Webcams in Linux, Part 1 - Page 3

My own Webcam is built into a Viewsonic VX2255 LCD monitor. This monitor also has a built-in microphone. The Webcam requires a USB cable, so I connected it and ran these commands to see if Kubuntu Gutsy recognized it:

$ lsusb
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 04f2:b021 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd
$ dmesg
[20093.973828] usb 5-8: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
[20094.211937] usb 5-8: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[20094.318310] Linux video capture interface: v2.00
[20094.341023] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device ViewSonic 1.3M, USB2.0 Webcam (04f2:b021)
[20094.344865] usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo
[20094.345151] USB Video Class driver (v0.1.0)

That reveals that this Webcam is supported by the uvcvideo kernel module, and if I need to do a Web search for more information I have the Super Secret Webcam Name and Number. Take that, Viewsonic! Remember that dmesg updates as you plugin or remove peripherals, so its most recent output always shows the latest activity. If dmesg doesn't see a device, then the kernel does not see it, and you're probably out of luck.

Come back next week and we'll get cracking on some fun stuff, such as spying on people and displaying ourselves on the Internet. Please visit Resources for all manner of helpful links.

Resources

• One man writes Linux drivers for 235 USB webcams
• Linux UVC driver and tools
• HOWTO Install a webcam. It's for Gentoo, but it has a lot of great information for all Linuxes
• Webcams on Ubuntu
• Set up your web cam on Debian Etch
• Linux and Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000

Carla Schroder is the author of the Linux Cookbook and the newly-released Linux Networking Cookbook, and is a regular contributor to LinuxPlanet.

This article was first published on LinuxPlanet.com.

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