"unable to open video device" - why?

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Jeff S.

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Mar 18, 2020, 8:03:26 PM3/18/20
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I have a new, 1 megapixel USB dome camera, with Amazon's description as follows:

Dome Camera 1 Megapixel USB Webcam with CMOS OV9712 Image Sensor Waterproof Indoor Outdoor Web Camera,USB with Cameras with Microphone UVC for Use in Android Linux Windows Mac Raspberry Pi,Plug&Play


I connected it to a raspberry pi zero w loaded with latest version of motioneyeos, (that was previously working just fine with a generic webcam), and it can't seem to open the new video device.   I see these lines in the messages-1.log file:
Mar 18 18:41:20 rpzw3 user.warn motion: [1:ml1:Camera1] [WRN] [ALL] mlp_retry: Retrying until successful connection with camera
Mar 18 18:41:20 rpzw3 user.err motion: [1:ml1:Camera1] [ERR] [VID] v4l2_device_capability: Device does not support capturing.
Mar 18 18:41:20 rpzw3 user.err motion: [1:ml1:Camera1] [ERR] [VID] vid_start: V4L2 device failed to open
Mar 18 18:41:21 rpzw3 user.err motion: [1:ml1:Camera1] [ERR] [VID] v4l2_device_capability: Device does not support capturing.
Mar 18 18:41:21 rpzw3 user.err motion: [1:ml1:Camera1] [ERR] [VID] vid_start: V4L2 device failed to open
Mar 18 18:41:21 rpzw3 user.warn motion: [1:ml1:Camera1] [WRN] [ALL] motion_init: Could not fetch initial image from camera
Mar 18 18:41:21 rpzw3 user.warn motion: [1:ml1:Camera1] [WRN] [ALL] motion_init: Motion continues using width and height from config file(s)

Can anyone tell me what I'm missing?

Kevin Shumaker

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Mar 18, 2020, 8:35:36 PM3/18/20
to Jeff S., motioneye
Are you using an OTG USB cable?

Have you tried installing Raspbian 20200213 and testing there?

What does the command
lsusb <enter>
show if you either use a keyboard & monitor, or ssh in?

Can you try the 20200203 version of motionEyeOS?  https://github.com/ccrisan/motioneyeos/releases/tag/20200203

Can you attach the dmesg log?

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Thanks

Kevin Shumaker


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Jeff S.

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Mar 18, 2020, 11:42:45 PM3/18/20
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Kevin,
Thank you for trying to help.  I really appreciate it.

I'm pretty sure I'm using an OTG cable, as the dome camera has IR LED's that glow red in the dark, indicating that the camera is receiving power via its USB cable. 

I'm running headless, and using ssh to access the pi. 

lsusb gives me this:
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 05a3:9310

The dmesg log is attached.

I have not tried the camera under Raspbian or an earlier motioneyeos, but I can try those tomorrow if this exchange doesn't yield results.

Thanks again!
...Jeff


On Wednesday, March 18, 2020 at 7:35:36 PM UTC-5, StarbaseSSD wrote:
Are you using an OTG USB cable?

Have you tried installing Raspbian 20200213 and testing there?

What does the command
lsusb <enter>
show if you either use a keyboard & monitor, or ssh in?

Can you try the 20200203 version of motionEyeOS?  https://github.com/ccrisan/motioneyeos/releases/tag/20200203

Can you attach the dmesg log?

On Wed, Mar 18, 2020 at 8:03 PM 'Jeff S.' via motioneye <moti...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
I have a new, 1 megapixel USB dome camera, with Amazon's description as follows:

Dome Camera 1 Megapixel USB Webcam with CMOS OV9712 Image Sensor Waterproof Indoor Outdoor Web Camera,USB with Cameras with Microphone UVC for Use in Android Linux Windows Mac Raspberry Pi,Plug&Play


I connected it to a raspberry pi zero w loaded with latest version of motioneyeos, (that was previously working just fine with a generic webcam), and it can't seem to open the new video device.   I see these lines in the messages-1.log file:
Mar 18 18:41:20 rpzw3 user.warn motion: [1:ml1:Camera1] [WRN] [ALL] mlp_retry: Retrying until successful connection with camera
Mar 18 18:41:20 rpzw3 user.err motion: [1:ml1:Camera1] [ERR] [VID] v4l2_device_capability: Device does not support capturing.
Mar 18 18:41:20 rpzw3 user.err motion: [1:ml1:Camera1] [ERR] [VID] vid_start: V4L2 device failed to open
Mar 18 18:41:21 rpzw3 user.err motion: [1:ml1:Camera1] [ERR] [VID] v4l2_device_capability: Device does not support capturing.
Mar 18 18:41:21 rpzw3 user.err motion: [1:ml1:Camera1] [ERR] [VID] vid_start: V4L2 device failed to open
Mar 18 18:41:21 rpzw3 user.warn motion: [1:ml1:Camera1] [WRN] [ALL] motion_init: Could not fetch initial image from camera
Mar 18 18:41:21 rpzw3 user.warn motion: [1:ml1:Camera1] [WRN] [ALL] motion_init: Motion continues using width and height from config file(s)

Can anyone tell me what I'm missing?

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dmesg.log

Kevin Shumaker

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Mar 19, 2020, 2:33:03 AM3/19/20
to Jeff S., motioneye
Thanks.
Looks like the camera isn't fully recognised. The USB ID 05a3:9310 doesn't show in the Device Hunt database, but the manufacturer is ARC Intl.
The 20200203 may support it better.
Please also try the newer version of motionEyeOS, and if that doesn't work, try the Raspbian install and install motionEye on top of that.
I am assuming that you've tried it on another computer and Windows or MacOS?


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Jeff S.

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Mar 20, 2020, 4:35:33 PM3/20/20
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Hi Kevin,

I downloaded a zip file with 20200203, but couldn't figure out how to write that as an image on my SD card.

I loaded Raspbian onto the RPi, and then loaded the Motioneye app per online instructions, but now I can't figure out how to RUN motioneye.  Seems to be fairly 'plug-n-play' with motioneyeos, but I guess I'm missing some important detail running it under Raspbian.

The camera seemed to work fine when I plugged it into my desktop (running Pop!OS, an Ubuntu derivative) running the Cheese photo app.

I wonder when 20200203 will be released, and thus be able to be updated automatically? 

Again, thanks for any help you feel like providing.
...jeff

Kevin Shumaker

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Mar 20, 2020, 4:50:19 PM3/20/20
to Jeff S., motioneye
You install 20200203 the same as any other image of motionEyeOS.
Download, and use 7zip to extract the .img file, then use Win32DiskImager to write it to the SD Card
or
Download and install balenaEtcher, and use it to write the download file directly to the SDCard (don't have to 7zip the file first)
Copy your wpa_supplicant.conf file & ssh.txt file to the /boot/ partition on the SDCard
eject it safely
Insert into PI and boot.
Check and see if the camera installs correctly
===========
motioneye auto starts after reboot, but the Web page is different, it's at http://<ip address>:8765 instead of at just htt://<ip address>
===========
20200203 is technically released (no longer listed as dev20200203, and yes, you can update to dev20200223
===========
Let me know.

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Jeff S.

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Mar 20, 2020, 9:02:49 PM3/20/20
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This is where I got hung up before, but I failed to give you these details:

I have balenaEtcher.  I downloaded motioneyeos-20200203.zip, 68.5MB.  When I selected that file in Etcher, I get "Missing partition table.  It looks like this is not a bootable image.  The image does not appear to contain a partition table, and might not be recognized or bootable by your device."

I had Etcher load it onto the SD card anyway, and then the SD card was indeed not recognized anymore.  I did not try to actually boot the raspberry pi with that SD card.

I hope that makes sense, and thanks again for your help.
...jeff

Kevin Shumaker

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Mar 20, 2020, 9:20:40 PM3/20/20
to Jeff S., motioneye
Only the source file at
is a zip. all the others are .*.img.xz and you need to download the one specific to your Pi version.


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Jeff S.

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Mar 20, 2020, 10:40:53 PM3/20/20
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Ok, I selected motioneyeos-orangepizero-20200203.img.xz  since it had "pizero" in the filename, and downloaded it.  I had Etcher load that onto the SD card with no apparent issues. 

I put that SD card into the RPi zero w and powered it up, and it would not boot.  No LED light on the board, no image or messages on the HDMI output, no nothing. 

I put the original SD card back in, and it booted and ran fine. 

Downloaded and burned the SD card again, same result.

Was that maybe not the right .img.xz file to use?
...jeff

Jeff S.

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Mar 20, 2020, 10:53:18 PM3/20/20
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My bad.  I looked at the list of .img.xz files again, and picked motioneyeos-raspberrypi-20200203.img.xz, and that booted up ok.  Now I'll get that configured and try the camera again.  Sorry for the false alarm.
...jeff

Jeff S.

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Mar 20, 2020, 11:37:49 PM3/20/20
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Success!  Version 20200203 recognizes my camera. 

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction, and for helping me with my rookie mistakes. 

Have a great day - be safe. 
...jeff
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