[Nottingham] Linux webcam? (Martin, Jim)

[Jim Moore]

Martin wrote:
> john doe wrote:
>   
>> ... Jim, encouraged by your assurance the Panther webcams do work in GNU/Linux, I purchased one for use in Mandriva.  Sadly I cannot get it to work. ...
>>     
....<snippage for brevity>

The weird thing is, I'm getting the same messages on the then-current 
(as of November 2007) Beta release of Mandriva/ZM (with hte latest 
kernel release from then too), and the camera is functioning through 
bus1 device0 on the ZM console*... which, admittedly, was a learning 
process through ten minutes of trial and error having then just learned 
about ZM and its apparent abilities as a DVR. What the rather thin 
manual doesn't tell you is that you need a processor with HUGE amounts 
of L2 cache (like a mobile P4 or a Core2 Duo) and stupid amounts of 
memory otherwise the whole bag locks up tighter than a Rabbi's wallet 
the minute you start adding cameras... evidently the Apache webserver 
which drives the whole thing has a pretty serious memory leakage problem.

*Back to the important bit - the only thing I had to configure after 
plugging in the camera and locating it on the hardware resources, was 
the capture resolution on the ZM console. Which struck me as a bit odd, 
really. The AMCAP interface, after all, defaults to 640x480 just to get 
a picture on the application; what you do to the image after that is up 
to you. Without setting the resolution on ZM you end up with a single 
scaled pixel filling the monitor panel changing colour according to 
what's in front of it like a bugs eye.

Cheers,

TLP