Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000 High Definition Webcam (PCI ID 045E:00F4 from "lsusb") doesn't work at all

[Kristian]

Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000 webcamera isn't recognized.. This is a relatively new webcam with megapixel resolution.

dmesg printout:
[17179842.684000] usb 5-5: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 6
[17179843.236000] 6:2:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x84
[17179843.244000] usbcore: registered new driver snd-usb-audio

The built-in mic seems to be recognized, but not the camera/video device itself.

[towsonu2003 (towsonu2003)]

which version of ubuntu are you using?

[Kristian (kmk)]

Ubuntu 6.10 / Edgy.

[towsonu2003 (towsonu2003)]

thanks :)

[Ferrix Hovi (ferrix)]

Has anyone actually implemented a driver so far? I won my camera from Microsoft and the best use I can guess is using it in Linux.

[Kristian (kmk)]

There is no driver yet as far as I know.. But the camera hardware is a Sonix SN9C202 bridge with an Omnivisjon ov9650 sensor. Probably. This is based on my own disassembling of the camera + visual inspection of the sensor shape (some dots on the ov9650 that are placed in a kind of pattern). And MS uses Omnivision in their NX-6000 and VX-3000 cams, so I guess this makes sense.

By replacing the device-id for the VX-3000 with 0x00f4 for the VX-6000
camera in the gspca driver, I get the following dmesg output:

[494773.820000] usb 1-5: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and
address 74
[494773.952000] usb 1-5: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[494773.952000] /home/kristian/gspcav1-20070426/gspca_core.c: USB GSPCA
camera found. SONIX JPEG (sn9c1xx)
[494773.952000] /home/kristian/gspcav1-20070426/gspca_core.c:
[spca5xx_probe:4041] Camera type JPEG
[494773.952000] /home/kristian/gspcav1-20070426/gspca_core.c:
[spca5xx_getcapability:1198] maxw 640 maxh 480 minw 160 minh 120
[494774.068000] 74:2:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x84

If I then tries the luvcview:

luvcview version 0.2.0
Video driver: x11
A window manager is available
video /dev/video0
ERROR opening V4L interface
: Invalid argument

and in dmesg the following is added:

 [494887.260000] /home/kristian/gspcav1-20070426/gspca_core.c:
[spca5xx_open:1919] DEALLOC error on spca50x_init_source
[494887.260000]

Does this mean that the sn9c1xx chipset/bridge is initialized, but since
the sensor in this camera is another one than the one in VX3000 it can't
read from the sensor?

I can add that if I run the luvcview without camera connected I'll get
luvcview version 0.2.0
Video driver: x11
A window manager is available
video /dev/video0
ERROR opening V4L interface
: No such file or directory

Instead of : Invalid argument.

[Jaba (jpylvanainen)]

I've tracked the problem to "Sonix/sonix.h":

r. 81: .initialize = sonix_init,

and

r. 433:
sonix_init(struct usb_spca50x *spca50x)
{
 __u8 ByteReceive = 0x00;
 sonixRegRead(spca50x->dev, 0x00, 0x00, 0x0000, &ByteReceive, 1);
 if (ByteReceive != 0x10)
  return -ENODEV;

 return 0;
}

Received byte is not 0x10 and that's why initializing goes wrong. I've never debugged a kernel module so I don't know how to get that right byte.

Source is newest gspcav1-20070508

[Fabian Zeindl (fabian-xover)]

Has there any progress been made about this?

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

I am assigning this bug to the 'ubuntu-kernel-team' per their bug policy. For future reference you can learn more about their bug policy at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies .

[[e-mail] (craigsn-hotmail)]

Just checking to see if there is more info on this issue.

[Sergio Zanchetta (primes2h)]

The 18 month support period for Edgy Eft 6.10 has reached it's end of life. As a result, we are closing the linux-source-2.6.17 Edgy Eft kernel task.

Hardy Heron 8.04 was recently released. It would be helpful if you could test the new release and verify if this is still an issue - http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . You should be able to test your bug using the LiveCD. Please let us know your results. Thanks.

[Fabian Zeindl (fabian-xover)]

Camera doesn't work in 8.04.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

[TJ (tj)]

I've created a Hardy DKMS package for the microdia driver that includes support for the Lifecam VX-6000 device ID (0c45:624f) and it is in my PPA.

Instructions for installing it are in the forums at:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5826879&postcount=4

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.

[Martin Olsson (mnemo)]

Confirming issue for jaunty. Just plugged one of these Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000 into a machine running feb 18th jaunty pre-release bits. Cheese says it doesn't find a webcam.

When I connected it, my 2.6.28-8-generic kernel printed this into dmesg:
[10216.004012] usb 8-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
[10216.138920] usb 8-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[10216.303732] 2:2:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x84
[10216.310361] usbcore: registered new interface driver snd-usb-audio
[10216.973004] 2:2:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x84
[10217.620905] usb 8-1: USB disconnect, address 2
[10217.628510] cannot submit datapipe for urb 0, error -19: no device
[10233.269484] usb 3-2.2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 5
[10233.379484] usb 3-2.2: not running at top speed; connect to a high speed hub
[10233.409556] usb 3-2.2: rejected 1 configuration due to insufficient available bus power
[10233.409560] usb 3-2.2: no configuration chosen from 1 choice

Also lsusb says:
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 045e:00f4 Microsoft Corp. LifeCam VX-6000.

[Martin Olsson (mnemo)]

I was able to get my VX-6000 to work on Jaunty using the Microdia driver built from git. Looks like Ubuntu kernel devs wants the microdia driver merged upstream though so they don't have to maintain it out-of-tree. So, for this bug to become fixed what needs to happen is that the microdia git tree needs to be merged into Linus's mainline kernel.

Basically, what I did was:

1. if the webcam is connected, disconnect it temporarily
2. install git and run "git clone http://repo.or.cz/r/microdia.git" to get the source code
3. cd into the directory and type make (you must have kernel headers and build tool installed ofc)
4. run "sudo insmod ./sn9c20x.ko"
5. connect the webcam to a proper USB port on the back of the PC (at first I used an USB connector on my keyboard and that printed some error in dmesg about "insufficient power").
6. the /dev/video0 device becomes available right away when you connect the cable and dmesg prints "SN9C20X USB 2.0 Webcam - 045E:00F4 plugged-in".

I posted some more notes about it along with dmesg output etc here:
https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.20/+bug/87054/comments/27

[Martin Olsson (mnemo)]

Marked as a duplicate of 87054, to get VX-6000 support in Ubuntu the Microdia drivers need to get packaged into Ubuntu (supposedly, this must come in through the mainline kernel.org bits?).