Webcam in Ubuntu

[iPeppers]

I want to use my webcam in a msn compatible program in linux, and I need some help.

 

Here is where I am at:

-running Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)

-I have a Microsoft Lifecam vx-1000 webcam

-I heard aMSN was pretty good and actually had webcam support, so that's what I've been hoping to use (aMSN 0.97.2)

 

-I've used lsusb to see that my webcam is indeed connected and detected and the green light on it is on, there is power.

-but when I try to configure my audio/video settings in aMSN, it tells me that a webcam has not been detected by aMSN

-I tried using Camorama Webcam Viewer, and it says it could not connect to a video device (/dev/video0) and indeed there is not a single video device in my dev folder.

-I figured that I might need some sort of driver for the webcam, but could not find where to get one for linux, or what I would do with it.

-I heard that I might be able to use the windows xp driver for this webcam if I used WINE.

-I have never used WINE before and I tried right-clicking the xp driver and opening in WINE (which was configured for xp) and it gave me an "extraction failed" error and said it was unable to find a volume for extraction. ???

 

Please help, I would rather spend hours and hours trying to figure this out than spending any amount of money on another webcam. This one works fine under xp, but I'm trying to gradually shift over to ubuntu completely. I would rather not have to continue to dual boot, and this is my last major issue. Thanks.

[insane_alien]

WINE won't help you. thats not how it works.

 

try viewing it through cheese (sudo aptitude install cheese)

 

this might help http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=329924

[iPeppers]

Thanks for the help, but cheese also gives me an error that no camera is detected.

 

BUT when I use dmesg in a terminal after plugging in my webcam, it shows these entrys;

[87973.016057] usb 2-2: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 7

[87973.265988] usb 2-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice

[87973.270061] usb 2-2: SN9C105 PC Camera Controller detected (vid:pid 0x045E:0x00F7)

[87973.536488] usb 2-2: No supported image sensor detected for this bridge

 

So, it is detecting my webcam, right? But webcam programs seem to not detect my cam, probably because the webcam isn't being associated with a video device in my dev folder.

 

I want to try the driver in the link you sent me, but I have admit I'm somewhat of a linux newb, and am not to confident on how to compile and make and how that all really works. And it seems to be for a much older kernel version, and my webcam isn't listed as supported on the driver website.

 

Any other ideas? I'm at a loss.

 

Ok I let synaptic package manager take care of it with a rewritten driver by the same guy that I found called gspca-source, and it still didn't do anything.

[insane_alien]

well all dmesg is telling you is that it has detected a usb device that sends a description string that says its a webcam.

 

and tbh you would be much better asking on the ubuntu forums. then there will be more knowledgable people to help you.