stk11xx web-cam driver should be included in the kernel

[Nikola Borisof]

Here is the site of the driver:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/syntekdriver/

I would like it to be included with the linux kernel. Otherwise after each kernel update we need to recompile and reinsert it.

[Sergey (sergey-redhat-bugs)]

Description of problem:
  Webcam is not recognized.
  Tested on F12 (2.6.32.9-70.fc12.x86_64) and Rawhide.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Download http://alt.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/nightly-composes/desktop/desktop-x86_64-20100310.20.iso
2. Make a bootable USB Flash stick from it
3. Boot

Actual results:
  No /dev/video* and big red sign in Cheese

Expected results:
  Device file in /dev/ and some image in cheese/mplayer

Additional info:

Linux version 2.6.33-1.fc13.x86_64 (<email address hidden>) (gcc version 4.4.3 20100211 (Red Hat 4.4.3-6) (GCC) ) #1 SMP Wed Feb 24 19:55:32 UTC 2010

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 174f:6a31 Syntek Web Cam - Asus A8J, F3S, F5R, VX2S, V1S

Related parts of dmesg output:
...
usb 1-7: New USB device found, idVendor=174f, idProduct=6a31
usb 1-7: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=10
usb 1-7: Product: USB2.0
usb 1-7: Manufacturer: Syntek
...

[Sergey (sergey-redhat-bugs)]

Created attachment 399867
lsusb -vvv

[Sergey (sergey-redhat-bugs)]

Anything else I can help with? I can provide additional information if needed. And I don't mind to test something, if there's anything to test...

[Bug (bug-redhat-bugs)]

This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora 14 development cycle.
Changing version to '14'.

More information and reason for this action is here:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping

[Chuck (chuck-redhat-bugs)]

Is this still failing on Fedora 14 Alpha and/or F13 with the 2.6.34 kernel installed?

[Xavier (xavier-redhat-bugs)]

Up! Good Sunday everybody.

Yes, here this is still failing on Fedora 14 released with the 2.6.35 kernel (latest stable, as updated via official repositories).

Laptop: Asus V1S-AS004E (Spanish keyboard)
Distro: Fedora 14 x86_64 (KDE)

# uname -a
Linux venus.xapaho.com 2.6.35.10-74.fc14.x86_64 #1 SMP Thu Dec 23 16:04:50 UTC 2010 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

# lsusb | grep Syntek
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 174f:6a31 Syntek Web Cam - Asus A8J, F3S, F5R, VX2S, V1S

# dmesg | grep "usb 1-3"
[ 3.578482] usb 1-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
[ 3.942533] usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=174f, idProduct=6a31
[ 3.942537] usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=10
[ 3.942540] usb 1-3: Product: USB2.0
[ 3.942542] usb 1-3: Manufacturer: Syntek

[Xavier (xavier-redhat-bugs)]

Created attachment 477300
lsusb -vvv (webcam section)

[Xavier (xavier-redhat-bugs)]

Here is a long post, which I wish I found here yesterday :)

*Workaround*

  For my specific system and kernel versions, cf. my previous comment, just above.

  There is a syntek kernel module out there (on sourceforge), which now works for me
  (just like it had worked on the same hardware, with Ubuntu, a couple of years ago).
  Googling, one can find many users who have based their solution on this code.

  Below were my steps (exhaustive list, rather simple). It will be required to repeat them,
    after each kernel update, or until the current svn code gets packaged with the kernel ?
    The sooner, the better (for me, anyway ^^)

  For reference :

    http://www.stk.com.tw/product-01.asp?Product_Type=32
      The constructor does proudly "announce" Linux kernel support for the product family,
      but in facts, stable kernels would include support only for one of their models
      (as supported by the open source project when it got inserted, I guess)

    http://syntekdriver.sourceforge.net/
      the latest *release* (2.1.0) did not compile on my system.
      the latest *svn* trunck (rev 99), *did* compile and work correctly.

    http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/syntek
      the Ubuntu folks refer to some 3rd party Makefile which may not be recommended here
      (and this tutorial may be outdated already)

  Please note :
   $ = command I did run as normal user
   # = command I did run as root

  1) Get the latest syntek driver code from svn repository on sourceforge
     $ mkdir syntek-svn
     $ cd syntek-svn
     $ svn co https://syntekdriver.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/syntekdriver/trunk/driver

     This checked out rev 99 of the trunk, creating a new "driver" subfolder.
     Accepted permanently sourceforge SVN's current fingerprint
       94:74:b3:a9:54:ce:dc:e5:0d:d6:cf:86:b1:40:5a:48:b9:ea:15:de
     which can be verified here using any modern browser (look at the certificate)
       https://syntekdriver.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/syntekdriver/

  2) As stated in the README file, compiling does require
     - kernel development resources (package "kernel-devel" & co. were already installed here)
       http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/CustomKernel#Building_Only_Kernel_Modules_.28Out_Of_Tree_Modules.29
     - Doxygen, to compile the documentation (optional)
     # yum install doxygen

  3) Compile the kernel module
     $ cd driver
     $ make -f Makefile.standalone driver

  4) If ctags were not available on the system (package "ctags"),
       then the following error came up, which should be safe to ignore (didn't try)
     make: ctags: Command not found
     make: *** [driver] Error 127

     Retrying with ctags installed, did compile without any error
     $ make -f Makefile.standalone clean
     # yum install ctags
     $ make -f Makefile.standalone driver

  5) Compile the documentation (optional)
    - despite a large number of warnings, a "doxygen" subfolder appeared in "syntek-svn"
    - starting point is "syntek-svn/doxygen/html/index.html"... which looks a little outdated :)
     $ make -f Makefile.standalone doc

  6) Install the new kernel module on the system

     Place it in a new "extra" subfolder, ensuring i...

[Xavier (xavier-redhat-bugs)]

Good Sunday,

New kernel is out, installed, tested : still no support for this webcam.
(2.6.35.11-83.fc14.x86_64)

Unfortunately, here I could not compile the module against this kernel.
This goes beyond my linux knowledge, will report to the module authors.
Here were my steps, any help or comments, very welcome !

  8) Recompiling the module against a new kernel

     Double-checked that kernel-headers and kernel-devel,
     were updated for this kernel
     a. $ yum list installed kernel-*
        Installed Packages
        kernel.x86_64 2.6.35.10-74.fc14 @updates
        kernel.x86_64 2.6.35.11-83.fc14 @updates
        kernel-devel.x86_64 2.6.35.10-74.fc14 @updates
        kernel-devel.x86_64 2.6.35.11-83.fc14 @updates
        kernel-headers.x86_64 2.6.35.11-83.fc14 @updates
     Previous kernel's headers were not added, but replaced (?)

     Checking the module's source repository for updates
     b. $ cd syntek-svn/driver
     c. $ svn up
         (No update is available, latest is still rev. 99)

     If the doc had been updated (which is not the case)
     d. $ make -f Makefile.standalone cleandoc
     e. $ make -f Makefile.standalone doc

     Recompiling the kernel module
     f. $ make -f Makefile.standalone clean
     g. $ make -f Makefile.standalone driver

     If the module was compiled successfully: repeat steps 6 and 7.

At point g. all I get is a long list of declaration errors such as:

  make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.35.11-83.fc14.x86_64'
  CC [M] .../syntek-svn/driver/stk11xx-usb.o
  CC [M] .../syntek-svn/driver/stk11xx-v4l.o
  .../syntek-svn/driver/stk11xx-v4l.c: In function ‘v4l_stk11xx_do_ioctl’:
  .../syntek-svn/driver/stk11xx-v4l.c:668:8: error: ‘VIDIOCGCAP’ undeclared
  (first use in this function)
  ...
  .../syntek-svn/driver/stk11xx-v4l.c:674:27: error: dereferencing pointer to
  incomplete type
  ...
  make: *** [driver] Error 2

Booting under the previous kernel, everything still works just fine.
(2.6.35.10-74.fc14.x86_64)
For completion, I tried again to compile the module: still does.

In the last kernel's release notes, are many entries related to V4L.
Could the video symbols have changed, with no backward compatibility ?
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/longterm/v2.6.35/ChangeLog-2.6.35.11

Xavier

[Xavier (xavier-redhat-bugs)]

Good Saturday,

Workaround update

Webcam still work like a charm here ...BUT

* using before-last stable kernel, not the latest stable
  (sticking to 2.6.35.10-74.fc14.x86_64)

* using a specific revision of the stk11xx module, not the HEAD
  (sticking to rev. 99 since latest 100:101 won't build here)

  Erratum cf. step 1) and 8) c. here above (respectively):
  $ svn co -r 99 https://syntekdriver.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/syntekdriver/trunk/driver
  $ svn up -r 99

* with some extra precaution, or the kernel will crash !!
  first time I saw F14 crashing here, you've been warned ^^
  just let each webcam-aware application complete webcam init
  (light blinks on then off)
  before launching another one (eg. two concurrent skype ids)

Detailed info and bug reports I filled today
  https://sourceforge.net/projects/syntekdriver/forums/forum/616183/topic/3353497
  https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3187002&group_id=178178&atid=884191
  https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3187013&group_id=178178&atid=884191
  https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3187003&group_id=178178&atid=884191

I could reproduce the kernel crash "on-demand" and reported it first via ABRT (first crash wasn't detected, system log just aborted), but I can't find its URL right now (is kerneloops.org front end in troubles ?), nor can I find anything related to 2.6.35 (?).
  https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3187007&group_id=178178&atid=884191

With hope this will helps others already, happy workaround ^^
Any further info needed ?

Xavier

[Xavier (xavier-redhat-bugs)]

Good Saturday,

Today I could reproduce the kernel oops once again (see "extra precaution here before"), and finally also use ABRT BZ plugin to report it here

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=682459

Any further info needed ?
Best regards,
Xavier

[Xavier (xavier-redhat-bugs)]

Good Friday,

There is a patch available, which prevents the kernel crash mentioned earlier.

From my daily use over the past few weeks, I can confirm this provides me with a stable usage for this webcam on Fedora (still using module source rev.99 and kernel 2.6.35.10-74.fc14.x86_64)

patch:
(to be applied after step 1) and 8) c. here above)
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/download.php?group_id=178178&atid=884191&file_id=403550&aid=3187007

thread:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3187007&group_id=178178&atid=884191

Xavier

[Lex Ross (lross)]

Confirmed. The driver is absent as of kernel 2.6.38-8-generic on 64-bit Natty, and the provided stkwebcam kernel module does not support the webcam on my Asus F5N laptop.

$ lsusb | grep -i syntek
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 174f:6a31 Syntek Web Cam - Asus A8J, F3S, F5R, VX2S, V1S

[berot3 (berot3)]

ye would be awesome, but after so many years i gave up every hope that this is going to happen some day...

i have asus V1S

$ lsusb | grep -i syntek
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 174f:6a31 Syntek Web Cam - Asus A8J, F3S, F5R, VX2S, V1S

...now i cant even compile it on natty! says:

$ syntekdriver/trunk/driver/stk11xx-v4l.c:43:28: fatal error: linux/videodev.h: File no found

have to dualboot windows everytime i wanna videocall... VERY annoying

[arsen (raa1985)]

to berot3:
Actually I've got syntek driver compiled this way: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10881833#post10881833
BUT camera still dont work with Skype. (although it works with everything else).
lsusb gives "Bus 001 Device 002: ID 174f:6a33 Syntek Web Cam - Asus F3SA, F9J, F9S"
dmesg | tail gives a bunch of "[ 521.830614] stk11xx: Check device return error (0x0201 = 0C) ! "

quoting one message from http://ubuntuforums.org/:
"Asus is a well known laptop brand that makes (made?) the F3 series laptops that came with Syntek webcams built in. For at least the past three years (that I can easily count), the Ubuntu forums, the bug reporting system, and other help sites on the Internet for Linux distros have been replete with complaints from users who cannot get their Syntek webcams to work properly.

I wonder if there is anyone out there connected to the Ubuntu development team who might be able to get someone to work a bit on this problem. After all, three years is not a short period of time and Asus is not a small manufacturer of laptops ."

And he is damn right. Is it so hard to include properly working syntek driver in ubuntu distors???

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in dianosing the problem. From a terminal window please run:

apport-collect 757040

and then change the status of the bug back to 'New'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[Lex Ross (lross)]

AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: onair24 1717 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'NVidia'/'HDA NVidia at 0xfd778000 irq 20'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC660-VD'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0660,10431339,00100001 HDA:10573055,10431316,00100700'
   Controls : 18
   Simple ctrls : 12
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=156e1f3c-3d8d-46f5-a723-9e9580150946
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
MachineType: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. F5N
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: linux (not installed)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US
 LANG=ru_RU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-2.6.38-10-generic root=UUID=6acef2ee-56e9-42c0-acd9-970f48a81236 ro processor.ignore_ppc=1 quiet splash vt.handoff=7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-10.46-generic 2.6.38.7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-2.6.38-10-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-2.6.38-10-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.52
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
Tags: natty running-unity
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-10-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-04-15 (94 days ago)
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout dip fax floppy fuse lpadmin plugdev sambashare tape video
WifiSyslog:
 Jul 19 08:02:50 mars NetworkManager[797]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: completed -> group handshake
 Jul 19 08:02:50 mars NetworkManager[797]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: group handshake -> completed
 Jul 19 09:02:50 mars NetworkManager[797]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: completed -> group handshake
 Jul 19 09:02:50 mars NetworkManager[797]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: group handshake -> completed
dmi.bios.date: 04/08/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 213
dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.board.name: F5N
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr213:bd04/08/2008:svnASUSTeKComputerInc.:pnF5N:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:rnF5N:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:ct10:cvr:
dmi.product.name: F5N
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

[Lex Ross (lross)]

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[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in dianosing the problem. From a terminal window please run:

apport-collect 757040

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[Lex Ross (lross)]

Dear Brad,

Logs posted above were produced by running 'apport-collect 757040' command as per your request. Should you require specific logs or information to be collected manually, please let me know.

Kind regards,
Lex

[Josh (josh-redhat-bugs)]

This isn't going to be fixed in f14. The best chance you have is to work with the driver authors to get the driver into the staging tree and into mainline from there.

[Julius Schwartzenberg (jschwart)]

It seems something is screwed up with the bot asking for log files here (Brad Figg). There is no point in providing log files. This bug is about a driver missing from Ubuntu required for a chip for a USB streaming camera. Someone should create a DKMS package out of the source from the repository mentioned above and add it to Debian/Ubuntu. Then users with this type of camera can install this package & have their camera work.

[Xavier (xavier-redhat-bugs)]

Hi, this bug still applies to Fedora 16 (kernel 3.2.6-3.fc16.x86_64).

Current HowTo for Fedora 16 (long overdue !) is here.
There were great improvement in sourceforge module in the mean time.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/syntekdriver/forums/forum/616183/topic/5055644

Hope it helps others.

(In reply to comment #12)
> This isn't going to be fixed in f14. The best chance you have is to work with
> the driver authors to get the driver into the staging tree and into mainline
> from there.

Indeed, thanks Josh. Another module from the same author *is* included upstream for a while (but does not support this webcam model) :

$ modinfo stkwebcam
filename: /lib/modules/3.2.6-3.fc16.x86_64/kernel/drivers/media/video/stkwebcam.ko
description: Syntek DC1125 webcam driver
author: Jaime Velasco Juan <email address hidden> and Nicolas VIVIEN

Thanks,

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Nikola Borisof, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. In order to include this driver in Ubuntu, we would need the code merged into the upstream kernel first. It would be nice if somebody could send the merge request by following the instructions at http://kernelnewbies.org/UpstreamMerge . If you have done so, please provide the link so we may track the progress. Thanks in advance.

[Fedora (fedora-redhat-bugs)]

This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora 19 development cycle.
Changing version to '19'.

(As we did not run this process for some time, it could affect also pre-Fedora 19 development
cycle bugs. We are very sorry. It will help us with cleanup during Fedora 19 End Of Life. Thank you.)

More information and reason for this action is here:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping/Fedora19

[Justin (justin-redhat-bugs)]

Is this still a problem with 3.9 based F19 kernels?

[Xavier (xavier-redhat-bugs)]

Justin, this month I'm hoping to test Fedora 19 pre-releases on this hardware...

So far it (still..) greatly runs Fedora 16, latest stock kernel, with syntekdriver module built locally (from rev-107 at sourceforge, plus a few remaining patches, now very minor. And I've scripted it all for so long that I almost forgot about it \o/). Beyond this, I only tested stock kernels from Live releases (up to F18 final, no respins yet).

F16 up to 3.6.11-4 : unsupported but syntekdriver works flawlessly.
F18 up to 3.6.10-4 : unsupported, syntekdriver not yet tested
any later 3.7+ : not yet tested

[Justin (justin-redhat-bugs)]

This bug is being closed with INSUFFICIENT_DATA as there has not been a
response in 2 weeks. If you are still experiencing this issue,
please reopen and attach the relevant data from the latest kernel you are
running and any data that might have been requested previously.

[Lex Ross (lross)]

I wonder have anyone actually sent the merge request upstream? As of today, there is no Syntek stk11xx driver included with the Ubuntu 3.13.0 kernel (14.04 LTS)