Webcam Setup - ArchWiki

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Webcam_Setup

Webcam Setup
From ArchWiki This is a guide to setting up your webcam in Arch Linux.

Contents
1 Linux webcam support 2 Identify your webcam 2.1 pwc 2.2 qc-usb 2.3 qc-usb-messenger 2.4 zr364xx 2.5 sn9c102 2.6 gspca 2.7 stv680 2.8 linux-uvc 2.9 ov51x-jpeg 2.10 r5u870 (Ricoh) 2.11 stk11xx (Syntek) 3 Make sure the module is loaded for your webcam 4 Permissions 4.1 udev 4.2 devfs 5 Webcam configuration 6 Get software to use your webcam 6.1 Cheese 6.2 GTK+ UVC Viewer (guvcview) 6.3 Kopete 6.4 xawtv 6.5 VLC 6.6 MPlayer 6.7 FFmpeg 6.8 ekiga 6.9 Sonic-snap 6.10 Skype

Linux webcam support

Most probably your webcam will work out of the box. In that case you may skip to section Webcam_Setup#Webcam configuration if you want to configure color, brightness and other parameters. Otherwise follow the steps below.

Identify your webcam

Identify the name of your webcam (using, for example, lsusb ) and find a proper driver. Below is a list of

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webcams, and what drivers they work with. Click on the link to the right of the device name for information on compiling modules and other information. If you get your webcam to work, add the name of the webcam and the driver you used to the list!

pwc
Creative Labs Webcam Pro Ex Logitech QuickCam Notebook Pro (only the "Pro" models) Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000 Philips ToUCams (not confirmed at the moment, but it is using the pwc driver if I remember correctly) Philips SPC900NC

qc-usb
Dexxa Webcam Labtec Webcam (old model) LegoCam Logitech Quickcam Express (old model) Logitech QuickCam Notebook (not the "Pro" models) Logitech Quickcam Web

qc-usb-messenger
Logitech Quickcam Messenger Logitech Quickcam Communicate (for Communicate MP/S5500 or "for Business" see the linux-uvc section below) It is now in the community repo. Note: If qc-usb-messenger does not work use the gspca module, by installing the gspcav1 package. Note: Now this driver is a module included in kernel 2.6.27

zr364xx
This driver can be used for many webcams like: Aiptek PocketDV 3300 Creative PC-CAM 880 Konica Revio 2 Genius Digital Camera Maxell Maxcam PRO DV3 You can find the full list of supported devices here (http://royale.zerezo.com/zr364xx/) . You can find a PKGBUILD for this driver in the AUR.

sn9c102
Trust Spacecam series Maxell Smartcam (for notebooks): 352x288 max. resolution @ 3fps

gspca
An extensive list of supported webcams is available [1] (http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds /linux-2.6.git;a=blob;f=Documentation/video4linux/gspca.txt;hb=HEAD) .
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Note: This driver does not have V4L1 support.

stv680
Many cheap no-name cameras that came out Asia in the last couple of years use the stv680 chipset. Most of these cameras were novelty items (i.e. Pencam, SpyC@m and LegoCam). Aiptek PenCam series Digitaldream series Dolphin Peripherals series Lego LegoCam Trust SpyC@m series Welback Coolcam A more-complete list of webcams that use the stv680 chipset is available here (http://webcamosx.sourceforge.net/cameras/index.php?orderBy=controller) .

linux-uvc
Genius iLook 1321 Logitech Webcam C250 Logitech Webcam C270 Logitech Webcam C600 Logitech Quickcam Pro 5000 Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000 Logitech Quickcam Orbit AF Logitech Quickcam Orbit MP Logitech Quickcam S5500 Microdia Pavilion Webcam (on MSI PR200) Logitech Quickcam Communicate MP/S5500 or "for Business" Chicony Electronics CNF7051 You can find a full list of supported UVC devices here (http://linux-uvc.berlios.de/) . As of kernel 2.6.26 linux-uvc is part of the kernel. Just load the uvcvideo module. Note: This driver does not have V4L1 support. Note: With WebCam SCB-0385N (usb ID 2232:1005), WebCam SC-0311139N (usb ID 2232:1020) and WebCam SC-03FFL11939N (usb ID 2232:1028), you might need to add some configuration to the module if the usage of the camera makes the system freeze :
/etc/modprobe.d/uvcvideo.conf options uvcvideo nodrop=1

ov51x-jpeg
Sony EyeToy Chicony DC-2120 Chicony DC-2120 pro Trust Spacecam 320 Hercules Webcam Deluxe

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Hercules Webcam Classic Creative Live! Cam Notebook Pro VF0400 Creative Live! Cam Vista IM Creative Live! Cam Vista IM VF0420 Creative Vista Webcam VF0330 ASUS webcam Model? Philips PCVC820K/00 NGS showtime plus HP VGA Webcam with Integrated Microphone This is a kernel module found in the AUR with some additions to the original driver that provide jpeg decompression. For me to get my "Creative Live! Cam Vista IM" working with Skype, I had to add this line to /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf :
options ov51x-jpeg forceblock=1

r5u870 (Ricoh)
HP Pavilion Webcam HP Webcam 1000 Sony VAIO VGP-VCCx The Ricoh webcam is built into most new Sony laptops. Install r5u87x-hg (https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?K=r5u87x-hg&SeB=x) (provides firmware too) and run the loader command.

stk11xx (Syntek)
Integrated camera in lot of Asus laptops Asus A8J, F3S, F5R, F5GL, F9E, VX2S, V1S, A6T Just install the stk11xx (https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?K=stk11xx&SeB=x) AUR package. It contains the right kernel module.

Make sure the module is loaded for your webcam

The easiest way is to edit /etc/rc.conf . In the MODULES array, add the module of your webcam so it will be loaded into the kernel during init stage bootstrapping. Note: If your webcam is USB, the kernel should automatically load the proper driver. If this is the case, check dmesg after you plug your webcam in. You should see something like this:
$ dmesg|tail sn9c102: usb 1-1: usb 1-1: usb 1-1: usb 1-1: usb 1-1: usbcore: V4L2 driver for SN9C10x PC Camera Controllers v1:1.24a SN9C10[12] PC Camera Controller detected (vid/pid 0x0C45/0x600D) PAS106B image sensor detected Initialization succeeded V4L2 device registered as /dev/video0 Optional device control through 'sysfs' interface ready registered new driver sn9c102

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Permissions
In order to use your webcam, you need to have permission to use /dev/video0 .

udev
If you use udev, you only need to be in the group video. You can check it with:
$ groups

To add a user to the group run under root:

# gpasswd -a <username> video

Note the next two steps may not be required as they should already be set by udev Set group of device to video:
# chgrp video /dev/video0

Set permissions of the device:

# chmod 660 /dev/video0

devfs
Add the following to your /etc/devfsd.conf . This will give normal users permission to use /dev/video0 (your webcam).
# Give normal users access to webcam REGISTER video0 PERMISSIONS

root.users 0660

Webcam configuration
If you want to configure brightness, color and other webcam parameters (e.g. in the case when out-ofthe-box colors are too bluish/reddish/greenish) you may use GTK+ UVC Viewer (http://guvcview.berlios.de/) (guvcview), available in the AUR: guvcview (https://aur.archlinux.org /packages.php?K=guvcview&SeB=x) . Just install it and launch, and it will present you a list of configurable settings. Changing these settings will affect all applications (e.g. Skype).

Get software to use your webcam

Version 2.6.27 of the Linux kernel supports many new webcam drivers (http://mxhaard.free.fr/spca5xx.html) . Legacy Video4Linux API has been dropped, and these drivers now only support Video4Linux version 2. Pixel format decoding has been pushed to user space, since Video4Linux version 2 does not support kernel space decoding. The libv4l library provides userland applications with pixel decoding services and will be used by most programs. Other compatibility layers are also available.

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If your device is created but your image looks strange (mine was nearly completely green), you probably need this. If the application has V4L2 support but no pixelformat support (eg: cheese) then use the following command:
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l2convert.so cheese

If the application only supports the older version of V4L (Skype is the most popular of this kind of software) then use this command:
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype

Tip: You also might want to put a line like the following into /etc/profile or xprofile so you do not have to type that long command all the time:
export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/'$LIB'/libv4l/v4l2convert.so

or
export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/'$LIB'/libv4l/v4l1compat.so

For 32-bit applications (e.g. Skype) within Arch64, install the lib32-v4l-utils (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=lib32-v4l-utils) package. If the webcam works fine on guvcview, but it does not work in Skype, you may also need to set
export XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1

before starting it.

Cheese
Cheese is the GNOME photo/video taking client. It is similar to Photo Booth in Mac OS X. It is in the official repositories.

GTK+ UVC Viewer (guvcview)

In addition to being a convenient way to configure your webcam, guvcview (http://guvcview.berlios.de/) also allows capturing (with sound!) and viewing video from devices supported by the Linux UVC driver. Available in the AUR: guvcview (https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?K=guvcview&SeB=x) .

Kopete
Kopete is the KDE instant messaging (IM) client. As of KDE 3.5, it has support for MSN and Yahoo! webcams, but not every cam works yet. It is included in the kdenetwork package.

xawtv

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This is a basic v4l device viewer, and although it is intended for use with TV tuner cards, it works well with webcams. It will display what your webcam sees in a window. Install it using
# pacman -S xawtv

Run it with
$ xawtv -c /dev/video0

If you are using an nVidia graphic card, and you get an error like
X Error of failed request: XF86DGANoDirectVideoMode Major opcode of failed request: 139 (XFree86-DGA) Minor opcode of failed request: 1 (XF86DGAGetVideoLL) Serial number of failed request: 69 Current serial number in output stream: 69

you should instead run it as:

$ xawtv -nodga

google talk

VLC
VLC can also be used to view and record your webcam. In VLC's file menu, open the 'Capture Device...' dialog and enter the video and audio device files. Or from the command line, do:
$ vlc v4l:// :v4l-vdev="/dev/video0" :v4l-adev="/dev/audio2"

This will make VLC mirror your webcam. To take stills, simply choose 'Snapshot' in the 'Video' menu. To record the stream, you add a --sout argument, e.g.

$ vlc v4l:// :v4l-vdev="/dev/video0" :v4l-adev="/dev/audio2" \ --sout "#transcode{vcodec=mp1v,vb=1024,scale=1,acodec=mpga,ab=192,channels=2}:duplicate{dst=std{access=file,mu

(Obviously a bit overkill with regard to the bit rates but it is fine for testing purposes.) Notice that this will not produce a mirror on the display - in order to see what you are recording, you would need to add the display as a destination to the argument:
... :duplicate{dst=display,dst=std{access= ....

(Though this can tax older hardware somewhat...)

MPlayer
To use MPlayer to take snapshots from your webcam run this command from the terminal:
$ mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0 -fps 15 -vf screenshot

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From here you have to press s to take the snapshot. The snapshot will be saved in your current folder as shotXXXX.png. If you want to record continuous video:

$ mencoder tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0:forceaudio:adevice=/dev/dsp -ovc lavc -

Press Ctrl+C to end the recording.

FFmpeg
See FFmpeg#Recording webcam.

ekiga
This is very similar to Microsoft NetMeeting. Install the ekiga (https://www.archlinux.org/packages /?name=ekiga) package from the official repositories. The configuration druid will set everything up for you.

Sonic-snap
Sonic-snap [2] (http://www.stolk.org/sonic-snap/) is a viewer/grabber for sn9c102-based webcams only. is available in the AUR.
sonic-snap (https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?K=sonic-snap&SeB=x)

Skype
The newest version of Skype has video support. Check Video Devices in the options for a test image which you can double-click to make full screen. Install the skype (https://www.archlinux.org/packages /?name=skype) package. If you get green/disorted picture with skype read the section Webcam_Setup#Get software to use your webcam above. If your running x86-64 you might actually need to
# pacman -S multilib/lib32-v4l-utils

and then run skype with

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib32/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype

You can either set an alias for skype, or rename the original skype binary in /usr/bin and create a text file containing the above option, or you can simply adjust the Command line in the options for the Skype icon in your favourite desktop environment. Retrieved from "https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?title=Webcam_Setup&oldid=222138" Categories: Imaging Other hardware This page was last modified on 8 September 2012, at 14:54. Content is available under GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 or later.

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