webcam problem (pwc)

[Peter Robinson]

> I have a problem with my Philips ToUcam Pro (Philips 740 webcam, using
> the pwc module) on both FC4 and a Fedora development system. When I try
> to start camorama, it says:
>  Could not connect to video device (/dev/video1).
>  Please check connection.
> and aborts.
> 
> dmesg says right after boot:
>  pwc Philips webcam module version 9.0.2-unofficial loaded.
>  pwc Supports Philips PCA645/646, PCVC675/680/690,
>  PCVC720[40]/730/740/750 & PCVC830/840.
>  pwc Also supports the Askey VC010, various Logitech Quickcams, Samsung
>  MPC-C10 and MPC-C30,
>  pwc the Creative WebCam 5 & Pro Ex, SOTEC Afina Eye and Visionite
>  VCS-UC300 and VCS-UM100.
>  pwc Default framerate set to 30.
>  pwc Philips PCVC740K (ToUCam Pro)/PCVC840 (ToUCam II) USB webcam
>  detected.
>  pwc Registered as /dev/video1.
>  usbcore: registered new driver Philips webcam
> 
> After trying to start camorama, dmesg says:
>  pwc Failed to set LED on/off time.
>  pwc type = 740
>  pwc Failed to allocate decompress table.
> 
> However, the integrated microphone works.
> The cam works well on FC3, but I can't say when it stopped working,
> because I don't use the cam very often.

I would say its because the driver (or at least the compression module
used by the driver) has been removed from the kernel. It was removed a
while ago because the compression module was a precompiled non open
source binary driver. It was then reintroduced because it was reverse
engineered. It has since been removed a second time because the the
reverse engineering of the driver wasn't a clean room reverse engineer
of the driver.

So in short its because of issues with the binary part of the driver
its basically been removed pending a rewrite.

Regards
Peter