On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 9:30 PM, <gottl...@nyu.edu> wrote: > On Sat, Jan 18 2014, Canek Peláez Valdés wrote: > >> On Jan 18, 2014 4:02 PM, <gottl...@nyu.edu> wrote: >>> >>> My main system is a dell latitude E6430s. I am embarrassed to say >>> that, although I have had this system for a while, I just now realized >>> that it has a build in webcam. What software do you recommend and what >>> should I start reading to learn how to use it. >> >> To play with it, and of you already use GNOME, I recommend Cheese. It's >> actually fun to use. >> >> For video conferencing, and if you and your interlocutors have already sold >> your souls to Google, Google Hangouts works remarkably well; I have use it >> for doing joint research remotely a couple of times, and it works great. >> >> You only need to emerge google-talkplugin. >> >> Regards. > > Thank you canek (and walt, james, and eroen) but I didn't make clear the > level of my ignorance. I have never used a webcam, but I recently > became a grandfather so figured I should learn. I must need a driver > for the camera. According to lsusb I have > > Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0c45:646b Microdia > (the 400 line verbose output is at the end of this msg). > > But I get no hits on google for that number (there are some close) > gentoo-wiki.info lists several webcams but not mine then ends with > > Other > > If you can't identify the make or model or your webcam, try these > drivers: > > media-video/gspcav1: supports many webcams based on various > chipsets. List of supported devices at > http://mxhaard.free.fr/spca5xx.html > > media-video/linux-uvc: supports many webcams following the UVC > specification. List of supported devices at > http://linux-uvc.berlios.de. A specific viewer luvcview is > available. > > From the list at linux-uvc.berlios.de I see that 0c45 is Sonix > Technology and the model number closest to mine 6409 is for a > (different) dell laptop so I am guessing I should try > media-video/linux-uvc. > > But, as I mentioned, I am a complete novice with webcams and wonder if I > am way off base here. Is the above the right path to follow?
[Humongous snip] Ah, you need first the drivers then. Don't bother with out-of-tree drivers. Try (directly in your kernel) USB_VIDEO_CLASS (a.k.a. UVC), CONFIG_USB_GSPCA, and if that doesn't work enable all of CONFIG_USB_GSPCA_*. Mine works only with CONFIG_USB_GSPCA. After loading the modules, or booting with the new kernel, see if you have /dev/v4l (it's a dir). Then any modern software (e.g., Cheese or google-talkplugin) will autodetect the camera. Regards. -- Canek Peláez Valdés Posgrado en Ciencia e Ingeniería de la Computación Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
