Easier way to use a camera in linux?

[ZeroKun]

I got a FinePix A340 from a friend, brand new for 85 bucks. I created the camera folder in mnt and that works, but only for root, plus I have to mount it everytime like a normal device. GTKam and Digikam don't recognize it.

[shah]

Use this script
http://kanotix.com/wiki/CoMa.php?CoMa=usb-storage
:D

[ZeroKun]

Use this script
http://kanotix.com/wiki/CoMa.php?CoMa=usb-storage
:D

I get this. When I mount it it shows up as sda1 and sdb1 due to an earlier mistake I made. Where should I edit the script to use them? :)



grep: /proc/scsi/usb-storage-*: No such file or directory

[Markus]

I used this howto:
http://gphoto.sourceforge.net/doc/manual/permissions.html
... mainly the 4.3 section when getting Gtkam to hotplug my camera also for my user me.

[ZeroKun]

Most of that stuff is a bit too advance for me.

[Markus]

Don't worry, it took me a while too. It just looks complicated but when read through it's not so bad.

How about a simplified version: http://nift.freeshell.org/camedia.html
You can add the group camera with kuser or change a line in usbcam.group:
#GROUP=camera
GROUP=users

[ZeroKun]

I made a work around script for my laziness. I'll share it if anyone cares.


sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/camera && sudo konqueror /mnt/camera

This is enough for me.

[CrashedAgain]

Thought I should post this since most of the suggestions in the links don't work & it took quite a while for me to figure out how to get my camera to work.

Kano's script didn't work (same error as ZeroKun got) & "gphoto2 --print-usb-usermap >> /etc/hotplug/usb.usermap" doesn't work with newer versions of gphoto2.

But this worked:
1) /usr/lib/libgphoto2-2/print-usb-usermap > /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam.usermap
2) cp /usr/share/doc/libgphoto2-2/linux-hotplug/usbcam.group /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam
3) edit the "GROUP=" line in /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam to specify the group you want to have access to the camera (I just used the group 'users')
4) chmod +x /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam to make the script executable

That's it, camera should work for any user in the group.

I've been using flphoto as a graphical frontend to gphoto2.
Konqueror has an io plugin 'kamera' which is supposed to access the camera with the url 'camera:/' but I cannot get it to work. Anybody else try it?

[Markus]

Thought I should post this since most of the suggestions in the links don't work & it took quite a while for me to figure out how to get my camera to work. Umm, your solution is actually straight from the 4.3.2. section of http://gphoto.sourceforge.net/doc/manual/permissions.html which I posted earlier.


I've been using flphoto as a graphical frontend to gphoto2.
Konqueror has an io plugin 'kamera' which is supposed to access the camera with the url 'camera:/' but I cannot get it to work. Anybody else try it? Haven't tried as I don't use konq much, but gtkam is quite nice.

[CrashedAgain]

Umfromm, your solution is actually straight the 4.3.2. section of http://gphoto.sourceforge.net/doc/manual/permissions.html which I posted earlier.



Not quite 'straight from', the link suggests the "gphoto2 --print-usb-usermap >> /etc/hotplug/usb.usermap" command which doesn't work & it took me a while to find the usbcam.group scripts as they are in usr/share/doc/libgphoto2-2/ not /usr/share/doc/gphoto2/ as in the how-to.

The '/usr/lib/libgphoto2-2/print-usb-usermap > /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam.usermap' came from your reply in a different post for which I should have given credit...sorry.

Just thought I should put it all together in an easy step by step for the benefit of the next caller.

[Markus]

Don't get me wrong here, I don't want credit for something someone else has written and put on the web ;)
It's just that on the page under 4.3.2. Setting up linux-hotplug step2 it says:

Make hotplug recognise all USB cameras which your version of libgphoto2(3) supports.

On most of the modern[2] (as of mid-2003) distributions, you don't have to do much. Just write the output of /usr/lib/libgphoto2/print-usb-usermap[3] to the /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam.usermap file:


host:~# /usr/lib/libgphoto2/print-usb-usermap > /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam.usermap
But I agree that your howto is a lot easier to read though, and yes, the path to usbcam.group script differs from the howto.

PS: How I wish Canon would get their act together and add usb-storage support, but OTOH the 16MPixel SLR:s do have USB 1.1 :)

[CrashedAgain]

Don't get me wrong here, I don't want credit for something someone else has written and put on the web ;)
It's just that on the page under 4.3.2. Setting up linux-hotplug step2 it says:

Make hotplug recognise all USB cameras which your version of libgphoto2(3) supports.

On most of the modern[2] (as of mid-2003) distributions, you don't have to do much. Just write the output of /usr/lib/libgphoto2/print-usb-usermap[3] to the /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam.usermap file:


host:~# /usr/lib/libgphoto2/print-usb-usermap > /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam.usermap
But I agree that your howto is a lot easier to read though, and yes, the path to usbcam.group script differs from the howto.

PS: How I wish Canon would get their act together and add usb-storage support, but OTOH the 16MPixel SLR:s do have USB 1.1 :)

This is exactly the point, 'host:~# /usr/lib/libgphoto2/print-usb-usermap > /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam.usermap' doesn't work, you (or at least I with Kanotix bh9 installation) must use 'host:~# /usr/lib/libgphoto2-2/print-usb-usermap > /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam.usermap' & this small change is very difficult for a user to track down.

How many times do we get a query here where the baffled user followed the how-to exactly but it didn't work & they are not able to solve the problem. I was in exactly that situation until I was able to track down your post in one place & the how to in another place & then figure out where the script files were located on my particular installation.

Even though the solution is quite simple it took me most of one evening as I went down a couple of blind alleys along the way.

[Markus]

AHHAA! You know, I didn't even notice this although I skimmed through the howto again. IIRC I think I just did updatedb -> locate print-usb-usermap when it didn't work. As it's a few months since, I just forgot about it until you just reminded me.