What webcam for Kubuntu?

[liquid]

Please, advise me what webcam is it worth to buy which has good driver support for kubuntu?

[GreyGeek]

Re: What webcam for Kubuntu?

I have used the Logitech C200, C250, C250h and most recently C260. (The "h" means the package includes headphones/mic). The C260 has a built in mic and it gives a fantastic picture in low light.

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-960-0...4414735&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-960-0...pr_product_top

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Webca...dp_ob_title_ce

[Detonate]

Re: What webcam for Kubuntu?

I have a Logitech Pro 9000. Works great. It uses the uvcvideo driver, and I use guvcview with it. Works well in skype also.

[leadwt]

Re: What webcam for Kubuntu?

Hi ya,

'ave a gander at this mate:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...7478#msg217478

[doctordruidphd]

Re: What webcam for Kubuntu?

I, too, am looking for a webcam to use with kopete/yahoo. I notice that there is the logitech 310, which for only a couple of $ more than the 260, has a few more features. How can I find out if this will work with the uvc drivers on linux without buying it first?

Logical thing to try was to contact logitech. This is the answer I got:

Yes all our webcams work with the UVC drivers when the webcam is supported on that particular OS

Which to me means little more than, "if it works, it works." Nowhere in the info I have been able to find is the dreaded "L" word mentioned. So, any way to tell, or just stick with the 260?

[GreyGeek]

Re: What webcam for Kubuntu?

I have a 260 on reserve. it is an EXCELLENT device. The video quality in low light is phenomena!

[doctordruidphd]

Re: What webcam for Kubuntu?

Thanks. Well, for some reason, this link didn't come up last night, but this morning it did, and it answers the question:

http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-uv.../msg05132.html

So I guess any of the "C"'s are a go. Good news.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: What webcam for Kubuntu?

I got a logitech c510, came today.
Having some problems -- kopete and guvcview seem to work ok, except that I lose control of the mouse every once in a while (no repeatable cause). The mouse pointer just freezes; I have to unplug & reinsert the mouse USB connector (no way can I figure out how to navigate the screen with the keyboard). Cameramonitor does work. Cheese seems a total loss -- the frame rate slows to nothing, and I pretty much have to reboot to get out of it. Any ideas what's messed up?

[GreyGeek]

Re: What webcam for Kubuntu?

Look at your module list and see what webcam module upstart selected for you.
Then, use
modinfo yourcammod
and at the bottom of the list of properties will be zero or more "parm". For example:

jerry@sonyvgnfw140e:~$ modinfo stkwebcam
filename: /lib/modules/2.6.32-25-generic/kernel/drivers/media/video/stkwebcam.ko
description: Syntek DC1125 webcam driver
author: Jaime Velasco Juan <jsagarribay@gmail.com> and Nicolas VIVIEN
license: GPL
srcversion: 85D9BA61A77638A9C8EFBF5
alias: usb:v05E1p0501d*dc*dsc*dp*icFFiscFFipFF*
alias: usb:v174FpA311d*dc*dsc*dp*icFFiscFFipFF*
depends: videodev
vermagic: 2.6.32-25-generic SMP mod_unload modversions
parm: hflip:Horizontal image flip (mirror). Defaults to 1 (bool)
parm: vflip:Vertical image flip. Defaults to 1 (bool)
parm: debugebug v4l ioctls. Defaults to 0 (int)

This webcam driver allows me to use the hflip, vflip and debug option. I can set them in /etc/module.d/options (or options..conf.) with
options stkwebcam vflip
(or options stkwebcam vflip=1)
which would turn the camera image right side up IF it were upside down.

The psmouse module has some interesting parm's:

modinfo psmouse
filename: /lib/modules/2.6.32-25-generic/kernel/drivers/input/mouse/psmouse.ko
license: GPL
description: PS/2 mouse driver
author: Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@suse.cz>
srcversion: A343EE8F9EE44B9D2CB3670
alias: serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
alias: serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
depends:
vermagic: 2.6.32-25-generic SMP mod_unload modversions
parm: proto:Highest protocol extension to probe (bare, imps, exps, any). Useful for KVM switches. (proto_abbrev)
parm: resolution:Resolution, in dpi. (uint)
parm: rate:Report rate, in reports per second. (uint)
parm: smartscroll:Logitech Smartscroll autorepeat, 1 = enabled (default), 0 = disabled. (bool)
parm: resetafter:Reset device after so many bad packets (0 = never). (uint)
parm: resync_time:How long can mouse stay idle before forcing resync (in seconds, 0 = never). (uint)

[doctordruidphd]

Re: What webcam for Kubuntu?

Looks like the driver in use is uvcvideo, as follows:

greenman@Wolfenstein:/etc$ lsmod | grep video
uvcvideo        62379 0 
videodev        49359 1 uvcvideo
v4l1_compat      15519 2 uvcvideo,videodev
v4l2_compat_ioctl32  12646 1 videodev

greenman@Wolfenstein:/etc$ modinfo uvcvideo
filename:    /lib/modules/2.6.35-22-generic/kernel/drivers/media/video/uvc/uvcvideo.ko
version:    v0.1.0
license:    GPL
description:  USB Video Class driver
[snip]
depends:    videodev,v4l1-compat
vermagic:    2.6.35-22-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 
parm:      clock:Video buffers timestamp clock
parm:      nodrop:Don't drop incomplete frames (uint)
parm:      quirks:Forced device quirks (uint)
parm:      trace:Trace level bitmask (uint)
parm:      timeout:Streaming control requests timeout (uint)

Not sure what to change here, since video does work ok with some programs, just not cheese.

Now for the mouse, it's psmouse:

greenman@Wolfenstein:/etc$ lsmod | grep mouse
psmouse        62080 0 
greenman@Wolfenstein:/etc$ modinfo psmouse
filename:    /lib/modules/2.6.35-22-generic/kernel/drivers/input/mouse/psmouse.ko
license:    GPL
description:  PS/2 mouse driver
author:     Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@suse.cz>
srcversion:   5480D3D50AA2ED3ED4DBC60
alias:     serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
alias:     serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
depends:    
vermagic:    2.6.35-22-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 
parm:      force_elantech:Force the Elantech PS/2 protocol extension to be used, 1 =
 enabled, 0 = disabled (default). (bool)
parm:      proto:Highest protocol extension to probe (bare, imps, exps, any). Useful for
 KVM switches. (proto_abbrev)
parm:      resolution:Resolution, in dpi. (uint)
parm:      rate:Report rate, in reports per second. (uint)
parm:      smartscroll:Logitech Smartscroll autorepeat, 1 = enabled (default),
 0 = disabled. (bool)
parm:      resetafter:Reset device after so many bad packets (0 = never). (uint)
parm:      resync_time:How long can mouse stay idle before forcing resync (in seconds,
 0 = never). (uint)

This is, by the way, an MS Sidewinder mouse. So I will try playing with resetafter, and resync_time also.

[GreyGeek]

Re: What webcam for Kubuntu?

The "quirks" parm of uvcvideo can be set to an integer value.

modprobe uvcvideo quirks=2

and checked with

mplayer -fps 15 tv://

and if that improves things make it permanent in /etc/modprobe.d/options (or options..conf.)

options uvcvideo quirks=2

If that doesn't work then you can unload the uvcvideo module with

sudo modprobe -r uvcvideo

and

sudo modprobe uvcvideo quirks=n

when n can be any integer. Folks have tried up to n=50, but after they land on the lowest value that makes things work, or work better, higher values don't seem to make any difference.

(or,
echo 2 > /sys/modules/uvcvideo/parameters/quirks
if the driver is already loaded and you don't want to do rmmod or modprobe -r stuff.

P.S.: For those wanting to capture video and audio from their webcam, from the CLI, you can use

mencoder tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=320:height=240:device=/dev/video0:forceaudio:adevice=/dev/dsp -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=64:mode=3 -o webcam.avi

[GreyGeek]

Re: What webcam for Kubuntu?

BTW, the http://www.ideasonboard.org/uvc/ website lists the Logitech C500 series as supported.

Check the "Known Problems" section of this website: http://openfacts.berlios.de/index-en...itle=Linux+UVC

Some systems report this bug which, to me, seems like an IRQ conflict problem.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: What webcam for Kubuntu?

Mplayer works fine, with fps left unset, or set to 20, no quirks set.
luvcview, guvcview, motion, v4l2ucp, and others (which I think are mostly using mplayer for the viewer) all work fine. Just cheese is having problems.

When I start cheese from a terminal I get the following message:

greenman@Wolfenstein:~/Downloads$ cheese
libv4lconvert: warning more framesizes then I can handle!
libv4lconvert: warning more framesizes then I can handle!
libv4lconvert: warning more framesizes then I can handle!
libv4lconvert: warning more framesizes then I can handle!

And then I lose the mouse. I have to unplug the camera, unplug the mouse, and plug the mouse back in to get control back.

I don't know if cheese is using mplayer to display the video or not (looks like not, mplayer doesn't show up in the process list when cheese is running).

Also I can't get any audio from the camera out of my headphones or speakers (probably a good thing). I suuspect that's a pulseaudio thing, because it is showing up in pa's volume control panel, and the input level meter is responding to sounds.

Pulse says the audio device is "081d Analog Mono", 081d is its USB designator.

Edit: The "mencoder" command above doesn't work:

greenman@Wolfenstein:~/Downloads$ mencoder tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=320:height=240:device=/dev/video0:forceaudio:adevice=/dev/dsp -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=64:mode=3 -o webcam.avi
MEncoder 1.0rc4-4.4.5 (C) 2000-2010 MPlayer Team
success: format: 9 data: 0x0 - 0x0
TV file format detected.
Selected driver: v4l2
 name: Video 4 Linux 2 input
 author: Martin Olschewski <olschewski@zpr.uni-koeln.de>
 comment: first try, more to come ;-)
v4l2: your device driver does not support VIDIOC_G_STD ioctl, VIDIOC_G_PARM was used instead.
Selected device: UVC Camera (046d:081d)
 Capabilites: video capture streaming
 supported norms:
 inputs: 0 = Camera 1;
 Current input: 0
 Current format: YUYV
v4l2: ioctl set format failed: Invalid argument
v4l2: ioctl set format failed: Invalid argument
v4l2: ioctl set format failed: Invalid argument
tv.c: norm_from_string(pal): Bogus norm parameter, setting default.
v4l2: ioctl enum norm failed: Invalid argument
Error: Cannot set norm!
Selected input hasn't got a tuner!
Unable to open '/dev/dsp': No such file or directory
Unable to open '/dev/dsp': No such file or directory
Unable to open '/dev/dsp': No such file or directory
v4l2: ioctl set mute failed: Invalid argument
v4l2: 0 frames successfully processed, 0 frames dropped.
============ Sorry, this file format is not recognized/supported =============
=== If this file is an AVI, ASF or MPEG stream, please contact the author! ===
Cannot open demuxer.

Exiting...

[GreyGeek]

Re: What webcam for Kubuntu?

Does Skype give you video and sound?

When I did the CLI webcam video stream capture I found I had to check the audio capture button and run the slider to near the top.

What happens when you set quirks=1 or 2 or 16 or 50 (values others have used successfully)?

[doctordruidphd]

Re: What webcam for Kubuntu?

Nope, getting no audio in skype.
Skype says the audio device is set to pulseaudio server.
Pulseaudio shows the mic active, and responding to sounds.
But no audio on the test call playback; I do hear their message.

CLI webcam video stream capture

? You mean the mencoder command you gave? There is no gui or checkbox there, just the output I pasted.