192 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
192 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
This is a driver for the CPiA PPC2 driven parallel connected
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Camera. For example the Creative WebcamII is CPiA driven.
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) [1]Peter Pregler, Linz 2000, published under the [2]GNU GPL
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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USAGE:
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General:
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========
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1) Make sure you have created the video devices (/dev/video*):
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- if you have a recent MAKEDEV do a 'cd /dev;./MAKEDEV video'
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- otherwise do a:
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cd /dev
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mknod video0 c 81 0
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ln -s video0 video
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2) Compile the kernel (see below for the list of options to use),
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configure your parport and reboot.
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3) If all worked well you should get messages similar
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to the following (your versions may be different) on the console:
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V4L-Driver for Vision CPiA based cameras v0.7.4
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parport0: read2 timeout.
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parport0: Multimedia device, VLSI Vision Ltd PPC2
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Parallel port driver for Vision CPiA based camera
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CPIA Version: 1.20 (2.0)
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CPIA PnP-ID: 0553:0002:0100
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VP-Version: 1.0 0100
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1 camera(s) found
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As modules:
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===========
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Make sure you have selected the following kernel options (you can
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select all stuff as modules):
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The cpia-stuff is in the section 'Character devices -> Video For Linux'.
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CONFIG_PARPORT=m
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CONFIG_PARPORT_PC=m
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CONFIG_PARPORT_PC_FIFO=y
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CONFIG_PARPORT_1284=y
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CONFIG_VIDEO_DEV=m
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CONFIG_VIDEO_CPIA=m
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CONFIG_VIDEO_CPIA_PP=m
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For autoloading of all those modules you need to tell module-init-tools
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some stuff. Add the following line to your module-init-tools config-file
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(e.g. /etc/modprobe.conf or wherever your distribution does store that
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stuff):
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options parport_pc io=0x378 irq=7 dma=3
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alias char-major-81 cpia_pp
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The first line tells the dma/irq channels to use. Those _must_ match
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the settings of your BIOS. Do NOT simply use the values above. See
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Documentation/parport.txt for more information about this. The second
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line associates the video-device file with the driver. Of cause you
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can also load the modules once upon boot (usually done in /etc/modules).
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Linked into the kernel:
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=======================
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Make sure you have selected the following kernel options. Note that
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you cannot compile the parport-stuff as modules and the cpia-driver
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statically (the other way round is okay though).
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The cpia-stuff is in the section 'Character devices -> Video For Linux'.
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CONFIG_PARPORT=y
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CONFIG_PARPORT_PC=y
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CONFIG_PARPORT_PC_FIFO=y
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CONFIG_PARPORT_1284=y
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CONFIG_VIDEO_DEV=y
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CONFIG_VIDEO_CPIA=y
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CONFIG_VIDEO_CPIA_PP=y
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To use DMA/irq you will need to tell the kernel upon boot time the
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hardware configuration of the parport. You can give the boot-parameter
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at the LILO-prompt or specify it in lilo.conf. I use the following
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append-line in lilo.conf:
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append="parport=0x378,7,3"
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See Documentation/parport.txt for more information about the
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configuration of the parport and the values given above. Do not simply
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use the values given above.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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FEATURES:
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- mmap/read v4l-interface (but no overlay)
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- image formats: CIF/QCIF, SIF/QSIF, various others used by isabel;
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note: all sizes except CIF/QCIF are implemented by clipping, i.e.
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pixels are not uploaded from the camera
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- palettes: VIDEO_PALETTE_GRAY, VIDEO_PALETTE_RGB565, VIDEO_PALETTE_RGB555,
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VIDEO_PALETTE_RGB24, VIDEO_PALETTE_RGB32, VIDEO_PALETTE_YUYV,
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VIDEO_PALETTE_UYVY, VIDEO_PALETTE_YUV422
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- state information (color balance, exposure, ...) is preserved between
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device opens
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- complete control over camera via proc-interface (_all_ camera settings are
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supported), there is also a python-gtk application available for this [3]
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- works under SMP (but the driver is completely serialized and synchronous)
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so you get no benefit from SMP, but at least it does not crash your box
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- might work for non-Intel architecture, let us know about this
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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TESTED APPLICATIONS:
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- a simple test application based on Xt is available at [3]
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- another test-application based on gqcam-0.4 (uses GTK)
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- gqcam-0.6 should work
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- xawtv-3.x (also the webcam software)
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- xawtv-2.46
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- w3cam (cgi-interface and vidcat, e.g. you may try out 'vidcat |xv
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-maxpect -root -quit +noresetroot -rmode 5 -')
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- vic, the MBONE video conferencing tool (version 2.8ucl4-1)
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- isabel 3R4beta (barely working, but AFAICT all the problems are on
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their side)
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- camserv-0.40
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See [3] for pointers to v4l-applications.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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KNOWN PROBLEMS:
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- some applications do not handle the image format correctly, you will
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see strange horizontal stripes instead of a nice picture -> make sure
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your application does use a supported image size or queries the driver
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for the actually used size (reason behind this: the camera cannot
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provide any image format, so if size NxM is requested the driver will
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use a format to the closest fitting N1xM1, the application should now
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query for this granted size, most applications do not).
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- all the todo ;)
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- if there is not enough light and the picture is too dark try to
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adjust the SetSensorFPS setting, automatic frame rate adjustment
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has its price
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- do not try out isabel 3R4beta (built 135), you will be disappointed
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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TODO:
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- multiple camera support (struct camera or something) - This should work,
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but hasn't been tested yet.
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- architecture independence?
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- SMP-safe asynchronous mmap interface
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- nibble mode for old parport interfaces
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- streaming capture, this should give a performance gain
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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IMPLEMENTATION NOTES:
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The camera can act in two modes, streaming or grabbing. Right now a
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polling grab-scheme is used. Maybe interrupt driven streaming will be
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used for a asynchronous mmap interface in the next major release of the
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driver. This might give a better frame rate.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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THANKS (in no particular order):
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- Scott J. Bertin <sbertin@mindspring.com> for cleanups, the proc-filesystem
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and much more
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- Henry Bruce <whb@vvl.co.uk> for providing developers information about
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the CPiA chip, I wish all companies would treat Linux as seriously
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- Karoly Erdei <Karoly.Erdei@risc.uni-linz.ac.at> and RISC-Linz for being
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my boss ;) resp. my employer and for providing me the hardware and
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allow me to devote some working time to this project
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- Manuel J. Petit de Gabriel <mpetit@dit.upm.es> for providing help
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with Isabel (http://isabel.dit.upm.es/)
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- Bas Huisman <bhuism@cs.utwente.nl> for writing the initial parport code
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- Jarl Totland <Jarl.Totland@bdc.no> for setting up the mailing list
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and maintaining the web-server[3]
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- Chris Whiteford <Chris@informinteractive.com> for fixes related to the
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1.02 firmware
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- special kudos to all the tester whose machines crashed and/or
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will crash. :)
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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REFERENCES
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1. http://www.risc.uni-linz.ac.at/people/ppregler
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mailto:Peter_Pregler@email.com
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2. see the file COPYING in the top directory of the kernel tree
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3. http://webcam.sourceforge.net/
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