webcam troubles - trying to install pwc

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10-19-2007, 06:11 PM
kickaha

webcam troubles - trying to install pwc

Hi everyone,

this is my first post to the forum, so I hope this is in the right category, given the content!

I'm trying to get a webcam set up on my laptop, with the aim of getting it running with Ekiga. At the moment I'm not entirely confident that I won't break anything when I install
software, so I'm experimenting first by booting from the knoppix 5.0.1 disk as a testing environment (so if anything goes haywire, I just reboot and try again - no strife on the harddrive).
So the bottom line is, the environment I'm in is straight knoppix 5.0.1 with the 2.6.17 kernel. No fancy customisations.

Anyway, I've got a webcam which seems to be detected ok. lsusb gives the following;

Bus 002 Device 008: ID 046d:08b2 Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Pro 4000

so it's being detected. However Ekiga and xawtv both detect the camera but give only a grey screen. A quick hunt on google suggested I should download the pwc drivers from
http://www.saillard.org/linux/pwc/ and install. The listed stepsfor doing so are as follows;

1) Install build-essential and the kernel-headers for your kernel

Did this. Grabbed build-essential_11.3_i386.deb and linux-headers_2.6.17-12_2.6.17.1-12.41_i386.deb
and installed them with dpkg -i . Seemed to work.

2) Download latest driver

as above. Got the driver.

3) Unpack and go into extracted directory

yep. No worries so far..

4) make

And here it all goes to bits. When I tried to make, I got the following error message;

make -C /lib/modules/2.6.17/source SUBDIRS=/ramdisk/home/knoppix/pwc-10.0.12-rc1 modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/UNIONFS/usr/src/linux-2.6.17'
Makefile:266: /UNIONFS/usr/src/linux-2.6.17/scripts/Kbuild.include: No such file or directory
Makefile:486: /UNIONFS/usr/src/linux-2.6.17/arch/i386/Makefile: No such file or directory
make[1]: *** No rule to make target `/UNIONFS/usr/src/linux-2.6.17/arch/i386/Makefile'. Stop
make[1]: Leaving directory `/UNIONFS/usr/src/linux-2.6.17'
make: *** [all] Error 2

So, my friends,.. HELP!! :-) I'm frustratingly close to having this working, it would seem, but I don't know why the damn thing won't make.

Can anyone please help out a clueless newbie who loves his Knoppix? Or alternatively, suggest a model of webcam that works out of the box with knoppix and ekiga?
BTW ekiga has access to both v4l and v4l2, and still gives a grey screen.

Thanks in advance
10-19-2007, 06:26 PM
Harry Kuhman

Re: webcam troubles - trying to install pwc

Quote:

Originally Posted by kickaha

...... so I'm experimenting first by booting from the knoppix 5.0.1 disk ......

I don't know all of the issues involved in this, and may even be sending you on a wrong path by responding, but I think at least one of the issues is if you are using the CD or DVD. The DVD contains some of the files that you are likely to need to do your make. They are not included on the CD for space reasons. There very well may be other issues in this as well, but I think you're going to need the DVD version (if you don't have it already, you were not clear) if you are going to have a chance to get the make to work.

When you solve this please post back, and consider putting together a wiki article, so that the information might help others.
10-19-2007, 08:13 PM
kickaha

Hi, and thanks for the response.

Sorry about not being clearer - I'm booting from the CD, not the DVD. So what you say may be on the right track. Is there a list of files or a .deb package I could download to bring my system 'up to scratch' so that the make works (if possible, that seems quicker and less bandwidth-intensive than grabbing the DVD ISO)?

And yes, if I get this figured out I'll happily make a tutorial on it and post it on the wiki. From my googling it looks like a lot of people are having trouble with webcams under linux.

Regards
10-22-2007, 07:08 PM
drb

I've got a Logitech Quickcam Zoom webcam which requires pwc. I have just tried Knoppix 5.1 which has the 2.6.19 kernel. The webcam works straight away with no problems in xawTV. I recall that pwc was built into later kernels so I would suggest you try a newer LiveCD (Knoppix or sidux appear to both work fine). I used to recompile the earlier kernels to get the webcam to run but there were some difficulties that the new kernels solve.

drb
10-23-2007, 01:09 AM
kickaha

Quote:

Originally Posted by drb

I've got a Logitech Quickcam Zoom webcam which requires pwc. I have just tried Knoppix 5.1 which has the 2.6.19 kernel. The webcam works straight away with no problems in xawTV. I recall that pwc was built into later kernels so I would suggest you try a newer LiveCD (Knoppix or sidux appear to both work fine). I used to recompile the earlier kernels to get the webcam to run but there were some difficulties that the new kernels solve.

drb

Hi, and thanks for the advice. There's something of a problem though - knoppix 5.1 doesn't like my hardware. For some reason K 5.0.1 detects my laptop's wireless, sound, battery, you name it, and operates them just fine. But when I try using the 5.1.1 Live CD it hangs unless I turn off hardware detection, leaving me without sound (hence, rather useless for VoIP, which is the whole point of trying to get Ekiga installed and a webcam working). So I'll be sticking with the slightly older version of knoppix for now.

My laptop is an ASUS M2400N, BTW, and alsa works just fine for the sound management - under Knoppix 5.0.1!

Anyway, the current situation is as follows; I've managed to boot up with an Ubuntu 6.10 LiveCD (which also has broken sound) , and can install pwc manually , and it successfully gets video from a Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000. Unfortunately I have run into the following problem trying to install under Knoppix 5.0. When I 'make', I get the following error message;

make[1]: Entering directory `/UNIONFS/usr/src/linux-2.6.17'
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST
/bin/sh: scripts/mod/modpost: No such file or directory
make[2]: *** [__modpost] Error 127
make[1]: *** [modules] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/UNIONFS/usr/src/linux-2.6.17'
make: *** [all] Error 2

(there's more output above this, but this seems like the important part) . Clearly I need the file /UNIONFS/usr/src/linux-2.6.17/scripts/mod/modpost to exist! How to I arrange that?
Any help gratefully accepted...

If I can just get video and audio both working at the same time, no matter how I do it, I'd be fairly happy.

Thanks in advance