v4l + webcamd + Logitech C210 + Skype (FreeBSD 8-stable)

[Luchesar V. ILIEV]

On 01/23/2011 22:40, Oliver Fromme wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm trying to get Skype working with video support on my
> 8-stable machine at home.  I've got a shiny new Logitech
> C210 webcam.  This webcam works perfectly fine on my wife's
> Windows machine, FWIW.
> 
> On my FreeBSD box I've installed webcamd and all of its
> dependencies, as per HPS' documentation.  Basically the
> webcam seems to work:  I get a clear picture in pwcview(1).
> However, Skype doesn't seem to recognize the video device
> (I have installed skype-2.0.0.72,1 from ports).
> 
> The Logitech C210 is a UVC webcam (USB video class), and
> webcamd includes a uvc driver, but it says that it is V4L2
> only.  On the other hand, the Linuxulator's video device
> translation layer does not support V4L2, as far as I know.
> Is that the reason why Skype cannot see my webcam?  If so,
> what's the recommended way to solve the problem?  All of
> the webcams currently available for purchase seem to be
> UVC ones, so I'm probably stuck with Windows.  :-(
> 
> There's a second issue, but I think it's not related to
> emulation:  The microphone doesn't seem to be supported.
> I haven't found anything related to audio in the webcamd
> documentation, so I guess it doesn't support microphones
> at all.  I don't get any separate audio decvice listed
> in the output of usbconfig(8).  Do I have to purchase a
> separate microphone, even though the C210 webcam already
> has a built-in one?
> 
> Best regards
>    Oliver
> 

Hi Oliver,

Probably that's totally irrelevant to your problem, but you might try
running Skype like the following and see if it makes any difference:

$ LD_PRELOAD=/usr/local/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /path/to/skype

HTH,
Luchesar