[sclug] camcorder connection - debian missing /dev/raw1394

[Alex Butcher]

On Fri, 1 Sep 2006, John Stumbles wrote:

> you haven't loaded the raw1394 module.
>
> Some googling[1] suggested
> 	/sbin/modprobe raw1394
>
> and I now have:
> # modprobe -l | grep 1394
> /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/sbp2.ko
> /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/raw1394.ko
> /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/pcilynx.ko
> /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/ohci1394.ko
> /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/ieee1394.ko
> /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/eth1394.ko
> /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/dv1394.ko
> /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/cmp.ko
> /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/amdtp.ko
> /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/video1394.ko

Those are just the modules _in your module path_ whose filenames match the
(null) wildcard you passed to modprobe.

> (I didn't try listing the modules with modprobe -l before so I don't know if 
> raw1394 was already there. However I have rebooted since - does a 'modprobe' 
> survive reboots?)

Unless you've installed some new package which provides new kernel module
files, then the results of 'modprobe -l' should be the same across reboots.

However, you should probably be using 'lsmod' to show the modules that are
_loaded_ into memory. Modules loaded before a reboot won't be reloaded
after, unless your distribution's init scripts incorporate some magic to
save and restore the list of loaded modules automatically.

> Also from the google article
> 	mknod -m 0666 /dev/raw1394 c 171 0
> does seem to do the trick (except that I have to re-create the device after a 
> reboot) and dvgrab now works. However I'm wondering if this is the right way 
> to do things: surely whatever .deb the raw1394 stuff was installed from 
> should set things like this up?

I believe that Debian uses udev these days to create device nodes
automagically, and as required. If so, udev should be creating /dev/raw1394
and friends when an appropriate device is connected, or (perhaps as a
consequence of the latter) an appropriate module is loaded.

> What's a good tool for tidying up my DVs? The video equivalent of audacity. 
> kino (conveniently deb-packaged) or cinelerra (which looks much more 
> fully-featured and possibly easier to use but probably a major palaver to 
> build on deb)?

Those are the only two I've heard of, but I don't do video at all.

> Lastly the camcorder has a USB connection and a webcam mode. I installed  and 
> tried webcam but get
> reading config file: /home/john/.webcamrc
> v4l2: open /dev/video0: No such file or directory
> v4l2: open /dev/video0: No such file or directory
> v4l: open /dev/video0: No such file or directory
> no grabber device available
>
> although dmesg shows:
>
> usb 1-2: new full speed USB device using address 6
> usbcore: registered new driver snd-usb-audio

Hmm; seems it's registered as a USB sound card, at least!

> Again there are no /dev/video* files.
>
> How does a webcam work anyway (from the linux box's persepctive)? Should one 
> be able to point xine or mplayer at some device on the system 
> (/dev/video-something if that were set up properly) and view the camera 
> output?

Not sure about xine/mplayer, but xawtv and tvtime (others too, of course)
should be able to use v4l (video4linux) or v4l2 (video4linux2) devices to
show live input. That, of course, all depends on whether there's a driver
for your camcorder's webcam mode; webcams are highly proprietary, and no-one
may have written the appropriate driver yet.

<http://www.qbik.ch/usb/devices/showdev.php?id=3582> suggests that for other
Panasonic NV-GSxxx camcorders, audio-only is all there is, so far.

Best Regards,
Alex.
-- 
Alex Butcher, Bristol UK.                           PGP/GnuPG ID:0x5010dbff

"[T]he whole point about the reason why I think it is important we go for
identity cards and an identity database today is that identity fraud and
abuse is a major, major problem. Now the civil liberties aspect of it, look
it is a view, I don't personally think it matters very much."
  - Tony Blair, 6 June 2006 <http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page9566.asp>