Set up your web cam on Debian Etch - debiantutorials.org

With Sarge I had to download the source for the driver and then compile it on my machine. It was really a piece of cake, but here we are at Etch, and like the bcm43xx driver for your wireless card, spca5xx is included now with Etch and it's an m-a away from being useful to you.

This is what I just did, not 3 minutes ago, to view my own ugly, Sunday-morning mug. Too easy:

See...Linux is super easy, Debian makes it easier still, and interacting with your computer is fun...no?

Thank you
written by 'Guest', February 22, 2007

That was perfect. exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for putting it up.

is there something i\'m missing?
written by 'Guest', March 20, 2007

deblaptop:/home/sesho# m-a auto-install spca5xx
bash: m-a: command not found

d'oh
written by machiner, March 20, 2007

Yeah -- install module-assistant

d'oh!

:)

re:d\'oh
written by 'Guest', March 20, 2007

mmm
thanks
but actually what does \"I tapped module-assistant like so\" means?
(not a native speaker here...)

sorry -- just slang
written by machiner, March 20, 2007

It means that I used it. Make sure that you have module-assistant installed. Also, build-essential. So:

# apt-get install module-assistant

It will also install build-essential and some other deps.

Rock on.

--machiner

problem with video device
written by 'Guest', April 03, 2007

Hi, I followed your instructions and ths is what I got:

bakos:/home/arpi# camorama -D

(camorama:3197): GnomeUI-WARNING **: While connecting to session manager:
Authentication Rejected, reason : None of the authentication protocols specified are supported and host-based authentication failed.
VIDIOCGCAP -- could not get camera capabilities, exiting.....
bakos:/home/arpi# lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0ac8:303b Z-Star Microelectronics Corp. ZC0303 WebCam
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 03f0:2304 Hewlett-Packard DeskJet 656c
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
bakos:/home/arpi#

Could you please advise me how to correct this problem

Arpi

why run camorama as root?
written by machiner, April 07, 2007

Why are you running as root?

I'm at a windows box now -- can't see what the "-D" option is...I'm not back online until the 12th april.

I looked quickly for a web posted man page for camorama, didn't find one, I'm only here for a few minutes trying to get to everyone.

Post your issues in the forum:
http://www.debiantutorials.org/talkitup/index.php

I can\'t =/ can u give me ur sources.li
written by 'Guest', April 17, 2007

dpkg: erro processando /usr/src/spca5xx-modules-2.6.18-4-686_20060501-2+2.6.18.dfsg.1-12_i386.deb (--install):
pacotes conflitantes - no instalando spca5xx-modules-2.6.18-4-686
Erros foram encontrados durante processamento de:
/usr/src/spca5xx-modules-2.6.18-4-686_20060501-2+2.6.18.dfsg.1-12_i386.deb

Damn!
written by 'Guest', May 02, 2007

Could you have made getting this webcam to work any easier!

Thank you.

fatal error at 2nd step
written by 'Guest', May 21, 2007

root@user-desktop:/home/user# modprobe spca5xx
FATAL: Module spca5xx not found.

Please help

[EDIT: You did not follow instructions]

My webcam driver is working but authenti
written by 'Guest', May 21, 2007

My webcam driver is working after following these steps for Logitech quickcam model : STX communicate. When I pluged in my webcam it show it\'s light blinking that means driver is working but it shows error like..

GnomeUI-WARNING **: While connecting to session manager:
Authentication Rejected, reason : None of the authentication protocols specified are supported and host-based authentication failed.

I just avoid the warning Authentication
written by 'Guest', May 21, 2007

I have the same problem after following the steps above. I have the same warning.

(camorama:3197): GnomeUI-WARNING **: While connecting to session manager:
Authentication Rejected, reason : None of the authentication protocols specified are supported and host-based authentication failed.

I rebooted my computer and I login as user as usal.

When I started my computer again. It read the device driver of my cam perfecatly.

When I give cammand camorama at
root terminal user folder. The warning was there but after few minutes webcam started.

It\'s grate my my webcam is working....

You need to reboot your computer after installation of as above. thats all I did.

Thank you for support.

v
written by 'Guest', June 02, 2007

Error(camorama)
Could not connect to video device (/dev/video0). Please check connection.

Newbe - I typed $ camorama
written by 'Guest', June 20, 2007

Error:
Could not connect to video device (/dev/video0). Please check connection.

I have a Toshiba M60 17\" laptop with a Microsoft Camera.
Yep, I am Dual Booting as I slowly move over to Debian.

Although, if is wasn\'t for this site I would have moved on because Debian is not Newbe friendly, if you check out three forum you will see that newbees are insulted and not helped.

[EDIT: not at my house!]

Thank you for getting my system up and running smoothly,
GreySpace

[EDIT: as root, modprobe spca5xx, then reboot just for shits and giggles]

...
written by 'Guest', July 29, 2007

BRAVO, BRAVO

Thanks
written by 'Guest', August 13, 2007

Thanks a lot, very useful tip
Got any idea how to run the webcam under skype 1.4.074 and debian etch ?

regards
goofy

Not mapping to correct /dev/video0
written by 'Guest', October 12, 2007

I did every step, without problem, including reboot, yet I still get \"Could not connect to video device /dev/video0\"

lsusb:

Bus 004 Device 003: ID 041e:4055 Creative Technology, Ltd
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

Thanks!

[EDIT: I have had to make the /dev/video0 device in the past, but that's outside the scope of my low-tech tutorials. Is your camera supported?]

cannot connect :(
written by 'Guest', November 10, 2007

Hi!
Looks like I have the same problem as the rest. When I launch camorama I get this message:
Could not connect to video device /dev/video0

BUT at the same time I get this message:
mknod /dev/video0 c 81 0
mknod: `/dev/video0\': File exists

What gives???

Przemko

EDIT: try: # modprobe spca5xx then reboot. Camorama makes the /dev/video0 when it starts.

Had to make an adjustment
written by 'Guest', November 27, 2007

Hi, thanks for the tip. Published in my blog with an adjustment, translated to portuguese. Instead of use the \"spca5xx\" module, as i couldn\'t found it on the repository (of debian testing), did make a search and discovered \"gspca\", that seems to be a rewrite of spca5xx. At least, is what says on its page on debian package search. The rest went on smoothly.
http://brunosilva.org

Yeah!
written by 'Guest', January 07, 2008

Thanks!

Now I can get my webcams to work in Linux, exactly the same webcams that just don\'t friggen work in Vista!

I never thought I\'d see the day when getting new hardware to work on Linux was easier than Windows! :D :D :D very very happy!!!! Thank you!

Your site...
written by 'Guest', January 27, 2008

...don\'t looks like ass in my ie cos i don\'t have it! ;-)
Good site, thanx.

thanks a lot, works perfectly
written by Dennis, March 05, 2008

done all the steps on Debian 4 with the cheapest Web camera (china made with no name) and everything is works!!! Thanks.

hi
written by Jithin James, April 19, 2008

hi,
i got a webcam mini ,i downloaded the driver and extracted it and ran camorama and the error came like "could not connect to video device,please check video device"
what do i do?

Thank's!
written by Syabitov Damir, May 25, 2008

It's was realy easy. I tryed to build gspca from sources about 3 days and I can't do this. With you post i get my cam works. Sorry for my Enlish!

Webcam solution
written by noreason2cry, June 04, 2008

I have a creative nx pro webcam, this tutorial worked for me.

http://www.debianadmin.com/how-to-configure-webcam-in-debian-linux.html

Webcam Problem
written by Melanie, June 20, 2008

I'm using Ubuntu 8.1 for 64-bit, and trying to capture videos with my webcam. Its a Logitech Quickcam Deluxe.

Camorama will not open and gives the "Could not connect to /dev/video0"

Cheese works but the videos do this: http://launchpadlibrarian.net/15444818/SoundBug.ogg

Xawtv will not open.

I'd like to get Camorama working, or fix the problem in Cheese!

Thanks!

...
written by wyldbird, July 19, 2008

Hi, just got my new webcam working, and thought i'd share some insights:

The webcam is called 'Manhatten Mini Cam', but the chipset is actually a Pixart PAC207, lsusb gives 093a:2460 as vendor:device numbers. It's supposed to work with the gspca driver. I'm running etch with a self-compiled 2.6.23 kernel. Following the instructions above (but with gspca instead of spca5xx), i managed to get the gspca loaded, and dmesg showed it did find my camera. Unfortunatly, camorama didn't ('Could not connect to video device /dev/video0').

I only manged to get it working after recompiling the driver, the one included in etch doesn't seem to work correctly for me. The gspca source can be found here: http://mxhaard.free.fr/download.html
(at the time of writing this, the current file is called gspcav1-20071224.tar.gz)

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