Webcam, so close but not sure what to do next...

[Ken UK]

Ken, did you try running Skype from the command line as suggested by ie:
1. Create a simple script shown below with the name launchskype in your home folder
Quote: #!/bin/sh
export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so
skype &

If so what was the result? Was it still no video from the webcam?

If you can get another program to work with the webcam then it strongly suggests it's Skype. I couldn't get my Philips webcam to work with Skype after installing an update to Skype, the code above fixed it (Ubuntu 10.04).

Try installing guvcview from the Ubuntu Software Centre or synaptic (which I prefer). If this works then it's Skype.

I just tried the script above and it didn't work!!
My script that I have running is:

#! /bin/sh
# This is a fix published on the Skype web site for V25 (12/04/2011) failing to open video
#
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib32/libv4l/v4l2convert.so skype

You don't have to make a script to run this, just type the last line into a terminal window and hit return, much simpler.

Thanks for the reply but as stated previously in this thread I tried that method by pasting that line of code into the terminal. It opened skype as normal but no difference with the webcam.
I shall reinstall guvcview to try it again but when I tried it first time the application wouldn't even start.
When your webcam didn't work what happened, was it detected at all in skype?

I don't think its just skype because cheese doesn't work either, only acouple of media applications worked eg. VLC. When I try cheese it just sits there loading but never gets there and if I click 'preferences' it freezes up and then I need to relogin to get rid of the old process and start a new one.

Must be something wrong with my installation, don't fancy reinstalling just for webcam though...

[tobiz]

After you've reinstalled guvcview try running it from a terminal, this may give you some information as to what's going wrong. If you run guvcview -v it will give you more output, eg look to see what it says about the video device.

When the webcam didn't work for me in Skype it was detected, this can be seen using {bottom LHS S symbol}>options>video devices. Mine says USB camera (/dev/video0), but when I selected the test button the area stayed black, the pre-load fixed it. Your problem sounds more serious.

Can't remember if you've done this but run lsusb (assuming your webcam is usb connected) and lsmod and post the results in the forum. lsusb will tell you if the webcam has been detected and lsmod will tell you which drivers (modules) have been loaded; this info could help diagnose the problem.

[no2498]

vlc made my cam stop working in cheese and wxcam i had to do the gstreamer-properties 5 or 6 times and set the plugin to auto find my cam
just to get cheese and wxcam working again

[no2498]

guvcview uses totem or mplayer to see the cam

[Ken UK]

I tried guvcview from the terminal and got this output:

ken@ken-System:~$ guvcview -v
guvcview 1.4.1
video_device: /dev/video0
vid_sleep: 0
cap_meth: 1
resolution: 640 x 480
windowsize: 480 x 700
vert pane: 0
spin behavior: 0
mode: mjpg
fps: 1/25
Display Fps: 0
bpp: 0
hwaccel: 1
avi_format: 0
sound: 1
sound Device: 0
sound samp rate: 0
sound Channels: 0
Sound delay: 0 nanosec
Sound Format: 80 
Pan Step: 2 degrees
Tilt Step: 2 degrees
Video Filter Flags: 0
image inc: 0
profile(default):/home/ken/default.gpfl
starting portaudio...
ALSA lib pcm_asym.c:106:(_snd_pcm_asym_open) capture slave is not defined
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1286:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.SB-XFi.pcm.hdmi.0:CARD=0,AES0=4,AES1=130,AES2=0,AES3=2'
ALSA lib conf.c:4184:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4663:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2212:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM hdmi
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1286:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.SB-XFi.pcm.hdmi.0:CARD=0,AES0=4,AES1=130,AES2=0,AES3=2'
ALSA lib conf.c:4184:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4663:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2212:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM hdmi
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1286:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.SB-XFi.pcm.modem.0:CARD=0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4184:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4663:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2212:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.phoneline:CARD=0,DEV=0
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1286:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.SB-XFi.pcm.modem.0:CARD=0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4184:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4663:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2212:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.phoneline:CARD=0,DEV=0
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1286:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.SB-XFi.pcm.modem.0:CARD=0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4184:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4663:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2212:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM phoneline
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1286:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.SB-XFi.pcm.modem.0:CARD=0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4184:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4663:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2212:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM phoneline
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:957:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) The dmix plugin supports only playback stream
Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory
Cannot connect to server socket
jack server is not running or cannot be started
language catalog=> dir:/usr/share/locale type:UTF-8 lang:en_GB cat:guvcview.mo
mjpg: setting format to 1196444237
capture method = 1
video device: /dev/video0 
/dev/video0 - device 1

Here is the output for lsusb:

Bus 004 Device 006: ID 046d:c222 Logitech, Inc. G15 Keyboard / LCD
Bus 004 Device 005: ID 046d:c051 Logitech, Inc. G3 (MX518) Optical Mouse
Bus 004 Device 004: ID 0781:5530 SanDisk Corp. 
Bus 004 Device 003: ID 046d:c221 Logitech, Inc. G11/G15 Keyboard / Keyboard
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 046d:c223 Logitech, Inc. G11/G15 Keyboard / USB Hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 058f:6362 Alcor Micro Corp. Flash Card Reader/Writer
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0d49:7450 Maxtor Basics Portable USB Device
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0204:6025 Chipsbank Microelectronics Co., Ltd CBM2080 Flash drive controller
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 041e:4065 Creative Technology, Ltd 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

I presume that: Bus 001 Device 002: ID 041e:4065 Creative Technology, Ltd
Is the webcam or it could be my sound card...

[no2498]

if you ever get cheese to open
this is why it dont show your cam resolution: 640 x 480
set cheese to something like 464x480
cheese uses odd sizes
click edit preferences to set the size

with guvcview you need to have i think its mplayer installed
or it wont show anything

[Ken UK]

Dam I can't get into preferences to change it. Cheese opens but as soon as I click on preferences it locks up. Is there any other way to change it? Maybe through the terminal?

I installed mplayer and it doesn't seem to have made a difference but I will keep trying...

[no2498]

try guvcview now that you have mplayer
ah wait mplayer uses gstreamer also
you need to get gstreamer working

1 of the links i gave was for gstreamer config or something like it

[tobiz]

Ken, if you take a look at http://www.ideasonboard.org/uvc/ you'll see that ID 041e:4065 is listed as a supported webcam (some good news). What was the result of lsmod? BTW if I run guvcview -v I get stuff after the last "video device: /dev/video0", eg
video device: /dev/video0
/dev/video0 - device 1
Init. USB camera (location: usb-0000:00:1d.0-2)
{ pixelformat = 'JPEG', description = 'JPEG' }
{ discrete: width = 160, height = 120 }
Time interval between frame:
{ discrete: width = 320, height = 240 }
Time interval between frame:
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 480 }
...........
...........

This looks like it's picking up my webcam. If you're not getting this then it might hint at the problem

[Ken UK]

ken@ken-System:~$ lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
nls_iso8859_1          12617  4 
nls_cp437              12751  4 
vfat                   17335  4 
fat                    55505  1 vfat
cryptd                 19801  0 
aes_i586               16956  2978 
aes_generic            38023  1 aes_i586
dm_crypt               22463  0 
binfmt_misc            13213  1 
snd_wavefront          34696  0 
cx88_blackbird         22936  1 
cx2341x                27688  1 cx88_blackbird
cx22702                13240  1 
cx88_dvb               33267  0 
cx88_vp3054_i2c        12799  1 cx88_dvb
videobuf_dvb           13867  1 cx88_dvb
dvb_core               90587  2 cx88_dvb,videobuf_dvb
wm8775                 12902  1 
snd_usb_audio          91410  1 
snd_cs4236             29291  0 
tuner_simple           18134  2 
tuner_types            18907  1 tuner_simple
snd_wss_lib            30006  2 snd_wavefront,snd_cs4236
snd_usbmidi_lib        24388  1 snd_usb_audio
snd_hda_codec_realtek   255820  1 
snd_opl3_lib           18760  2 snd_wavefront,snd_cs4236
snd_mpu401             13800  0 
tda9887                17887  1 
cx88_alsa              13797  1 
snd_mpu401_uart        13865  3 snd_wavefront,snd_cs4236,snd_mpu401
snd_ctxfi              85192  2 
tda8290                22227  0 
tuner                  26802  2 
snd_seq_midi           13132  0 
snd_hda_intel          24140  2 
snd_rawmidi            25269  4 snd_wavefront,snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_seq_midi
snd_hda_codec          90901  2 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
snd_seq_midi_event     14475  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_hwdep              13274  4 snd_wavefront,snd_usb_audio,snd_opl3_lib,snd_hda_codec
snd_seq                51291  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_pcm                80244  7 snd_cs4236,snd_usb_audio,snd_wss_lib,cx88_alsa,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_ctxfi
cx8800                 33381  2 cx88_blackbird
ppdev                  12849  0 
cx8802                 18577  2 cx88_blackbird,cx88_dvb
ir_lirc_codec          12770  0 
lirc_dev               18720  1 ir_lirc_codec
snd_timer              28659  4 snd_wss_lib,snd_opl3_lib,snd_seq,snd_pcm
ir_sony_decoder        12493  0 
uvcvideo               66851  0 
cx88xx                 78563  5 cx88_blackbird,cx88_dvb,cx88_alsa,cx8800,cx8802
ir_jvc_decoder         12490  0 
snd_seq_device         14110  4 snd_opl3_lib,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
ir_rc6_decoder         12490  0 
ir_rc5_decoder         12490  0 
ir_nec_decoder         12490  0 
rc_core                25760  7 ir_lirc_codec,ir_sony_decoder,ir_jvc_decoder,ir_rc6_decoder,ir_rc5_decoder,ir_nec_decoder,cx88xx
tveeprom               17009  1 cx88xx
v4l2_common            16757  6 cx88_blackbird,cx2341x,wm8775,tuner,cx8800,cx88xx
videodev               75143  10 cx88_blackbird,cx2341x,wm8775,tuner,cx8800,uvcvideo,cx88xx,v4l2_common
snd                    55295  31 snd_wavefront,snd_cs4236,snd_usb_audio,snd_wss_lib,snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_opl3_lib,cx88_alsa,snd_mpu401,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_hda_intel,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec,snd_ctxfi,snd_hwdep,snd_seq,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
videobuf_dma_sg        18747  6 cx88_blackbird,cx88_dvb,cx88_alsa,cx8802,cx8800,cx88xx
videobuf_core          25193  6 cx88_blackbird,videobuf_dvb,cx8800,cx8802,cx88xx,videobuf_dma_sg
btcx_risc              13400  4 cx88_alsa,cx8800,cx8802,cx88xx
psmouse                73312  0 
ns558                  12618  0 
gameport               15027  2 ns558
shpchp                 32345  0 
i2c_ali15x3            12878  0 
k8temp                 12872  0 
i2c_ali1535            12777  0 
snd_page_alloc         14073  4 snd_wss_lib,snd_hda_intel,snd_ctxfi,snd_pcm
lm63                   13998  0 
soundcore              12600  1 snd
serio_raw              12990  0 
parport_pc             32111  1 
asus_atk0110           17664  0 
lp                     13349  0 
parport                36746  3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp
firewire_ohci          31504  0 
firewire_core          56138  1 firewire_ohci
usbhid                 41704  0 
hid                    77084  1 usbhid
usb_storage            43946  4 
uas                    17676  0 
radeon                896428  4 
skge                   44850  0 
crc_itu_t              12627  1 firewire_core
sata_sil24             17801  0 
ahci                   21591  2 
pata_ali               13564  0 
libahci                25548  1 ahci
sky2                   49172  0 
floppy                 60032  0 
ttm                    65184  1 radeon
drm_kms_helper         40745  1 radeon
ati_agp                13202  0 
drm                   180037  6 radeon,ttm,drm_kms_helper
i2c_algo_bit           13184  3 cx88_vp3054_i2c,cx88xx,radeon

Can't see any sign of anything to do with my webcam but I'm ot an expert on these things.

For me it just ends with

mjpg: setting format to 1196444237
capture method = 1
video device: /dev/video0 
/dev/video0 - device 1

Then its as if the program is running but theres nothing there, only a process I can't kill in the background.

As far I can see and understand VL2 is picking up and using my webcam (which is selectable in VLC) but apart from that I dont understand how any of it works or what I need to do.