Webcam: Logitech QuickCam Communicate Deluxe

Maurice Batey

On Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:23:30 -0500, David W. Hodgins wrote:

> A system may be exceeding the power supplies capacity on a cold boot,
> but not be exceeding it on a reboot.

But - as I said earlier - this situation is not involved with
a cold boot at all. (System well warmed up by Mdv boot.)


> Try disconnecting anything you can, such as printers, cd/dvd
> player, etc., and see if that makes a difference.

OK - will try that, nevertheless..

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Maurice Batey

On Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:23:30 -0500, David W. Hodgins wrote:

> A system may be exceeding the power supplies capacity on a cold boot,
> but not be exceeding it on a reboot.

The one thing that persuades me that it's not a power problem
is that - on the same machine, with the same devices plugged in
- the webcam always behaves impeccably under WindowsXP.

It's only when booting Mdv2008.0PP that the inconsistent
behaviour occurs.

Today, for a change - after using WinXP for a while (checking
webcam OK), when Mdv was booted, this time the Skype test showed
a live picture. (But after popping back into WinXP for a few
minutes, on rebooting, Skype showed a blue 'test' screen...)

However, when Skype shows the blue screen, it also switches the
webcam's indicator light on, and I can do an audio test call. So
the webcam *is* hooked into Mdv, it's just that the video side
is in some kind of 'off' state, arbitrarily, it seems.
In the absence of any other clues, I am going to assume that
all this is due to some bug in the Skype beta.

By the way, is the webcam supposed to be hot-pluggable, or does
it have to be plugged in at bootup?

(I ask because I tried unplugging and replugging it during the
Mdv session, but it would not come to life again (i.e. Skype
test did not turn on its indicator light.))

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David W. Hodgins

On Wed, 09 Jan 2008 11:37:38 -0500, Maurice Batey <.uk> wrote:

> On Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:23:30 -0500, David W. Hodgins wrote:
>
>> A system may be exceeding the power supplies capacity on a cold boot,
>> but not be exceeding it on a reboot.
> In the absence of any other clues, I am going to assume that
> all this is due to some bug in the Skype beta.
> (I ask because I tried unplugging and replugging it during the
> Mdv session, but it would not come to life again (i.e. Skype
> test did not turn on its indicator light.))

It may well not be a power supply issue, although that is the only thing
I can think of, that may cause a problem, on first boot.

When you unplug/re-plug the usb connector, check the contents of /var/log/syslog,
to see if the usd device is being recognized, and if any error messages, are
present.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

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Maurice Batey

On Thu, 10 Jan 2008 01:46:56 -0500, David W. Hodgins wrote:

> When you unplug/re-plug the usb connector, check the contents of
/var/log/syslog, to see if the usd device is being recognized,

After plugging it in just now:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Jan 10 17:03:06 localhost kernel: usb 5-8: new high speed USB
device using ehci_hcd and address 5
Jan 10 17:03:06 localhost kernel: usb 5-8: configuration #1
chosen from 1 choice
Jan 10 17:03:06 localhost kernel: uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device
<unnamed> (046d:0992)
Jan 10 17:03:07 localhost kernel: usbcore: registered new
interface driver snd-usb-audio
Jan 10 17:03:42 localhost kernel: uvcvideo: Button event (1).
Jan 10 17:03:44 localhost kernel: uvcvideo: Button event (0).
--------------------------------------------------------------

So hot-plugging did work. And when I then fired up Skype, it
did indeed show a live test picture!

Well I'm damned. I did this very same exercise several times
the other day and Skype always failed to trigger the camera's
light, indeed appeared to ignore the presence of the camera!

Anyway, apart from all that, I did have a successful full Skype
video call earlier this week, and it all worked fine.
The only drawback is that the Linux Skype doesn't show a check
thumbnail of one's own picture, and I have no means of altering
the webcam's configuration.

Many thanks for your input; much appreciated, Dave...

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David W. Hodgins

On Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:14:15 -0500, Maurice Batey <.uk> wrote:

> Well I'm damned. I did this very same exercise several times
> the other day and Skype always failed to trigger the camera's
> light, indeed appeared to ignore the presence of the camera!

Could be a poor physical connection. Have you tried cleaning the
usb socket/plug?

Regards, Dave Hodgins

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