Microdia, mainline kernel and LifeCam VX-6000 (045e:00f4)

[Martin Olsson]

Hello,

I bought a LifeCam VX-6000 today only to find that it didn't work that well with Ubuntu (no /dev/video* device).
After some googling I ended up here and I tested the microdia driver and it worked (vlc/mplayer but not cheese).

Thanks for building this thing guys! Keep up the good work.

I have some questions:
* Is there any plans to get this driver merged into Linus tree?
* How _much_ work remains before it can be merged?
* What exactly remains to be done before you can merge the first version into mainline?
* I've not written much drivers before but I know C well; if there is anything
I can do to help get this driver into mainline faster please let me know.

---

btw, I ran into one little snag where the power wasnt sufficient for
the cam when it was connected to the USB port on my keyboard, and
once I had loaded the module properly my /dev/video0 wasnt created
until I unplugged the cam and plugged it in again.

I posted dmesg output here:
https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.20/+bug/87054/comments/27

Martin

[Graw Water]

Am Mittwoch 18 Februar 2009 16:03:33 schrieb Martin Olsson:
> Hello,
>
> I bought a LifeCam VX-6000 today only to find that it didn't work that well
> with Ubuntu (no /dev/video* device). After some googling I ended up here
> and I tested the microdia driver and it worked (vlc/mplayer but not
> cheese).
>
> Thanks for building this thing guys! Keep up the good work.
>
> I have some questions:
> * Is there any plans to get this driver merged into Linus tree?
> * How _much_ work remains before it can be merged?
> * What exactly remains to be done before you can merge the first version
> into mainline? * I've not written much drivers before but I know C well; if
> there is anything I can do to help get this driver into mainline faster
> please let me know.
>

Hey Mirtin Olsson,
I'll answer the difficult part first. Please note that these are mostly my
personal views since we have a very discussion-based ruling on these issues.
But maybe we can use this as a start for such discussions.

1. There is consensus that we will submit the driver for the torvalds-kernel
when it is ready.

2. Only few features are missing. Right now we are mostly fixing bugs for a few
specific webcams (or more accurate: their sensors).

3. What remains to be done is the above mentioned bugfixing until all cams work
with a decent quality. Also proposed:
- measure performance (fps)
- handle a ripped out USB-cable while streaming. (Currently very ugly things
happen. don't test.)
- snapshots (not available via V4L2)
- compiler optimization (likely and unlikely macros, etc)

GWater