Status of driver ov511 based cameras

[Jean Francois Martinez]

There are two drivers for those cameras:

-the 1.x driver who is in the kernel and is basically useless since the
only OV511 cameras who are not by today standards as obsolete as a 20
Mhz 386 don't work with it.

-the 2.x driver at alpha.dyndns.com/ov511.  This is the only one who
works with
the late models who used this chip (and the ones who are still useful).
Probelm is that the author has not updated its site in two years and
that it no longer compiles with present day kernel.  I fixed it for
2.6.16 kernels and sent the patches to the author but got no answer.
And kernel 2.6.24 (I think) broke it again (or more exactly made it
no longer compile).

Question if I fix it again what are the chances it ends in Fedora?   How
are orphaned drivers handled in the kernel?  Someone, who doesn't seem
to be the original author, has been ensuring the 1.x continues compiling
in 2.6.27 despite the changes in interface.

JF Martinez

[Chuck Anderson]

On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 08:44:08PM +0100, Jean Francois Martinez wrote:
>  Question if I fix it again what are the chances it ends in Fedora?  
> How
>  are orphaned drivers handled in the kernel?  Someone, who doesn't seem
>  to be the original author, has been ensuring the 1.x continues compiling
>  in 2.6.27 despite the changes in interface. 
No, only if it ends up in upstream kernel will it be in Fedora.

You might try submitting the driver and fixes to Greg K-H's "Linux 
Staging" tree:

http://lkml.org/lkml/2008/6/10/329

[Chuck Anderson]

On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 02:58:41PM -0500, Chuck Anderson wrote:
>  On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 08:44:08PM +0100, Jean Francois Martinez
> wrote:
>  > Question if I fix it again what are the chances it ends in Fedora?   How
>  > are orphaned drivers handled in the kernel?  Someone, who doesn't seem
>  > to be the original author, has been ensuring the 1.x continues compiling
>  > in 2.6.27 despite the changes in interface.
>  
>  No, only if it ends up in upstream kernel will it be in Fedora.
>  
>  You might try submitting the driver and fixes to Greg K-H's "Linux 
>  Staging" tree:
>  
>  http://lkml.org/lkml/2008/6/10/329 
See also LinuxDriverProject:

http://www.linuxdriverproject.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/OutOfTreeDrivers?so...

http://www.rastageeks.org/ov51x-jpeg/index.php/Main_Page

[Hans de Goede]

Jean Francois Martinez wrote:
>  There are two drivers for those cameras:
>  
>  -the 1.x driver who is in the kernel and is basically useless since the
>  only OV511 cameras who are not by today standards as obsolete as a 20
>  Mhz 386 don't work with it.
>  
>  -the 2.x driver at alpha.dyndns.com/ov511.  This is the only one who
>  works with
>  the late models who used this chip (and the ones who are still useful).
>  Probelm is that the author has not updated its site in two years and
>  that it no longer compiles with present day kernel.  I fixed it for
>  2.6.16 kernels and sent the patches to the author but got no answer.
>  And kernel 2.6.24 (I think) broke it again (or more exactly made it
>  no longer compile).
>  
>  Question if I fix it again what are the chances it ends in Fedora?   How
>  are orphaned drivers handled in the kernel?  Someone, who doesn't seem
>  to be the original author, has been ensuring the 1.x continues compiling
>  in 2.6.27 despite the changes in interface.
>  
>  JF Martinez
>  
>   
Hi JF,

Most webcam based driver development now a days happens within / on top of the 
gspcav2 framework, which has been merged into the 2.6.27 kernel. gspcav2 
already supports ov519 based cams, adding support to the existing driver for 
ov518 based cams should be easy, as those are mostly the same. The big 
difference is that ov518 based cams use a slightly non standard form of JPEG 
compression one of the first things that need doing is adding support for this 
compression to libv4l.

Would you be interested in working on this? Here are some references explaining 
how to get the latest gspca driver, and about the why, how and what of libv4l
http://hansdegoede.livejournal.com/6630.html
http://hansdegoede.livejournal.com/6317.html
http://hansdegoede.livejournal.com/3636.html

You can get the latest libv4l here:
http://people.atrpms.net/~hdegoede/libv4l-0.5.6.tar.gz

Regards,

Hans

[Jean Francois Martinez]

On Sat, 2008-11-29 at 15:53 +0100, Hans de Goede wrote:
>  
>  Jean Francois Martinez wrote:
>  > There are two drivers for those cameras:
>  > 
>  > -the 1.x driver who is in the kernel and is basically useless since the
>  > only OV511 cameras who are not by today standards as obsolete as a 20
>  > Mhz 386 don't work with it.
>  > 
>  > -the 2.x driver at alpha.dyndns.com/ov511.  This is the only one who
>  > works with
>  > the late models who used this chip (and the ones who are still useful).
>  > Probelm is that the author has not updated its site in two years and
>  > that it no longer compiles with present day kernel.  I fixed it for
>  > 2.6.16 kernels and sent the patches to the author but got no answer.
>  > And kernel 2.6.24 (I think) broke it again (or more exactly made it
>  > no longer compile).
>  > 
>  > Question if I fix it again what are the chances it ends in Fedora?   How
>  > are orphaned drivers handled in the kernel?  Someone, who doesn't seem
>  > to be the original author, has been ensuring the 1.x continues compiling
>  > in 2.6.27 despite the changes in interface.
>  > 
>  > JF Martinez
>  > 
>  > 
>  
>  Hi JF,
>  
>  Most webcam based driver development now a days happens within / on top of the 
>  gspcav2 framework, which has been merged into the 2.6.27 kernel. gspcav2 
>  already supports ov519 based cams, adding support to the existing driver for 
>  ov518 based cams should be easy, as those are mostly the same. The big 
>  difference is that ov518 based cams use a slightly non standard form of JPEG 
>  compression one of the first things that need doing is adding support for this 
>  compression to libv4l.
>  
>  Would you be interested in working on this? Here are some references explaining 
>  how to get the latest gspca driver, and about the why, how and what of libv4l
>  http://hansdegoede.livejournal.com/6630.html
>  http://hansdegoede.livejournal.com/6317.html
>  http://hansdegoede.livejournal.com/3636.html
>   
Yes but I am no C programmer.  In case you thought that because I fixed
the OV511 I was one  the fixng I did was cosmetic (changing includes,
things who had been renamed).  

However I will se what I can do and to begin with I can test.


>  You can get the latest libv4l here:
>  http://people.atrpms.net/~hdegoede/libv4l-0.5.6.tar.gz
>  
>  Regards,
>  
>  Hans
>