Knoppix was a charm to install! I got a new box at Frys dirt cheap,
which came with ThizLinux preinstalled. I just heard about Knoppix,
tried it, liked it, and did the harddrive install straightaway. He
recognized everything, including the webcam -- but, when I try to
bring up xawtv, the problem occurs.

xawtv -c /dev/video0 gives me this:

This is xawtv-3.88, running on Linux/i686 (2.4.20-xfs)
/dev/video0 [v4l]: no overlay support
v4l-conf had some trouble, trying to continue anyway
v4l2: open /dev/video0: Permission denied
v4l2: open /dev/video0: Permission denied
v4l: open /dev/video0: Permission denied
no video grabber device available
--------------------

What does "video grabber device" refer to? The webcam?

But several things look good.

The webcam driver, qce-ga-0.40d, installed ok, and I get positive msgs from lsmod.

Here's a clip from dmesg:

Linux video capture interface: v1.00
usb.c: registered new driver quickcam
USB Quickcam Class ff SubClass ff idVendor 46d idProduct 870
USB Quickcam camera found using: $Id: quickcam.c,v 1.111 2003/01/27 09:41:03 tuukkat Exp $
quickcam: probe of HDCS1000 sensor = 10 a6 id: 08
quickcam: probe of BP100 sensor = 00 10 id: 64
quickcam: probe of VV6410 sensor = 00 10 id: 19
quickcam: probe of HDCS1020 sensor = 10 10 id: 10
quickcam: HDCS1020 sensor detected
-------------------------------------------------

Knoppix 3.2
Logitech Quickcam Express

Other specs. This is a "Great Quality" (that's the name) Chinese-made pc, manual says "mainboard supports VIA Samuel21Giga Pro processor, has SiS630E chipset, integrates 3D Graphics Accelerator and Ultra DMA 33/66/100 function.
----------------------------------------
lspci -v reports:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 630 Host (rev 21)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64
Memory at f4000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64M]
Capabilities: [c0] AGP version 2.0

00:00.1 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE] (rev d0) (prog-if 80 [Master])
Subsystem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS5513 EIDE Controller (A,B step)
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 16
I/O ports at ffa0 [size=16]

00:01.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 85C503/5513
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

00:01.1 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 10/100 Ethernet (rev 83)
Subsystem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 10/100 Ethernet Adapter
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
I/O ports at d800 [size=256]
Memory at f3ffc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Expansion ROM at f3fc0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

00:01.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS7001 USB Controller (rev 07) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS7001 USB Controller
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 5
Memory at f3ffd000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

00:01.3 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS7001 USB Controller (rev 07) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] Onboard USB Controller
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 5
Memory at f3ffe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

00:01.4 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS PCI Audio Accelerator (rev 02)
Subsystem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS PCI Audio Accelerator
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
I/O ports at da00 [size=256]
Memory at f3fff000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2

00:01.6 Modem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] Intel 537 [56k Winmodem] (rev a0) (prog-if 00 [Generic])
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
I/O ports at de00 [size=256]
I/O ports at dc00 [size=128]
Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 2

00:02.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS 530 Virtual PCI-to-PCI bridge (AGP) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 0000c000-0000cfff
Memory behind bridge: efe00000-efefffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: dfc00000-efcfffff

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS630 GUI Accelerator+3D (rev 21) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS630 GUI Accelerator+3D
Flags: 66Mhz, medium devsel
BIST result: 00
Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Memory at efee0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
I/O ports at cc80 [size=128]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 1
Capabilities: [50] AGP version 2.0

Any ideas?

/dennis