Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 Webcam -Video I problem

M Daniel R M danes16subscrip3 at ya.com
Thu Sep 30 23:03:43 UTC 2004


Hi everybody,

That's the exact name of the model that I own -not an advertisement...

The gadget does work, proofs:
	-SuSE(9) KDE default webcam application (don't remember its 	  name)
	 (Suse's my second home system, what Windows is/means for 	  others,
Suse is for me...That is, although almost not used,
	  things -hardware- work there.)
	-SuSE(9) Gnomemeeting --> Yes, indeed. 
	-Windows (when I bought it, already some time ago)
	-Camorama, in Fedora (my favourite main home system, still    	 	 Core
1).
	-Even more: I'd bet it worked OK some months ago (but not sure)
	 with Gnomemeeting and xawtv in FC1 (then I didn't have
	 nearly any time to glance at this kind of things and I didn't
	 care so much pass through it).   

My doubts are (in FC1) about the system configuration (maybe
/etc/modules.conf) or might be about some apps' config.

Has it anything to do with the last new kernels for FC1 ? I've always
had precompiled kernels coming from them. At the moment:

[daniel at PRIMATES-PLM Documentation]$ date
vie oct  1 00:37:48 CEST 2004
[daniel at PRIMATES-PLM Documentation]$ uname -r
2.4.22-1.2199.nptl


AFAIRead, gadget's video chip is Philips, isn't it??

Does it need the pwc module loaded for proper working, right?

How can I check if I have the pwcx installed? Is it necessary for webcam
apps or maybe can pwc manage the device by itselt? It would explain why
camorama works perfectly (supposing pwcx not really installed).

Is there (or was, in the past) a way to get the pwcx portion via yum or
apt? If not, it is sure I don't have it installed.

I've had a look to the pwc developer web site, but IMHO -at least it
seemed to me- most-simple general explanations are poor (just what a
newbie like me can need!) about why pcwx is necessary and when. Inside
its tarball says, if I understood right, that you must have a 2.4.25
kernel to patch it later (if 2.4 serie). If I wanted to go on with it
(Still I don't know if pwcx is worth or important or not...) his would
bind to me to abandon the Fedora's precompiled kernels, wouldn't it?

I've also had a look at /boot/config*(active kernel), with kernel
sources installed, and drivers like v4l and other are installed (as
modules); What I can see is that almost everything is configured as M
there, in precompiled kernels. I suppose the meaning is to ensure that
most things will work if needed but I'm not sure if all needed modules
are automatically loaded when you run certain program, as a webcam
application for example. Is there any way to bind to the kernel to load
some modules (that you know you're going to need later) at start up?
Actually, I am quite messed up with all this. 

I know that by typing /sbin/lsmod the loaded modules are listed; I also
know that /sbin/modprobe modulename loads it according to the
/etc/modules.conf file, but not much more I can say about this. Editing
the modules.conf without knowing what are exactly you doing is not a
good solution, even with a .bak file, it looks like a loose of time if
there is not interactive help. I need help if the problem is here or
similar level.

I've also compared the config files for Gnomemeeting into Fedora and
Suse (because capture works here), but I didn't find any relevant
differences between them. Nothing. Maybe the Suse distro has the
mentioned pwcx installed, I don't know....
Same for modules.conf between the 2 distros, mainly looking for
something different more o less, but they has not much to do, since in
Suse it comes with a lot of alias defined (large and complete list)
although most of them are really commented by default, meanwhile
oppositely in Fedora there are a few lines. Not clues for me...

BTW, anyone knows what is supposed to do to get vanity utility to work?
I've never seen it app simply opened.

I would appreciate tips, ideas, suggestions, ..., even links pointing to
any source of information at anywhere!

Regards,

Daniel Rodríguez


	




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