Webcam support with webcam-server for the Alix 3d3 system board

This solution is quite old (written in 2010). It might not work with newer versions of Voyage Linux!

Setting up the environment

You need to compile your own module for supporting various types of webcams.

For starting with compiling, some pre-work is needed regarding downloading all needed software packages. I assume that you are running the 2.6.23-voyage kernel. First we need our partition writable:

little-agent:/# remountrw

The next step is the download of the archives needed.

Tip: You can edit your /etc/apt/sources.list according to a mirror nearby.

Try to change „deb http://www.voyage.hk/dists/experimental ./“ to „deb http://de.voyage.hk/dists/experimental ./“ for improving the your downloadspeed.

Start with:

little-agent:/# apt-get update
little-agent:/# apt-get install linux-source-2.6.23-voyage
little-agent:/# apt-get install build-essential
little-agent:/# apt-get install gspca-source
little-agent:/# apt-get install camserv

Compiling the kernel

As the downloading is finished we can continue with building the kernel with the original .config-file used for current running voyage-kernel, again. We will switch to the /usr/src/ – directory and unpack the sources.

little-agent:/# cd /usr/src/
little-agent:/usr/src# ls
gspca-source.tar.bz2  linux-source-2.6.23-voyage  linux-source-2.6.23-voyage.tar.bz2  modules
little-agent:/usr/src# tar xjvf linux-source-2.6.23-voyage.tar.bz2
little-agent:/usr/src# tar xjvf gspca-source.tar.bz2

The next step ist now copying the old .config file to our kernel-source

little-agent:/usr/src# cd linux-source-2.6.23-voyage/
little-agent:/usr/src# cp /boot/config-2.6.23-486-voyage /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.23-voyage/.config

Change the Option „EXTRAVERSION =“ to „EXTRAVERSION = -486-voyage“ in the Makefile and run the kernel compiling process. Keep in mind, that there is now plenty of time for a coffee. This can take a lot of time! It took about two hours on my Alix Box.

little-agent:/usr/src# cd linux-source-2.6.23-voyage
little-agent:/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.23-voyage# nano Makefile
little-agent:/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.23-voyage# make

After finishing all the compiling stuff you are now able to create a symlink to the build-directory and compile your own modules:

little-agent:/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.23-voyage# ln -s /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.23-voyage /lib/modules/2.6.23-486-voyage/build

Build your module

No it is time for your camera module. Switch to the directory where you have unpacked the camera module sources and compile them

little-agent:/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.23-voyage# cd ../modules/gspca/
little-agent:/usr/src/modules/gspca# make
make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build SUBDIRS=/usr/src/modules/gspca CC=cc modules
make

[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.23-voyage' Building modules, stage 2. MODPOST 1 modules make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.23-voyage'

When anything went right, you should see an output similar to the one above.

Installing the module is the last step to perform.

little-agent:/usr/src/modules/gspca# make install
little-agent:/usr/src/modules/gspca# depmode -a
little-agent:/usr/src/modules/gspca# modprobe gspca

Now plugin your camera to usb and you will see an output like the following in your kernel messages.

For testing I used a Logitech Quickcam and one from Labtech.

little-agent:/# dmesg
usb 2-1: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 4
usb 2-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
/usr/src/modules/gspca/gspca_core.c: USB SPCA5XX camera found.(ZC3XX)
/usr/src/modules/gspca/gspca_core.c: [spca5xx_probe:3887] Camera type JPEG
/usr/src/modules/gspca/Vimicro/zc3xx.h: [zc3xx_config:515] Sensor ID:9
/usr/src/modules/gspca/Vimicro/zc3xx.h: [zc3xx_config:582] Find Sensor PAS202BCB
/usr/src/modules/gspca/gspca_core.c: [spca5xx_getcapability:1165] maxw 640 maxh 480 minw 176 minh 144
usb 2-2: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 5
usb 2-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
/usr/src/modules/gspca/gspca_core.c: USB SPCA5XX camera found.(ZC3XX)
/usr/src/modules/gspca/gspca_core.c: [spca5xx_probe:3887] Camera type JPEG
/usr/src/modules/gspca/Vimicro/zc3xx.h: [zc3xx_config:515] Sensor ID:7
/usr/src/modules/gspca/Vimicro/zc3xx.h: [zc3xx_config:597] Find Sensor HV7131R(c)
/usr/src/modules/gspca/gspca_core.c: [spca5xx_getcapability:1165] maxw 640 maxh 480 minw 176 minh 144
little-agent:/#

Please start your camserv-programm now and point your webbrowser to the right webpage (p.e. http://little-agent:9192/).

little-agent:/# camserv /dev/video0

Congratulations!

You have just finished your first kernel module for your Alix 3d3 board.

It think this should also work with other boards and different kernel versions. Please check the kernel version in the dev repository and change the shell commands according to the given version number. If you like another resolution, and if your webcam supports it, you can change it in /etc/camserv/camserv.cfg.

(Look for 320 and 200 and change them to 640 and 480 or another resolution.)
You can now include the Webstream-Video in your html like this:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html>
<head>
        <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
        <meta name="author" content="sven@seiler.it" />
        <title>Webcam - Test</title>
</head>
<body>
  <img src="http://192.168.1.92:9192" width="640" height="480" alt="Webcam" >
</body>
</html>