Setting up your webcam under Fedora 8
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Author
Bill Giannikos (bill2 at giannikos.com.au)
www.billgiannikos.com
Introduction
This guide will help you set up your webcam under Fedora 8. Fedora doesn't include any real webcam support so we will be installing these drivers.
Most webcams are covered by either the Gspca or Linux-uvc driver, we will be covering both.
Notes
We will be using 'nano' as our text editor of choice but you can use whatever you wish.
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 of Fedora 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. Here is a list of webcams supported by the Gspca driver and 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
For an easy install we will be using the ATrpms repository.
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. Edit the file /etc/yum.conf. Using nano we type the command:
nano -w /etc/yum.conf
4. If you have already configured yum to use the ATrpms repository then append "*gspca*" to the end of the "includepkgs" line and skip the next setup. Otherwise continue on.
5. Add the following to the bottom of this file:
[atrpms]
name=Fedora $releasever - $basearch - ATrpms
baseurl=http://dl.atrpms.net/f$releasever-$basearch/atrpms/stable
gpgkey=http://ATrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
exclude=*kmdl*i586*
includepkgs=*gspca*
6. Save the file. In nano you press Ctrl-X, answer yes to the "Save modified buffer" question and then press enter on the file name to write.
7. If you have not previously setup ATrpms execute the following command:
rpm --import http://ATrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms
8. Now execute the following command:
yum install gspcav1
9. Reboot your system and the gspca driver will be loaded.
Installing the Linux-uvc driver
For an easy install we will be using the ATrpms repository.
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. Edit the file /etc/yum.conf. Using nano we type the command:
nano -w /etc/yum.conf
4. If you have already configured yum to use the ATrpms repository then append "*gspca*" to the end of the "includepkgs" line and skip the next setup. Otherwise continue on.
5. Add the following to the bottom of this file:
[atrpms]
name=Fedora $releasever - $basearch - ATrpms
baseurl=http://dl.atrpms.net/f$releasever-$basearch/atrpms/stable
gpgkey=http://ATrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
exclude=*kmdl*i586*
includepkgs=*uvc*
6. Save the file. In nano you press Ctrl-X, answer yes to the "Save modified buffer" question and then press enter on the file name to write.
7. If you have not previously setup ATrpms execute the following command:
rpm --import http://ATrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms
8. Now execute the following command:
yum install uvc
9. Reboot your system and the gspca driver will be loaded.
