Webcam compatibility

I"ve tried searching and people are saying they are going to use webcams, and no one seems bothered about whether they work with ARM Linux, so can I presume that all webcams work with ARM Linux out of the box (obviously supplied software won"t) but presume Linux supports any webcam ? Or is there something I need to look out for to get a webcam that works with the Pi ?

By the way I'm talking USB webcams here.

I wouldn't assume anything to be honest. I thought my old (2006) logitech quickcam would work plug and play with ubuntu lucid - it doesn't.

Thanks, I wanted to develop some code in a test Linux system before deployment to the Pi when I get my hands on the actual hardware, but not knowing if the webcam will work before hand scuppers that idea. I will keep on searching you tube etc. to see if anyone with the early boards has tried connecting a cam

I would say take your favorite Linux distribution and try your webcam on that. If an appropriate driver is in the normal distribution, there is a very good chance it is in arm also. Conversely if your webcam does not work on normal Linux - try a different one...

All the drivers for webcams are in the kernel.

If it works on that kernel, then chances are it will work on a different architecture running the same kernel version except for that architecture.

I have plans for a baby cam for my Pi when it comes. Chew even less power than what I'm using as my baby cam now, and hopefully will run better, but with around the same cpu grunt as my current one I'll need to wait to get one before I can find out.

The Logitec Quickcam Deluxe for Notebooks and Logitec Quickcam Pro 9000 work on various devices under openWrt using such software as mjpg-streamer and motion, and under debian on a dockstar or linux PC. These webcams will surely "just work" on the R-pi, as will any "UVC" webcam, and many others--but by no means all.

See here for an example: http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/s......php?13705

and here: http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/s.....d.php?9425

A decent little device in the R-pi cost range for pre-testing +some+ R-pi features is the TP-Link WR703N available here: http://www.volumerates.com/sea.....ord/wr703n

Note this would be running openWrt, a limited Linux OS (only thousands of packages available), unlike the full-featured linuxes which the R-pi can run. Only 4 meg of flash and 32 meg of ram, so you have to be thrifty.

These webcams will surely "just work" on the R-pi, as will any "UVC" webcam, and many others–but by no means all.

I thought the same thing, but low and behold, uvcvideo is not a module included and since I am not much of a kernel level guy, trying to figure out how to hammer it in. Unfortunately, Google gives me a long line of broken links and links to links that link to broken links and most point out that it should be in post 2.6 kernels.

Grab the Pi kernel source and uncompress it  (This I think)

go into the directory and run

make menuconfig as root

you may need to download some extra packages if it errors out

once you're in there, go to device drivers -> multimedia support -> video capture adapters -> V4L USB devices -> select USB video class and press "m"

Should add a m into the brackets if not already there

save and quit by pressing "Esc" a few times

then run "make modules && make modules_install"

then modprobe uvcvideo  <– I *think* that's what the module is called.

Then you'll have the uvc module loaded and ready to use if Debian doesn't load it up itself when you plug in a webcam

*note* Those are the standard instructions, not sure if they differ for the Pi or not.

http://www.ideasonboard.org/uvc/

You'll find it hard to buy a webcam that will not work at all with linux, but there are some. Use the above or buy cheap and blind. Good luck.

SirLagz said:

once you're in there, go to device drivers -> multimedia support -> video capture adapters -> V4L USB devices -> select USB video class and press "m"

Thanks. This is about the closest I have gotten to get it installed. Unfortunately, V4L doesn't show up int the video capture adapters. Almost every adapter execept it.

And I do know my camera is a uvc as I have had it running on Debian ARM 2.6 on a Sheevaplug.

Well, after enough repeated attempts to get uvcvideo to work in Debian, I loaded the ArchLinux build and plugged my webcam in and it just worked.

Guess I will use it.

If you want to keep using Debian, could always see if the kernel in the ArchLinux build has the drivers as a module or built into the kernel.

If it's built in, just rip the kernel out and put it into the Debian System. Otherwise if it's using modules, rip the kernel and the /usr/lib/modules folder out and import over to Debian.