Command line webcam capture?
Forum: Multimedia
Topic: Command line webcam capture?
started by: icepick
Posted by icepick on Mar. 02 2008,15:26
I got a philips webcam here that is recognized once I plug it in.. and assigned to /dev/video0.. On my redhat linux I had a little tool called vidcat that enabled me to make a snapshot from the command line.. anyone know any easy to install packages for DSL that can do something similar? The vidcat from my redhat doesnt run on DSL.. to many libraries missing..
Alex
Posted by curaga on Mar. 02 2008,17:51
what does "file -s /dev/video0" say? I think the videoX devices give some sort of standard output, so that maybe plain old cat could work too
Posted by roberts on Mar. 02 2008,17:55
I use the xawtvdebs.dsl extension in the multimedia section.Then with the camera on pressing j will capture a jpeg image.
Posted by curaga on Mar. 02 2008,17:57
After googling I see it's a part of w3cam, and doesn't require anything not in DSL. The redhat version just was compiled with different versions.You could download the one from Debian here -> < http://packages.debian.org/sarge/i386/w3cam/download >
and then use deb2dsl on it.
Posted by icepick on Mar. 02 2008,19:17
Thanks for all your repsponse.. I got it working now.. at a tiny 160x120 resolution.. It seems like the pwcx modules are not compiled into the DSL kernel..
Could anyone point me in the right direction on info regarding DSL kernel compiling? I did it in the past on my redhat box.. but how can I get this done on dsl?
Or is there any other solution for the pwcx modules? They compiled PWC into DSL but not pwcx
Posted by curaga on Mar. 03 2008,15:00
Just get the 2.4.31 kernel source and put it into /usr/src/linux, then get a compiling extension and go for it..
Posted by icepick on Mar. 09 2008,14:44
I have done some kernel compiling in the past, but compiling kernels for DSL seems a bridge to far for me. I am using small embedded devices.. there i no way I could compile a kernel on such a machine.. so I assume I would have to do it on a different machine, and then somehow transfer the result to my dsl box.. but how? What files? Could you give me a few more pointers?Another option would be using a different webcam that is supported by DSL.. the philips ones are support but without the decompressor.. really to bad
Anyone knows of a webcam that works without kernel recompiling?
Posted by curaga on Mar. 09 2008,20:12
Well, that driver must not have been in the 2.4.31 kernel.If you have the driver source that works with 2.4 kernels, you would:
- get the 2.4.31 source and unpack in /usr/src/linux
- get gcc1-with-libs and gcc2.95 (the kernel was compiled with gcc 2.95)
- and now, as you have the same compiler, you can compile only the module you need, and copy that to your DSL installation