2009-11-27

Linux on a Fujitsu U810 - webcam II

After debugging the camera upside-down issue, here are the final instructions to have the webcam working 100%:

1) install the r5u87x software to download the firmware to the webcam

from the package readme:


Ubuntu
$ sudo apt-get install libglib2.0-dev libusb-dev build-essential gcc automake mercurial
$ hg clone http://bitbucket.org/ahixon/r5u87x/
$ cd r5u87x
$ make; make rules
$ sudo make install
$ sudo r5u87x-loader --reload

r5u87x-loader will automatically be run on boot when it detects your webcam.



2) if your webcam doesn't work yet, reload the uvcvideo module:

as root:
rmmod uvcvideo
modprobe uvcvideo

and then the last lines of 'dmesg' should be:

[ 562.597838] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device (05ca:1841)
[ 562.610394] input: UVC Camera (05ca:1841) as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-5/1-5:1.0/input/input19
[ 562.610538] usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo
[ 562.610546] USB Video Class driver (v0.1.0)


And it's done!!!

It works (I have tested it) with cheese, xawtv, skype (the image with skype is horizontally mirrored, but t works).

9 comments:

  1. works perfect, thanks for this blog

    ReplyDelete
  2. Totally unrelated to this post but could you comment on optimizations and tweaks you do on your U810? Is there anything that can be done to improve flash performance? What is your web browser of choice?

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  3. Hi Elliot,

    I just use stock ubuntu, always updated, no tweaks at all.

    I use firefox, always the one provided bu ubuntu.

    I also find flash a little too cpu hungry, but I hope it will improve soon.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You and me both. I'm not using flash on it hardly at all but it bugs the heck out of me that it's so much slower than the windows version.

    I've oscilated between ubuntu, fedora 12, xubuntu and unbuntu netbook remix and always end up back at xubuntu. It's got its quirks but gives the best overall performance.

    Other distros I've had problems installing your touch screen driver.

    I will probably settle at 10.04 LTS and ride it out until it's EoS. By then I'll be more than ready for whatever the next best thing is.

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  5. Hello, I would like to first say thank you for all the information regarding the u810 as it helped me immensely. Here is my only issue: Following your instructions posted, I could only get up to the '$ make; make rules'. Am I missing a step?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Sundanse,

    what is the problem you are facing with? Give a little info of the error message or something to help.

    Regards

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for the quick reply. I actually reinstalled ubuntu as my win 7 installation didn't go so well and I was able to get past the point I mentioned, however still no success. when I do "$ sudo r5u87x-loader --reload" I get the following message:

    searching for device...
    Error: Failed to find any supported webcams.

    When I try reloading the uvcvideo module:
    rmmod uvcvideo
    ERROR: Module uvcvideo does not exist in /proc/modules

    Any assistance you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Sundanse,

    to reload the module, the correct command is:

    modprobe uvcvideo

    so please, try to load the module to see if it works this time.


    (rmmod=remove module!)


    Regards

    ReplyDelete
  9. still no luck after loading the module. the last lines of dmesg:
    [ 994.044197] Linux video capture interface: v2.00
    [ 994.107541] usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo
    [ 994.107554] USB Video Class driver (v0.1.0)

    no device found though.

    ReplyDelete