 | | | Need help selecting a Webcam - success | Need help selecting a Webcam - success 2003-05-03 - By Cliff Kent
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First, my thanks to each of you who offered suggestions.
When I compared the list of supported "Philips " webcams with our needs
and the local store 's inventory, I ended up with a Logitech QuickCam
Zoom. It 's a "little new " and didn 't work perfectly right out of the
box. But, everything needed was already on the web. So, I thought I 'd
post some pointers to the solution(s)...
Installation instructions for everything I did came from:
http://www.isthe.com/chongo/tech/comp/pwc/rh8.0.html
Although written for RH 8.0, only a few file name edits are needed for
RH9 and this particular camera. It includes a sample pwc script to place
in /etc/hotplug/usb that activates the camera and configures it.
First issue - image size. Starting Linux then either gnome or kde before
connecting the camera worked fine except for the image size in
GnomeMeeting. The camera image didn 't fill the program 's image area. The
solution is the binary kernel module named pwcx-gcc32.o downloaded from:
http://www.smcc.demon.nl/webcam/release.html
The sample pwc script will also load the pwcx-gcc32.o module - once you
get the file names right.
Next issue - USB audio: This camera includes a microphone in the form of
a USB audio module. In some cases there is a conflict with the existing
sound card. In my case a Sound Blaster Live!. Gnome was ok with this
combination but KDE didn 't start the SB Live! after seeing the USB
audio. The solution is a script to disable USB Audio from /etc/init.d -
this also works nicely.
Final issue - Kudzu: If the camera is connected during cold boot, kudzu
detects an "unknown sound card " four times. If the camera is not
connected on a later boot, kudzu wants to remove the "unknown sound
card " four times. I found no solution. But, as a work around, I 've
turned off kudzu - at least for now.
I hope this makes it easier for somebody in the future.
Thanks again,
Cliff Kent
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