+++ /dev/null
-c-qcam - Connectix Color QuickCam video4linux kernel driver
-
-Copyright (C) 1999 Dave Forrest <drf5n@virginia.edu>
- released under GNU GPL.
-
-1999-12-08 Dave Forrest, written with kernel version 2.2.12 in mind
-
-
-Table of Contents
-
-1.0 Introduction
-2.0 Compilation, Installation, and Configuration
-3.0 Troubleshooting
-4.0 Future Work / current work arounds
-9.0 Sample Program, v4lgrab
-10.0 Other Information
-
-
-1.0 Introduction
-
- The file ../../drivers/media/parport/c-qcam.c is a device driver for
-the Logitech (nee Connectix) parallel port interface color CCD camera.
-This is a fairly inexpensive device for capturing images. Logitech
-does not currently provide information for developers, but many people
-have engineered several solutions for non-Microsoft use of the Color
-Quickcam.
-
-1.1 Motivation
-
- I spent a number of hours trying to get my camera to work, and I
-hope this document saves you some time. My camera will not work with
-the 2.2.13 kernel as distributed, but with a few patches to the
-module, I was able to grab some frames. See 4.0, Future Work.
-
-
-
-2.0 Compilation, Installation, and Configuration
-
- The c-qcam depends on parallel port support, video4linux, and the
-Color Quickcam. It is also nice to have the parallel port readback
-support enabled. I enabled these as modules during the kernel
-configuration. The appropriate flags are:
-
- CONFIG_PRINTER M for lp.o, parport.o parport_pc.o modules
- CONFIG_PNP_PARPORT M for autoprobe.o IEEE1284 readback module
- CONFIG_PRINTER_READBACK M for parport_probe.o IEEE1284 readback module
- CONFIG_VIDEO_DEV M for videodev.o video4linux module
- CONFIG_VIDEO_CQCAM M for c-qcam.o Color Quickcam module
-
- With these flags, the kernel should compile and install the modules.
-To record and monitor the compilation, I use:
-
- (make zlilo ; \
- make modules; \
- make modules_install ;
- depmod -a ) &>log &
- less log # then a capital 'F' to watch the progress
-
-But that is my personal preference.
-
-2.2 Configuration
-
- The configuration requires module configuration and device
-configuration. The following sections detail these procedures.
-
-
-2.1 Module Configuration
-
- Using modules requires a bit of work to install and pass the
-parameters. Understand that entries in /etc/modprobe.d/*.conf of:
-
- alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc
- options parport_pc io=0x378 irq=none
- alias char-major-81 videodev
- alias char-major-81-0 c-qcam
-
-2.2 Device Configuration
-
- At this point, we need to ensure that the device files exist.
-Video4linux used the /dev/video* files, and we want to attach the
-Quickcam to one of these.
-
- ls -lad /dev/video* # should produce a list of the video devices
-
-If the video devices do not exist, you can create them with:
-
- su
- cd /dev
- for ii in 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 ; do
- mknod video$ii c 81 $ii # char-major-81-[0-16]
- chown root.root video$ii # owned by root
- chmod 600 video$ii # read/writable by root only
- done
-
- Lots of people connect video0 to video and bttv, but you might want
-your c-qcam to mean something more:
-
- ln -s video0 c-qcam # make /dev/c-qcam a working file
- ln -s c-qcam video # make /dev/c-qcam your default video source
-
- But these are conveniences. The important part is to make the proper
-special character files with the right major and minor numbers. All
-of the special device files are listed in ../devices.txt. If you
-would like the c-qcam readable by non-root users, you will need to
-change the permissions.
-
-3.0 Troubleshooting
-
- If the sample program below, v4lgrab, gives you output then
-everything is working.
-
- v4lgrab | wc # should give you a count of characters
-
- Otherwise, you have some problem.
-
- The c-qcam is IEEE1284 compatible, so if you are using the proc file
-system (CONFIG_PROC_FS), the parallel printer support
-(CONFIG_PRINTER), the IEEE 1284 system,(CONFIG_PRINTER_READBACK), you
-should be able to read some identification from your quickcam with
-
- modprobe -v parport
- modprobe -v parport_probe
- cat /proc/parport/PORTNUMBER/autoprobe
-Returns:
- CLASS:MEDIA;
- MODEL:Color QuickCam 2.0;
- MANUFACTURER:Connectix;
-
- A good response to this indicates that your color quickcam is alive
-and well. A common problem is that the current driver does not
-reliably detect a c-qcam, even though one is attached. In this case,
-
- modprobe -v c-qcam
-or
- insmod -v c-qcam
-
- Returns a message saying "Device or resource busy" Development is
-currently underway, but a workaround is to patch the module to skip
-the detection code and attach to a defined port. Check the
-video4linux mailing list and archive for more current information.
-
-3.1 Checklist:
-
- Can you get an image?
- v4lgrab >qcam.ppm ; wc qcam.ppm ; xv qcam.ppm
-
- Is a working c-qcam connected to the port?
- grep ^ /proc/parport/?/autoprobe
-
- Do the /dev/video* files exist?
- ls -lad /dev/video
-
- Is the c-qcam module loaded?
- modprobe -v c-qcam ; lsmod
-
- Does the camera work with alternate programs? cqcam, etc?
-
-
-
-
-4.0 Future Work / current workarounds
-
- It is hoped that this section will soon become obsolete, but if it
-isn't, you might try patching the c-qcam module to add a parport=xxx
-option as in the bw-qcam module so you can specify the parallel port:
-
- insmod -v c-qcam parport=0
-
-And bypass the detection code, see ../../drivers/char/c-qcam.c and
-look for the 'qc_detect' code and call.
-
- Note that there is work in progress to change the video4linux API,
-this work is documented at the video4linux2 site listed below.
-
-
-9.0 --- A sample program using v4lgrabber,
-
-v4lgrab is a simple image grabber that will copy a frame from the
-first video device, /dev/video0 to standard output in portable pixmap
-format (.ppm) To produce .jpg output, you can use it like this:
-'v4lgrab | convert - c-qcam.jpg'
-
-
-10.0 --- Other Information
-
-Use the ../../Maintainers file, particularly the VIDEO FOR LINUX and PARALLEL
-PORT SUPPORT sections
-
-The video4linux page:
- http://linuxtv.org
-
-The V4L2 API spec:
- http://v4l2spec.bytesex.org/
-
-Some web pages about the quickcams:
- http://www.pingouin-land.com/howto/QuickCam-HOWTO.html
-
- http://www.crynwr.com/qcpc/ QuickCam Third-Party Drivers
- http://www.crynwr.com/qcpc/re.html Some Reverse Engineering
- http://www.wirelesscouch.net/software/gqcam/ v4l client
- http://phobos.illtel.denver.co.us/pub/qcread/ doesn't use v4l
- ftp://ftp.cs.unm.edu/pub/chris/quickcam/ Has lots of drivers
- http://www.cs.duke.edu/~reynolds/quickcam/ Has lots of information
-
-