Setting up your webcam under SuSE-OpenSuSE 10.3 [Linux Wiki Guides]

Edit the page and hit Save. See Formatting Syntax for Wiki syntax. Please edit the page only if you can improve it. If you want to test some things, learn to make your first steps on the playground.

====== Setting up your webcam under SuSE-OpenSuSE 10.3 ======
===== Author(s) =====
Bill Giannikos
===== Introduction =====
This guide will help you set up your webcam under SuSE and OpenSuSE 10.3. SuSE doesn't include the main drivers used by most webcams so we will be installing these drivers.

Most webcams are covered by either the [[http://mxhaard.free.fr/index.html|Gspca]] or [[http://linux-uvc.berlios.de/|Linux-uvc]] driver, we will be covering both.
===== Notes =====
While this guide is mainly focused to laptop users there isn't any difference for desktop users.

Both the Gspca and Linux-uvc drivers are in a development stage. This means the drivers are not yet considered fully stable and should be installed with caution. This is especially true for the Linux-uvc driver as it is still listed as being in alpha stage.
===== Prerequisites =====
You should run a full update for your installation to ensure you have all the latest packages installed.
===== Determining the driver to use =====
In Linux there are 2 different drivers which covers the majority of webcams available, these are the Gspca or Linux-uvc driver. You will need to determine which is the correct driver to install. If you are not sure which webcam you have you can make use of the 'lspci' and 'lsusb' commands to print a list of devices on your system.

After determining your webcam type you need to see which driver supports your webcam. [[http://mxhaard.free.fr/spca5xx.html|Here is a list]] of webcams supported by the Gspca driver and [[http://linux-uvc.berlios.de/#devices|here is a list]] of webcams supported by the linux-uvc driver.

If you webcam doesn't appear on either list then it's possible your webcam isn't supported. If you like you can just try installing both drivers anyway and see how you go.
===== Installing the latest Gspca driver =====
In this section we will be detailing the procedure of installing the latest Gspca driver for SuSE-OpenSuSE 10.3.

**1.** Download the latest drivers from [[http://mxhaard.free.fr/download.html]]. You want to download the latest gspcav1 driver, not the older spca5xx. In this guide we are going to use gspcav1-20071224 as at the time of writing these are the current ones.

**2.** Load up a terminal window if you are in the graphic interface.

**3.** Switch to the root user by entering the command "su -" (without the quotes) and typing in your root password.

**4.** Type in the following to install gcc and the kernel headers:
<code>yast -i gcc linux-kernel-headers kernel-headers kernel-source</code>

**5.** Move to the /usr/src/ folder with:
<code>cd /usr/src</code>

**6.** Extract the contents of the file you downloaded with:
<code>sudo tar -xzvf /path/to/gspcav1-20071224.tar.gz</code>
Remember to replace the "/path/to" in this command to the path of where your file is and change the filename to the version you downloaded

**7.** Move into the newly created folder with 
<code>cd gspcav1-20071224</code>

**8.** Now start the building process with:
<code>make</code>
This will take a while.

**9.** And finally we install the driver with:
<code>make install</code>

**10.** Reboot your computer and the newer gspca driver will be used.

=====Installing the latest Linux-uvc driver=====
In this section we will be detailing the procedure of installing the latest Linux-uvc driver for SuSE-OpenSuSE 10.3.

**1.** Load up a terminal window if you are in the graphic interface.

**2.** Switch to the root user by entering the command "su -" (without the quotes) and typing in your root password.

**3.** Type in the following to install gcc, svn and the kernel headers:
<code>yast -i gcc linux-kernel-headers kernel-headers kernel-source subversion</code>

**4.** Move to the /usr/src/ folder with:
<code>cd /usr/src</code>

**5.** Download the latest driver with:
<code>svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/linux-uvc/linux-uvc/trunk</code>

**6.** Move into the newly created folder with 
<code>cd trunk</code>

**7.** Now start the building process with:
<code>make</code>
This will take a while.

**8.** And finally we install the driver with:
<code>make install</code>

**9.** Reboot your computer and the newer linux-uvc driver will be used.

Please fill all the letters into the box to prove you're human. PTVSP

Edit summary