Re: Using MSI StarCam 370i Webcam with Kubuntu Linux

[Thomas Kaiser <v4l@kaiser-linux.li>]

On 08/29/2009 06:57 PM, Dotan Cohen wrote:
> 2009/8/28 Thomas Kaiser <v4l@kaiser-linux.li>:
>> On 08/28/2009 08:40 PM, Dotan Cohen wrote:
>>> I have the MSI StarCam 370i Webcam and I have trying to use it with
>>> Kubuntu Linux 9.04 Jaunty. According to this page, "The StarCam 370i
>>> is compliant with UVC, USB video class":
>>>
>>> http://gadgets.softpedia.com/gadgets/Computer-Peripherals/The-MSI-StarCam-370i-3105.html
>>>
>>> According to the Linux UVC driver and tools download page, "Linux
>>> 2.6.26 and newer includes the Linux UVC driver natively" which is nice
>>> as I am on a higher version:
>>> $ uname -r
>>> 2.6.28-15-generic
>>>
>>> However, plugging in the webcam and testing with camorama, cheese, and
>>> luvcview led me to no results:
>>>
>>> jaunty2@laptop:~$ luvcview -f yuv
>>> luvcview 0.2.4
>>>
>>> SDL information:
>>>  Video driver: x11
>>>  A window manager is available
>>> Device information:
>>>  Device path:  /dev/video0
>>> Stream settings:
>>> ERROR: Requested frame format YUYV is not available and no fallback
>>> format was found.
>>>  Init v4L2 failed !! exit fatal
>>> jaunty2@laptop:~$ luvcview -f uyvy
>>> luvcview 0.2.4
>>>
>>> SDL information:
>>>  Video driver: x11
>>>  A window manager is available
>>> Device information:
>>>  Device path:  /dev/video0
>>> Stream settings:
>>> ERROR: Requested frame format UYVY is not available and no fallback
>>> format was found.
>>>  Init v4L2 failed !! exit fatal
>>> jaunty2@laptop:~$ luvcview
>>> luvcview 0.2.4
>>>
>>> SDL information:
>>>  Video driver: x11
>>>  A window manager is available
>>> Device information:
>>>  Device path:  /dev/video0
>>> Stream settings:
>>> ERROR: Requested frame format MJPG is not available and no fallback
>>> format was found.
>>>  Init v4L2 failed !! exit fatal
>>>
>>>
>>> Some more details:
>>>
>>> jaunty2@laptop:~$ ls /dev/vi*
>>> /dev/video0
>>> jaunty2@laptop:~$ dmesg | tail
>>> [ 2777.811972] sn9c102: V4L2 driver for SN9C1xx PC Camera Controllers
>>> v1:1.47pre49
>>> [ 2777.814989] usb 2-1: SN9C105 PC Camera Controller detected (vid:pid
>>> 0x0C45:0x60FC)
>>> [ 2777.842123] usb 2-1: HV7131R image sensor detected
>>> [ 2778.185108] usb 2-1: Initialization succeeded
>>> [ 2778.185220] usb 2-1: V4L2 device registered as /dev/video0
>>> [ 2778.185225] usb 2-1: Optional device control through 'sysfs'
>>> interface disabled
>>> [ 2778.185283] usbcore: registered new interface driver sn9c102
>>> [ 2778.216691] usbcore: registered new interface driver snd-usb-audio
>>> [ 2778.218738] usbcore: registered new interface driver sonixj
>>> [ 2778.218745] sonixj: registered
>>> jaunty2@laptop:~$ lsusb
>>> Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
>>> Bus 005 Device 002: ID 413c:8126 Dell Computer Corp. Wireless 355
>>> Bluetooth
>>> Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
>>> Bus 004 Device 004: ID 045e:0040 Microsoft Corp. Wheel Mouse Optical
>>> Bus 004 Device 003: ID 045e:00db Microsoft Corp. Natural Ergonomic
>>> Keyboard 4000 V1.0
>>> Bus 004 Device 002: ID 05e3:0604 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB 1.1 Hub
>>> Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
>>> Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
>>> Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0c45:60fc Microdia PC Camera with Mic (SN9C105)
>>> Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
>>> jaunty2@laptop:~$
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Anything missing? What should I do? Thanks in advance!
>> Hello Dotan, me again ;-)
>>
>> Looks like your cam is detected, but does not provide a good frame format.
>> You my have to use libv4l to convert to a know format.
>>
>> See: http://hansdegoede.livejournal.com/7622.html
>>
> 
> Thanks. I will go through that tomorrow, but in the meantime I got a
> strange result. Despite the fact  that this is a 32 bit Kubuntu
> install, I got these results from the tests at the beginning of the
> page:
> 
> jaunty2@laptop:~$ ls -d /usr/lib64
> /usr/lib64
> jaunty2@laptop:~$ ls -d /usr/lib32
> ls: cannot access /usr/lib32: No such file or directory
> jaunty2@laptop:~$
> 
> 
> According to what is written, with those results I should use the
> Fedora multilib instructions. Does that not sound unusual?
> 

Yes, this looks somehow strange. I don't have a 32 bit system at the 
moment to verify.

You know you have 32 bit, then just use the none multilib instructions.

You can install the version which ships with Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install libv4l-0

then do,

To use a v4l1 aware application this should do it:
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so <your favorite webcam app>

For a v4l2 aware application you should use:
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l2convert.so <your favorite webcam app>
to convert to a known video format.

Thomas