:: Setting up Logitech QuickCam pro 4000 on RH 9.0 ::
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Setting up Logitech QuickCam pro 4000 on RH 9.0
  1. The author of the pwc driver has discontinued support for this driver. So the below steps will not work for newer distributions like FC3. I have now upgraded to FC3 and found that http://www.saillard.org/linux/pwc/ has the updated driver. It even has instructions for installing it. I spent nearly three days to make the old driver work, before stumbling upon this site.
  2. Michael Willem's reported that he got the Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 working, by just pluggin it in, in his RH 9.0 system. So you might probably consider doing that first before following the below instructions.
  3. This receipe discusses the steps that I took to install the Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 on my RedHat 9.0 Linux System. I haven't experimented with all features of this device, but my first impression is good. You can access the manual here, but it may not prove to be so useful.
  4. I followed most of the below steps listed on http://www.ap-accessgrid.org/linux/usb.html. However even after following all the steps, my camera refused to work becuase of some small misconfiguration. This is explained in a later point.
  5. If you are using Red Hat 9.0, the kernel which comes with it will probably have some EXTRAVERSION (for e.g. 2.4.20-13-9). In order to use the camera, you will have to start with a fresh kernel. You can download this from www.kernel.org. At the time of this writing, the latest version was 2.4.21, but i choose to use 2.4.20 becuase the linux driver for this camera, was supposed to work only for 2.4.20. So do some background research before you download the right kernel version.
  6. After downloading the kernel, put it in /usr/src/ and untar/unzip it using tar -xvjf linux-2.4.20.tar.bz2. You will get a directory /usr/src/linux-2.4.20. Make a link to this directory using the following commad:
    #>ln -s /usr/src/linux-2.4.20 /usr/src/linux
    
  7. Our camera works very well with the philips web cam driver that can be downloaded from the http://www.smcc.demon.nl/webcam/ site. Download the following files:
    1. Download the PWC core modules: Check what version is required with your kernel version. For our case, we needed pwc-8.8.tar.gz, although I could have downloaded the higher versions too. Follow these instructions: [pwc-8.8.tar.gz ]
      [shashank@mia ~shashank/temp]# tar -xvzf pwc-8.8.tar.gz 
      pwc-8.8/
      pwc-8.8/kernel-2.4/
      pwc-8.8/kernel-2.4/ChangeLog
      --SNIP--
      [shashank@mia ~shashank/temp]# cd pwc-8.8/kernel-2.4/
      [shashank@mia kernel-2.4]# ls
      ChangeLog    pwc-ctrl.c  pwc-ioctl.h  pwc-uncompress.c  pwc.h        pwc_nala.h
      philips.txt  pwc-if.c    pwc-misc.c   pwc-uncompress.h  pwc_kiara.h  pwc_timon.h
      [shashank@mia kernel-2.4]# cp pwc* /usr/src/linux-2.4.20/drivers/usb/
      
    2. Download the PXCX decompressor modules: Follow the below instructions: [ pwcx-8.2.2.tar.gz ]
      [shashank@mia ~shashank/temp]# tar -xvzf pwcx-8.2.2.tar.gz 
      usb-pwcx-8.2.2/
      usb-pwcx-8.2.2/x86/
      --SNIP--
      [shashank@mia ~shashank/temp]# cd usb-pwcx-8.2.2/x86/gcc-3.2/
      [shashank@mia gcc-3.2]# ls
      README  pwcx-2.4.20.o  pwcx-2.5.67.ko
      [shashank@mia gcc-3.2]# cp pwcx-2.4.20.o /lib/modules/usb/
      
      NOTE: If you don't have the /lib/modules/usb directory, then create it.
  8. Add the following lines to /etc/modules.conf.
    NOTE: Note the options supplied to pwc module. Here I have specifed the frame Capture rate (fps) as 15. This was required to make xawtv work. If i do not specify this, xawtv will not detect the camera and aborts with /dev/video0: no such device error.
    If in confusion, I will suggest comments out the options field for pwc (and let the default values take care. These default values can be read from here)
    [shashank@mia gcc-3.2]# cat /etc/modules.conf
    --SNIP--
    alias char-major-81 videodev
    alias char-major-81-0 pwc
    #options pwc size=vga leds=250,250 fps=25 mbufs=3 compression=0
    options pwc fps=15 mbufs=3 compression=0
    post-install pwc /sbin/insmod --force -k /lib/modules/usb/pwcx-2.4.20.o >/dev/null 2>&1  || :
    --SNIP--
    
  9. Now start compiling the kernel. I have mentioned the detailed instructions here, but you need to make a few changes in some steps.
    #>cd /usr/src/linux-2.4.20
    #>make clean; make mrproper
    #>cp /boot/config-2.4.20-13.9 .config
    #>make menuconfig
    
    Turn off the following option
    Loadable Module Support --> Set Version Information on All module Symbols
    
    
    In addition check if the following options are selected. (Most probably they are)
    USB support --> Support of USB
                --> UHCI (Intel PIIX4, VIA, ...)
                --> USB Audio support
                --> USB Philips Cameras
    
    Then complete the final step as :
    #>make dep; make bzImage; make modules; make modules_install; make install
    
    When the compilation is complete, reboot the system in the new kernel (2.4.20).
  10. Download the xawtv application and install it using the normal ./configure; make; make install. Start the applications using xawtv.
  11. Need to experiment more with gnomemeeting.

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