Linux and Creative Webcam Notebook
Hi all, this page is just to inform anyone who may be interested in
Linux support for Creative Labs Webcam Notebook.
YES!!!! NOW IT WORKS!!! :-)
Thanks to the work of Michel Xhaard
and TakaM we now
have a working driver on Linux for the Creative Webcam Notebook!!!
Before jumping on
the download page linked below, please consider donating small webcams
to Michel for the purpose of developing a Linux driver for it!!!
...or at least send your little webcam to him for a while...
here is the download
link :-)
(version number is release
>= 0.55 of spca5xx && release >= 0.32 of spcaview)
Summary
There are a few known versions of the camera; all of them should work
with spca50x, but with different drivers/bridges:
- PD 1171 --> uses a Z-Star Hardware
- PD 1170 --> most of them uses a Conexant hardware; some of
them uses the Z-Star Hardware found in PD-1171.
For the PD 1170 hardware that uses the Conexant chip, TakaM has
developed a driver for NetBSD.
Cronological news
Jan 21, 2005
The webcam arrived back at home... and this is the result of a
"make;make install; gnomemeeting" !!!!
WOW!!!!!
Jan 1, 2005
I really hope this year will be better than the previous one,
considering everything happened, from wars to bombs in train stations
to tsunamies :-(
About the webcam, Michel is working hard on it, now it is possible to
have synchronized video and audio recording through spca5xx...Nicolas
will be happy of that, and now he can have a ride with his motorbike
with video and "vvvvrrrrrooooommmmm!!!!" :-) . here is the movie taken on the
Creative Webcam Notebook; the following is Michel's report of a link
where you can download some samples!!!
I have set two small avi sound get with the new spcaview :) The
code have
decrease a lot but performance are better :)
http://mxhaard.free.fr/spca50x/Doc/video-sound
One is get with your camera at 30 fp/s the others a LabtecPro 15
fp/s
Dec 24, 2004
YES!!!!! Michel Xhaard DID IT!!!
Finally there is a Linux driver for the PD1170 :-)
It is fully integrated with release
0.55 of spca5xx && release 0.32 of spcaview!!!
here is the announce Michel did to me by mail:
The driver is now ready and upload on my web site :)
I have set the kernel space decoder so plp can try with others apps
feature are :
640x480 352x288 340x240 176x144
available palettes:
jpeg rgb565 rgb24 rgb32
I have set spcaview so plp can use the jpeg palette and record
movie with
sound :) have a look to the readme file or use spcaview -h for
usefull
parameters.
spcagui also works
tested with kernel 2.4.26 kernel 2.6.9 should work with the kernel
2.6.10
too:)
todo :
find the registers
for brightness contrast ....
Dec 23, 2004
Some news from Michael! ... probably a beta version of the driver
around christmas? :-)
176x144 works too and the VIDEO_PALETTE_JPEG
so the driver now works with a decoding in userspace :)
I have play a little with the registers like a blind :) Without
documentation
that is a little bit dangerous but your cam works :)
Starting with:
640x480 11fp/s
352x288 13fp/s
320x240 15 fp/s
176x144 18 fp/s
160x120 30 fp/s
with a beautifull Kernel Ooops :)
I have get
640x480 22 fp/s CPU
load 85%
352x288 30 fp/s CPU
load 40%
320x240 30 fp/s CPU
load 15%
176x144 >30fp/s
CPU load < 5%
160x120 >30fp/s
CPU load < 5%
I have reduce 640x480 and 352x288 as we cannot handle that load in
kernel
space so the final is
640x480 15 fp/s CPU
load 45 %
352x288 15 fp/s CPU
load 20 %
My working box is set with an Athlon 2.4+ Ghz
I have planned to upload a release for Christmas so plp can test,
but remember
they need spcaview to decode the stream properlly I will update a
new release
of spcaview for that :)
640x480 stream mistake is not really a mistake but a limitation of
the chips.
To encode the stream Creative have a set of quantization table to
minimise
the stream, quantization table are load in the registers when
needed if the
quantization is set for a very good picture the chips cannot encode
fully the
whole frame that is why we get garbage. I have set a poor
quantization for my
experiment in large . The kernel decoder in spca5xx work with fixed
quantization i need some reflexion before hacking that
decoder.Maybe set one
for that cam is heavy but the only way i have find at the moment:)
In attachement a small movie get with the
Creative Notebook and spcaview
the movie is readable with spcaview -i cnb160.avi or xine mplayer
xanim ...
Dec 21, 2004
Big news!!!! :-))))))))))))
...from Michel:
working 640x480 ,352x288, 320x240 160x120 :)
well there are a mistake in 176x144 maybe i get the wrong table but
that
should work.
Interresting here is all resolutions i get trought the
hardware:) of course
there are a lot of tables to set but the chips seem very stable and
at the
moment i did not get trouble with the usb layer :)
Problem of initialize seem fixed .The problem is on resetting the
chips when
the stream stop
Did not know how i can decode the 160x120 as 120/16 (a macroblock
unit) is not
good .I think people should decode that stream in user space with
the help of
libjpeg .spacview can handle that stream.
The next step in my todo list:
FIX 176x144 setting
make
VIDEO_PALETTE_JPEG working so plp can use spcaview and test
hack the kernel
decoder to handle restart jpeg marker
have a look at the
brightness setting
have a look at the
640x480 stream mistake
In attachement some pictures get in 640x480 352x288 160x120
Dec 20, 2004
Big news!!! Here there are some news from Michel:
Some news about the drivers .All code are implemented but i only
get the
default mode working 320x240 .That seem something is wrong with the
initialize :) i have to investigate why. I get the first picture
decoded
trought libjepg that night :) the stream use restart marquer so my
kernel
decoding need also a patch :)
The picture is dark but that is the first one under Linux!!
:-))))))
Dec 15, 2004
The webcam finally arrived at destination this morning :-)
Dec 12, 2004
Michel Xhaard, the developer behind spca50x, offered me help for
developing a Linux driver for the PD1170 :-)))
To help him, I just sent him my Creative Webcam Notebook by mail...
If you have a PD 1170 you probably may want to help him debugging and
testing the driver that will come soon! :-)
Dec 5, 2004
a few weeks ago (the on November 19) Frank Fiene reported me that he
has a Creative Webcam Notebook with ID PD 1170 where lsusb says: Bus
002 Device 002: ID 041e:401f Creative Technology, Ltd. That version
works fine with the spca50x driver.
Oct 26, 2004
Some people are reporting me back that there exist a driver for the
Creative Webcam Notebook.
(special thanks to Denesh Rajaratnam and Per Kristian Lehre for their
links).
In particular, there exist an open source project, spca50x (here and here),
that provide a driver fo SOME Creative Webcam Notebook, in particular
those with ID 0x041e:0x401f, PD 1171 (see the label on the back of your
camera for the PD Number) works well (see details here).
Unfortunately my Creative Webcam Notebook (see details here)
with ID 0x0572:0x0041 , PD 1170 does not
work and still
does not have a proper driver for Linux. The only driver available
seems to be the one for NetBSD.
Feb 16, 2004
Good news! Someone has started to make a driver for that webcam, on
NetBSD. Check it out here!!!
Feb 15, 2004
Since many people started to ask me for a linux driver for that
camera, I would like to say that:
- Unfortunately I'm not able (yet) to do a linux driver for the
lovely Creative webcam notebook;
- Anyway, I'm trying to collect some infos about the camera,
hoping that someone soon or later will be able to do that :-)
Dec 9, 2003
It seems there is no way to get my Creative Labs Webcam Notebook
working under Linux.
The camera is a really nice webcam, but there
are no plans to release a Linux driver, as you can find here.
From support at europe dot creative dot com Tue Dec 9 03:57:47 2003
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2003 02:50:10 +0000 (GMT)
To: Paolo Gai
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Re:_Support_Request_Form_-_ACCEPT_-_(English_-_Cr?=
=?iso-8859-1?Q?eative=AE_WebCam=99_Notebook)__(KMM2112375I24521L0KM)?=
Dear Paolo
Thanks for contacting Creative Technical Support.
Sorry we don't have Linux driver support for this webcam and probably we
won't make any either.
Regarding your enquiry, we?re unable to provide you the hardware
specification that you requested.
Such information contains trade secrets and other proprietary
information of Creative and its licensors;
as a consequence, we will not review to end-users.
Last but not least, thank you for your interest and continuing support
for Creative products.
Feel free to contact us again if you require further assistance on our
Creative products,
giving us a full description of the problem encountered.
Please retain all the previous correspondence when replying to this
email.
Best Regards
Aaron Chua Ming Tat
Technical Support
Creative Labs Europe
Original Message Follows:
------------------------
Customers Name: Paolo Gai
-----------------------------
Creative Product Information
-----------------------------
Self Description: Advanced PC User
Problem Type: I am upgrading a currently installed product
Sound Card Internal: Not Specified
Sound Card External: Not Specified
Graphics/Video Card: Not Specified
CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive: Not Specified
Modem/Telephony: Not Specified
Digital Audio Player: Creative® WebCam Notebook
Web Cam: Not Specified
Accessories: Not Specified
Model Number: N10225
Problem lies with:
------------------
Creative® WebCam Notebook
Customer's System Specification:
--------------------------------
CPU/RAM: Centrino 1300Mhz / 768 Mb ram
Computer Brand/Model: Sony vaio z1M
Operating System: Linux redhat 9.0
BIOS type/revision:
Motherboard/Chipset:
Detailed Hardware:
Detailed Problem Description:
----------------------------
Hi,
I am Paolo Gai and I am an Italian Engineer. First of
all, thank you for having made the webcam I bought a
Creative Webcam notebook... I'm really happy with it
(right quality, weight and look :-) ).
I'm currently searching for a Linux driver for that
camera. Does it exist?
If a driver is not available, do you have plans to add
support Linux systems for this camera soon?
...and if there are no plans, please at least tell me
where I can find the chipset/HW specification of that
camera, in a way that I'll be able to develop a driver
on my own...
Thanks
Paolo Gai