Webcam Shopping for Linux · Feb 3, 11:21 PM by Dylan Doxey
I’m rather discouraged by the poor support for webcams on Linux.
Although there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that some Linux users are enjoying the use of their webcams, I am not among them.
However, don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the hard work of the few talented (more than I) programmers who endeavor to write webcam drivers.
Specifically, I am impressed by the work of Michael Xhaard and collaborators who are developing the spca5xx driver (see http://mxhaard.free.fr/download.html) which supports webcams built on the sunplus spca5xx CCD chipset.
This is a large collection of webcams.
I lost patience trying to get my “Veo Mobile Connect” (0×0545, 0×8135) working.
So I went to where I should have gone in the first place — the Ubuntu forums list of supported webcams:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupportComponentsMultimediaWebCameras
Unfortunately, I haven’t got my printer working yet.
Therefore, I didn’t have a copy of the list with me when I went to the store (twice).
I purchased a “Creative Live Cam Video IM Pro“ (0×041e, 0×4055 Rev 1.02), and a Logitech cheapie (0×046d, 0×092f Rev 0.00).
As for the Creative (0×041e, 0×4055), unlike the other Creative webcams (with very similar product names) on the spca5xx list, this cam is based on the M5603C chipset which will be supported by a different driver – m560x. The m560x driver is currently incomplete. (See http://www.actiongames.co.uk/m560x/forum/ or https://sourceforge.net/projects/m560x-driver/ ).
So, that leaves my “Creative Live Cam Video IM Pro“ serving as a paper weight.
As for the Logitech cheapie (0×046d, 0×092f), I gambled. I reasoned with myself that a bottom of the line cheapie webcam which has been collecting dust on a discount store shelf is probably built on a commonplace chipset. Um, not sound reasoning. But the purchase event was sufficient to satisfy my need for an impulse buy and it only set me back 15 bucks. I unsuccesfully tried some uninformed hacking on the spca5xx.c source code to see if I could get the thing going.
However, since that time I have run across evidence that there is hope for this little guy.
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-multimedia/2006-August/004686.html
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-spca5xx-devel/2006-September/000220.html
And most importantly:
http://mxhaard.free.fr/spca5xx.html
My Logitech now appears to be on the list of supported cams. I think I’ll renew my effort there.
Despite that, I’ve been investigating a different avenue altogether.
How about a web page which dynamically reads the source code of spca5xx.c and then searches eBay for any that are for sale?
Well, I might not be much of a driver hacker, but I can do web pages:
http://dylan.doxey.org/spca5xx-webcams-on-ebay/
Now, excuse me while I renew my efforts on that Logitech cheapie…
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