Knoppix 3.4 and Canon Powershot A70 problem

[dmpop]

Hello,

I'm having problems connecting my Canon Powershot A70. I can see it in the Control Center under Peripherals -> Digital Camera, however, when I try to run the Test command I get the following error message:

Unable to initialize camera. Check your port settings and camera connectivity and try again.

If I click the Details button I can see the following message:

Could not claim the USB device.

I can't connect to the camera using gtcam either. Any ideas or suggestions?

Thank you!

Kind regards,
Dmitri

[Markus]

Have you installed libgphoto2? Also can you use it as root?
I followed this howto for getting my G5 to work: http://gphoto.sourceforge.net/doc/manual/permissions-usb.html
Where it asked to choose a script to /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam I used: /usr/share/doc/libgphoto2-2/linux-hotplug/usbcam.group
Instead of creating a group camera i modified the script like so:
#GROUP=camera
GROUP=usb

[dmpop]

Hi Markus,

Thank you for your reply. I forgot to tell you that I'm a Linux/Knoppix newbie, and your explanation is a bit overwhelming for me. Is there any "easier" solution to the problem?

Kind regards,
Dmitri

[Markus]

Are you running from cd or hd-install?


Could not claim the USB device.This probably means you don't have permissions as user for the usb device. You could try launching gtkam as root; Open a konsole and type kdesu gtkam . Can you now use it?
If it asks for a password and you haven't set it (live-cd):
- open konsole
- type su
- type passwd
- type a password for root (twice)
- type ctrl-d to exit from root
- try kdesu gtkam again

Ah, found another howto: http://nift.freeshell.org/camedia.html Although this also requires a hd-install.

EDIT: Seems like you can klik Lphoto which sounds a bit easier: http://klik.berlios.de/

[dmpop]

Hi Markus,

I did as you described, and it worked! I've even managed to install Digikam via klik and make it work, too (it also had to be launched as root).

Thank you very much for your help!

Kind regards,
Dmitri

[Markus]

Glad it worked, although running things unnecessarily as root isn't very ideal. The howtos aren't that impossible if you read through them, this is it in a nutshell:

su
dselect update
apt-get install gphoto2
gphoto2 --print-usb-usermap >> /etc/hotplug/usb.usermap
mkdir /etc/hotplug/usb
cp /usr/share/doc/gphoto2/linux-hotplug/usbcam.group /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam
mcedit /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam (change GROUP=camera to GROUP=usb), save and quit
chmod 755 /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam

[dmpop]

Hi Markus,

Thank your for your reply. I will definitely give it a try. If it's not too much to ask, could you provide short comments to the code. I think I understand what this lines do:


su
dselect update
apt-get install gphoto2

but what about this one:


gphoto2 --print-usb-usermap >> /etc/hotplug/usb.usermap

and these two:


cp /usr/share/doc/gphoto2/linux-hotplug/usbcam.group /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam
mcedit /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam (change GROUP=camera to GROUP=usb), save and quit

Sorry, if my questions are rather obvious, by as said, I'm a newbie (but I'm keen to learn :D ).

Thank you!

Regards,
Dmitri[/code]

[Markus]

I used libgphoto2 instead of gphoto2. The commands are from the second link since you didn't much like the first one. However you can check if libgphoto2 is installed on Knoppix (which I'm not running) with:
COLUMNS=150 dpkg -l|grep gphoto

gphoto2 --print-usb-usermap >> /etc/hotplug/usb.usermap #makes hotplug recognize different cameras. Use this with the package gphoto, haven't tried this.
But with libgphoto2 (which I used) do: /usr/lib/libgphoto2-2/print-usb-usermap > /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam.usermap
If it doesn't work do: /usr/lib/libgphoto2-2/print-usb-usermap >> /etc/hotplug/usb.usermap
The ">>" makes it add the output to the end of the last file in the command.
A ">" writes/overwrites the output to the last file.

cp /usr/share/doc/gphoto2/linux-hotplug/usbcam.group /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam #copy the first file to the second one (usbcam.group -> usbcam)
mcedit /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam (change GROUP=camera to GROUP=usb), save and quit #mcedit is an editor, you can use any one you like. change the line that says GROUP=camera to GROUP=usb

You also need to give execute permissions to the script with: chmod 755 /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam
And add your user to the group usb: adduser dmpop usb

[dmpop]

Hi Markus,

Thank you for your explanation. I'll give it a try.

Kind regards,
Dmitri