[PLUG] USB Camera Driver

[Rich Shepard]

On Thu, 3 Sep 2009, drew wymore wrote:

> I can confirm it's not working with a stock Fedora 11 install either. No
> video output at all.

Drew,

   That's interesting. I think the key question is whether there is a common
cause among distributions and kernels.

> I think I mentioned awhile back that the qc-usb module is needed which I
> just tried and it puked because it doesn't like the currently installed
> kernel.

   My research on drivers for the Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Communicate STX
confuses me. Almost no sites mention that specific model, but they do have
information on the VC (Viet Cong?) model which the STX replaced (or was that
the Pro model?). They mention the qc-ca driver, the qc-usb driver, the pwc
(Philips) driver for some Logitech models, but that was proprietary, no
longer supported, and now has a completely open version. Then there are the
V4L1 and V4L2 drivers and the vnclinux drivers; where they go in the stack
I've no idea. Long fire engines have drivers in front and back. Do webcams
need multiple drivers, too?

   I don't understand why there is such a plethora of drivers and so little
specific information on the STX model. Reminds me of the early days of linux
when too few hardware manufacturers opened their driver APIs to the linux
community and getting a specific item to work was a major hassle. I thought
we were well past that point by now.

Rich

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