linux-uvc-devel

[Linux-uvc-devel] Test of the driver on GNU/Debian amd64

[<Oli...@id...>]

Hello,

first, I'm happy to see the support of the new Logitech webcams under
Linux... Even if this is not coming from Logitech itself. (I think it's
an error from Logitech to not making some opensource drivers for their
products, like for example Intel started with their ipw2100/2200 wifi
cards).

My quick first tests are done on a GNU/Debian amd64 system (testing). At
this time, the kernel is linux-image-2.6.13-1-amd64-k8 version 2.6.13-1.

linux-uvc is revision 3 from svn trunk. One remark: the info on the
berlios page http://developer.berlios.de/svn/?group_id=5681 is not
correct for downloading the project. Instead of doing:

  svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/linux-uvc/trunk

as described, I have done:

  svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/linux-uvc/linux-uvc/trunk

Maybe a small re-organisation of the svn tree will be great ? (to have
directly trunk instead of linux-uvc/trunk). This will help users to
download the tree with the berlios instructions.

Build was ok, with just one warning:

  /home/speech/bornet/devel/work/misc/uvc/trunk/uvcvideo.c:2190:
  warning: initialization from incompatible pointer type

Attached patch uvc_v4l2_read.patch correct this warning.

Installing don't put the module in the right directory, but I think this
is more related to GNU/Debian. (install in /lib/modules/2.6.13/ instead
of /lib/modules/2.6.13-1-amd64-k8/).

Loading the driver seems OK:

  <6>usbcore: registered new driver usbvideo
  <6>USB Video Class driver (v0.1.0)

plugging the cam (a QuickCam fusion):

  <7>usbvideo: Probing device 5
  <7>Format MJPEG found
  <7>Format Uncompressed found
  <7>usbvideo: Found a Status endpoint (addr 87).
  <7>usbvideo: Found UVC device (1.00)
  <7>usbvideo: Scanning UVC chain: OT 5 <- Unit 4 <- Unit 3 <- Unit 2 <- IT 1
  <7>usbvideo: Found a valid video chain (1 -> 5).
  <3>40:3:1: cannot set freq 0 to ep 0x86
  <4>40:3:3: cannot get freq at ep 0x86

Then, I have try to access the camera with camstream, without success:

  CVideoDevice::CVideoDevice() could not query capabilities; is this
  really a video device?

Accessing the camera with OpenCV
(http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/) also cause problems...
I'm now debugging these problems, because I want to use these camera
with OpenCV. I will keep you informed on the progress.

But to be sure that the webcam and driver is starting to work, could you
please give me a pointer to a user program working with it ?

Thanks in advance, and thanks a lot for starting this driver.

        Olivier
-- 
   . __    . ___  __.  | Olivier Bornet         Oli...@id...
  / /  `  / /  / /  /  | IDIAP             http://www.idiap.ch/~bornet/
 / /   / / /--/ /--'   | CP 592        http://www.idiap.ch/~bornet/pgp/
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Re: [Linux-uvc-devel] Test of the driver on GNU/Debian amd64

[Laurent P. <lau...@sk...>]

Hi Olivier,

first of all, thanks for your interest in the project, and thanks for your 
patch. It has been applied to SVN.

> first, I'm happy to see the support of the new Logitech webcams under
> Linux... Even if this is not coming from Logitech itself. (I think it's
> an error from Logitech to not making some opensource drivers for their
> products, like for example Intel started with their ipw2100/2200 wifi
> cards).

I've contacted Logitech a few months ago, and they were very interested in the 
project. Linux is clearly a market they can't ignore anymore, but they 
currently don't have development resources to assign to Linux drivers 
development. They offered their help and are very supportive.

> linux-uvc is revision 3 from svn trunk. One remark: the info on the
> berlios page http://developer.berlios.de/svn/?group_id=5681 is not
> correct for downloading the project. Instead of doing:
>
>   svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/linux-uvc/trunk
>
> as described, I have done:
>
>   svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/linux-uvc/linux-uvc/trunk
>
> Maybe a small re-organisation of the svn tree will be great ? (to have
> directly trunk instead of linux-uvc/trunk). This will help users to
> download the tree with the berlios instructions.

I created a linux-uvc directory on purpose, as the project is very likely to 
release more software soon (sample SDL V4L2 viewer for instance, or patches 
for software like usbutils, GnomeMeeting or Kopete). I planned to organise 
SVN in way similar to this :

linux-uvc
  linux-uvc		(Kernel driver)
    branches
    tags
    trunk
  uvcview-sdl		(SDL-based UVC viewer)
    branches
    tags
    trunk
  uvcview-qt		(Qt-based UVC viewer)
    branches
    tags
    trunk
  patches		(Patches for GnomeMeeting, Kopete, ...)

If that's not a good idea, feel free to kick me :-)

> Build was ok, with just one warning:
>
>   /home/speech/bornet/devel/work/misc/uvc/trunk/uvcvideo.c:2190:
>   warning: initialization from incompatible pointer type
>
> Attached patch uvc_v4l2_read.patch correct this warning.

Applied.

> Installing don't put the module in the right directory, but I think this
> is more related to GNU/Debian. (install in /lib/modules/2.6.13/ instead
> of /lib/modules/2.6.13-1-amd64-k8/).

I'm developping on a Gentoo box, and the module is installed in the correct 
location. If there's an easy way to fix the Debian problem without breaking 
other distributions, feel free to send a patch.

> Loading the driver seems OK:
[...]
> Then, I have try to access the camera with camstream, without success:
>
>   CVideoDevice::CVideoDevice() could not query capabilities; is this
>   really a video device?

camstream uses the deprecated V4L1 API, and the UVC driver only support V4L2.

> Accessing the camera with OpenCV
> (http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/) also cause problems...

Same problem.

> I'm now debugging these problems, because I want to use these camera
> with OpenCV. I will keep you informed on the progress.

You will have to implement V4L2 support in OpenCV.

> But to be sure that the webcam and driver is starting to work, could you
> please give me a pointer to a user program working with it ?

Here is a (very) basic test program which saves 100 frames to disk. You can 
change the resolution and format by modifying video_set_format (the camera 
supports V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUYV and V4L2_PIX_FMT_MJPEG). An SDL-based front-end 
will probably be added to the SVN repository in a few weeks time.

> Thanks in advance, and thanks a lot for starting this driver.

You're welcome.

Laurent Pinchart

Re: [Linux-uvc-devel] Test of the driver on GNU/Debian amd64

[<Oli...@id...>]

Hi Laurent,

> I've contacted Logitech a few months ago, and they were very
> interested in the project. Linux is clearly a market they can't ignore
> anymore, but they currently don't have development resources to assign
> to Linux drivers development. They offered their help and are very
> supportive.

Cool. It's a good start. Hope they have given some webcams to you. :-)

> I created a linux-uvc directory on purpose, as the project is very likely to 
> release more software soon (sample SDL V4L2 viewer for instance, or patches 
> for software like usbutils, GnomeMeeting or Kopete). I planned to organise 
> SVN in way similar to this :
> 
> linux-uvc
>   linux-uvc		(Kernel driver)
>     branches
>     tags
>     trunk
>   uvcview-sdl		(SDL-based UVC viewer)
>     branches
>     tags
>     trunk
>   uvcview-qt		(Qt-based UVC viewer)
>     branches
>     tags
>     trunk
>   patches		(Patches for GnomeMeeting, Kopete, ...)
> 
> If that's not a good idea, feel free to kick me :-)

No, it's a good idea... Maybe just add linux-uvc/trunk directly, which
will include all the "sub-projects". So, you will have something like
this:

linux-uvc
  trunk
    linux-uvc    (a link to linux-uvc/linux-uvc/trunk)
    uvcview-sdl  (a link to linux-uvc/uvcview-sdl/trunk)
    uvcview-qt   (a link to linux-uvc/uvcview-qt/trunk)
    patches      (a link to linux-uvc/patches)
  linux-uvc
    branches
    tags
    trunk
  uvcview-sdl
    branches
    tags
    trunk
  uvcview-qt
    branches
    tags
    trunk
  patches

After that, you can retrieve the full tree using the berlios
instructions.

> > Attached patch uvc_v4l2_read.patch correct this warning.
> 
> Applied.

Great. :-)

> I'm developping on a Gentoo box, and the module is installed in the correct 
> location. If there's an easy way to fix the Debian problem without breaking 
> other distributions, feel free to send a patch.

It's not a big problem for me at this time... Maybe I will look at it in
the future...

> > Then, I have try to access the camera with camstream, without success:
> >
> >   CVideoDevice::CVideoDevice() could not query capabilities; is this
> >   really a video device?
> 
> camstream uses the deprecated V4L1 API, and the UVC driver only support V4L2.

OK. So, no camstream.

> > Accessing the camera with OpenCV
> > (http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/) also cause problems...
> 
> Same problem.
> [...]
> You will have to implement V4L2 support in OpenCV.

OpenCV has support for both V4L1 and V4L2 since mid September 2005...
But it has maybe some problems with the implementation. (I have just
found one now...).

The main problem with OpenCV is the support for V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUYV and
V4L2_PIX_FMT_MJPEG. These formats are not supported at this time. The
supported formats are V4L2_PIX_FMT_BGR24, V4L2_PIX_FMT_YVU420,
V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUYV, V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUV411P, V4L2_PIX_FMT_SBGGR8,
V4L2_PIX_FMT_SN9C10X.

I will see if I can add V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUYV and/or V4L2_PIX_FMT_MJPEG to
OpenCV now.

> Here is a (very) basic test program which saves 100 frames to disk.

Works OK. Thanks.

Thanks for your help.

        Olivier
-- 
   . __    . ___  __.  | Olivier Bornet         Oli...@id...
  / /  `  / /  / /  /  | IDIAP             http://www.idiap.ch/~bornet/
 / /   / / /--/ /--'   | CP 592        http://www.idiap.ch/~bornet/pgp/
/ /__.' / /  / /       | CH-1920 Martigny           PGP-key: 0xC53D9218

Re: [Linux-uvc-devel] Test of the driver on GNU/Debian amd64

[Olivier B. <Oli...@id...>]

Hoops...

On Wed, Jan 04, 2006 at 03:37:40PM +0100, Olivier Bornet wrote:
> The main problem with OpenCV is the support for V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUYV and
> V4L2_PIX_FMT_MJPEG. These formats are not supported at this time. The
> supported formats are V4L2_PIX_FMT_BGR24, V4L2_PIX_FMT_YVU420,
> V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUYV, V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUV411P, V4L2_PIX_FMT_SBGGR8,
> V4L2_PIX_FMT_SN9C10X.

wrong... V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUYV is _not_ supported. Supported are
V4L2_PIX_FMT_BGR24, V4L2_PIX_FMT_YVU420, V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUV411P,
V4L2_PIX_FMT_SBGGR8, V4L2_PIX_FMT_SN9C10X.

(copy-paste error...).

        Olivier
-- 
   . __    . ___  __.  | Olivier Bornet         Oli...@id...
  / /  `  / /  / /  /  | IDIAP             http://www.idiap.ch/~bornet/
 / /   / / /--/ /--'   | CP 592        http://www.idiap.ch/~bornet/pgp/
/ /__.' / /  / /       | CH-1920 Martigny           PGP-key: 0xC53D9218

Re: [Linux-uvc-devel] Test of the driver on GNU/Debian amd64

[Olivier B. <Oli...@id...>]

Hello again,

> > > Accessing the camera with OpenCV
> > > (http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/) also cause problems...
> > 
> > Same problem.
> > [...]
> > You will have to implement V4L2 support in OpenCV.
> 
> OpenCV has support for both V4L1 and V4L2 since mid September 2005...
> But it has maybe some problems with the implementation. (I have just
> found one now...).

OpenCV is now working with the uvc driver. I have implemented support of
V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUYV in OpenCV. Feel free to checkout the CVS of OpenCV if
you want to try it.

I don't know why, but it seems changing the size of the capture don't
works. I always have a capture of 1024x576 pixels. Even if I try to set
to another size, like for example 640x480. This must be a problem with
OpenCV, as it seems your test program is changing the resolution
correctly (altough I don't have look at the output files, because I
don't know how to display yuyv raw data images...).

Any way, thanks a lot for the driver. It's starting on the right way.

Have a nice evening.

        Olivier
-- 
   . __    . ___  __.  | Olivier Bornet         Oli...@id...
  / /  `  / /  / /  /  | IDIAP             http://www.idiap.ch/~bornet/
 / /   / / /--/ /--'   | CP 592        http://www.idiap.ch/~bornet/pgp/
/ /__.' / /  / /       | CH-1920 Martigny           PGP-key: 0xC53D9218

Re: [Linux-uvc-devel] Test of the driver on GNU/Debian amd64

[Laurent P. <lau...@sk...>]

> OpenCV is now working with the uvc driver. I have implemented support of
> V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUYV in OpenCV. Feel free to checkout the CVS of OpenCV if
> you want to try it.

Good work. While you're at it, you can also implement MJPEG support ;-) I 
recently posted a patch to the video4linux and qt-interest mailing lists to 
add MJPEG support to Qt, it can be used as a starting point.

> I don't know why, but it seems changing the size of the capture don't
> works. I always have a capture of 1024x576 pixels. Even if I try to set
> to another size, like for example 640x480. This must be a problem with
> OpenCV, as it seems your test program is changing the resolution
> correctly (altough I don't have look at the output files, because I
> don't know how to display yuyv raw data images...).

That's normal. The minimum size for YUYV capture is 1024x576. Lower 
resolutions are only available in MJPEG. I'll ask Logitech if they can enable 
YUYV in lower resolutions in their firmware updates.

> Any way, thanks a lot for the driver. It's starting on the right way.

You're welcome. I'm glad people are interested in UVC.

Thanks for getting involved.

Laurent Pinchart

Re: [Linux-uvc-devel] Test of the driver on GNU/Debian amd64

[<Oli...@id...>]

Hello,

On Wed, Jan 04, 2006 at 06:56:15PM +0100, Laurent Pinchart wrote:
> > OpenCV is now working with the uvc driver. I have implemented support of
> > V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUYV in OpenCV. Feel free to checkout the CVS of OpenCV if
> > you want to try it.
> 
> Good work. While you're at it, you can also implement MJPEG support ;-) I 
> recently posted a patch to the video4linux and qt-interest mailing lists to 
> add MJPEG support to Qt, it can be used as a starting point.

Thanks for the tip. OpenCV is now supporting MJPEG. :-)
So, now with OpenCV (and the UVC driver), you can:
  - load a image file of format MJPEG,
  - use V4L2_PIX_FMT_MJPEG format for video acquisition.

The patch you have posted to the video4linux mailing list was helpful.

> > I don't know why, but it seems changing the size of the capture don't
> > works. I always have a capture of 1024x576 pixels. Even if I try to set
> > to another size, like for example 640x480. This must be a problem with
> > OpenCV, as it seems your test program is changing the resolution
> > correctly (altough I don't have look at the output files, because I
> > don't know how to display yuyv raw data images...).
> 
> That's normal. The minimum size for YUYV capture is 1024x576. Lower 
> resolutions are only available in MJPEG. I'll ask Logitech if they can enable 
> YUYV in lower resolutions in their firmware updates.

With V4L2_PIX_FMT_MJPEG, resolution switching works. Cool. :-)

Thanks for your suggestions.

        Olivier
-- 
   . __    . ___  __.  | Olivier Bornet         Oli...@id...
  / /  `  / /  / /  /  | IDIAP             http://www.idiap.ch/~bornet/
 / /   / / /--/ /--'   | CP 592        http://www.idiap.ch/~bornet/pgp/
/ /__.' / /  / /       | CH-1920 Martigny           PGP-key: 0xC53D9218

Re: [Linux-uvc-devel] Test of the driver on GNU/Debian amd64

[Laurent P. <lau...@sk...>]

> Thanks for the tip. OpenCV is now supporting MJPEG. :-)
> So, now with OpenCV (and the UVC driver), you can:
>   - load a image file of format MJPEG,
>   - use V4L2_PIX_FMT_MJPEG format for video acquisition.
>
> The patch you have posted to the video4linux mailing list was helpful.

Great ! That will be very helpful (I plan to use OpenCV for a robotic project 
in the near future). Are the changes commited to OpenCV CVS ?

> With V4L2_PIX_FMT_MJPEG, resolution switching works. Cool. :-)

Resolution switching works with YUYV too, but only two resolutions are 
available (1024x576 and 1280x960). That's a device limitation, not a driver 
issue.

> Thanks for your suggestions.

You're welcome.

Laurent Pinchart

Re: [Linux-uvc-devel] Test of the driver on GNU/Debian amd64

[<Oli...@id...>]

Hi Laurent,

> Great ! That will be very helpful (I plan to use OpenCV for a robotic project 
> in the near future). Are the changes commited to OpenCV CVS ?

Great. :-)
Yes, the changes are commited... But maybe the anonymous CVS of SF is
not in-sync now. Don't remember if the sync is done each hour or each 4
hours.

        Olivier
-- 
   . __    . ___  __.  | Olivier Bornet         Oli...@id...
  / /  `  / /  / /  /  | IDIAP             http://www.idiap.ch/~bornet/
 / /   / / /--/ /--'   | CP 592        http://www.idiap.ch/~bornet/pgp/
/ /__.' / /  / /       | CH-1920 Martigny           PGP-key: 0xC53D9218