Hi, back again with some second thoughts/ideas :-) Bill Smith wrote:
Folks,
I've got this idiot little USB camera that I got as part of a promotion. (Specifically, it's a QuickVideo weeCam USB from Alaris that I got a couple years back from Earthlink.)
Near as I can figure, there are no drivers for this fool thing for Linux.
IF I were to attack the problem, where should I start?
After sending off that first reply, I recalled that I had got a cheap webcam going some time ago. I went back to find it (took a while!) but it was not that weeCam (it was a Creative Model CT6840). However, I did find some notes I made at the time. The SuSE 7.2 Configuration manual has a chapter on "Watching TV on your PC" (yes, it does pay to buy the distro to get the manuals) which I followed. Basically, I ended up using xawtv (aw as in Athena widgets) which, in turn, uses V4L (video for linux). It looks like I just used Yast (the SuSE sysadmin tool) to install these two, plugged the camera into the USB port, and then went into a terminal (Alt/F2) and typed xawtv and a window came up with the picture from the camera. I just tried the last steps (Alt/F2 and xawtv) and got a view of the bookcase behind me. If you want to borrow that manual and don't mind driving out to Shrewsbury, you are welcome to take a peek. If you do come out, bring your camera and we can plug it in instead of mine and see if it works. doug