Irfan’s Corner on the Web On Mac, Linux, Grid, Virtualization and Software Technology

Finally Got my Webcam to work in Linux!

I bought this extremely cheap webcam from the market, named "Pasaris". It came packaged with a Windows driver, it worked fine on Windows. However because I wanted to use it on my notebook I needed to make it work on Linux. I installed all relevant modules from the kernel, believing that udev will pick the right one. However it did not work this way. Next I looked up this massive list, hoping that it is supported by the spca5xx driver. But in the entire list there doesn't seem to be any vendor called "Pasaris".

I shelved the webcam away, hoping to get a new one which would have Linux support. Today while reading Greg KH's book "Linux kernel in a nutshell", I decided to have another look at that webcam. I used lsusb to find the Vendor and Product ID, which turned out to be:

0x0c45:0613b, the kernel doesn't support any such device, so I had another look at the spca5xx support webcam list.
And viola! I found that device filed under "Sonix" brand. I was over joyed! I immediately downloaded the driver, and downloaded an application to test the setup, gqcam, and it worked pretty well!

So the moral of the story: Never be deceived by the branding on a device made in China! All of them are mostly from a single source