How to Get a Webcam to Work in Linux on an HP DV2000
Linux has made considerable improvements in more or less all areas that one could evaluate it on: speed, ease of use, security, etc. However, there is still one area in which Linux lags far behind Microsoft's proprietary Windows: hardware comparability. This is not a failing of Linux's, since the real problem is that manufacturers of various hardware peripherals do not believe there is any reason to invest in writing hardware drivers for Linux, since the desktop Linux user base is considerably smaller than the Windows or Mac ones. Many users of HP's DV2000 laptop have installed Linux to get more life out of their slightly underpowered system, and they may have to take certain steps to get their webcams to work.
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Instructions
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Try to take a picture with your camera using whatever photo application you have installed on your system. It is possible that you do not need to install any extra drivers to get it working; Linux has a number of drivers built-in that detect hardware types and run them automatically. Obviously, if you are able to use the camera, then no further action is required.
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Disconnect your hardware device from your HP computer and restart the system. Once the system has restarted and the desktop has loaded, connect your webcam to the computer. Take note of any notifications that pop up; one of them could be asking you to install a driver for your webcam. If one does appear, follow its instructions to install the appropriate driver.
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Navigate to the manufacturer's website and look up your camera's model number. It is possible that the manufacturer has coded a Linux driver and has it available for download. If so, simply download the package file and run it to install the driver.
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Search for a community-developed driver for you camera. Usually, if there is a community-developed Linux driver for your camera, a simple online search will bring it up. If you do find one, download and install it; community drivers are usually very high quality, so you should not be afraid of using one.
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Open a terminal, type "svn checkout http://svn.berlios.de/svnroot/repos/linux-uvc/" and hit "Enter." Type in "cd linux-uvc/linux-uvc/trunk/" and hit "Enter," then "make" and "Enter" again. Type "sudo make install" and hit "Enter" and enter your root password when prompted to do so. Finally, type in "modprobe uvcvideo" and hit "Enter." This is a good workaround on most newer versions of Ubuntu and some other Linux distributions, but may not work on all.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit webcam image by Régis Verger from Fotolia.com
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Comments
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I am wanting to know to get an HP Pro webcam to work on my desktop. I am using the Linux OS. How do I get it to work or do I have to go and buy anotther one?
