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Welcome! On these pages you will find information over and downloads for the Linux driver for Philips USB webcams. This driver also supports some cameras from Askey, Creative Labs, Logitech, Samsung, Sotec and Visionite (and the list keeps growing).
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Downloads
Working software |
Good news for MacOS X users! Work has started on a driver for MacOS X by Matthias Krauss. His work can be found here and at sourceforge.net. So your pleas may be (partially) answered. Be careful: older versions of the driver could damage your webcam, so make sure you get the latest one.
2004-08-02: A small correction and apology is in order: the
x86_64 PWCX library is actually compiled for the Itanium, or the ia64
architecture. Which is of course totally different than the 64 bit
extensions to the x86 architectures by AMD and Intel. So sorry for all those
64 bit enthousiasts out there who thought they could run the webcam on their
new systems :-( Actually, I'm a bit surprised by the relative larger number
of mails and bugreports about this particular architecture, since it's not
exactly aimed at the end-user, and not cheap either.
Needless to say, cross-compilation for the real x86_64 will be attempted.
2004-07-25: PWC 9.0.2 is out; it's only a minor update that should fix some compile issues with GCC 2.95 and on kernels < 2.6.5. Get it at the download page.
2004-07-05: It's official, we have a PWC 9 and PWCX 9. You can download them both from the download page.
2004-05-13: Don't panic about PWC missing in 2.6.6; it's not. But the USB maintainer decided to label it as "BROKEN" because of a single compile warning. That's all. A warning about a void function that should return an int (or vice versa), which has admittedly been in 2.6 for a while, because I was quite busy with PWC 9. I simply didn't feel like writing a one line patch when a new version could be there any time soon. Flames should go to greg@kroah.com.
2004-05-07: PWC 9 beta 2 is out.
2004-02-01: Attention, users with a Logitech QuickCam Zoom: Wolgang Kruse reported that when he uses the "power_save=1" module parameter, his camera started working. I don't have an immediate explanation, other than that the camera perhaps puts too much load on the USB bus when it's not in use (of course it's not powersaving when in use), and thus causes some troubles with some USB controllers. It the solution is that simple....
The 8.* modules have been in the kernel for more than 3 months now, and so far there have been only one medium-sized problem with memory allocation. Overall, the driver seems to be quite stable, and I am now working on enhancing the driver to support all functions that are available in the camera.
Of course, there are occasional problems with non-responsive cameras, hangs or cases of "simply not working". In a lot of cases it is a matter of not reading the documentation well, or other causes that have nothing to do with my modules (but due to the modular nature of USB support, is difficult to determine for someone who doesn't know the inner workings of the Linux USB subsystem).
The Video4Linux implementation is complete; with the inclusion of mmap() code, and the 'viewport' algorithm that allows non-supported image sizes, a lot of applications work, except those that can't handle the palette stuff (check out the Working stuff page). Unfortunately there are also applications written for TV grabber cards that will simply not work with webcams due to the way they handle video devices; supporting them will require hacking my driver, which is the wrong way around IMO.
But, with utilities like CamStream it's possible to generate a stream for several hours without any problems. If you do run into a problem, please read the FAQ first, then go on to the support page so you can reach me.
Releases of CamStream can be found here.
A few words of thanks...
Okay, just a small legal blurb to get my hiney covered.
This information and software is provided by me without any warranty of any kind. I can not be held responsible for fried computers, crashes, dates as a result of pictures taken by this camera or public embarrasment because you forgot to switch off your webcam program during a visit by aforementioned date :).
More seriously: because I don't charge for the drivers and don't make any money out of it, I cannot take any responsibility. There are a million different computers out there, and thus a million things that can go wrong.
Note: I am not an employee or contractor for Philips B.V., the Netherlands, or any of its business partners. These modules are provided on a volountarely basis, based on my own free time.