Finally my webcam is working! Up until recently there was no working Linux driver for my webcam, but that seems to have changed.
Reports indicate that the driver is included in the Linux kernel from version 2.6.28. Until that version hits your system (should ship with Ubuntu Jaunty) installing the driver is still possible. See this guide:
http://m560x-driver.wiki.sourceforge.net/testing_m5602
The webcam (or the chip to be more accurate) is located in a lot of laptops. The Launchpad Bug report mentions Asus, Acer, Lenovo and Zepto. I have a Zepto 6615WD myself.
To find out if your webcam is a m560x model, open up a terminal and type
lsusb
if you see a line like this:
Bus 005 Device 003: ID 0402:5602 ALi Corp. Video Camera Controller
you are in business. You may have to activate your webcam somehow. On my system there is a button with a camera icon on it that I have to press before the camera turns on.
The quality is a bit grainy and far from the best – hopefully this can be solved as the driver matures.
However me being (and looking) tired in the morning is properly beyond the scope of some webcam driver. (Yes I cheated and used a regular camera for the Get to know a LoCo post a few weeks back.)
Yes, I’m very pleased by this fix. Now, as February begins, I can advise my mom to upgrade to Intrepid.
Why are you wearing what looks like a woolen cap… indoors?
@Tom:
There are three reasons:
I. I have a bit of a cold / sore throat at the moment, as a result I feel chilly, even inside with the heating turned op.
II. I had just been outside to help a guy from the energy company read some meters.
III. I’m a vain person and my hair was not yet set well enough for photos ;)
Hi,
I’m one of the main developers of the driver and I’m glad you like the progress we made so far. It should be noted the driver is reversed-engineered together with datasheets for some of the supported sensors.
Please let me know any issues you encounter.
Thanks,
Erik
Did you test it on Windows and in brighter environments to compare the quality?
My cam gives grainy images when the surrounding light is not high enough, but this is a limitation of the camera itself, not the driver.
Erik:
Thank you so much for your hard work! Much appreciated!
Danny:
To be hones I haven’t. Don’t even have a Windows cd around. Your reasoning might be valid – it is also a relatively old laptop. Maybe it is working just as supposed to.
Now if only they could fix the GSPCA issue that killed a bunch of previously-working webcams in Intrepid: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/280657