Usb Video Capture (and Web Cam)

[Pussycat]

Yes- Guvcview is quite a nice simple app for the purpose at this stage of my "education"!

[Pussycat]

just17 - taking up your offer in Reply #1...

Prerequisites - OK

 after that it is not clear (to me) what is AND or OR - ie do I do everything in
every section (or is it mix n' match?)...

I've downloaded somagic-easycap-tools_1.0_i386.deb AND somagic-easycap_1.0_i386.deb

  but

After that do I perform every section of "Downloading and installing official releases"
The first two sub-sections make sense but seem to make the earlier downloads redundant?
The second two sub-sections seem redundant also (and don't understand the commands to perform)?

  and

Every step of every subsequent section

  Downloading git sources (don't understand)
  Extracting firmware
  Performing user space capture

[I'm not even sure that my plea makes sense!]

[Just17]

First thing is that PCLinuxOS does not use  .deb  packages, so those are not of much use to you.

Your options would appear to be to download the source code and build the drivers yourself, or else give the details of the package/s and source in Package Requests and hope that someone will have the time and inclination to build a RPM package for PCLOS.

http://code.google.com/p/easycap-somagic-linux/wiki/GettingStarted

If you are going to try installing from source I strongly suggest you use a test installation of PCLOS, because things could go wrong 

Indentification
# lsusb
Bus XXX Device XXX: ID 1c88:0007 Somagic, Inc.
and after loading the firmware
# lsusb
Bus XXX Device XXX: ID 1c88:003c Somagic, Inc. or Bus XXX Device XXX: ID 1c88:003f Somagic, Inc.

Did you get identification of the device like this?


Source is available here
http://code.google.com/p/easycap-somagic-linux/downloads/list

but you need to be sure those sources are for your particular device.

[Pussycat]

Yes - that's link is where I got to.  And, yes, I'd already done lsusb to identify the device but obviously can't install firmware at this time since getting that far is the problem!

Just when there seemed to be a light at the end of the tunnel it turned out to be a train coming towards me!

It may be easier to try a Debian based distro though will probably need to update Mint 8 - which I'm happy with and reluctant to disturb - or try Mint 14 in another partition (perhaps overwriting an earlier version of PCLos)...

[Just17]

Did you get the firmware file?

If you did then put it in  /lib/firmware  which is where most of the firmware files are stored.

Then try plugging in the device and comparing the output of  dmesg  with the output from the link ....

[Pussycat]

I'm obviously being thick here but can the firmware be installed without doing the rest of install which we've already decided can't be done (easily)?

Are you saying that I can just copy SmiUsbGrabber3c.sys (from WinXP) to /lib/firmware - especially as wine isn't intalled?

[Just17]

You can extract the firmware using XP (from a Windows  file) just as you would using Wine if it was installed

https://code.google.com/p/easycap-somagic-linux/wiki/GettingStarted#Extracting_firmware

There are easycap drivers in PCLOS .....  I don't know if they are the correct ones or not ......  but either way you need the firmware first.


/usr/src/linux-3.2.18-pclos1/drivers/staging/media/easycap/README

SUPPORTED HARDWARE
------------------

This driver is intended for use with hardware having USB ID 05e1:0408.
Two kinds of EasyCAP have this USB ID, namely:

    *  EasyCAP USB 2.0 Video Adapter with Audio, Model DC60,
       having input cables labelled CVBS, S-VIDEO, AUDIO(L), AUDIO(R)

    *  EasyCAP002 4-Channel USB 2.0 DVR, having input cables labelled
       1, 2, 3, 4 and an unlabelled input cable for a microphone.

All references I found in PCLOS refer to

"EasyCAP USB ID 05e1:0408 support"

So it appears the driver for your device is not there ......  which brings you back to requesting a package build or downloading the source code and installing yourself.

You should post a copy & paste of the output from your PC for the commands mentioned ....  lsusb .... dmesg ....  and so on ............  only the lines referring to your Easycap device of course.

[Pussycat]

Code: [Select]

/usr/src/linux-3.2.18-pclos1/drivers/staging/media/easycap/README
Is the above complete - doesn't work as a link?

I was indicating that the device is already installed to WinXP and. therefore, could SmiUsbGrabber3c.sys simply be copied to /lib/firmware thus avoiding the rest of that ritual or is still necessary because the driver needs to be "registered"?

[Just17]

Code: [Select]

/usr/src/linux-3.2.18-pclos1/drivers/staging/media/easycap/README
Is the above complete - doesn't work as a link?

It is a Readme file .....  for you to read

I was indicating that the device is already installed to WinXP and. therefore, could SmiUsbGrabber3c.sys simply be copied to /lib/firmware thus avoiding the rest of that ritual or is still necessary because the driver needs to be "registered"?

You can extract the firmware using XP (from a Windows  file) just as you would using Wine if it was installed

https://code.google.com/p/easycap-somagic-linux/wiki/GettingStarted#Extracting_firmware

[Pussycat]

Eventually managed to copy SmiUsbGrabber3c.sys to /lib/firmware (but had to launch Dolphin as root to do it!).

The address for the README path is in ../linux/.. not ../linux-3.2.18-pcLos1/.. on my system but no README in the Easycap folder - but how did an Easycap folder get there not having installed anything other than the sys file?

Plugging in the device produces no change from lsusb.

But I'm also having problems with my usb ports so that (and a powered usb hub) need to be resolved before I can take this any further.

In the meantime, thank you for your patience just17...

[Just17]

Eventually managed to copy SmiUsbGrabber3c.sys to /lib/firmware (but had to launch Dolphin as root to do it!).

The address for the README path is in ../linux/.. not ../linux-3.2.18-pcLos1/.. on my system but no README in the Easycap folder - but how did an Easycap folder get there not having installed anything other than the sys file?

Plugging in the device produces no change from lsusb.

But I'm also having problems with my usb ports so that (and a powered usb hub) need to be resolved before I can take this any further.

In the meantime, thank you for your patience just17...

It is my understanding that you have to extract the firmware file from SmiUsbGrabber3c.sys while in Windows, and put the extracted file into /lib/firmware

The easycap folder is there because there is at least one easycap driver on my system as I mentioned above.
I think that driver is not suitable for your particular device.

[Pussycat]

Surely SmiUsbGrabber3c.sys is the firmware/driver?  Nothing can be extracted from that (unless linux has special methods).

My other point was - how on earth did an easycap folder appear on that path since I didn't create it (and it does contain a couple of files but not a readme).  I've invoked none of the steps from the wiki - other than to install the sys file in firmware - so is it there by default after the initial install of pclos?

Anyway, as stated above, further experimentation (on this machine) is impossible until I sort out the hardware usb problem!

[parnote]

Surely SmiUsbGrabber3c.sys is the firmware/driver?  Nothing can be extracted from that (unless linux has special methods).

Sorry to butt in here ... BUT

Pussycat,

Read step #3 under the previous link that Just17 provided. It tells you exactly what you need to do to create/extract the firmware.

[Just17]

Surely SmiUsbGrabber3c.sys is the firmware/driver?  Nothing can be extracted from that (unless linux has special methods).

Parnote has again referred you to the link I provided on how to do it.

My other point was - how on earth did an easycap folder appear on that path since I didn't create it (and it does contain a couple of files but not a readme).  I've invoked none of the steps from the wiki - other than to install the sys file in firmware - so is it there by default after the initial install of pclos?

I have answered this in my previous post ....  PCLOS has easycap drivers so it is no big surprise there should be files and folders with the easycap name in your system.

Anyway, as stated above, further experimentation (on this machine) is impossible until I sort out the hardware usb problem!

[thorper]

I also have this device and I'm having the same problem getting it to be recognised. I followed the link from Just17 post #23 http://code.google.com/p/easycap-somagic-linux/wiki/GettingStarted, but can't perform step #3:

3. Run as root "somagic-extract-firmware SmiUsbGrabber.sys", to create "/lib/firmware/somagic_firmware.bin".

I get a message saying the file not found even though I can see it using Wine. I'm not sure how/where the somagic-extract-firmware command comes from or if I am running the command correctly and SmiUsbGrabber.sys is on drive_c:\NTFS as seen through Wine file manager