Jeffrey Miller - 2018-04-04

I've got eight wbcams for use with zoneminder. I'm still experimenting with and deploying the cameras. Mostly comparing the Logitech 920,922, and 930e for light sensitivity and FOV.

I'm hitting a snag with uvcdynctrl. It refuses to follow the links in /dev/v4l/by-id which point to /dev/video[n].

These links are very useful as compared /dev/video[n], which varies across cameras being plugeed into different ports and across reboots when cameras are added and removed. I written some simple scripts: first I use -W, then edit the resulting files to insert new values, then use -L to set the new values. As it stands I have to edit these scripts whenever I add, remove, or swap out a camera. If uvcdynctrl could follow symlinks it would be a set-it-and-forget-it.

Example dialogue follows:

Am I missing something? is theres a workaround? Or is this a feature request?

Is uvcdynctrl still being worked on? Is there an alternative? Other than this issue I'm finding it very useful.

ls -l /dev/v4l/by-id
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Apr 3 19:21 usb-046d_HD_Pro_Webcam_C920_07D3D43F-video-index0 -> ../../video2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Apr 3 19:21 usb-046d_HD_Pro_Webcam_C920_70E8605F-video-index0 -> ../../video1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Apr 3 19:21 usb-046d_HD_Pro_Webcam_C920_77831EDF-video-index0 -> ../../video4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Apr 3 19:21 usb-046d_HD_Pro_Webcam_C920_97B41EAF-video-index0 -> ../../video3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Apr 3 19:21 usb-046d_HD_Webcam_C525_89004330-video-index0 -> ../../video0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Apr 3 19:34 usb-046d_Logitech_Webcam_C930e_7475D85E-video-index0 -> ../../video5
root@Jserv20170804:~# uvcdynctrl -d '/dev/v4l/by-id/usb-046d_HD_Pro_Webcam_C920_07D3D43F-video-index0' -c
[libwebcam] Unable to open device '/dev/v4l/by-id/usb-046d_HD_Pro_Webcam_C920_07D3D43F-video-index0'. Unrecognized device name.
ERROR: Unable to open device.