Webcam on HP DV9000 series

[Derek Broughton]

Gilles Gravier wrote:

> Try launching Ekiga, the GNOME Video Conference application. Make sure
> that, in the video detection screen, your camera is visible, either as a
> V4L or V4L2 device. If it isn't visible in Ekiga, then chances are you
> don't have a driver for it.
> 
> Linux usually has a hard time with webcams... as standardisation in that
> area is far from complete.
> 
> There are 4 types of webcams.
> 
> 1) Pure proprietary chipsets of old generation. The driver had to read
> bits off of the CCD sensor and do the whole work of reconstructing the
> image... without the relevant proprietary info, this is impossible. So
> not many exist.
> 
> 2) More modern proprietary chipsets. The driver has to get the high
> level info off of the device which does a lot of processing by itself.
> Again, without proprietary specs, impossible to write a driver. So not
> many exist.
> 
> 3) "classic industry chipset" like the Philipps chips that equip many
> webcams. There is a driver for Linux that handles this family reasonably
> well.
> 
> 4) New standard USB-VC (USB Video Class) devices. This is, as the name
> implies, for USB cams. The good news is that it's a standard. Ubuntu
> 7.10, Solaris, and a few other popular operating systems include the
> driver by default. Older versions (Ubuntu 7.04 and before) don't, so you
> would have to manually install in these older OSes).
> 
> If your built-in webcam is USB-VC, it should be visible directly. If
> not... depends on your luck and if it's a (1), (2) or (3) category cam. :)
> 

Mine (on an hp dv6000) is UVC, but in my research it would appear that
_very_ few programs actually support uvc yet (at least the versions in the
Ubuntu repos).  luvcview does - but it's pretty much just a proof of
concept for uvc.  Kopete does.  Ekiga _should_ (but I couldn't make it),
and mplayer has a patch that I haven't tried.

David - what does lsusb show?  The DV6000s have at least two different
webcams (only one of which is supported at all), so we need to know that,
at least.
-- 
derek