Setting Up a USB Webcam with OV511 Chip

Support knowledgebase (usb_ov511)

SuSE Linux: Versions since 7.0
Kernel: Versions since 2.2.16

Situation

You want to set up a USB webcam based on the OV-511 USB chipset.

Information

This article only describes the installation of USB webcams based on the OV511 chipset. A list of supported cameras which is updated on a regular basis is available in the list of working devices. Please note that this table is based on the latest state of development; in case you still use an older version of SuSE Linux, a kernel upgrade may be necessary in order to enable the use of your camera.

Setup

The following packages/modules are necessary for operating your USB webcam:

• SuSE Linux kernel: version 2.2.16/SuSE Linux 7.0 or later
• Kernel modules: usbcore, usb-uhci, videodev, ov511
• Software package: xawtv from the series xap1

Under normal circumstances, the camera should be detected automatically once it is plugged in, and the correct module should be loaded. The following steps are only necessary for older systems or in case the modules are not loaded automatically.

1. Please log in to the system as root.
2. Load the modules usbcore, usb-uhci, videodev, and ov511 as follows:
   • modprobe usbcore
   • modprobe uhci
   • {up to SuSE Linux 7.2, please use modprobe usb-uhci instead of modprobe uhci }
   • modprobe videodev
   • modprobe ov511
3. Please use the following command to check whether a video device file already exists:
   • ls -l /dev/video0
   • The command output should be as follows:
   • crw-rw-rw- 1 root video 81, 0 Jul 29 14:48 /dev/video0
   • In case the system does not have a video device file called /dev/video0, this file must be created. For this purpose, proceed as follows:
     • mknod /dev/video0 c 81 0
     • ln -sf /dev/video0 /dev/video
     • chmod 666 /dev/video0
     • chown root.video /dev/video0

In order to test the functionality of your webcam, start the program xawtv. It takes some seconds for the image brightness and contrast to stabilize.

If the image is plain green or black or half of the image is green or has other abnormal color specks, start xawtv with the option -noscale. This prevents the graphics cards from handling the scaling itself.