Skype + webcam + LinuxMint 9

[martinfromdublin]

Does anyone know how to get a webcam to work with Skype when running LinuxMint 9? The settings in Skype don't even list the webcam as being there.

[vincent]

First, let's found out whether it's a problem with your Mint not recognising your webcam, or a problem with Skype. A nifty little application (Cheese) can be useful in ruling out the first scenario as a possibility, so open up a terminal and paste the following:

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sudo apt-get install cheese

Once it's installed, look for Cheese in the menu, and start it. If it recognises your webcam, great, then it's a problem with Skype (I don't use Skype so I can't help you with that). If it doesn't, well, I'll need to know the exact name and model of your webcam before any more troubleshooting.

[martinfromdublin]

Hi Vincent, thanks for replying. Cheese doesn't recognise the webcam and it was a freebie from my broadband provider many years ago, its got no brand name on it what-so-ever.

Is there any way we can probe it from a terminal window & identify the manufacture?

[vincent]

Is that webcam built into your computer (laptop) or is it a USB webcam? Or you can just provide me the output of both of the following commands if you aren't sure:

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lspci -v
lsusb

[martinfromdublin]

Here you go;

martin@Server-PC ~ $ lspci -v
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 02)
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable)
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel
Kernel modules: intel-agp

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P PCI to AGP Controller (rev 02)
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 32
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=32
I/O behind bridge: 00007000-00007fff
Memory behind bridge: ffc00000-ffcfffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: dfe00000-efdfffff
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:06.0 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P Processor to I/O Memory Interface (rev 02)
Flags: fast devsel
Memory at fecf0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 7880
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
I/O ports at cc00
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 7880
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
I/O ports at d000
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd

00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 7880
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
I/O ports at d400
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd

00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 7880
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
I/O ports at d800
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd

00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 20)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 7880
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 23
Memory at ffeffc00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev c2)
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=32
I/O behind bridge: 00008000-00009fff
Memory behind bridge: ffd00000-ffdfffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: efe00000-efefffff
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0
Kernel modules: iTCO_wdt, intel-rng

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) IDE Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 8f [Master SecP SecO PriP PriO])
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 7880
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
I/O ports at c000
I/O ports at bc00
I/O ports at b800
I/O ports at b400 [size=4]
I/O ports at b000 [size=16]
Memory at 80000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Kernel driver in use: ata_piix

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 7880
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 14
I/O ports at 0c00 [size=32]
Kernel modules: i2c-i801

00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 0080
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
I/O ports at c800 [size=256]
I/O ports at c400 [size=64]
Memory at ffeffa00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
Memory at ffeff900 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: Intel ICH
Kernel modules: snd-intel8x0

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV100 QY [Radeon 7000/VE]
Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Device 013a
Flags: bus master, stepping, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 16
Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
I/O ports at 7800 [size=256]
Memory at ffcf0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Expansion ROM at ffcc0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: radeon
Kernel modules: radeonfb, radeon

02:01.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture (rev 02)
Subsystem: Hauppauge computer works Inc. Device 13eb
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 17
Memory at efefe000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K]
Kernel driver in use: bttv
Kernel modules: bttv

02:01.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture (rev 02)
Subsystem: Hauppauge computer works Inc. Device 13eb
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 17
Memory at efeff000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K]
Kernel driver in use: Bt87x
Kernel modules: snd-bt87x

02:02.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 43) (prog-if 10)
Subsystem: DTK Computer Device 0105
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 18
Memory at ffdfd000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

02:02.1 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 43) (prog-if 10)
Subsystem: DTK Computer Device 0105
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 19
Memory at ffdfe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

02:02.2 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB 2.0 (rev 04) (prog-if 20)
Subsystem: DTK Computer Device 0205
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 16
Memory at ffdfff00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd

02:05.0 Mass storage controller: HighPoint Technologies, Inc. HPT366/368/370/370A/372/372N (rev 04)
Subsystem: HighPoint Technologies, Inc. HPT366/368/370/370A/372/372N
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 120, IRQ 17
I/O ports at 9c00 [size=8]
I/O ports at 9800 [size=4]
I/O ports at 9400 [size=8]
I/O ports at 9000 [size=4]
I/O ports at 8c00 [size=256]
Expansion ROM at efe00000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pata_hpt37x
Kernel modules: pata_hpt3x2n, pata_hpt37x, pata_hpt366

02:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 788c
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 23
I/O ports at 8800 [size=256]
Memory at ffdffe00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Expansion ROM at efe20000 [disabled] [size=64K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: 8139too
Kernel modules: 8139too, 8139cp

martin@Server-PC ~ $ lsusb
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 045e:0040 Microsoft Corp. Wheel Mouse Optical
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 0f30:0112 Jess Technology Co., Ltd
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0c45:600d Microdia TwinkleCam USB camera
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 04b4:6830 Cypress Semiconductor Corp. CY7C68300A EZ-USB AT2 USB 2.0 to ATA/ATAPI
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
martin@Server-PC ~ $

[vincent]

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Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0c45:600d Microdia TwinkleCam USB camera

Is that the right webcam? A Microdia USB webcam...hmmm...

From a bit of research at the Ubuntu forums, it seems that there's been a lot of trouble trying to get this to work, and most have been unsuccessful. However, if you really want to get this webcam to work, here's a guide I found that teaches you how to compile and install an experimental driver for your webcam: http://groups.google.com/group/microdia ... iver-draft