web cams

[Cyber Source]

I would definitely be interested in the cams you want to sell if they 
will work in FC3. I could help you with your install on that laptop if 
you want to go with FC3, I wouldn't be much help with Gentoo, although I 
wouldn't mind learning Gentoo, I love the rescue cd with Gentoo that we 
have that can mount NTFS (for our diagnostics, etc.).
  I thought I would do a little poking around in the kernel to just see 
what devices are set in the kernel or as a module for the web cams, 
phillips stuff is all over in there.
Anyway if you would like to bring your cams by and we can check them out 
and possibly buy 1 or 2 from ya, give me a call 553-8525. Thanks

Stephen Burke wrote:

>
>
> Cyber Source wrote:
>
>> Hello all,
>>  Does anyone have any good recommendations for a web cam with Linux? 
>> Most specifically with FC3 and worked right out of the box? Also, any 
>> GnomeMeeting people out there?
>
>
> Hello,
>
> I'll take a stab at this, since I would like to consider myself one of 
> the "GnomeMeeting people", even if my actual time online using it is 
> rather pathetically limited. I have been toying with it for a couple 
> of years, though. The problem was, I built a gm system to connect with 
> a location in NYC (someone all wrapped up in M$ and polycom cameras, 
> unfortunately [poycom cams decidedly DO NOT work on Linux and polycom 
> officially DOES NOT give a shit] ), but by the time I had my system 
> going, the new york side of the connection sort of lost interest and 
> time for the whole project, so I have only been able to use it once 
> there for a purpose that was originally meant to be a regular thing (a 
> long story that I won't relate here).
>
> That one time, it worked great, and that was version 0.98.5 or so I 
> think, so it probably works better now (1.2, I think), though I 
> haven't upgraded to the latest version yet. If you get a gm setup 
> going, I would be interested to connect with you and really learn what 
> the thing can DO, gm to gm (with maybe a bit of OpenMCU tossed into 
> the mix, if we can find other interested parties who also want to 
> connect).
>
> As for ANY webcam working "right out of the box"  with Linux I have 
> serious doubts, though I have not yet been too successful  in the 
> attempt or two I have made at setting up a useful FC3 system, so I am 
> somewhat ignorant there.
> I have been sticking with the  logitech variety of cam (quickcam 3000 
> and  4000 pro) because at the time that I was on the same quest that 
> you are on, they were the only reaonably priced cams that I could find 
> drivers for, here:
>
> http://www.smcc.demon.nl/webcam/
>
> along with the installation instructions here:
>
> http://www.isthe.com/chongo/tech/comp/pwc/rh8.0.html
>
> Though those instructions are for RH8, they worked perfectly  for RH9 
> (which I was totally psyched about when it was released, since 8 
> didn't like the soundcard on my laptop - I needed to able to use it at 
> various locations).  Again, I still haven't figured out how different 
> FC3 is from RH9, but it must be vaguely similar, tight? Feel free to 
> disillusion me if I'm wrong here.
>
> In the meantime, perhaps I will try putting FC3 on the laptop that 
> came back from nyc (after a failed attempt to convince a M$ junkie of 
> the virtues of Linux) a bit TOO screwed up for me to fix, and try to 
> get it working. I put mandrake 9.2 on it at one point, but the entire 
> system froze when I plugged the logitech into it, so I abandoned that 
> idea and then ran into the following when I went to redo the whole 
> RH9-gm-logitech setup that had been working before.
>
> Sometime last summer ( I missed the whole thing, as I was  in Canada 
> and totally offline at the time) , there was some sort of raging 
> battle of wills between the driver developer and the Linux kernel 
> maintainers (you can read all about it at the smcc.demon.nl site {and 
> /. and various other places, apparently} if you want) which resulted 
> in that guy abandoning the project. I only read enough to be kind of 
> glad to have missed it, as the whole thing seems to lack the sort of 
> reason that I value in a good argument as opposed to the foolish 
> emotionalism and confused logic that I started running into there).  I 
> know it works for logitech quickcam pro 3000 and 4000. More are listed 
> here :
>
> http://www.lavrsen.dk/twiki/bin/view/PWC/WorkingWebcamsWithPWC?CGISESSID=bfec799df07030919b0808c0d9d49a65 
>
>
> At first, I was most encouraged to find that driver since (like you, 
> probably) I didn't find much else out there in terms of Linux friendly 
> camming. After the row, it started getting a bit tedious, but I still 
> haven't found much else.
>
> I was psyched all over again recently to find phillips webcam support 
> available when I was building my gentoo kernel, but I haven't been 
> able to get that system working well enough to toy with the cam aspect 
> yet.
> I got some good advice here (thanks, Dave), but now when I boot I get 
> '*ERROR: Problem starting needed services   "netmount" not started', 
> so I cannot get to the web with it to get what I need to make it go (a 
> window manager, gm, etc). Googling hasn't turned up too much of use on 
> that problem yet, except for various other people who suddenly lost 
> their web connections after finishing with the LiveCD part of the 
> installation, but don't seem to have the answer (or one I can deal 
> with presently, anyway).
>
> But I digress. This is a gnomemeeting wrestling match for the moment, 
> not a gentoo one. That's as close as I've seen to "out of the box" in 
> the Linux/webcam realm, though.
>
> Anyway, that particular dropped ball (the PWC driver for phillips 
> cams) was picked up by someone else here:
> http://www.saillard.org/linux/pwc/ , but that site seems to be mainly 
> geared toward people who know quite a bit more about the inner 
> workings of PWC than me, so I'm not yet sure that the continued 
> maintenance of that driver is particularly useful to me at the moment, 
> since one RH9 laptop setup I have still works so I'm trying not to 
> break it until I learn more about such things. Perhaps it will all be 
> perfectly clear to you, and you can clue me in over a gm connection in 
> the future.  Or maybe I have to go back and actually read the wiki I 
> just found when I went back there now to get you the link.
>
> By the bye, I have a 3000 and TWO 4000's here (another idea that never 
> quite panned out) and would be willing to let one of the 4000's go 
> pretty cheap, if you're interested.
> I would like to see you get your gm system up and running, since I 
> have been really wanting to master that beast, and everyone I know who 
> is even vaguely interested in H323-type (teleconferencing) stuff is 
> all wrapped up in either M$ or mac, which kind of adds too many 
> headaches to the ones already presented by our beloved GNU/Linux (with 
> M$, at any rate, since macs can only ever teleconference with other 
> macs, from what I've seen).
>
> I realize this was a long answer to a short question, but the whole 
> story is quite a bit longer, so I've spared you quite a bit of it.
>
> I hope it helped some, anyway.
>
> Good luck,
> S.