Webcam not working on kopete, need driver?

Hello Emily,

You should enable the use of the gspca driver.

Go in a terminal, type "sudo modprobe gspca" and try with an application (kopete, ekiga or camorama, a dedicated app for webcam) that it is working. If not, tell us and we will try to find another driver. If yes, tell us too and we will give you a method to launch it at boot time.

Hope that it helps you.

--kalon33

Thanks for your help, but that driver didn't work :(

When I typed the command it asked for my password, then I checked in Kopete and the webcam picture looks the same as before.

Emily, open a terminal, from the menu Apllications->Accessories->Terminal and type
sudo lsusb
to check if your cam is connected and loaded by the system
After type:
sudo lsmod | grep -i gspca
then if you have no result your gspca kernel module is NOT loaded then try to load with:
sudo modprobe gspca
then type:
ls -la /dev/video0
add your user to video group type:
sudo adduser video yourusername
then install camorama:
sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install camorama
then launch camorama, type:
camorama
if you don't see nothing try to directly watch the data coming from /dev/video0, type:
cat /dev/video0
if you see strange chars you device is sending data then perss CTRL+c to stop tha cat command and reset your
terminal type (don't worry if you don't see good chars when you type reset):
reset (and then press enter)
Open your /etc/modules, type:
sudo gedit /etc/modules
and add at the end of this file the module name to load at Ubuntu kernel boot, add on a single row :
gspca
save and exit
Now completely shutdown your pc, type:
sudo shutdown -h now
Switch on your pc and try Camorama then other software you like, check or change video device to /dev/video0 into preferences of your software.
Sometimes usb mouse can make usb cam working bad (the webcam can hang).

HTH

That didn't work either :(

After typing 'sudo lsmod | grep -i gspca'
'lsmod' appeared

This stuff 'then type:
ls -la /dev/video0
add your user to video group type:
sudo adduser video yourusername' didn't work.

After 'sudo adduser video yourusername' it said that the 'username 'video' does not exist.'

I installed camorama and the webcam works perfectly in it, but still no luck for Kopete or Ekiga or AMSN.

Emily...
My result of:
sudo lsmod | grep -i gspca
is
gspca 644304 0
videodev 29440 1 gspca
usbcore 137736 4 gspca,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd

I make a little typo to the adduser command:
sudo adduser yourusername video

Try getting all the permission of the /dev/video0
sudo chmod 777 /dev/video0

HTH

Hi!! I just wanted to thank you for this post. I just bought a quickcam logitech and i had the same problem as Emily. I just noticed that the line for adduser is switched, also the line must be:
sudo adduser yourusername video.

Then all the other worked!!

Thanx marcobra!!! :)

mmm mine is a Microsoft Lifecam VX-1000 and it seems to be there

when I type
sudo lsmod | grep -i gspca

  I get

gspca_sonixj 20796 0
gspca_main 22812 1 gspca_sonixj
videodev 36736 1 gspca_main

but when I run Camorama I get error -
camera light goes on
then the message "Unable to Capture Image" with the only option being close which shuts camorama and off goes the cam light??

Any ideas???
Alan

oh I am using Ubuntu 9.10
Alan