

This is a linux driver for Quickcam Messenger and Quickcam Communicate.
(Thanks to Mathias Kuster who found a working init-string that
resulted into frames in bayes-format.)

The driver is based on qc-usb-0.6.2, but I have removed the support
for all cameras except Quickcam Messenger in this source, since I
don't have any other cameras at home.

Here is some information about the driver:

  Support for Quickcam Messenger (0x046D, 0x08F0)
  Support for Quickcam Communicate (0x046D, 0x08F5)
  162x124, 162x248, 324x124, 324x248 resolution available
  Auto exposure works (need some tuning though)
  Auto shutter-control works (need some tuning though)
  Read status of the camera snapshot button
  Compressed format is still unknown
  Driver is compiled and tested with Quickcam Messenger and
    Fedora Core 1 (kernel 2.4.22-1.2197.nptl) and
    Fedora Core 3 (kernel 2.6.9-1.667smp).


I have sucessfully tried some applications:
  xawtv -c /dev/video0
  camorama
  gspy (patched version works)
  gnomemeetings (perhaps not working during conversation though...)
  ./show
  ./testquickcam /dev/video0 -m


If you would like to find updates in the future, they will probably be
placed at this web-page:
http://home.mag.cx/messenger/


/Christian
Email: mag@mag.cx


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How to compile and use....

make install

(load usb modules if not already loaded)
modprobe videodev
modprobe quickcam


You should now get something like this in your syslog file:

quickcam: QuickCam USB camera found (driver version QuickCam Messenger/Communicate USB $Date: 2004/12/21 10:00:00 $)
quickcam: Kernel:2.6.9-1.667smp bus:4 class:FF subclass:FF vendor:046D product:08F0
quickcam [54.599250]: poisoning qc in qc_usb_init
quickcam [54.606150]: E00A contains 08F0
quickcam [55.380589]: Quickcam snapshot button registered as /dev/input/event2
quickcam: Sensor VV6450 detected
quickcam: Registered device: /dev/video0
usbcore: registered new driver quickcam

--------------------

How do I use Camera button?

The button events are showed in /proc/video/quickcam/button0 and I
recently added the button as an input device too. (I don't have much
experience of this)

If your kernel supports input devices, then you should be able to
do a quick test of the input device...
>modprobe input
>modprobe evdev
>modprobe quickcam

On my Fedora Core 3 with kernel 2.6.9, I find the device registered
in the file:
>cat /proc/bus/input/devices  (where you find which eventX the button have)

On my Fedora Core 1 with kernel 2.4.22, no such device list exists? I'm
writing the device name to the syslog, so read it there until I create
an ioctl to return the input device.

Anyway, you can try to read the event-device with my test-application
./input_read /dev/input/event2

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