Mutant World

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Creative Webcam Live! on Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex

I received the Creative Webcam Live! as a gift quite some time ago, but never had the time to use it or install it properly.
My good ol' Thinkpad T43p was maybe bleeding edge in 2005, but not as far as having already an incorporated webcam :)

Under Ubuntu Intrepid, this webcam does not work out of the box, at least for me, and I have a fresh (re)install of Intrepid.
This camera appears using lsusb as:

Bus 003 Device 008: ID 041e:4036 Creative Technology, Ltd Webcam Live!/Live! Pro


The solution is quite easy though: you need to set this variable before launching the program that uses the webcam:

export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so


I tested this with camorama and skype, and in both cases it works just fine.
For skype, I created a wrapper script that first set the variable as above and then invokes /usr/bin/skype and modified the menu entry to point to my wrapper script.

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posted by Simon at 00:28

9 Comments:

  • I have a Dilnk webcam I did not had any success in making it work by any workaround or other trick. The last thing to do was boot with older kernel that like Hardy did not gave me problems with webcam.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 20 February, 2009 13:49  

  • Thanks, Simone! Your post was most helpful setting up my Creative Webcam Notebook on my girl's Ubuntu.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 21 February, 2009 18:51  

  • With Ubuntu 8.10 64bit I just get:

    "ERROR: ld.so: object '/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored."

    ...when Skype is ran. I checked the path to the lib, it does in fact exist.

    By Blogger Adrian Parker, at 15 March, 2009 20:49  

  • Hi Simone, I am a newbie to Linux. How do you invoke '/usr/bin/skype' to 'LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so'
    How would I express it in the terminal.
    I am also looking to get my Creative WebCam Model No: PD1170 to work with Skype on Ubuntu 8.10
    Thanks a bunch

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 27 March, 2009 10:20  

  • Hello!
    I am having the same problem.
    Any chance of a step by step walk through?

    By Blogger Kevin, at 28 April, 2009 10:21  

  • Superb. This worked perfectly in 9.04

    Thanks

    By Blogger lachu, at 23 May, 2009 03:06  

  • doesn't work with ubuntu 9.10
    ➜ ~ lsusb
    Bus 003 Device 002: ID 041e:4036 Creative Technology, Ltd Webcam Live!/Live! Pro
    ➜ ~ env
    ---
    LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so
    ---
    cam not detected on skype and neither on camorama :(

    By Blogger suchezi, at 25 February, 2010 21:04  

  • I am having the same problem as this last blog below-Any sugesstions please

    Hi Simone, I am a newbie to Linux. How do you invoke '/usr/bin/skype' to 'LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so'
    How would I express it in the terminal.
    I am also looking to get my Creative WebCam Model No: PD1170 to work with Skype on Ubuntu 8.10

    By Blogger Fiddlere, at 07 June, 2010 14:04  

  • #!/bin/bash
    export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib32/libv4l\
    /v4l1compat.so
    /usr/bin/skype

    # save in a file and set the execute bit
    # then point the Skype menu entry at it
    # Note I specify the lib32 version because
    # I'm running 64 bit Ubuntu

    By Blogger grumpus27, at 26 December, 2011 16:14  

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