[Cialug] Webcam

[Andrew Vick]

Hello, I'm having problems getting my webcam working under Linux.  The problem is not getting Linux to recognize it; the drivers are loading correctly.  The problem is getting any applications to read images from it: i've been getting "device not found" errors when I try to read() or cat /dev/video0.

The camera is a Logitech Communicate MP camera.
My version of linux is 2.6.30.5-43.fc11.i586

I know that the camera is being recognized because dmesg says:
usb 1-2: USB disconnect, address 3
usb 1-2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=046d, idProduct=09a1
usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=2
usb 1-2: SerialNumber: 2B7A0940
usb 1-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device <unnamed> (046d:09a1)
input: UVC Camera (046d:09a1) as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-2/1-2:1.0/input/input7

And lsusb says:
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 046d:09a1 Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Communicate MP/S5500

The odd thing is that at least one application can read it: camE (http://linuxbrit.co.uk/camE/).  The 1.9.14 version in the yum repository can read it, while the source code from the website cannot (and the website's CVS link is 404).  The source RPM has the same code as what is on the website; this leads me to suspect that I have a different version of the driver installed than what the RPM was built with (perhaps some constants changed values in the header files).  The compiled version fails trying to set the webcam's color palette.  I have tried compiling the v4l drivers, but that fails for a missing "linux/config.h" file.

My goal is to write a program that reads images from the webcam; that's why I'm trying to read() the file.  Does anyone has experience with this, or has successfully used any programs with their webcam (whose source I could study)?

Thanks for your help!  Andrew V.