failure of cheese with a Microsoft LifeCam NX-6000

[pe...@easthope.ca]

Any insights about these messages when cheese fails?

guest@imager:~$ cheese

(cheese:1572): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: cheese.css:7:35:
The style property GtkScrollbar:min-slider-length is deprecated and
shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version

(cheese:1572): cheese-WARNING **: Device '/dev/video0' cannot capture
in the specified format: gstv4l2object.c(3583):
gst_v4l2_object_set_format_full ():
/GstCameraBin:camerabin/GstWrapperCameraBinSrc:camera_source/GstBin:bin28/GstV4l2Src:v4l2src1:
Tried to capture in BGR3, but device returned format MPEG

(cheese:1572): Cogl-WARNING **: driver/gl/cogl-pipeline-opengl.c:932:
GL error (1280): Invalid enumeration value

What is a "Theme parsing error"?
Is there a simple fix for the format problem?
What is meant by 'Invalid enumeration value"?

Thanks, ... Peter E.

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http://easthope.ca/Peter.html Bcc: peter at easthope. ca

[Reco]

Hi.

On Tue, Sep 05, 2017 at 08:46:13PM -0700, pe...@easthope.ca wrote:
> Any insights about these messages when cheese fails?

Sure.

> guest@imager:~$ cheese
>
> (cheese:1572): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: cheese.css:7:35:
> The style property GtkScrollbar:min-slider-length is deprecated and
> shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version

Is not a problem per se. Just a 'gentle' reminder from GNOME developers
that that particular property in your GTK theme would be removed soon™.

So, you may get 'cheese' program that looks funny if you manage to
upgrade your GTK without upgrading your current theme, but that's it.

> (cheese:1572): cheese-WARNING **: Device '/dev/video0' cannot capture
> in the specified format: gstv4l2object.c(3583):
> gst_v4l2_object_set_format_full ():
> /GstCameraBin:camerabin/GstWrapperCameraBinSrc:camera_source/GstBin:bin28/GstV4l2Src:v4l2src1:
> Tried to capture in BGR3, but device returned format MPEG

That's the problem. 'cheese' wants BGR3 format whatever that may be.
Camera wants to produce MPEG. Unless you rewrite an appropriate kernel
module (or flip some mysterious switch in it if there's any) that's
unlikely to change.

This is there I'd say 'screw it' and use 'mpv' or 'ffmpeg' instead of
'cheese', but YMMV.

Because IMO if you want your media to be decoded or encoded regardless
of whatever it is - you use ffmpeg, not a gstreamer.

> (cheese:1572): Cogl-WARNING **: driver/gl/cogl-pipeline-opengl.c:932:
> GL error (1280): Invalid enumeration value

Tied to a previous error. Presumably 'cheese' tries to show you what's
on camera by using OpenGL but it cannot do so as it cannot convince a
camera to show anything. Solve the previous error that this one will
solve itself.

Reco

[Cindy-Sue Causey]

On 9/5/17, pe...@easthope.ca <pe...@easthope.ca> wrote:
> Any insights about these messages when cheese fails?
>
> guest@imager:~$ cheese
>
> (cheese:1572): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: cheese.css:7:35:
> The style property GtkScrollbar:min-slider-length is deprecated and
> shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version
>
> (cheese:1572): cheese-WARNING **: Device '/dev/video0' cannot capture
> in the specified format: gstv4l2object.c(3583):
> gst_v4l2_object_set_format_full ():
> /GstCameraBin:camerabin/GstWrapperCameraBinSrc:camera_source/GstBin:bin28/GstV4l2Src:v4l2src1:
> Tried to capture in BGR3, but device returned format MPEG
>
> (cheese:1572): Cogl-WARNING **: driver/gl/cogl-pipeline-opengl.c:932:
> GL error (1280): Invalid enumeration value
>
> What is a "Theme parsing error"?

*probably wouldn't hurt to grab a cup of coffee first* :)

Reading the whole warning message, in part that "style property
GtkScrollbar:min-slider-length", says it appears to be about
aesthetics, visual design of the package. Top most important in that
warning is where it says, "It will be removed in a future version." So
really it SOUNDS LIKE it's saying... keep moving. *grin*

If there was no reference acknowledging the things included in your
error, *I* personally would at least have had the thought about
submitting it as a bug. Severity would be marked very low, of lesser
importance.

> Is there a simple fix for the format problem?

Never seems to be if I stick my foot in, grin. ABSOLUTE FIRST FIRST
that I would try is to see if there's a Preferences setting somewhere.

It's 50/50 there, but it's that "cannot capture in the specified
format" part that I'm feeling. That unknown "BGR3" is lurching out at
me, too. *To me*, that's saying cheese can't capture, does not have
the programming capability, to save a file in that not-so-familiar
BGR3 that it SOUNDS LIKE your hardware(??) is outputting.

I had a similarly different issue with a cheap Canon FS40 tiny little
video camera a few months ago. Short story long: You might have to dig
around on the Net while using creative mixes of keywords.

MY FIX: Thunar (file manager) wasn't displaying thumbnail images for
Canon's .MOD file extensions, AND video players were NOT running those
movies. Changing .MOD extensions to .MPG immediately helped video
players recognize the same otherwise UNALTERED files. Go figure.

BUT still no thumbnails in Thunar so I did some (more) digging. Just
checked my notes and found that my new, ongoing reminder to myself is
to install "ffmpeg" as one of my own top level desired packages
immediately after debootstrap installs. This is ffmpeg's description:

...........
Description-en: Tools for transcoding, streaming and playing of multimedia files
FFmpeg is the leading multimedia framework, able to decode, encode, transcode,
mux, demux, stream, filter and play pretty much anything that humans and
machines have created. It supports the most obscure ancient formats up to the
cutting edge.
...........

That may or may not help, but I sure like its "all inclusive" feeling
description. THE CAVEAT is that this goes down that path into
continuing support for instead of REPLACING proprietary
hardware/software combinations........

BUT.. that package *is* available in the main, most protective Debian
repository.

As a related aside about happenings in Debian, the Policy folks had
just been chatting up about where to draw the hard set line for what
goes in main and/or is shifted over to contrib. My understanding was
that conversation was concerning when main packages point, sometimes
even in their package descriptions, to more proprietary things outside
Debian's control.

Depending on whatever is decided on that one, the feel I got across
the Net was that things like this ffmpeg package might eventually
inspire their own forked thread about how those things fall into line
with Debian Policy. Am saying that because it's things we should at
least have heard even if we don't fully understand until later on down
the road. :)

Ok.. If neither of the two above work, you could always check for
bugs. I use apt-listbugs. It works quick, but takes a read (and maybe
even a re-read) of its "man apt-listbugs" documentation. :)

Sometimes you can try something like "apt-listbugs list cheese". My
understanding is that's the default that focuses on the most critical
bugs. I was receiving no feedback for multiple packages (thought I was
using it wrong, grin) so that's when you try this one:

apt-listbugs list -s all cheese

Maybe something there will match what you're looking at in your case.
The "-s" flag "value" can be changed to match the various *severity*
levels, e.g. critical, grave, serious, important, normal, minor,
and wishlist.

Two cool things I just learned about apt-listbugs:

* I was able to list bugs for cheese even though it's not installed. Nice perk!

* Am not quite understanding these 2 flags, but they're about the
topical topic of pinning:

........................
-F, --force-pin
When in apt mode, assumes that you want to automatically pin all
buggy packages without any prompt. This option is assumed if
stdout is not a terminal, unless the -N command-line option is
used.

-N, --force-no-pin
When in apt mode, never automatically pin any package without
prompt. This is the default behavior, as long as stdout is a
terminal.
........................

A third perk just came to mind: apt-listbugs' ability to instantly
sort by severity would help an aspiring developer pick out bugs that
match their skill level.

> What is meant by 'Invalid enumeration value"?

*scratching my head (too)*

I've learned to ignore those until I fix errors I understand.
Sometimes the really out there errors disappear on their own due to
simply being fallout from the more easily understood errors. :)

Then again.. I looked at that one last time while proofreading before
sending. That's doing a opengl/GL thing there.. GNU license? Might be
about the proprietary thing I threw in as an afterthought (aka too
much information) above........? That would make sense.

One quick last search landed this (for informational purposes since it
was there and applicable):

OpenGL - The Industry Standard for High Performance Graphics
https://www.opengl.org/

Wikipedia's blurb that shows in search engines:

"Open Graphics Library (OpenGL) is a cross-language, cross-platform
application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector
graphics"

Again, maybe if you can fix the non-communication thing between BGR3
and MPEG, that will fix the other.... or not. :)

Cindy :)
--
Cindy-Sue Causey
Talking Rock, Pickens County, Georgia, USA

* runs with duct tape *

[Cindy-Sue Causey]

Hey, cool. I think I actually almost came close to what you said a
couple times, lol. You just write a little more succinctly than I do,
just like Brian. :D

I think I heard that about ffmpeg by itself, but that didn't "stick"
until this time. I thought it was just more "reference", more of a
library sitting in waiting to be drawn from in the background.

[pe...@easthope.ca]

Thanks to everyone who replied.

* From: Reco <recov...@gmail.com>
* Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2017 18:16:08 +0300
> This is [w]here I'd say 'screw it' and use 'mpv' or 'ffmpeg' instead of
> 'cheese', but YMMV.

mpv and ffmpeg are installed. To try mpv, a device should be
specified and recognized.

guest@imager:~$ ls -d /dev/u*
/dev/uhid /dev/uinput /dev/urandom
guest@imager:~$ ls -d /dev/v4l/by-path/*
/dev/v4l/by-path/pci-0000:02:02.0-video-index0
/dev/v4l/by-path/pci-0000:02:02.0-video-index1
/dev/v4l/by-path/pci-0000:02:02.0-video-index2
/dev/v4l/by-path/pci-0000:02:02.0-video-index3

The v4l devices are on a Hauppauge pci WinTV card.
The camera is plugged but not apparent in the software, to me at least.

?

Thanks, ... P.

[Reco]

Hi.

On Wed, Sep 06, 2017 at 03:40:38PM -0700, pe...@easthope.ca wrote:
> Thanks to everyone who replied.
>
> * From: Reco <recov...@gmail.com>
> * Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2017 18:16:08 +0300
> > This is [w]here I'd say 'screw it' and use 'mpv' or 'ffmpeg' instead of
> > 'cheese', but YMMV.
>
> mpv and ffmpeg are installed. To try mpv, a device should be
> specified and recognized.
>
> guest@imager:~$ ls -d /dev/u*
> /dev/uhid /dev/uinput /dev/urandom
> guest@imager:~$ ls -d /dev/v4l/by-path/*
> /dev/v4l/by-path/pci-0000:02:02.0-video-index0
> /dev/v4l/by-path/pci-0000:02:02.0-video-index1
> /dev/v4l/by-path/pci-0000:02:02.0-video-index2
> /dev/v4l/by-path/pci-0000:02:02.0-video-index3
>
> The v4l devices are on a Hauppauge pci WinTV card.
> The camera is plugged but not apparent in the software, to me at least.
>
> ?

I'd start with:

mpv tv:// --no-tv-audio

mpv tv:// --tv-device=/dev/video0 --no-tv-audio

mpv tv:// --tv-device=/dev/video1 --no-tv-audio

mpv tv:// --tv-device=/dev/video2 --no-tv-audio

mpv tv:// --tv-device=/dev/video3 --no-tv-audio

If either of these show something - you're in luck, you hardware is
supported, etc.
If not - I'm out of ideas, sorry.

Reco

[pe...@easthope.ca]

This problem might be an easier first step.

lsub detects the LifeCam.
root@dalton:/home/peter# lsusb | grep Micro
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 045e:00f8 Microsoft Corp. LifeCam NX-6000

This screenshot shows that Ekiga recognizes the device but declines to
activate it. The menu option is grey rather than black.
http://http://easthope.ca/EkigaPreferences.png

The ekiga entries in /var/log/syslog pertain to the network
connection. Nothing about the camera. Any ideas other than study more
detailed debug output?

[Curt]

On 2017-09-19, pe...@easthope.ca <pe...@easthope.ca> wrote:
> This problem might be an easier first step.

I don't understand what that means.

> lsub detects the LifeCam.
> root@dalton:/home/peter# lsusb | grep Micro
> Bus 001 Device 007: ID 045e:00f8 Microsoft Corp. LifeCam NX-6000

I read your lifecam is supported and uses the linux-uvc kernel driver.

http://www.ideasonboard.org/uvc/

> This screenshot shows that Ekiga recognizes the device but declines to
> activate it. The menu option is grey rather than black.
> http://http://easthope.ca/EkigaPreferences.png

I see nothing here. Maybe it's me. I read there's a configuration "druid"
(whatever that is) that sets everything up for you in ekiga.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Webcam_setup

> The ekiga entries in /var/log/syslog pertain to the network
> connection. Nothing about the camera. Any ideas other than study more
> detailed debug output?

On the archlinux wiki it says:

Microsoft Lifecam Studio/Cinema

Under certain configurations, the Microsoft lifecam studio/cinema may request
too much usb bandwidth and fail see Uvcvideo FAQ. In this case, change the
buffering by loading the uvcvideo driver with quirks=0x80. Add it to
/etc/modprobe.d/uvcvideo.conf :

/etc/modprobe.d/uvcvideo.conf

## fix bandwidth issue for lifecam studio/cinema options uvcvideo quirks=0x80

Note: If delays are visible in the logs, or the camera works periodically, this
workaround should apply generally. Bigger values such as quirks=0x100 are
possible.

Anyway.

> Thanks, ... Peter E.
>
>
>


--

"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana." Groucho

[Curt]

On 2017-09-19, Curt <cu...@free.fr> wrote:
> On 2017-09-19, pe...@easthope.ca <pe...@easthope.ca> wrote:
>> This problem might be an easier first step.
>
> I don't understand what that means.

On second thought I think I do.

[pe...@easthope.ca]

From: Reco <recov...@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2017 09:53:12 +0300
> If either of these show something - you're in luck, your hardware is

> supported, etc.
> If not - I'm out of ideas, sorry.

The original objective was to take the VGA output from a JVC camera
and convert it to a digital image in a commonly used format.

We purchased an adapter made by Inogeni. Marked on top VGA to USB 3.0.

Apparent serial number VG1903074.

Another number, ICES-3(A)/NMB-3(a), appears to be a model or European
standards number.

WIth the adapter connected to a USB 2 socket in an available desktop
machine with Debian, no image was found. Inside the USB A socket the
contacts are supported by a blade of black or white plastic.

A MS Windows system with a USB 3 socket gave a jaggy image. =8~)

Recently I put Debian 11 on a Lenovo ThinkCentre equiped with USB 3
sockets. The plastic blade supporting the contacts is blue.

Initially this gave an image similar to the Windows system. The VGA
came from an old laptop where a display resolution of 1024 x 768 had
worked. Therefore qv4l2 was used to adjust image acquisition to 1024 x
768. That removed jagginess. =8~) The resulting qv4l2 image is
similar or identical to the display on the source laptop.

When the system is connected to the JVC camera and a microsope, I
should be able to give a further update.

Thanks to Reco and others for replies.

Footnote
"USB 3.0 essential for output" is more stringent than "USB 3.0
supported". If v4l in the original system had produced a message that
a USB 3 device was connected to inadequate USB 2, that would have been
helpful.

Regards, ... P.


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[pe...@easthope.ca]

Currently camera output is displayed by qv4l2 and transferred to GIMP
using File > Create > Screenshot. GIMP allows annotation of the image
and export as JPG or PNG.

Probably there's a more direct way to acquire the image from the
Inogeni adapter into GIMP; ie. skip display with qv4l2. If GIMP isn't
needed, put the image directly into a JPG or PNG file.

Ideas? Suggestions?

Thx, ... P.