Webcams and FreeBSD

Ned Harrison ned.woody1 at cox.net
Tue Sep 27 07:29:33 PDT 2005


On Mon, 2005-09-26 at 13:40 +0200, John Oxley wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 25, 2005 at 05:05:24AM -0500, Ned Harrison wrote:
> > I'm running FreeBSD 5.4 as a desktop operating system on my home
> > computer.  I would like to set up a webcam for physical security/nature
> > observation while I'm away from the residence.  Something simple, I just
> > want to take periodic images and store them on an external hard drive. 
> > 
> > In the past couple of days researching this, I get the impression that
> > it may be possible to do this but I have not found specific instructions
> > on how to set it up.  
> > 
> > Even though I am a newbie, I have been able to get things working when I
> > can find the right documentation. Does anybody know of an article which
> > describes setting something like this up?
> 
> If you are not bound to FreeBSD, I recommend installing Linux.  USB
> webcams work much better under Linux, and there is a package called
> motion which only records if there is a certain amount of motion
> detected which is a better setup for security anyway.
> 
> -John
> 

I dual boot with Linux so that is an option. I've been reading on how to
do it on that system too. So which ever one I figure out first will
probably be the one I use.

As an aside,I have a minor hardware problem, (and I don't know what!)
which causes nearly all Linux distributions to hang during the bootup.
Knoppix has been the only one I've been able install and get running.
Whatever messes up the other distributions doesn't even phase Knoppix.
In addition, whenever I tried to update my Knoppix HD install, I would
"break" something and have to install the whole thing all over again.
So I tend to use Linux for my general work and it do my playing and
learning how to do things on FreeBSD.  That's why I felt I could get
things up faster on FreeBSD, I know how to install and add programs
there.

Thanks
Ned 




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