.smcc.demon.nl/camstream/

It worked without any problems (at lower [160x120] resolution -- more below). 
Slackware had automatically detected the QuickCam and correctly loaded the 
'pwc' (Philips WebCam) driver.

This 'camstream' application was written by "Nemosoft Unv.", the same guy who 
wrote the controversial 'pwc'/'pwcx' drivers for these Philips (et al) 
webcams.

The kernel controversy was over the binary-only 'pwcx' extension, which 
enabled (IIRC) higher resolution and/or faster framerates. I believe it 
enabled 640x480 @ 15 fps and 320x240 @ 30 fps.

LWN covered this back in May 2005 with articles like these:

   http://lwn.net/Articles/137823/

   http://lwn.net/Articles/137824/

After the fracas over the removal of the kernel hook to the binary module, 
Nemosoft demanded removal of his 'pwc' driver from the kernel. Luc Saillard 
then hacked an open-source equivalent of the binary 'pwcx', but it was later 
pointed out that it was improperly reverse-engineered (and merely used a big 
table of binary op-codes, IIRC). Luc's website is here:

   http://www.saillard.org/linux/pwc/

See the LWN articles for more info. As far as I know, the matter is still 
unresolved and I believe only the low-resolution ('pwc') driver is in the 
2.4.x/2.6.x kernels these days, awaiting someone who would properly 
reverse-engineer the binary part.

------------------------------

FWIW, I also got the QuickCam Pro 4000 working with 'motion', a 
motion-detection application currently maintained by Kenneth Jahn Lavrsen:

   http://www.lavrsen.dk/twiki/bin/view/Motion/WebHome

But I had to be sure to use width/height of 160x120 or I got weird images.

I never got around to trying the binary 'pwcx' module (or the kernels with the 
Luc Saillard open-source hack) to enable the higher resolutions. I suppose 
someday it will be (properly) reverse-engineered (or Philips will release the 
code without the NDA) so that it can once again be added to the Linux kernel 
source.

Furthermore, I've never used the webcam for video-conferencing, so I can't 
comment on GnomeMeeting (et al).

Bill Marr