Hello,

I have a strange issue with my logitech quickcam communicate STX. This webcam is working great on my desktop computer and ubuntu 7.10 however on my new laptop (acer 5720G) it seems that skype isn't even trying to use it.

Let me explain, the webcam is well recognized, i can use it with ekiga and camorama without any problem however when i select it in skype and run the test i only get a black screen and the blue LED on the webcam isn't even activated like if skype didn't even tried to use it.

I'm using ubuntu 7.10 like on my desktop computer and the nvidia drivers again same version than on my other computer.

If anyone have an idea of what could be wrong please let me now as i 'm a bit lost on what could be wrong for the moment.

Seems that latest update of Ubuntu Gutsy has affected webcam behavior in Skype - see this post...

Amauri

Weird, why would it affect only skype ?

Too bad that i don't have my other computer repaired yet to test this on it.

Ok the ubuntu update theory is definitively not what's happen here. I got back my main desktop computer, installed all the ubuntu gutsy updates and tested with the same webcam and it is working just great without any problem.

I hope someone could understand what's wrong here as i saw some other users on ubuntuforums with the same issues and the logitech quickcam communicate STX which is a known working camera.

Desptop computer : => all is working great
ubuntu gutsy 7.10
nvidia 7600GT, nvidia drivers from ubuntu repositories
logitech quickcam communicate STX
gspca drivers

Laptop computer : => webcam recognized by skype but black screen in test and webcam don't seem active (no led)
Acer 5720G
ubuntu gutsy 7.10
nVidia 8400M G, nvidia drivers from ubuntu repositories
logitech quickcam communicate STX
gspca drivers

Can you confirm from dmesg that gspca is the same version on both?

Andy.

SOLVED !!

I was testing gstfakevideo, and changed my webcam from /dev/video0 to /dev/video1. As gstfakevideo didn't solve my problem, I restarted Skype but with my webcam in /dev/video1. Skype created an entry in ~/.Skype/myname/config.xml:



Returning my webcam to /dev/video0 didn't change this setting, then my webcam was recognized in /dev/video0 but the video stream was expected in /dev/video1, so Skype stops the video capture.

Changing /dev/video1 to /dev/video0 in config.xml solved it (or delete that setting). Another solution is to close Skype, delete ~/.Skype and restart Skype to create a new profile folder.

Good luck,
Amauri

P.S.: you need to close Skype before edit config.xml

Unfortunately this don't solve my problem.

I checked the version of gspca on both computer and the result is "gspca driver 01.00.12 registered" on both so they have both the same gspca drivers.

You can download the newest version 1.00.20 here, and edit gspca_core.c, changing "debug = 0" to "debug = 2" (or "debug = 5" for a lot of debug messages) before compile. Then you can see in /var/log/kern.log if your camera is initialized when called by Skype.

I'm developing a new driver for my Sonix SNP325 webcam (will be released soon in gspca by Michel Xhaard), so I can assure you it's very easy to debug - at the camera side, not at Skype side...

Good luck,
Amauri

I'm not going to do this as my webcam is working correctly with all apps except skype and this only on my laptop so compiling new gspca drivers won't solve my problem as the issue is more likely skype related.
I pretty sure it is not a big thing, it really looks like if skype don't find the way to activate and use the webcam, what might create this bad behaviour could be the unrecognized default acer webcam embedded in the laptop.

I believe Skype only works fine with /dev/video0, other webcams can be recognized by Skype but are not used. Check if your webcam is registered as /dev/video0, if not you may try to completely disable the built-in webcam (in bios setup???), just for a test.

I have a TV card on my desktop computer so my webcam is /dev/video1 and it is working great so this would demonstrate that skype is also fine with webcams at /dev/video1.
I thought about this too but like i said my desktop computer also put the webcam at /dev/video1 so i rejected this theory as well unfortunately.

You can create own link to the device with udev.

Please edit:
/etc/udev/rules.d/z25_persistent-video.rules

and add an line for your device.

My /etc/udev/rules.d/z25_persistent-video.rules:


Check your device with:
udevinfo -a -p /sys/class/video4linux/video0

After reboot, you have:
ls -al /dev/webcam
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 2008-01-12 16:25 /dev/webcam -> video0

Info:
http://reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html

This won't help here as the problem seems skype related, i have already tested that device position doesn't matter as i got webcam on /dev/video1 working on my desktop computer.

Amazing !
Could have think of anything, but not such stupid bug ....
Could not get Skype to work for 2 weeks. As with everyone else, webcam worked in any other app, but Skype.
The actual device i video0, the GUI does see the /dev/video0. Nevertheless found .xml to have /dev/video2.
Changed to 0 and voila.

QuickCam Pro 9000, FC8 2.6.23.9-85.fc8 on Nvidia AMD, GeForce 7100, GLX and Compiz enabled
uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device <unnamed> (046d:0990)

So no way to use skype video with an external webcam on laptop which have a built-in webcam ?

I guess i have to forget using skype video on my laptop if no one is even interested in locating this skype bug.

Have you sent a bug report on Jira?

No, neither know what is Jira. Please do it for me if you are used to it because i have far too much bugtrackers to follow currently for other projects i'm involved in to open tickets in skype bug system.

frodon: Can you confirm your gspca webcam is /dev/video1, and you have an internal webcam device on /dev/video0 that you do not want to use with Skype?

There is a known issue when /dev/video0 isn't properly accessible that it can cause other video devices to fail also. We're working on a fix for this currently.

Andy.

Yes i confirm this, my embedded webcam is on /dev/video0 and unfortunatly not really linux compatible so i use my logitech quickcam communicate which is put on /dev/video1.

I'm really glad to hear that you're already aware about problems around this, seeing how fast and efficient you were to fix bugs for the current release i'm sure this will be fixed too.

Anyway, i'm using my desktop computer (with no embedded webcam) and i am really satisfied by the quality of the communication, a huge step as been made since 1.4 release, keep up the good work ! you're really contributing to the linux growth as i guess all users expect skype to work on linux, so just thank you