ioctl (VIDIOCSPICT): Invalid argument

[Mathieu Marquer]

Binary package hint: webcam-server

Using Ubuntu Intrepid with -proposed repos enabled and a Omnivision webcam integrated to my Dell Vostro 1500 screen (05a9:2640).

The webcam works fine, for example with cheese, but here is the error message that appears when I try to launch webcam-server :

$ webcam-server
ioctl (VIDIOCSPICT): Invalid argument
error setting video device parameters, using defaults
ioctl (VIDIOCSPICT): Invalid argument
not a valid video device? quitting.

[mallegonian (mallegonian)]

Have you tried using
webcam-server -d /dev/video0
or whatever your video device is?

[Sergey K (koblin)]

i'm too have this issue with Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000

webcam-server -v -d /dev/video0
ioctl (VIDIOCGCAP): Invalid argument
ioctl (VIDIOCSPICT): Invalid argument
error setting video device parameters, using defaults
ioctl (VIDIOCGCAP): Invalid argument
ioctl (VIDIOCSPICT): Invalid argument
not a valid video device? quitting.

ls -la /dev/video0
crw-rw----+ 1 root video 81, 0 2009-11-16 00:22 /dev/video0

dmesg:
[39291.632076] usb 1-4: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 10
[39291.893001] usb 1-4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[39291.894572] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device <unnamed> (046d:0990)
[39291.952087] input: UVC Camera (046d:0990) as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-4/1-4:1.0/input/input19

webcam working fine with guvcview, cheese, skype, ...

[risingape (risingape)]

I am also having this issue with Karmic server and webcam-server 0.50-3.

$ webcam-server
ioctl (VIDIOCSPICT): Invalid argument
error setting video device parameters, using defaults
ioctl (VIDIOCSPICT): Invalid argument
not a valid video device? quitting.

Webcam works with cheese and motion.

[Paul (peubanks)]

I'm seeing the same issue. Here's kernel version and strace output when trying to run webcam-server. Let me know if I can help further.

$ uname -r
2.6.28-11-generic

$ strace webcam-server
execve("/usr/bin/webcam-server", ["webcam-server"], [/* 23 vars */]) = 0
brk(0) = 0x893f000
access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
mmap2(NULL, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7fad000
access("/etc/ld.so.preload", R_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY) = 3
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=70187, ...}) = 0
mmap2(NULL, 70187, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0xb7f9b000
close(3) = 0
access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/lib/libjpeg.so.62", O_RDONLY) = 3
read(3, "\177ELF\1\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0\3\0\1\0\0\0\20'\0\0004\0\0\0"..., 512) = 512
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=140900, ...}) = 0
mmap2(NULL, 143684, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0xb7f77000
mmap2(0xb7f99000, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x21) = 0xb7f99000
close(3) = 0
access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/lib/tls/i686/cmov/libpthread.so.0", O_RDONLY) = 3
read(3, "\177ELF\1\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0\3\0\1\0\0\0PI\0\0004\0\0\0"..., 512) = 512
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=116920, ...}) = 0
mmap2(NULL, 98792, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0xb7f5e000
mmap2(0xb7f73000, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x14) = 0xb7f73000
mmap2(0xb7f75000, 4584, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7f75000
close(3) = 0
access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY) = 3
read(3, "\177ELF\1\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0\3\0\1\0\0\0\260l\1\0004\0\0\0"..., 512) = 512
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=1319364, ...}) = 0
mmap2(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7f5d000
mmap2(NULL, 1329512, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0xb7e18000
mprotect(0xb7f56000, 4096, PROT_NONE) = 0
mmap2(0xb7f57000, 12288, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x13e) = 0xb7f57000
mmap2(0xb7f5a000, 10600, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7f5a000
close(3) = 0
mmap2(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7e17000
set_thread_area({entry_number:-1 -> 6, base_addr:0xb7e176c0, limit:1048575, seg_32bit:1, contents:0, read_exec_only:0, limit_in_pages:1, seg_not_present:0, useable:1}) = 0
open("/dev/urandom", O_RDONLY) = 3
read(3, "d\256\275", 3) = 3
close(3) = 0
mprotect(0xb7f57000, 8192, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0xb7f73000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0xb7f99000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0xb7...

[Ondrej (ondrej-wisniewski)]

I get the same error with Lucid (Kernel 2.6.32) and webcam-server 5.04.

I am using the webcam driver sn9c102. Since the ioctl parameters are implemented in the driver I had a look at the current source code. The constants used in the driver are different from the ones used by the application. I guess the problem is related to the driver being v4l2 and webcam-server still a v4l1 application. Its webpage http://webcamserver.sourceforge.net/ stated in 2007 that an upcoming release would introduce the v4l2 API but I cannot find any trace of this release. The project seems to be abandoned.

Looks like Ubuntu basically still ships the 0.5 release from 2004, also including a small patch from 2006.

So I think webcam-server needs to be updated to be compatible with the current v4l2 webcam drivers.

[Dieter Deiss (flip)]

Easy workaround is to load v4l1-compat:

#!/bin/bash
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so webcam-server -d /dev/video0 ...

Hope this helps someone.
Anyway, webcam-server needs to be updated to be compatible with the current v4l2!
I tried to Contact author with no success.

[Ondrej (ondrej-wisniewski)]

@Dieter: Does the workaround actually work for you? I had tried that but it didn't solve the problem for me.

Anyway, as a replacement try using "motion" (also in the repos). Just a little more complicated to configure but much more powerful and it is actively being developed, works great here.

[tdn (spam-thomasdamgaard)]

I get the same error:
~ $ webcam-server [pts/2 - 9328H 0J 0R - 2010-10-21 11:28:00 - 0+03:46 - 0.26 0.32 0.27]
ioctl (VIDIOCSPICT): Invalid argument
error setting video device parameters, using defaults
ioctl (VIDIOCSPICT): Invalid argument
not a valid video device? quitting.

[tdn (spam-thomasdamgaard)]

Workaround with LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so seems to be working.

[Oibaf (oibaf)]

webcam-server was removed from Ubuntu time ago.