Webcam
From NAS-Central Buffalo - The Linkstation Wiki
This article
Based on work by Myno, andre, mindbender, downlalaway, Thorongil, frontalot, and TcT.
Originally by downlalaway
at Linkstationwiki.org
This is a basic run through of USB devices connecting for Debian on an PPC LinkStation. The USB hard drive is USB 2.0 at 3Mb/s (on a laptop HD). NB. This was based on using the original kernel #990 conversion of the LS 1 and not the Freelink project. It has been updated for use with Freelink 1.11 but requires run-throughs by others to check.
USB and hotplug was/is a little flakey on 2.4 kernels in recognising devices. A reboot while the device is in should make things work. The 2.6 debian kernel is highly recommended if hot-swapping of usb devices might occur.
USB Webcam
Update June 2006: Please note the availability of modules and the /dev/ entries depends on quite a few factors -e.g. this was originally written based on the 2.4.17 #990 LS1 kernel which had the modules but no /dev/video entries. The 2.4.17 freelink 1.1.1 has /dev/video entries and kernel modules ov511.o, so may work straight off (but I haven't tried! It may still be flakey with 2.4.17..) As of June 2006, freelink 1.1.1 upgraded to 2.6.16.16 (andre's v28?) has the /dev/video since its freelink 1.1.1 again but has no webcam modules -check by drilling down in /lib/modules/2.6.xx/kernel/drivers/ to see if videodev.ko, ov511.ko or ovcamchip.ko are present. Update July 06: Andre fixed the lost modules in v41pre2 and newer 2.6 upgrades -it should now have most video drivers in the kernel you could wish for and could be plug and play (not sure about /dev/video). Check if the camera has auto-loaded modules using lsmod (mainly), lsusb and/or usbview.
Webcam drivers There are a few types of webcam chip -you may have an ov511 but others may have pre-compiled modules sometime. Find out by plugging into the LS and with lsusb it should tell you in the list of devices. Creative webcams are often ov511, but others: logitech quickcams or Philips could need another driver. See http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net/cameras/index.php?orderBy=controller for a full list. NB. Many (practically all?) will now be in the new 2.6 kernel (upgrade v41 & on).
Using udev in future, instead of hotplug, can also be possible -this may mean the /dev/video links are automagically assigned, but I have not attempted this on a Linkstation.
Original instructions (sometimes still be valid): With 2.4.17 webcams were flakey at times to be discovered if not pulled out/plugged in at the 'right time'. Not clear what the 'right' time is. There may not be any USB entries for dev/video depending on freelink package used so I did a:
cd /dev; ./MAKEDEV -v video
This made some. Loading a gui to see something:
apt-get install gqcam
Now when the webcam didn't discover correctly and when typing command gqcam from a terminal it will complain about no /dev/video present or similar. A reboot with camera plugged in usually solves it but the right solution si to upgrade to 2.6 kernel. I also get reversed RG colour with gqcam and changing it back (there's conf file) messes up the brightness. Other apps that might be tried are: 'xcam' -another alternative viewer, and 'motion' - a command line webcam app to be used as a security motion detector (tried on a PC briefly -seems ok). Should be very simple to make a motion detecting security camera with your debian LS.
Enjoy and please carefully comment if it doesn't work or changes needed.
