HCL/Web Cameras

From openSUSE

UVC compliant webcams

Most modern webcams support the USB Video Class (UVC) and work without specialized drivers. Check the list of webcams supported by the UVC driver. If your one is supported, check the UVC Webcams page.

Webcams supported by the Gspca/Spca5xx driver

If your webcam is NOT UVC compliant, check if your device is on the list for the Gspca/Spca5xx driver,list for the Gspca version2 driver . If it is, install the driver as follows:

Version: 11.1

The gspca-drivers were added to the mainline linux-kernel in 2.6.27, so openSUSE 11.1 already contains drivers for most gspca-devices. If you have problem with your webcam, you may get newer versions from Mercurial source code management system at: stable version, development version, READ ME

However, some applications still don't work very well together with the new drivers, a workaround is to preload a libv4l-compat library:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so <application>

before starting the respective application, i.e. for kopete you would type:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so kopete

This compat-library can be found in the package "libv4l", which is available from OSS-Repo or (recommended) from Packman. (see - Additional YaST Package Repositories)

If you have a 64 bit system, you preload the library with:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib64/libv4l/v4l1compat.so <application>

If you want to run a 32 bit application (i.e. skype) on a 64 bit system, you first need to install "libv4l-32bit" (only available in the Packman repository) and run the preload-command used for 32 bit.

If this works for you, you can add the LD_PRELOAD-command to the startup command of your menu entry/desktop shortcut via menu editor or with right-clicking the desktop icon => properties => application => command respectively.

With openSUSE 10.3 - 11.0, you can use 1-Click Install:

Version: 11.0

Version: 10.3

Other webcams

There are more webcam drivers: ov51, stk11, r5u870, microdia. If you have a webcam supported by one of these, please add a relevant section to this page.

The Phillips SPC900NC works out of the box with openSUSE 10.2, and amsn directly recognizes the camera. Only an upgrade to amsn 0.97RC1 is mandatory, due to some bugs in the previous version. Also port 6890-6901 needs to be opened.

If you own a webcam with SONIX SN9C20x bridge (device IDs 0c45:62xx): Visit Microdia Google-Group. This driver is currently in early development stage, but it still supports devices 6242, 624e, 624f, 6260, 6270, 627b. You can download the latest driver version from http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/drivers:/webcam/openSUSE_11.0/i586/

Test your webcam

Plugin your webcam and start Kopete, a video chat client. In Kopete go to Settings -> Configure -> Devices and check if your webcam is working.

Alternatively, install and use gqcam. This program will immediately display the webcam's video stream.

External Links

Linux UVC drivers and tools

Novell SUSE Linux Certified Hardware

{{Contentcheck|--Shayon 16:07, 20 October 2009 (UTC)))