Wireless UVC Webcam Solution
ma...@wtns.de
currently i'am running a wireless Webcam Solution on my 1MB Flash
Bifferboard using
the Bifferboard Slackware build.
The system use a UVC compatible Webcam (any UVC Camera should work)
with mjpg-streamer
and a Edimax EW-7711UTn or Edimax EW-7711UAn Wireless-N adaptor with
WPA2 encryption.
Now i got my second Bifferboard with 8MB of flash. With this board i
would like to build
a second wireless webcam, BUT without slackware - because slackware is
too much big !!!
My featured solution is to use the new OpenWRT Backfire directly from
flash - with no need
of an usb filesystem.
Does anybody have any skills in OpenWRT ? When i build the OpenWRT,
what must be flashed into
the flash ? The jffs2 or the squashfs image (3MB) ?? If i install
additional packages with opkg,
will these packages stored in flash ?
Regards,
Marco
Andrew Scheller
> Bifferboard using
> the Bifferboard Slackware build.
> The system use a UVC compatible Webcam (any UVC Camera should work)
> with mjpg-streamer
> and a Edimax EW-7711UTn or Edimax EW-7711UAn Wireless-N adaptor with
> WPA2 encryption.
Cool :)
> My featured solution is to use the new OpenWRT Backfire directly from
> flash - with no need
> of an usb filesystem.
> Does anybody have any skills in OpenWRT ? When i build the OpenWRT,
> what must be flashed into
> the flash ? The jffs2 or the squashfs image (3MB) ?? If i install
> additional packages with opkg,
> will these packages stored in flash ?
Dunno much about OpenWRT - there's various bits'n'pieces on the wiki
about different OpenWRT versions, but I'm not sure how complete or
up-to-date any of it is.
However there's also BMD which I believe is based on OpenWRT - at
least it can certainly make use of the existing OpenWRT packages
http://sites.google.com/site/bifferboard/Home/bifferboard-mini-distribution
And I've written some easy to follow instructions on how to setup BMD
running from flash
http://sites.google.com/site/bifferboard/Home/bifferboard-mini-distribution/newbie-instructions
Just for info, I think ubifs is the 'successor' to jffs2.
Lurch
biff...@yahoo.co.uk
The OpenWrt port is only a work in progress, because OpenWrt uses
JFFS, and I've only managed to get UBIFS working with the
Bifferboard. So basically I've taken a different approach to OpenWrt,
just to see something working. If you use BMD (Bifferboard mini-
distribution) as a starting point you can use all OpenWrt packages
with that (all except the kernel modules). See this page for details:
http://sites.google.com/site/bifferboard/Home/bifferboard-mini-distribution
(and search the group for more info).
If you want to make OpenWrt work, then you just flash the images
produced (either is supposed to work), but the kernel may be missing
support for the flash map, so you may not be able to mount rootfs.
I'm sorry guys, I've done about as much as I can to get OpenWrt
supported. I've sent a (free) board to the OpenWrt developer
responsible for the RDC port. Actually I sent two, the first got lost
in the post, and that was the only thing I sent out in the last year
without insurance (so of course the f***ing thing went missing... to
Paris, would you believe it). Inspite of this I haven't really got
much help with this, so I kind-of gave up.
regards,
Biff.
Oliver Baltzer
Cool project the wireless camera. I tries something like this myself,
but never got the USB Wireless adaptor (D-Link DWA-130) working properly
with WPA2. I got it to the point where I can ping a remote host via
ICMP, but anything more demanding like a simple TCP handshake I could
not get working.
ma...@wtns.de wrote:
> Now i got my second Bifferboard with 8MB of flash. With this board i
> would like to build
> a second wireless webcam, BUT without slackware - because slackware is
> too much big !!!
You can try the Bifferboard variant of Buildroot:
http://groups.google.com/group/bifferboard/browse_thread/thread/2ad6098ff6ec0561
OpenWRT was originally built on top of Buildroot, but they now have
their own, although similar, build system. Buildroot can build all kinds
of rootfs images, comes with a large number of packages and can be
fairly easily extended.
> My featured solution is to use the new OpenWRT Backfire directly from
> flash - with no need
> of an usb filesystem.
> Does anybody have any skills in OpenWRT ? When i build the OpenWRT,
> what must be flashed into
> the flash ? The jffs2 or the squashfs image (3MB) ?? If i install
> additional packages with opkg,
> will these packages stored in flash ?
As to how to make the flash file system work, Andrew's newbie
instructions might be a bit more useful than the original instructions.
The first time I tried UBIFS about two months ago, I got it to boot from
Flash ok, but writing always caused block write errors after about 1
minute uptime. I am not sure if this is because of bad Flash or because
I did something wrong, so I gave up.
Good luck.
Cheers,
Oliver
ma...@wtns.de
i did some tests with the BMD. Your Newbie Turorial is very good.
Now i want more :) I need some Kernel Modules for V4L etc..
How can i build the ubifs Kernel described in your howto ?
I have downloaded the bifferboard sources from svn.
In the Kernel subdirectory i modified the Makefile, that the make
process used the config-ubifs.
When i start the Make i will get an error soon:
<---cut--->
HOSTCC usr/gen_init_cpio
/home/fritz/biff/bifferboard/kernel/linux-2.6.30.5/scripts/
gen_initramfs_list.sh: Cannot open '../../openwrt-opkg/initramfs.cpio'
make[2]: *** [usr/initramfs_data.cpio] Error 1
make[1]: *** [usr] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/fritz/biff/bifferboard/kernel/
linux-2.6.30.5'
make: *** [linux-2.6.30.5.compiled] Error 2
<---/cut--->
what is wrong with me ?
How can i exactly build the ubifs Kernel described in the BMD Wiki ?
What i have to Flash into the Board ? the lzma, the bin ???
Regards,
Marco
biff...@yahoo.co.uk
kernel .config to exclude the cpio. You flash the bzImage.
regards,
Biff.
Marco Bauer
tnx for your information.
How big could the kernel be ?
Does it overwrite the ubifs filesystem while flashing ?
Marco
Sent from my iPhone
Am 18.06.2010 um 11:17 schrieb "biff...@yahoo.co.uk" <biff...@yahoo.co.uk
>:
> --
> You received this because you are subscribed to the "Bifferboard"
> Google group - honest!
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to bifferboard...@googlegroups.com
>
biff...@yahoo.co.uk
> Does it overwrite the ubifs filesystem while flashing ?
again after flashing. Ether flashing should be fine.
regards,
Biff.
Marco Bauer
I will do my tests this evening.
Regards,
Marco
Andrew Scheller
> Does it overwrite the ubifs filesystem while flashing ?
That's what the 'kernelmax' setting in biffboot is for...
http://sites.google.com/site/bifferboard/Home/kernel-flashing-in-detail
The (very) simplified view is that the kernel goes in flash from 0 ->
kernelmax, and then the ubifs goes from kernelmax -> 8MB. As Biff
says, as long as you stick to ethernet flashing (or have biffboot >=
3.1) they won't overwrite each other.
With the default kernelmax of 0x20 (which equates to 2MB) it gives you
a maximum kernel size of 2024KB
http://sites.google.com/site/bifferboard/Home/bootloader/changelog
If you change the kernelmax setting, you'll also need to reformat your
ubifs, cos (I believe) the kernel also uses the kernelmax setting to
locate the start-of-ubifs.
In summary - as long as your kernel stays under 2MB, and you still
have 'enough' space in ubifs, you should probably leave kernelmax at
the default value.
Lurch
Marco Bauer
I got the BMD from ubifs with a uvc compatible webcam
And mjpg-streamer running.
Also the rt3070sta driver is working. Now i must connect
the bifferboard with wlan to my network.
If all is done, i will post a small tutorial.
Regards
ma...@wtns.de
i cant connect to my wireless network.
the ra0 device is created, and iwconfig shows my wlan adaptor, and
iwlist ra0 scan shows my local wlan.
i have modified the /etc/Wireless/RT2870STA/RT2870STA.dat as follows:
#The word of "Default" must not be removed
Default
CountryRegion=5
CountryRegionABand=7
CountryCode=DE
#ChannelGeography=1
SSID=<MYSSID>
NetworkType=Infra
WirelessMode=5
Channel=0
BeaconPeriod=100
TxPower=100
BGProtection=0
TxPreamble=0
RTSThreshold=2347
FragThreshold=2346
TxBurst=1
PktAggregate=0
WmmCapable=1
AckPolicy=0;0;0;0
AuthMode=WPA2PSK
EncrypType=AES
WPAPSK=<MYWPA2PSK>
DefaultKeyID=1
Key1Type=0
Key1Str=
Key2Type=0
Key2Str=
Key3Type=0
Key3Str=
Key4Type=0
Key4Str=
PSMode=CAM
AutoRoaming=1
RoamThreshold=70
APSDCapable=0
APSDAC=0;0;0;0
HT_RDG=1
HT_EXTCHA=0
HT_OpMode=0
HT_MpduDensity=4
HT_BW=1
HT_BADecline=0
HT_AutoBA=1
HT_AMSDU=0
HT_BAWinSize=64
HT_GI=1
HT_MCS=33
HT_MIMOPSMode=3
HT_DisallowTKIP=1
IEEE80211H=0
TGnWifiTest=0
WirelessEvent=0
CarrierDetect=0
AntDiversity=0
BeaconLostTime=4
PSP_XLINK_MODE=0
on iwconfig i get:
ra0 RT2870 Wireless ESSID:"<MYSSID>" Nickname:"RT2870STA"
Mode:Managed Frequency=2.412 GHz Access Point:
xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Bit Rate=108 Mb/s
RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Link Quality=68/100 Signal level:-71 dBm Noise level:-83
dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
Can anyone helt me to get a connect to my wlan (dhcp) ??
With my other board under Slack i have no problems.
Regards,
Marco
ernstoud
my /etc/rc.d/rc.local contains
ip=192.168.1.99
ifconfig ra0 up
sleep 1
ifconfig ra0 $ip
sleep 1
route add default gw 192.168.1.254 ra0
sleep 1
(192.168.1.254 is my gateway)
works fine with my RT3070 based adapter. Albeit that I use WEP... (I
know... don't tell me about how insecure it is).
Perhaps it is wise to try it without wlan encryption first, which will
enable you to find out whether it is the ap connection or encryption
that is not working for you...
Ernst
ma...@wtns.de
i got it working...
uvc-webcam with mjpg-streamer and a rt3070 usb wlan card works.
and i have 1.6mb space left on the ubifs.
Regards,
Marco
ernstoud
others...
ma...@wtns.de
next week i am in holidays.
then i will post the information.
actually i create one global configuration file for this
bifferboard solution. in future, there is only one file to
be edited (hostname, lan, wlan, wep, wpa, wpa2, webcam).
Regards,
Marco
ma...@wtns.de
Bifferboard Webcam Distribution (BWD)
These instructions will only work if you're running Biffboot 3.0 on an
8MB-flash-bifferboard, and using ethernet flashing (i.e.
bb_eth_upload8.py) - you can only use serial flashing if you have
Biffboot 3.1 (which is still in beta at the time of writing). It's
also essential you have a serial console cable so you can change
Biffboot options. It can work with earlier biffboot versions, but it's
a bit more fiddly! (ask on the mailing list if you need details)
Some of the commands need to be run on your desktop linux PC, and some
on your bifferboard, so I'll prefix the steps below with PC or BB
PC: Download the initrd-kernel and flash it to your bifferboard
wget "http://woote.dyndns.org/bifferboard/bwd/0.1/init-image" -O
bzImage-initrd
sudo python /path/to/bb_eth_upload8.py eth0 00:b3:f6:00:37:9c bzImage-
initrd (you'll need to change the MAC address for the one on your
bifferboard, and then plug in power to the bifferboard when the script
tells you)
BB: In the Biffboot serial-console 'setup' menu (accessed by pressing
Esc just after power-on) type these commands:
ubiformat
rdroot
save
boot
BB: Once the initrd-system has booted up, you should be able to mount
the ubifs partition: mount /ubifs
mount /ubifs
ls /ubifs
You should see the this-is-a-ubifs-file listed
BB: Download and extract the rootfs to ubifs
cd /ubifs
wget "http://woote.dyndns.org/bifferboard/bwd/0.1/bwd-root.tgz" -O - |
tar xzvf -
(Note that the above URL isn't https, the busybox wget command in BMD
doesn't support SSL)
BB: Now that you have files in ubifs, you need to remember to unmount
the partition properly using either the umount, reboot or poweroff
commands. If you just 'yank the power' then you may have ubifs
filesystem changes cached in ram, but not actually written to flash.
So let's unmount it now (this may take a while)
cd /
umount /ubifs
PC: Download the bwd-ubifs-kernel and flash it to your bifferboard
wget "http://woote.dyndns.org/bifferboard/bwd/0.1/bzImage" -O bzImage-
ubifs
sudo python /path/to/bb_eth_upload8.py eth0 00:b3:f6:00:37:9c bzImage-
ubifs (you'll need to change the MAC address for the one on your
bifferboard, and then plug in power to the bifferboard when the script
tells you)
BB: Access the Biffboot serial-console 'setup' menu again and type:
mtdroot
save
boot
Let the system boot up !
Now you can go to /etc/biffconfig and start edit the biffcam_cfg
(please dont touch the biffcam_cfg_bak)
When finished mak a reboot on the bifferboard.
Now your Cam should be up and running ...
Regards, Marco
ma...@wtns.de
this works only with UVC Webcams and RT3070 based Wlan Radios
The rootpasswd is bifferboard
You can access the board via console or via ssh (dhcp)
Regards
Marco
Andrew Scheller
>
> These instructions will only work if you're running Biffboot 3.0 on an
Heh, they look a bit familiar ;-)
Any chance you could put them up on the wiki too? Feel free to
copy'n'paste my page.
> PC: Download the initrd-kernel and flash it to your bifferboard
> wget "http://woote.dyndns.org/bifferboard/bwd/0.1/init-image" -O
> bzImage-initrd
I won't be able to try this myself, since I have neither a webcam nor
a wifi dongle, but I'm just wondering if you actually need a different
initrd-image for this stage? Since all it's doing is "bootstrapping"
the _real_ rootfs and kernel later on?
Lurch
biff...@yahoo.co.uk
kernel, in case someone wants to change the
webcam? I tried to access http://woote.dyndns.org/bifferboard/bwd/0.1/,
but directory listing is not allowed so I can't sniff around for other
goodies!
thanks,
Biff.
ma...@wtns.de
now the directory is browsable :)
I added the kernelconfig, the patched rt2870 (3070) driver (supress
the ToDs messages on the console)
and my kerneltree (config and patches included - with make you get my
bzImage)
Regards,
Marco
On 30 Jun., 13:34, "biffe...@yahoo.co.uk" <biffe...@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:
> kernel, in case someone wants to change the
biff...@yahoo.co.uk
> Any chance you could put them up on the wiki too? Feel free to
> copy'n'paste my page.
> > PC: Download the initrd-kernel and flash it to your bifferboard
> > wget "http://woote.dyndns.org/bifferboard/bwd/0.1/init-image" -O
> > bzImage-initrd
>
> I won't be able to try this myself, since I have neither a webcam nor
> a wifi dongle, but I'm just wondering if you actually need a different
me trying it anyhow :).
> initrd-image for this stage? Since all it's doing is "bootstrapping"
> the _real_ rootfs and kernel later on?
kernel seems to then ignore root specifications passed on the command-
line, at least I think I recall that happening. It means you can't
then have a one-size-fits-all kernel. A big shame.
You can get around this by using the kernel and ramdisk with an
alternative root, i.e. boot using the ramdisk and then request that
the kernel effectively 'throw away' the ram disk it booted with and
use an alternative rootfs on another device, however this is fiddly,
and I can quite understand why it's not been done here.
An alternative 'installation' technique would be to use the ubi tools
to create a UBI MTD image from a directory full of files, and then put
the kernel on the start of it and flash the whole lot together but I
haven't tried this yet.
Biff.
biff...@yahoo.co.uk
Some initial thoughts:
- The systems enters itself into DNS as 'ipcam'.
- The web interface looks quite nice, we need screenshots in the
wiki :).
- The first time I booted into BWD it froze at 'unable to open initial
console' and I never got the login prompt, 2nd time it worked for some
strange reason.
- Setting Biffboot 'Promiscuous' mode for the NIC is a good idea for
this, then you can just specify the mac address as ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
and it will still find your board (assuming you're on a trusted
network, usually the case for BB users I think).
- As I mentioned before, I *think* you can just set mtdroot for the
whole performance, and this will work, because your init-bzImage will
just ignore that mtdroot command-line when it boots.
I'm just going to have a look at getting the webcam I've got here
working with BWD. What is not entirely clear is which patches (if
any) you applied to your kernel, but I'm sure I can eventually work
that out.
thanks for a great effort!
Biff.
Andrew Scheller
>> > wget "http://woote.dyndns.org/bifferboard/bwd/0.1/init-image" -O
>> > bzImage-initrd
>> the _real_ rootfs and kernel later on?
> Once you link a ram disk to the kernel everything changes and the
> kernel seems to then ignore root specifications passed on the command-
> line, at least I think I recall that happening. It means you can't
> then have a one-size-fits-all kernel. A big shame.
I can see what you're saying (that the boot-from-initrd-kernel needs
to be different to the boot-from-ubifs-kernel), but that's not what I
was trying to ask - guess I wasn't very clear.
What I *meant* was that given the initrd-kernel is only used to
bootstrap the ubifs-rootfs and then gets replaced by the ubifs-kernel,
does Marco's initrd-kernel need to be different to Biff's
initrd-kernel? i.e. could Marco simply provide the "final" kernel and
rootfs images, and then use Biff's initrd to get them loaded onto the
board?
> An alternative 'installation' technique would be to use the ubi tools
> to create a UBI MTD image from a directory full of files, and then put
> the kernel on the start of it and flash the whole lot together but I
> haven't tried this yet.
That would be pretty funky, and I can imagine it being *very* useful
if someone wanted to "mass-produce" a solution based on bifferboards
:) I guess you could theoretically even squeeze the config block in
there too!
Lurch
biff...@yahoo.co.uk
> initrd-kernel? i.e. could Marco simply provide the "final" kernel and
> rootfs images, and then use Biff's initrd to get them loaded onto the
> board?
case! Yes, I believe he doesn't need to keep this file as a
download.
> > An alternative 'installation' technique would be to use the ubi tools
> > to create a UBI MTD image from a directory full of files, and then put
> > the kernel on the start of it and flash the whole lot together but I
> > haven't tried this yet.
>
> That would be pretty funky, and I can imagine it being *very* useful
> if someone wanted to "mass-produce" a solution based on bifferboards
> :) I guess you could theoretically even squeeze the config block in
> there too!
similar requirement during OpenWrt builds:
https://dev.openwrt.org/browser/trunk/target/linux/rdc/image/mkimg_bifferboard.py
(doesn't handle config block though).
Biff.
ma...@wtns.de
thanks for the invitation - i will post as soon as possble in the
wiki.
> I won't be able to try this myself, since I have neither a webcam nor
> a wifi dongle, but I'm just wondering if you actually need a different
name of the file is different.
>I'm just going to have a look at getting the webcam I've got here
>working with BWD. What is not entirely clear is which patches (if
>any) you applied to your kernel, but I'm sure I can eventually work
>that out.
patches for the 2.6.32 kernel.
Only the driver for the WLAN-Radio was patched to supress the
"Err;ToDs" messages on the console.
I have put the patchfile on http://woote.dyndns.org/bifferboard/bwd/0.2/
. In this version i try to get the
ar9170usb radios (e.g. Fritz! Wlan N and many others) working.
I have no experiences in setting up an image with included filesystem
- this is why i have choosen
the way that Andrew told me in his first post.
But i this this would be very good for the user to flash only one
image to use the BWD.
Regards,
Marco
p.s. i'am thinking about a small web interface for configuration.. (in
the future...)
My BWD runs now since a few days without any problems as a stream
source for a security system at home.
richard....@btinternet.com
My webcam supports UVC, but does not support MJPEG directly only YUV.
WIll this work ?
Thx.
On Jul 2, 8:38 pm, "ma...@wtns.de" <ma...@wtns.de> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> thanks for the invitation - i will post as soon as possble in the
> wiki.
>
> > I won't be able to try this myself, since I have neither a webcam nor
> > a wifi dongle, but I'm just wondering if you actually need a different
>
> This is the same image that you use in your ubifs tutorial - only the
> name of the file is different.
>
> >I'm just going to have a look at getting the webcam I've got here
> >working with BWD. What is not entirely clear is which patches (if
> >any) you applied to your kernel, but I'm sure I can eventually work
> >that out.
>
> The kernel was build with your python scripts and you bifferboard
> patches for the 2.6.32 kernel.
> Only the driver for the WLAN-Radio was patched to supress the
> "Err;ToDs" messages on the console.
Simon Taylor
<richard....@btinternet.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> My webcam supports UVC, but does not support MJPEG directly only YUV.
> WIll this work ?
>
> Thx.
It will 'work' but will have a huge impact on CPU load even if you
keep to 320x240 and low fps. With a webcam that supports MJPEG
directly, CPU loading is extremely light at any resolution. Only
upside is that you can control compression quality etc.
Simon