Cheese webcam on dell 1521 laptop, cheese not working SOLVED

[mscatamaran]

I just got Linux back after having Windows XP. When I had Linux I used Cheese webcam so I'd like to continue that. Now I have Linux Mint and I installed Cheese but its not working properly. It comes on but the screen is white. I have an integrated webcam, my laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1521.. When I had XP, I had to have certain drivers installed for my pain in the neck webcam to work....

anyone have any solutions?

[merlwiz79]

It looks like it works fine out of the box in Ubuntu 8.10(Linux Mint 6)
If you have compiz running you might need to disable that.
Also you might try and run

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LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so cheese

[mscatamaran]

whats compiz?

i tried typing the other in a terminal, Cheese came on but the screen was still white and then it froze and i had to Force Quit Cheese

[merlwiz79]

Compiz Fusion: Menu --> Preferences --> Appearance --> Visual Effects --> None(turns it off)

[mscatamaran]

i have compiz config manager and simple compiz config manager, but no compiz fusion.

[mscatamaran]

does anyone think that the lack of drivers might be the problem... if anyone does think that please help me install them (they'd be from xp or vista) from the dell site.

[mscatamaran]

so i discovered that the Cheese version i had installed was 2.24, not the most current. i uninstalled that and downloaded the tar.gz package (or whatever its called). I dont know if this helps anyone but i typed ./configure; make; make install into the terminal and this is what i got:

checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
checking for gawk... no
checking for mawk... mawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking for library containing strerror... none required
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... (cached) none needed
checking dependency style of gcc... (cached) gcc3
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... (cached) none needed
checking dependency style of gcc... (cached) gcc3
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
checking for fgrep... /bin/grep -F
checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for BSD- or MS-compatible name lister (nm)... /usr/bin/nm -B
checking the name lister (/usr/bin/nm -B) interface... BSD nm
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 1572864
checking whether the shell understands some XSI constructs... yes
checking whether the shell understands "+="... yes
checking for /usr/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r
checking for objdump... objdump
checking how to recognize dependent libraries... pass_all
checking for ar... ar
checking for strip... strip
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output from gcc object... ok
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking for dlfcn.h... yes
checking for objdir... .libs
checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... no
checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -fPIC -DPIC
checking if gcc PIC flag -fPIC -DPIC works... yes
checking if gcc static flag -static works... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes
checking whether the gcc linker (/usr/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... no
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build static libraries... yes
checking what warning flags to pass to the C compiler... -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes
checking what language compliance flags to pass to the C compiler...
checking whether NLS is requested... yes
checking for intltool >= 0.40.0... ./configure: line 13016: intltool-update: command not found
found
configure: error: Your intltool is too old. You need intltool 0.40.0 or later.
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.
make: *** No rule to make target `install'. Stop.



i dont know what any of this means nor do i know if its even relevant but please help.

[merlwiz79]

Are you on Linux Mint 6?
It should have the correct version of intltool.(in Synaptic)
Though the latest version of cheese is for Gnome 2.26, which will be in Linux Mint 7(Ubuntu 9.04).

[mscatamaran]

yeah i got 6 from the linux mint website...

um i dont really know what that means, do i have Gnome 2.26 or Gnome 2.25?

unrelated but how does upgrading to LM 7 (and onwards) work, will there be an update to download or will i have to save all my backups and install 7 as i did 6?

[merlwiz79]

There will be a program that you run to upgrade.
You have Gnome 2.24.
You could install gnome-device-manager to see the name of the web cam.
Maybe try

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cheese --sync

Try deleting in .gconf/desktop/gnome/interface/%gconf.xml the entry <entry name="accessibility" mtime="1225138994" type="bool" value="true"/>
Here's how to get more info.

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cheese -v

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lsusb

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lsmod

[mscatamaran]

i install that gnome device manager but i cant find it.....

sorry to seem stupid but where do i type .gconf/desktop/gnome/interface/%gconf.xml the entry <entry name="accessibility" mtime="1225138994" type="bool" value="true"/>

[merlwiz79]

It's a hidden folder in your home directory.

[mscatamaran]

again dont mean to sound stupid but this is getting way to complicated, so anyone feel VERY free to name off another webcam...


i think i am where i am suppose to be and under apps, then under cheese theres this xml file that says this: <gconf>
<entry name="y_resolution" mtime="1238022446" type="int" value="144">
</entry>
<entry name="x_resolution" mtime="1238022446" type="int" value="176">
</entry>
−
<entry name="webcam" mtime="1237510347" type="string">
<stringvalue>/dev/video0</stringvalue>
</entry>
<entry name="countdown" mtime="1238204894" type="bool" value="true">
</entry>
</gconf>