Creative webcams on Debian and Ubuntu

DISCLAIMER: while we keep this post for reference, we strongly discourage the use of proprietary software, since it violates fundamental user freedoms.


Contents of the post:

1. Creative Live! Cam Vista IM and Skype (Ubuntu 10.10+)
2. Creative Live! Cam Vista IM (Debian Lenny e Ubuntu)
3. Creative WebCam Live! (Ubuntu 8.10)

Creative Live! Cam Vista IM and Skype (Ubuntu 10.10+)

In order to make the webcam also compatible with Skype, one needs to install the gspca driver and libv4l.

Installing needed packages:
sudo aptitude install mercurial build-essential linux-headers libncurses5-dev
Retrieving sources (from Douglas Schilling Landgraf V4L/DVB backports repository):
hg clone http://linuxtv.org/hg/v4l-dvb/
Copy the configuration file:
cd v4l-dvb
sudo cp /boot/config-`uname -r` v4l/.config
Note: currently FireDTV drivers do not compile easily (you need all the kernel sources) and are rarely used, we will disable them in the configuration.
Launch configuration:
sudo make menuconfig
Disable FireDTV support (Multimedia Support -> DVB/ATSC adapters -> set the option blank on FireDTV and FloppyDTV):

Exit, Exit.
Now let’s take care of usb webcams (Multimedia Support -> Video Capture adapters -> V4L USB devices)
Activate new modules drivers (press M on those marked NEW), in gspca for example:

Once the new drivers are enabled (M for module instead of a space), we can leave. Exit, Exit, etc… and save:

Launch the compilation:
make
sudo make install
If everything ok go to the next step, because the drivers also require the latest versions of libv4l.
For karmic it’s easy:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libv4l
Get the latest version if necessary:
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude full-upgrade

In order to load skype with the new drivers:

cd /usr/bin
sudo mv skype skype.real
gksudo gedit skype

add the following lines

#!/bin/sh
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /usr/bin/skype.real "$@"
and make exxecutable the file

sudo chmod +x skype
Restart and enjoy your new drivers.

Ref: Le bazar de Stemp, Ispirazioni Informatiche .

Older versions

N.B. Con i kernel 2.6.27.xx le procedure sotto riportate falliscono. Esse si riferiscono ai kernel 2.6.24.xx.

Creative Live! Cam Vista IM (Debian Lenny e Ubuntu)

Scaricare il driver ov51x-jpeg (ad esempio tramite subversion)

sudo aptitude install subversion
mkdir webcam-driver
svn co svn://rastageeks.org/svn/ov51x-jpeg/trunk webcam-driver
compilare

cd webcam-driver
sudo aptitude install linux-headers-`uname -r`
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe ov51x-jpeg
installare il modulo del pacchetto

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install ov51x-jpeg-source module-assistant
module-assistant a-i ov51x-jpeg
Per utilizzare la webcam con skype (versione 2.0.0.72) è necessario forzare un parametro all'avvio, inserendo nel file /etc/modprobe.d/options la seguente riga

options ov51x-jpeg forceblock=1
Nel caso di Ubuntu 8.04 o 9.04 è inltre necessario installare libv4l

sudo aptitude install libv4l-0

e lanciare skype con il comando

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

Conviene quindi rinominare l'eseguibile

sudo mv /usr/bin/skype /usr/bin/skype.real

e creare un file

sudo nano /usr/bin/skype

inserendo la riga

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

e renderlo eseguibile

sudo chmod 775 /usr/bin/skype



Ref: ubuntu forums, rastageeks, fireteam.

Creative WebCam Live! (Ubuntu 8.10)

La Creative WebCam Live! viene riconosciuta da ubuntu 8.10 e funziona correttamente con alcuni programmi come Cheese, ma skype 2.0.0.72 , pur riconoscendola, mostra una schermata verde invece del video.
E' quindi necessario installare il pacchetto libv4l (o lib32v4l per la versione amd64)

sudo aptitude install libv4l

rimuovere skype se già installato

sudo aptitude purge skype

e installare i repository Medibuntu

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/intrepid.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

aggiungendo anche la chiave GPG

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update

e quindi reinstallare skype da questo repository

sudo aptitude install skype


Ref: Ispirazioni Informatiche.