[Gllug] webcams on linux

[Sean Burlington]

Thomas Charles Robinson wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Has anyone had experience with hooking up a webcam under linux? Logitech
> have some nice webcams but I'm not sure if they'll work. Is a USB webcam
> going to work? Any comments from those with experience with webcams on
> linux would be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,

I've got one and it works fine

the two main sources of information and drivers are

http://www.smcc.demon.nl/webcam/
http://alpha.dyndns.org/ov511/

mine worked 'out of the box' in both  RedHat and Debian

but only at a lower resolution than possible

to get the full resolution you have to use compression drivers that 
aren't gpl and so don't come with the distro (but installed without many 
problems)

I made sure I got a fully supported cam (Phillips Toucam fun from 
simply.co.uk)

but I think it's possible to just buy and hope (with a not unreasobale 
chance of success) - the problem is that a lot of cams have standard 
chips but the box doesn't say which chips are used !

USB is fine (I haven't seen a non-usb webcam)

I find that the CPU load is fairly high (PIII 500) when the cam is running

-- 

Sean




-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at linux.co.uk
http://list.ftech.net/mailman/listinfo/gllug