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.)