How to Install and configure webcam trust WB 3320X Live on Ubuntu /Debian Linux

Wednesday, 26th September 2012

Trust Hires Webcam Live WB 3320X on Ubuntu, Debian, Xubuntu Install how to

I had to install WebCAM TRUST WB 3320X on one Xubuntu Linux install. Unfortunately by default the camera did not get detected (the Webcam vendor did not provide driver or specifications for Linux either).
Thus I researched on the internet if and how this camera can be made work on Ubuntu Linux. I found some threads discussing the same issues as mine in Ubuntu Forums here . The threads even suggested a possible fix, which when followed literally did not work on this particular 32-bit Xubuntu 12.04.1 installation.

I did 20 minutes research more but couldn’t find much on how to make the Webcam working. I used Cheese and Skype to test if the webcamera can capture video, but in both of them all I see was just black screen.

he camera was detected in lsusb displayed info as:


# lsusb | grep -i webcam

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 093a:2621 Pixart Imaging, Inc. PAC731x Trust Webcam

After reading further a bit I found out some people online suggesting loading the gspca kernel module. I searched what kind of gspca*.kokernel modules are available using:


locate gspca |grep -i .ko

1. Load proper camera kernel modules

I found a dozen of modules and after some testing with few of the found ones I realized the Camera works, whether gspca_pac730.ko and gspca_pac7311 are loaded, to test the camera I loaded both with:


# /sbin/modprobe gspca_pac730
# /sbin/modprobe gspca_pac7311

Seeing while this two modules are loaded the camera is fine capturing video. I added the above two to auto load on each Ubuntu boot:


# echo "gspca_pac730" >> /etc/modules
# echo "gspca_pac7311" >> /etc/modules

Before really I can see the camera properly capturing video, though I had to adjust few settings in default GNOME settings for Video device in gstreamer-properties

2. Change settings for video camera in gstreamer-properties


$ gstreamer-properties

The settings in the Video tab should be as you see in screenshot:

3. Testing if video camera works with VLC

There are numerous ways to test if camera is properly capturing video, vlc, mplayer, cheese or even Skype can be used. First time I tested it I used VLC, like so:


vlc v4l2:///dev/video0

Above as VLC argument I use /dev/video0 as video capturing device cause video camera is found under /dev/video0. This might vary on other Linux distros; to check the exact assigned dev, ls it:


# ls -al /dev/vide*

crw-rw----+ 1 root video 81, 0 sep 25 20:53 /dev/video0

Testing the Trust WB 3320X Live on Linux can be done with Cheese or Skype too by running them vide a LD_PRELOAD predefined bash variable;


$ LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libv4l/v4l1compat.so cheese

or for Skype


LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype

Still using vlc to test webcam is preferrable, as there is no need to invoke it via a predefined LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libv4l/v4l1compat.so bash var.

Anyways below is a screenshot of the WebCam capturing video in Skype (on the Screenshot Sali a very good person who help me a lot here in Netherlands).

Though the camera driver works, the quality is quite bad the capture image is distorted and whenever there is a movement in front of the camera the picture is really bad … Expect quality of the captured video to be maybe about 2 times? worser than those in Windows OS.

Lest the bad quality the picture is good enough to distinguish you and recognize you on the other side, so for people who are not image quality freaks quality will be okay.

4. Making the Trust WB 3320 work in skype

As prior said you need to each time invoke Skype binary with a LD_PRELOAD pre-defined variable:


$ LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype

Same goes for Cheese too:


$ LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libv4l/v4l1compat.so cheese

Typing all this long line and even remembering it is a taugh task, so I created two little wrappers scripts for both Cheese and Skype in /usr/local/bin/skype-camera-fix and /usr/local/bin/cheese-camera-fix.


$ su root
Password:
# echo '#!/bin/bash' >> /usr/local/bin/skype-camera-fix
# echo 'LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype' >> /usr/local/bin/skype-camera-fix
# chmod +x /usr/local/bin/skype-camera-fix

and


# echo '#!/bin/bash' >> /usr/local/bin/cheese-camera-fix
# echo 'LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libv4l/v4l1compat.so cheese' >> /usr/local/bin/cheese-camera-fix
# chmod +x /usr/local/bin/cheeese-camera-fix

Now as this two wrappers, are existing it is good idea to modify in GNOME menus Skype and Cheese to launch the modified bash wrapper scripts instead of the original binaries:

4. Changing default Skype and Cheese path in GNOME to skype-camera-fix and cheese-camera-fix wrapper scripts

Edit /usr/share/applications/skype.desktop and change inside, where the line says:


Exec=skype

to


Exec=/usr/local/bin/skype-camera-fix

After the change the content of skype.desktop should be as:


[Desktop Entry]
Name=Skype
Comment=Skype Internet Telephony
Exec=/usr/local/bin/skype-cam-fix
Icon=skype.png
Terminal=0
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Categories=Network;Application;

Then same goes for Cheese, change the Exec= line in file /usr/share/applications/cheese.desktop to equal to:


Exec=/usr/local/bin/cheese-camera-fix

Now after restarting the PC or logging off and then logging in again to GNOME both applications should be executing via the wrapper script.

5. Changing Brightness and tuning various other Webcam settings

As I red online, there are plenty of apps that can be used to tune up webcam color gamma, saturation, explosure etc.

I however tried only two ;

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