Problem with Creative Live! Cam IM

[guleblanc]

I sent this to the ov51x-jpeg list, but maybe somebody here
knows something.

I am having problems getting this device to work. I am out of my
depth in kernel programming here. My system looks like this:

1.) AMD64 processor, 1Gb memory, etc.
2.) 64 bit Ubuntu 8.10 (Hardy?), pretty much up to date.
Kernel 2.6.24-19-generic.
3.) The output of lsusb tells me it's device number is 041e:4067.
This is supposed to work according to the driver. It looks
like the driver thinks it's a PROD_LIVE_VISTA_VF0350_A, which
looks like the other VF035O cameras in the .c file. (I'm
sort of guessing here.) The ubuntu forum threads are not
clear on this. Or, at least the ones in english are not
clear.
4.) I compiled the driver, installed it and ran modprobe. The
output of "lsmod | grep ov51x-jpeg" tells me:
ov51x_jpeg 166552 0
compat_ioctl32 11136 1 ov51x_jpeg
videodev 30720 1 ov51x_jpeg
So, I reckon the driver is in the kernel.
5.) So, I plug in my camera, and /var/messages says:
Jul 10 21:21:34 crasher kernel: [135319.486552] usb 3-1.1: new
full speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 92
Jul 10 21:21:34 crasher kernel: [135319.580501] usb 3-1.1:
configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Jul 10 21:21:34 crasher kernel: [135319.580690]
webcam-driver/ov51x-jpeg-core.c: USB OV519 video device
found
Jul 10 21:21:39 crasher kernel: [135324.597990] ov51x: probe of
3-1.1:1.0 failed with error -5
(Here I've eliminated some long filesystem path names.)
6.) The output of dmesg is about the same, but it has
[135324.597958] webcam-driver/ov51x-jpeg-core.c: Can't determine
sensor slave IDs
[135324.597967] webcam-driver/ov51x-jpeg-core.c: OV519 Config
failed
[135324.597970] webcam-driver/ov51x-jpeg-core.c: Camera
initialization failed.

It looks from the source that a call to i2c_w is failing, but I can't
tell what i2c_w is. My google-fu is not working for me.

I do have a few usb devices, mouse, keyboard, midiman fast track
sound card, and I have two hubs, one chained from the other, and
a memory-card reading device connected to the internal usb header.
This may be relevant because the visor module, for palm devices,
seems to mess up the usb subsystem and require a reboot. The
visor module is not loaded now, but there may be other conflicts
of which I do not yet know.

The only thing that seems to be working here is the nice blue led on the
camera, which is always on.

Thanks in advance.

[guleblanc]

One more thing. If I can't solve this by, say, Monday I'm going to return the device for a refund. So, it there is a time limit on it.

[guleblanc]

FWIW, it turns out that this guy wants to be connected very
closely to the usb headers in the box. Connecting it through
a hub seems to be a bad idea. Connecting it through two hubs
is twice as bad.

So, this seems to be working for me, with the most recent version
of ov51x-jpeg.

[just_mcateer]

A big 10-4 on avoiding hubs with this webcam. I was having all sorts of issues and after simply plugging the thing directly into the host machine, all of the problems mysteriously went away.

That's a real pain since the camera is designed for a laptop and only has a two foot cord!

Thanks,
Justin

[simohell]

A big 10-4 on avoiding hubs with this webcam. I was having all sorts of issues and after simply plugging the thing directly into the host machine, all of the problems mysteriously went away.

Thanks for the idea.
Works also for Creative Webcam Live! Pro Notebook.

(only now I wish I hadn't broken the extra USB-port... should get it fixed)