Got my hands on an older Creative webcam (vendor 0x041e, product 0x403a). I can't get it to work with TinyMe on the Armada, even though I've uninstalled and then reinstalled SPCA via Synaptic. In Skype, no webcam is listed in the video options. I'm a little surprised, only because the webcam is specifically listed on the SPCA website as working with the driver. There's a good chance there's more I need to get this driver installed properly.
I tried installing Kopete but it crashes whenever I navigate to the video options.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, October 06, 2008
12" PowerBook USB Issues
I recently upgraded to a couple of external hard drive enclosures with power management; it's nice to have my server hard drives go to slep when they're not in use, which is most of the time. I'm running into issues though getting these drives to work with my Belkin USB 2.0 hub, which is a simpe, compact, unpowered, 4-port hub. They seem to work intermittently, but the only way to get them to work consistently is to plug each one into one of the built-in USB ports on the PowerBook. This is pretty unacceptable, given that the Mac only has two ports.
Maybe a powered hub would help? Then again, it could be a damaged hub. I've had some issues getting my iPod detected through it, too.
A little more experimenting, and it looks like whether or not the drives work may depend on which hub ports the drives are plugged into. Specifically, if they're plugged into the ports on the left side of the hub, they seem to work. The other ports (those on the right side) are not definitely not completely dead: I have my wireless mouse/keyboard adapter plugged in there and it seems to work fine.
Maybe a powered hub would help? Then again, it could be a damaged hub. I've had some issues getting my iPod detected through it, too.
A little more experimenting, and it looks like whether or not the drives work may depend on which hub ports the drives are plugged into. Specifically, if they're plugged into the ports on the left side of the hub, they seem to work. The other ports (those on the right side) are not definitely not completely dead: I have my wireless mouse/keyboard adapter plugged in there and it seems to work fine.
Ed's T41
Ed asked me to get his T41 working. Apparently, he wiped the hard drive and reinstalled Windows XP Home, but then found that many things (like internet access) weren't working.
When I first booted the machine, I was told that I couldn't log in without activating Windows. Activation over the internet wasn't an option -- I couldn't connect with either ethernet or Wi-Fi -- so I called. The automated system was no help: it kept telling me it couldn't generate a code for me. Speaking with a human got it quickly resolved. Windows XP is now activated.
I tried to download network drivers on my MacBook and transfer them via a USB flash drive, but the flash drive wasn't recognized. I used the Add Hardware wizard to scan for new devices; it was found, the correct drivers were installed, and now my flash drive is being recognized.
I got both the Wi-Fi and ethernet working by following the instructions on the Lenova support page (here's the main page for this T41). Here's what I installed:
Wireless network controller:Cisco Systems Mini PCI Wireless LAN driver. See http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-42683.html
Ethernet Controller:Intel PRO/1000 LAN adapter software. See http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-62922
Next step: start the process of applying all the Windows XP updates. Using Windows Update.
Hours later...I think I got all the updates installed, all the way through SP3 and including IE 7 and WMP 11. After all the critical updates, I installed most of the optional ones, which included Lenova drivers for such things as audio and video. Nice. Finally installed the latest Flash player.
The laptop seems ready to go.
Hours later...I think I got all the updates installed, all the way through SP3 and including IE 7 and WMP 11. After all the critical updates, I installed most of the optional ones, which included Lenova drivers for such things as audio and video. Nice. Finally installed the latest Flash player.
The laptop seems ready to go.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
TinyMe on Armada: Netgear MA521 PCMCIA
Booted with the Netgear MA521 PCMCIA card inserted. It's showing up in hardware under Unknown/Others as 10ec:8181. I've seen references to this using the Realtek RTL8180L chipset. I also am not seeing much in the way of success stories. Some people have had luck getting it to work with ndiswrapper, but that sounds like way more trouble than it's worth. Maybe I should just get a different card.
No joy with D-Link DFE-690TXD either. I wish I could find ANY PCMCIA card that worked.
No joy with D-Link DFE-690TXD either. I wish I could find ANY PCMCIA card that worked.
Monday, June 16, 2008
TinyMe Linux on a Compaq Armada M300
I was impressed enough by the LiveCD of TinyLinux that I decided to install it over BeaFanatiX (which is a great distro, but is at heart a modified version of a very old Ubuntu release, and besides...Firefox crashed constantly with Flash installed).
Unlike other try-before-you-buy LiveCDs, TinyMe is installed only from an icon on the booted LiveCD desktop. I wanted to replace the entire hard drive contents with TinyMe, and selected the appropriate options. When it says something like "reboot and select 'use existing partitions'" it means it; I couldn't get the installation to work until I did exactly what it said.
After installation, I needed to manually configure the network settings for the ethernet connection; this wasn't difficult via PCC on the desktop. The only annoyance was that TinyMe, in it's enthusiasm to detect the built-in speakers and microphone, began blaring feedback as it booted X. I quickly plugged in headphones and then was able to find Aumix ("Start" > Audio & Video). Dragging the control to zero for "Mic" did the trick.
Now I've been trying to get my old webcam working with Skype 2, which I installed using Synaptic (it wasn't there without a reload). I have a Logitech QuickCam for Notebooks Pro, which shows up as in PCC > Hardware > Look at and configure the hardware under Unknown/Others > (null) as Vendor ID 0x046d and Device ID 0x08c3 (046d:08c3). I've tried installing several packages via Synaptic but so far, no luck: the video options in Skype still indicate no devices are installed.
No luck with dkms-qc-usb, which is not surprising, I guess, given that my device ID is not listed in the package description. dkms-uvcvideo and dkms-qc-usb-messenger didn't work either.
Some people seem to have had luck with a spca5xx driver. I tried dkms-gspcav1, which seemed like a good bet given some Googling suggesting that this was the way to go if using a kernel as recent as mine. Still no luck.
I see some references to an issue in which this webcam will not work with pwc-kmp (see http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpackman.links2linux.org%2Finstall%2Fpwc-kmp&ei=xTdXSMjBI5KOsAPjloCgDg&usg=AFQjCNH_-5xQt4CPBx__YRwinpe8TGT1Ig&sig2=EPXMXrsLKwf68tA-SN7KJQ).
I found an article discussing the headaches of webcams with Linux (http://www.linux.com/feature/118896). I thought perhaps I needed to do additional steps, like that modprobe stuff. But the output from Synaptic makes it seem like the package was in fact added to the kernel.
I'm a little less optomistic that it's even possible to get this webcam working after reading this: http://www.quickcamteam.net/documentation/faq/logitech-webcam-linux-usb-incompatibilities. Then again, there are clearly people who have gotten this device ID to work (http://www.coursevector.com/linuxcamera/).
Now I'm trying an old crappy LabTec camera. I plugged it in, opened PCC, and it automatically detected it! Interestingly, it sees it as a Logitech -- 046d:0870 -- and it's listed under Webcam > QuickCam Express. What I don't know is whether it would have been detected had I not installed those packages. It's seen by Skype as "Logitech QuickCam USB (/dev/video0)". Unfortunately Skype crashes when I make a video call with it.
After a reboot, it's no longer crashing, but (a) the transmitted picture is an unrecognizable mass of colored pixels, and (b) the video from the other machine's camera is no longer being drawn (it was showing up just fine before even though the Armada was not transmitting video). I tried uninstalling all the webcam packages I added and reinstalled dkms-qc-usb (which, given its description, seemed the best bet). I ran Skype, and just before it crashed, I saw a clear image from the other computer's webcam and no image from my own. Rebooting.
Now Skype is crashing as soon as the call connects (granted, I have my MacBook set to automatically send/receive video). Ugh.
New approach: use a two-port USB 2.0 PCMCIA adapter: the Iogear GPU202. After plugging it in, I see it adding three entries under Unknown/Others in the PCC hardware utility: USB, USB, and Unknown device 00e1.The vendor:device is 1033:0035. I plugged in the LabTec but it doesn't seem to be showing up in hardware.
Unlike other try-before-you-buy LiveCDs, TinyMe is installed only from an icon on the booted LiveCD desktop. I wanted to replace the entire hard drive contents with TinyMe, and selected the appropriate options. When it says something like "reboot and select 'use existing partitions'" it means it; I couldn't get the installation to work until I did exactly what it said.
After installation, I needed to manually configure the network settings for the ethernet connection; this wasn't difficult via PCC on the desktop. The only annoyance was that TinyMe, in it's enthusiasm to detect the built-in speakers and microphone, began blaring feedback as it booted X. I quickly plugged in headphones and then was able to find Aumix ("Start" > Audio & Video). Dragging the control to zero for "Mic" did the trick.
Now I've been trying to get my old webcam working with Skype 2, which I installed using Synaptic (it wasn't there without a reload). I have a Logitech QuickCam for Notebooks Pro, which shows up as in PCC > Hardware > Look at and configure the hardware under Unknown/Others > (null) as Vendor ID 0x046d and Device ID 0x08c3 (046d:08c3). I've tried installing several packages via Synaptic but so far, no luck: the video options in Skype still indicate no devices are installed.
No luck with dkms-qc-usb, which is not surprising, I guess, given that my device ID is not listed in the package description. dkms-uvcvideo and dkms-qc-usb-messenger didn't work either.
Some people seem to have had luck with a spca5xx driver. I tried dkms-gspcav1, which seemed like a good bet given some Googling suggesting that this was the way to go if using a kernel as recent as mine. Still no luck.
I see some references to an issue in which this webcam will not work with pwc-kmp (see http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpackman.links2linux.org%2Finstall%2Fpwc-kmp&ei=xTdXSMjBI5KOsAPjloCgDg&usg=AFQjCNH_-5xQt4CPBx__YRwinpe8TGT1Ig&sig2=EPXMXrsLKwf68tA-SN7KJQ).
I found an article discussing the headaches of webcams with Linux (http://www.linux.com/feature/118896). I thought perhaps I needed to do additional steps, like that modprobe stuff. But the output from Synaptic makes it seem like the package was in fact added to the kernel.
I'm a little less optomistic that it's even possible to get this webcam working after reading this: http://www.quickcamteam.net/documentation/faq/logitech-webcam-linux-usb-incompatibilities. Then again, there are clearly people who have gotten this device ID to work (http://www.coursevector.com/linuxcamera/).
Now I'm trying an old crappy LabTec camera. I plugged it in, opened PCC, and it automatically detected it! Interestingly, it sees it as a Logitech -- 046d:0870 -- and it's listed under Webcam > QuickCam Express. What I don't know is whether it would have been detected had I not installed those packages. It's seen by Skype as "Logitech QuickCam USB (/dev/video0)". Unfortunately Skype crashes when I make a video call with it.
After a reboot, it's no longer crashing, but (a) the transmitted picture is an unrecognizable mass of colored pixels, and (b) the video from the other machine's camera is no longer being drawn (it was showing up just fine before even though the Armada was not transmitting video). I tried uninstalling all the webcam packages I added and reinstalled dkms-qc-usb (which, given its description, seemed the best bet). I ran Skype, and just before it crashed, I saw a clear image from the other computer's webcam and no image from my own. Rebooting.
Now Skype is crashing as soon as the call connects (granted, I have my MacBook set to automatically send/receive video). Ugh.
New approach: use a two-port USB 2.0 PCMCIA adapter: the Iogear GPU202. After plugging it in, I see it adding three entries under Unknown/Others in the PCC hardware utility: USB, USB, and Unknown device 00e1.The vendor:device is 1033:0035. I plugged in the LabTec but it doesn't seem to be showing up in hardware.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Capturing Streaming QuickTime Movies
I wanted to save some of the promotional movies of Activision's Marvel Ultimate Alliance video game using my MacBook. These clips are implemented as save-protected QuickTime movies: they open in a browser-embedded QuickTime player, and the option to save them is only available for QuickTime Pro owners. I'm too cheap to purchase QuickTime Pro, so I looked around for an alternative.
The URL of each video link is just a PHP file. I first attempted to get the real URL from Safari's Activity viewer (Window > Activity) -- this is the first step in downloading a YouTube video, for example -- but the URL wasn't appearing there. Next I opened the video in its own tab, viewed the source, and found the real URL referenced there; it was a URL to a file with a .mov extension. But opening this URL simply played the video in the browser, just as before.
A little Googling (and a failed attempt with iGetMovies) led me to conclude that these videos are streaming movies, which don't get cached on disk but are instead played in realtime (and apparently cached in memory). But there was also the hint that VLC could capture streams, and after some experimentation I found a solution. Here's the approach I got to work (using VLC 0.8.6d):
The URL of each video link is just a PHP file. I first attempted to get the real URL from Safari's Activity viewer (Window > Activity) -- this is the first step in downloading a YouTube video, for example -- but the URL wasn't appearing there. Next I opened the video in its own tab, viewed the source, and found the real URL referenced there; it was a URL to a file with a .mov extension. But opening this URL simply played the video in the browser, just as before.
A little Googling (and a failed attempt with iGetMovies) led me to conclude that these videos are streaming movies, which don't get cached on disk but are instead played in realtime (and apparently cached in memory). But there was also the hint that VLC could capture streams, and after some experimentation I found a solution. Here's the approach I got to work (using VLC 0.8.6d):
- Select File > Open Network...
- Select HTTP/FTP/MMS/RTSP.
- Enter the URL of the .mov file.
- Select Streaming/Saving.
- Click Settings...
- Select File and specify a valid file location and name with a .mov extension (clicking Browse... and then Save will do this automatically). This is where the captured streaming movie will be saved.
- Check Dump raw output.
- Specify an Encapsulation Method of Quicktime.
- Click OK, and then click OK on the original window.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Thunderbird SMTP Weirdness
I've been using OS X Mail for about a year and a half but have been become frustrated enough with it to try going back to Thunderbird. This has gone fairly smoothly, but after a few days (I have no idea why it didn't happen sooner) I started getting errors when I tried to send mail. I use my AT&T Yahoo! DSL SMTP server. The error message fit the pattern described here. The message referenced a Yahoo! help page, and following the instructions there solved the problem: each account I was trying to send from needed to be added to my DSL Yahoo! account.
The mystery s why this never was an issue with OS X Mail.
The mystery s why this never was an issue with OS X Mail.
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