[PD] PDP Webcam problem

[Andrew Cavers]

Ok - problem solved. Here's what I did. It should be of use to other
users of PDP with PWC-based webcams too.

1. Download the PDP 0.12.4 source from
http://zwizwa.fartit.com/pd/pdp/pdp-0.12.4.tar.gz

2. In the modules/image_io/pdp_v4l.c file, change the following:
 - Comment out (by adding // to the start of the line) lines 49-52,
188-247 and 488-489.
 - Edit lines 781 and 782 with your preferred default width and
height. I don't think you'll need to change this but I only want to
use 160x120.

3. ./configure (with any options); make; make install

My Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000 works like a dream now with the most
recent reverse-engineered open source PWC driver (10.0.7a) from
http://www.saillard.org/linux/pwc/

It seems like the problem was that PDP was using very specific
features from the old pwc/pwcx driver that are no longer compatible
with the new reverse-engineered driver. Is Tom still updating PDP? I
think that this should be changed in the next release, or at least
commented on in the readme.

Anyway, hope this helps some people.

Andrew.

On 7/6/05, Andrew Cavers <andrew.cavers at gmail.com> wrote:
> Ok, I looked at installing the old PWC/PWCX driver last night. Only
> problem is that as the PWCX driver is closed-source, there are only
> versions for a couple of specific kernels. Unsurprisingly, 2.6.12 is
> not one of them. I can force the module to load even on this kenel
> (can't I?), but will it still work? I can try that.
> 
> But ideally, i'd like to get the camera working with the latest
> reverse-engineered drivers. I know very little about these things, but
> it makes sense to me that the problem lies in the fact that PDP forces
> the camera to run at 320x240 @27fps. I only want 160x120 @ 10/15 fps
> (I have a slow CPU and I want it to be doing lots of other things at
> the same time). Apparently, PDP has some "extra features" for webcams
> using PWC but as far as I can tell all it does is lock the camera to
> this resolution and frame rate...
> 
> I know nothing about c programming at all, but I'm considering poking
> around in the PDP source code and trying to disable all the PWC
> specfic stuff (by commenting it out?) and then recompiling. Is this a
> really stupid idea?! Probably.
> 
> Opinions on this approach would be appreciated before I try it!
> 
> Andrew.
> 
> On 7/5/05, Andrew Cavers <andrew.cavers at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Derek,
> >
> > Thanks for the tip - that makes sense actually as I previously had the
> > webcam working with PD when I was using a 2.4 kernel. I can't
> > remember, but I suspect this was with the old PWC driver.
> >
> > I'll try that this evening and report back!
> >
> > Andrew.
> >
> > On 7/5/05, derek holzer <derek at x-i.net> wrote:
> > > Hi Andrew,
> > >
> > > I've always had bad luck with the reverse-engineered PWC drivers + PDP.
> > > Perhaps you could try the USB-PWCX binary drivers from Phillips and see
> > > if they work better?
> > >
> > > http://www.smcc.demon.nl/webcam/
> > >
> > > good luck,
> > > d.
> > >
> > > --
> > > derek holzer ::: http://www.umatic.nl
> > > ---Oblique Strategy # 184:
> > > "Where is the edge?"
> > >
> >
> >
> > --
> > --
> > Andrew Cavers
> > andy at mution.com
> > www.mution.com
> >
> 
> 
> --
> --
> Andrew Cavers
> andy at mution.com
> www.mution.com
> 


-- 
--
Andrew Cavers
andy at mution.com
www.mution.com