Notification when plugin a webcam

[Fred]

I think there should be a notification when you plugin a webcam.

That it say "Ubuntu has detected that you plugged in a webcam".

I just plugged in a Logitech QuickCam Express, and absolutely nothing happened. There were no indication that it worked or were detected.

Running 'lsusb' showed that it indeed was detected though.

$ lsusb
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 046d:0870 Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Express
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 045e:001e Microsoft Corp. IntelliMouse Explorer
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 049f:0051 Compaq Computer Corp. KU-0133 Easy Access Interner Keyboard
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

I am using Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron" (beta).

Also, the camera does not work. Cheese doesn't show it.

$ gstreamer-properties
gstreamer-properties-Message: Skipping unavailable plugin 'artsdsink'
gstreamer-properties-Message: Skipping unavailable plugin 'sdlvideosink'
gstreamer-properties-Message: Skipping unavailable plugin 'v4lmjpegsrc'
gstreamer-properties-Message: Skipping unavailable plugin 'qcamsrc'
gstreamer-properties-Message: Skipping unavailable plugin 'esdmon'
gstreamer-properties-Message: Error running pipeline 'Video for Linux (v4l)': Could not synchronize on resource. [v4lsrc_calls.c(486): gst_v4lsrc_try_capture (): /pipeline0/v4lsrc2:
system error: Invalid exchange]

[TenLeftFingers (tenleftfingers)]

Hi Fred,

Camorama Webcam Viewer (available in the repository for Hardy and possibly other releases) will show you how your webcam is working.

Regards,
Jarlath

[Fred (eldmannen+launchpad)]

Camorama says "Unable to capture image." then closes.

[Fred (eldmannen+launchpad)]

$ camorama -D

VIDIOCGCAP
device name = Logitech QuickCam USB
device type = 513
can use mmap()
# of channels = 1
# of audio devices = 0
max width = 356
max height = 292
min width = 32
min height = 32

VIDIOCGWIN
x = 0
y = 0
width = 356
height = 292
chromakey = 0
flags = 524288

VIDIOCGWIN
x = 0
y = 0
width = 178
height = 146
chromakey = 0
flags = 524288

VIDIOCGPICT:
bright = 32768
hue = 32768
colour = 32768
contrast = 32768
whiteness = 32768
colour depth = 24
24bit RGB

VIDIOCGMBUF
mb.size = 426240
mb.frames = 2
mb.offset = 0
update_tooltip called
tip - acap off
** Message: SET PIC
** Message: SET PIC
** Message: SET PIC
** Message: SET PIC
** Message: SET PIC
update_tooltip called
tip - acap off
Unable to capture image (VIDIOCSYNC)

[TenLeftFingers (tenleftfingers)]

Well, since your bug states that ubuntu doesn't notify of a camera being connected, I can confirm that.

As far as finding out if your camera is working or not, I've searched Launchpad and the majority of people who have had a problem with Camorama have had success with Ekiga and/or Skype.

[TenLeftFingers (tenleftfingers)]

Apologies, I accidentally set HAL as the affected package while performing a search. If anyone can revert this, please do.

[TenLeftFingers (tenleftfingers)]

Confirming based on the wiki here that states that this functionality is available from the repository, but not by default.

[TenLeftFingers (tenleftfingers)]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Webcam

[supertux75 (sebastien-genete)]

Hi,

Alexandre Belloni has already solved this problem.
He created a patch to apply before compiling the source code:

From: Alexandre Belloni <alexandre.belloni <at> piout.net>
Subject: Patch for kernel 2.6.24
Newsgroups: gmane.linux.drivers.quickcam.devel
Date: 2008-02-19 09:30:39 GMT (12 weeks, 5 days, 9 hours and 10 minutes ago)

Hi,

I've patched qc-usb 0.6.6 to make it compile on kernel 2.6.24.
It is attached to this mail.

Regards,

--
Alexandre Belloni

[supertux75 (sebastien-genete)]

I have succeeded to compile the driver but the driver fails to load...

See the result from quickcam.sh:

[ 0.000000] ACPI: IRQ9 used by override.
[ 0.000000] ACPI: IRQ14 used by override.
[ 0.000000] ACPI: IRQ15 used by override.
[ 0.000000] Enabling APIC mode: Flat. Using 1 I/O APICs
[ 0.000000] Using ACPI (MADT) for SMP configuration information
[ 0.000000] Allocating PCI resources starting at c0000000 (gap: b8000000:46c00000)
[ 0.000000] swsusp: Registered nosave memory region: 000000000009f000 - 00000000000a0000
[ 0.000000] swsusp: Registered nosave memory region: 00000000000a0000 - 00000000000e0000
[ 0.000000] swsusp: Registered nosave memory region: 00000000000e0000 - 0000000000100000
[ 0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on. Total pages: 747729
[ 0.000000] Kernel command line: root=UUID=5b290946-eceb-4ddc-b068-31c6e032516c ro quiet splash
[ 0.000000] mapped APIC to ffffb000 (fee00000)
[ 0.000000] mapped IOAPIC to ffffa000 (fec00000)
[ 0.000000] Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
[ 0.000000] Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
[ 0.000000] Initializing CPU#0
[ 0.000000] PID hash table entries: 4096 (order: 12, 16384 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Detected 2009.197 MHz processor.
[ 21.423897] spurious 8259A interrupt: IRQ7.
[ 21.426741] Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
[ 21.426744] console [tty0] enabled
[ 21.427155] Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
[ 21.427556] Inode-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
[ 21.569203] Memory: 2976896k/3014464k available (2157k kernel code, 36176k reserved, 998k data, 364k init, 2096960k highmem)
[ 21.569211] virtual kernel memory layout:
[ 21.569212] fixmap : 0xfff4b000 - 0xfffff000 ( 720 kB)
[ 21.569213] pkmap : 0xff800000 - 0xffc00000 (4096 kB)
[ 21.569214] vmalloc : 0xf8800000 - 0xff7fe000 ( 111 MB)
[ 21.569215] lowmem : 0xc0000000 - 0xf8000000 ( 896 MB)
[ 21.569216] .init : 0xc041b000 - 0xc0476000 ( 364 kB)
[ 21.569217] .data : 0xc031b5a4 - 0xc0414dc4 ( 998 kB)
[ 21.569218] .text : 0xc0100000 - 0xc031b5a4 (2157 kB)
[ 21.569221] Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.
[ 21.569258] SLUB: Genslabs=11, HWalign=64, Order=0-1, MinObjects=4, CPUs=2, Nodes=1
[ 21.649180] Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 4021.87 BogoMIPS (lpj=8043754)
[ 21.649205] Security Framework initialized
[ 21.649211] SELinux: Disabled at boot.
[ 21.649226] AppArmor: AppArmor initialized
[ 21.649229] Failure registering capabilities with primary security module.
[ 21.649237] Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
[ 21.649347] CPU: After generic identify, caps: 178bfbff ebd3fbff 00000000 00000000 00002001 00000000 0000001f 00000000
[ 21.649356] CPU: L1 I Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line), D cache 64K (64 bytes/line)
[ 21.649358] CPU: L2 Cache: 512K (64 bytes/line)
[ 21.649361] CPU 0(2) -> Core 0
[ 21.649362] CPU: After all inits, caps: 178bfbff ebd3fbff 00000000 00000410 00002001 00000000 0000001f 00000000
[ 21.649373] Compat vDSO mapped to ffffe000...

[Nikolaj Sheller (nikolajsheller)]

Please see bug #215464.

[Fred (eldmannen+launchpad)]

Someone can send the patch upstreams?
Someone can apply it in next kernel?

[Andres Mujica (andres.mujica)]

Fred thanks a lot for your bug report, sorry for the delay in taking care of this.

The first issue you reported is a WISHLIST, this means that you are looking for a functionality not available within Ubuntu by default, or at least as you describe it.

The closest thing is with ekiga, you can open Ekiga, and the plug the camera, you'll get a windows popup asking if you want to use it as default camera for Ekiga.

Now, about your comment about camorama, that's another issue, can you confirm if it's still happening with Intrepid fully updated?

About supertux comments and patch, i believe that is not related to this bug.

If you're still having the camorama issue we can look for an already reported bug or open a new one focused on that.

thanks

[Daniele Napolitano (dnax88)]

Try this python script for HAL visual feedback: https://code.launchpad.net/~dnax88/+junk/hal-notify

[Savvas Radevic (medigeek)]

Adding hal package for suggestion for notification when plugging in a webcam. :)

[Fred (eldmannen+launchpad)]

I think that HAL is removed in Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" LTS.

[Daniele Napolitano (dnax88)]

@Fred: Yes I know... Just I have a bit of time, will update my scripts.

Regards

[dino99 (9d9)]

http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/hal/