FS#11736 - Webcams not working with 2.6.27 kernel

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Blazej (blasse) - Tuesday, 14 October 2008, 12:26 GMT
Last edited by Thomas Bächler (brain0) - Thursday, 04 December 2008, 12:03 GMT
Task Type Bug Report
Category Kernel
Status Closed
Assigned To Tobias Powalowski (tpowa)
Thomas Bächler (brain0)
Architecture All
Severity High
Priority Normal
Reported Version None
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 4
Private No

Details

Description:
Since update to 2.6.27 my webcams stoped working. First I thought it as upstream bug, then I've read
this Wiki page from Fedora Project: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/BetterWebcamSupport
According to it, integrated with 2.6.27 camera driver is gspcav2, making v4l1 webcams and applications unusable.
Similar problem is noticed in Ubuntu 8.10.

FC and Ubuntu dev resolved this with libv4l patch bsed on this: http://hansdegoede.livejournal.com/3636.html

Steps to reproduce:
Upgrade to 2.6.27 kernel, run gspcav1 camera.
This task depends upon

Closed by  Thomas Bächler (brain0)
Thursday, 04 December 2008, 12:03 GMT
Reason for closing:  Fixed
Comment by Thomas Bächler (brain0) - Tuesday, 14 October 2008, 18:48 GMT
There is no kernel patch there. However, according to what I read there, this problem can be solved in userspace easily.
Comment by Artyom (urandom) - Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 00:04 GMT
Same issue (Logitech QuickCam Express Plus) :( But works with LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so
Comment by Thomas Bächler (brain0) - Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 07:18 GMT
Okay, we'll solve this by adding libv4l to extra and adding a nice HOWTO to the wiki.
Comment by Pierre Chapuis (catwell) - Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 20:05 GMT
This should work, but there's also a need for a lib32-libv4l package for the x86_64 architecture. Otherwise, Skype (which works only in 32 bits version) will say:

ERROR: ld.so: object '/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored.
Comment by Thomas Bächler (brain0) - Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 20:50 GMT
Yes. I use a full 32 bit chroot for skype (as I have it anyway) and use the 32 bit library from there. Works great. For anyone interested in this topic, read http://archlinux.org/pipermail/arch-dev-public/2008-October/008694.html
Comment by Thomas Bächler (brain0) - Sunday, 26 October 2008, 15:43 GMT
Okay, libv4l is in extra now. xawtv has already been patched, ptlib/opal/ekiga are going up tonight. I also have gstreamer and VLC on the list (although I will delegate those to their respective maintainers). mplayer maybe, if there is a patch (it supports most, but not all of the formats).

We could possibly add a wrapper script to skype that always does the LD_PRELOAD. What other applications should/can be fixed to use libv4l?
Comment by Blazej (blasse) - Sunday, 26 October 2008, 20:14 GMT
This list is ok so far, wrapper for Skype whould be a great thing, many people uses it.
Comment by Thomas Bächler (brain0) - Sunday, 26 October 2008, 20:23 GMT
I wrote a comment on the AUR page. Let's see what the maintainer thinks. I'm leaving this bug open until gstreamer and vlc are adjusted, if anyone thinks of more packages, please post them here.
Comment by Tomas M. (eldragon) - Sunday, 23 November 2008, 20:56 GMT
cheese is another ap that needs patching... the LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so hack makes it work again.
Comment by Tomas M. (eldragon) - Thursday, 04 December 2008, 11:47 GMT
latest cheese update fixed the problem, so there goes one ap that got patched upstream
Comment by Thomas Bächler (brain0) - Thursday, 04 December 2008, 12:03 GMT
Actually, it has been fixed when gstreamer was built with libv4l support (cheese uses gstreamer for video access). All applications I know of have been patched (most of them upstream), so I'll close this.

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