(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Hi everybody!

I'm very new with Puppy, but actually I'm liking it because its speed.

But I couldn't get many things going so far...

For instance, my webcam. I successfully installed Skype 2.0 but now I need the webcam also, and it is really really a big headache.

This is the model

Genius 38 0x0458 0x7004 VideoCam Express V2 spca561a Yes gbrg spca5xx ****

The module gspca_spca561 automatically loads, but the camera doesn't work anyway. (have tried opening it with vlc, shows nothing)

When I open the "test webcam" dialog in skype it shows a faulty green screen that flashes in the box where the webcam image was supposed to be. Sorry that I couldn't take a screenshot.

If I activate webcam sharing during a conversation, it simply crashes. But if only the other person activates his webcam, I can see him perfectly well.

I would really appreciate any help. Using the webcam on skype is something very important for me, almost essential, and wouldn't stick much with Puppy if I can't have that feature. It is really sad to have to go to windows just for that... you sure understand me.

I hope somebody knows. Thank you,

Please take a look, I really need this.

Well its a while ago but I did get one to go with I think the same GSPCA.

I think there was a pet that worked. Probably be for the wrong Kernel. Perhaps a search of the forum.

Here are a few links that may help.

http://www.moyo.me.uk/pupplinux/guide.htm

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 7&start=30

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 804#129804

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=26697

May have been the PET on this link

Sorry I'm not of much help. It can be frustrating at times. Took me weeks to get one to work in Mepis8.

John Lewis

Hi John, thanks for pitching in.

I have searched through the links and so far I don't know what is wrong with this webcam.

I tried opening it with mplayer with this command
And actually it works! But look at those horrible graphics...



And consider that when I took the screenshot it really looked OK, because almost all the time it is worst! actually it may show only a green screen with weird stripes changing all the time, and at one point it could turn into an image like the one I have posted...

Is this telling you something, wise Puppy Linux guys?

Please help me, are there modules missing that should be loaded or something? Did anyone so far got something like this when trying to make a webcam work?

Please, throw me a life preserver! Because I'm drowning here!

Thank you very much

Please

I couldn't get my camera working in Xvesa - but it was fine with Xorg

Hi! I'm using Xorg, I don't think using Xvesa would make it work. Besides I want to use it in Xorg.

Any Puppy gurus? I bet you know how to fix this kind of errors! Please share your knowledge.

Thanks!

Ok Volodya. You at least now have some sort of picture. I remember seeing similar things when trying to get my cam going in Mepis.

Now I don't know if this will help in Puppy but in Mepis I needed to use commands like this.

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /usr/bin/wxcam

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /usr/bin/skype

This was suggested to but didn't work for me. I leave it here as worth trying instead of just LD_PRELOAD etc.

export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so (and then the rest of it)

Obviously you need to edit the above to reflect the locations in your Puppy. With a bit of luck they will be in the same locations. I had to make a start script to run my programs after I got sick of typing in terminal all the time. A trick is to save them and copy and paste into the terminal while you are experimenting.

I found Skype in usr/bin but I can't locate libv4l and v4l1compat.so in the particular Puppy I'm using. As its for eeepc it's probably not included.

As you got some sort of image I guess it must be in your version somewhere.

I thought at first when I tried it wasn't working but it was just a very dark picture. I got another program for adjusting that. Let's see if you get anywhere with the above and if so we'll try to point you at the other program. I think there is a pet for it here on the forum. I need to go find what it was.

I hope this makes some sort of sense. It took me weeks to get mine working and it becomes quite frustrating at times.

John Lewis

Just been off looking at my various puppies. Can't find v4l in them so the earlier post may not help.

I used muppywebcam to get my logitech cam working but that was in Puppy 3.1. I think it would have to be re compiled etc for newer versions and that is beyond me at this stage.


John Lewis

There's no version of Puppy which includes the libv4l library, so ruminating about its usage is pointless unless you install it first. Get it here
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 459#346459

Believe it or not, the simplest way out of this problem may be to just get a fully uvc compliant Webcam, even the $20 MS Lifecams work out of the box in Puppy4+.

uvc compliant cameras are the future and the modern linux kernels have built in support, with no need for extra libs etc.

I agree.

Hi John and everybody!

Thank you very much for helping!

I actually have tried and it didn't work anyway, but here with your suggestion
It works!!! I can't believe it! I thought it was going to take me my whole life to make it work!

Just as you pointed, it looks very very dark at the first moment. Then, as time passes it becomes clearer but not very much. But at least it works!

How did you say you corrected it? Which program did you use?

Thank you all for helping out, it has been really useful.

Believe it or not, the simplest way out of this problem may be to just get a fully uvc compliant Webcam, even the $20 MS Lifecams work out of the box in Puppy4+.

Maybe one of these will be my next webcam

But not as long as this one works!

That's good to hear. I'm pleased to see you got it running. Did you install the v4l libs that Tempestuous linked?

The little program I used is called v4l2ucp. I was as I said using it in Mepis but I'm sure it can be got to work in Puppy as well.

I call it like this ... /usr/bin/v4l2ucp /dev/video0. You have to change the video to where skype finds your cam. Mine is sometimes video1 and sometimes video2.

I have just copied the executable from Mepis to puppy. It complained about a missing lib. I have to quit now but will go find the libqt.so3 or whatever it was in the morning and I expect it will work.

John Lewis

OK, I put the executable for v4l2ucp in the "My- Applications folder.

I found a copy of libqt.mt.s03.3.6 and put it in usr/lib. I made a symlink and named it libqt.mt.so3 in the same directory and it works and allows me to adjust the brightness and contrast etc of the cam in puppy. It works with the Logitech GSPCA cam and also the cam in the eeepc.

libqt.mt.so3 is available as a pet. (called qt4 or something)You'll need to search for it. If I find the location I'll post again.

I found v4lucp on Source Forge but I couldn't get it to compile. Needs lots of things not in Puppy even using devx. I don't know if I can put my executable from Mepis on here. It's only 80kb. Not sure how to do that anyway.

John Lewis

Everything works fine now, (except that Skype crashes sometimes, but generally it works). Thank you everybody.