Feature changed by: Michael Calmer (mcalmer) Feature #305112, revision 54 Title: Add webcam configuration module for yast openSUSE-11.1: Rejected by Stephan Kulow (coolo) reject date: 2008-07-29 10:34:17 reject reason: we do no people left for this. But yast is open source Priority Requester: Desirable openSUSE-11.2: Rejected by Stephan Kulow (coolo) reject date: 2009-08-12 10:57:38 reject reason: no volunteer Priority Requester: Desirable Projectmanager: Desirable - openSUSE-11.3: Evaluation by engineering manager + openSUSE-11.3: Rejected by Michael Calmer (mcalmer) + reject date: 2012-10-19 17:33:08 + reject reason: openSUSE 11.3 is not supported anymore Priority Requester: Desirable Projectmanager: Desirable Requested by: Michael Löffler (michl19) Partner organization: openSUSE.org Description: Webcam is configured automatically. But for users having trouble with configuration a webcam configuration module would be useful. See also bug #359729 Relations: - USB Webcam in Yast (novell/bugzilla/id: 359729) https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=359729 Business case (Partner benefit): openSUSE.org: Users in trouble with webcam configuration need a webcam configuration possibility in YaST. As the usage of webcams is rising, eg. through instant messanger this feature request adresses more and more users Discussion: #1: andrea florio (anubisg1) (2008-11-18 16:33:45) indeed, may be usefull to suggest the correct driver and/or the viewer to use... example uvcvideo webcam works with luvcview but not with camorama or wxcam and so on #2: Stephan Kulow (coolo) (2009-02-09 15:24:22) (reply to #1) en.opensuse.org has several resources on how to write yast modules. If you have concrete ideas what to do, go ahead. The yast team will openly welcome you to help. #3: T. J. Brumfield (enderandrew) (2009-06-13 02:26:22) I think what might help significantly is simply taking the lsusb vendor/device string, and then comparing that to a list automatically, and either loading the correct module, or letting the user know that they need to install a different kernel/package for that module. #4: Drew Kwashnak (dragonbite) (2009-07-02 19:31:16) In addition to configuring, if able to view the webcam in the configuration module. Otherwise Kopete and Cheese are the easiest ways to see if the webcam is working and brings int the possibility of a bug with that application and the webcam interfering. #8: Daniel FAIVRE (geomaticien) (2009-10-24 07:14:16) (reply to #4) I fully agree with Drew and share the idea that we should have a YaST module with preview instead of the need of luvcview, kopete, or something else just to verify how well the webcam is working or even how dark the room is ! ;-) #5: Stephan Kulow (coolo) (2009-08-12 10:57:26) 42 people voted for this feature, but noone even made a UI? #6: Holger Dyroff (escubar) (2009-08-27 18:11:31) (reply to #5) May it be that the webcams are so nicely recognized automatically in the newest openSUSE version that this YaST Module is not anymore needed? I was thinking to volunteer, but after reading the bug ID above I know have the impression it might be a useless exercise?! Please let me know your ideas ... #7: Dean Hilkewich (deanjo13) (2009-08-27 19:16:21) (reply to #6) I have a bunch of non uvc webcams that disagree with "webcams are so nicely recognized automatically in the newest openSUSE". #13: Drew Kwashnak (dragonbite) (2010-01-15 18:04:35) (reply to #7) I have a uvc webcam (Microsoft NV-6000) that Cheese detects and can use in other distributions, but NOT openSUSE. I've been told to run env LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so cheese or env LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype to get them to work. While I haven't had the chance to try it out with Cheese yet in openSUSE 11.2 Gnome (from a LiveCD), that it works with Fedora 10+ and Ubuntu 8.10+, something is missing. #9: andrea florio (anubisg1) (2009-10-24 19:49:09) (reply to #5) the problem here is that not everybody are developers.. (like me, i cannot write code) #10: Lee Matheson (oldcpu) (2009-12-05 13:10:44) Typically under openSUSE when I plug in a webcam after a new openSUSE install, I end up running a number of different webcam apps to see if the webcam works (amsn, cheese ... ) under any ? ... and then if it does not I end up installing various packages (v4l, packman packaged gstreamer) and playing with gstreamer-properties (from gnome-media), and rebuilding apps no longer packaged (such as camorama) with "rpmbuild --rebuild app.src.rpm" in the hope that evenually I find one that shows the web cam functions. A centralized application under YaST makes a lot of sence although it may take some work reliably, given the half dozen or so different web cam drivers (where uvc and gscpav are the more common). Unfotunately, I too am a user with no programming skills. #11: Barry Nichols (barry_nichols) (2009-12-07 02:40:41) That sounds like a great idea, especially as getting webcams to work is still a huge problem in Linux. #12: Marco Calistri (amdturion) (2009-12-10 19:05:09) Sorry for my intervention, I am not a dev. but just a simple user and Linux fan, since almost 10 years. Among the partial, when not worse, total Linux's lack of video drivers automatic management (i.e. in comparison to M$ capabilities) the problem could be extended to the audio management as well. For example my Philips SPC530 webcam, with embedded microphone, works on video under opensuse 11.2, but doesn't on audio. Even worse is the case of my second webcam with a SONIX SN9C20x bridge (device IDs 0c45:62xx) which fails also on video. #14: Daniele Tombolini (kailed) (2010-01-21 00:51:17) Yast tv module could be extended to cover webcam too. #15: Brandon Philips (philipsb) (2010-03-30 06:47:28) If a webcam isn't working in Cheese (Skype, amsn, kopete, etc are historically buggy and usually suspect) that means one of two things: 1) Your driver is old and unsupportable. For example V4L1 devices may be <a href=" http://lwn.net/Articles/380150/">deprecated upstream soon</a> but there is a workaround as pointed out in Comment #13. There really isn't much openSUSE can do as these webcams are old (so getting hardware is difficult) and the drivers are a very low quality and mostly reverse engineered. 2) The driver is broken. Please test the <a href="http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Kernel:/HEAD/openSUSE_Factory/"
Kernel of the Day</a> and file a bug. If your camera is working in Cheese file a bug against the application. I really don't see a need for a YAST module for something that should work out of the box.
#16: Malvern Star (solaris444) (2010-03-31 21:04:32) I would love to see something in YaST for this. At the very least, if the module shows you the location of the device (eg /dev/video0) and has a button to begin a test that displays what the webcam can see, this would be very helpful. The only app I have been able to use for testing so far is Skype because it automatically detects the location of the camera. I'm adding my vote for this feature to go in. #17: Brandon Philips (philipsb) (2010-03-31 21:36:54) (reply to #16) Please don't use Skype for testing hardware. Their video4linux2 implementation is lacking in many places and it simply won't work with libv4l2 without preload hacks. Cheese meets both of your criteria of showing you the device node and previewing the picture in a nice reasonable manner. There is also gstreamer-properties but that is a bit of a low level utility. -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/305112