USB webcam can't take a picture

Question

I would like to ask a question about USB webcam taking picture, and I have surveyed similar topic, but still not found answer.

I am using an RPi 2 B with rasbian Jessie, I have taken a picture with the Pi cam successfully but when I try to use my logitech C170 USB webcam to do the same thing I run into some problems.

I know the webcam can be detected by system from the results of lsusb: (007 is the webcam)

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 046d:082b Logitech, Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 7392:7811 Edimax Technology Co., Ltd EW-7811Un         802.11n Wireless Adapter [Realtek RTL8188CUS]
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 04f2:0402 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd Genius    LuxeMate i200 Keyboard
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 046d:c077 Logitech, Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp. SMSC9512/9514     Fast Ethernet Adapter
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9514 Standard Microsystems Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

then I tried to shot a picture:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ fswebcam 1.jpg
--- Opening /dev/video0...
stat: No such file or directory

and I have also tried:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ fswebcam 1.jpg -d /dev/bus/usb/001/007
--- Opening /dev/bus/usb/001/007...
Trying source module v4l2...
/dev/bus/usb/001/007 opened.
/dev/bus/usb/001/007: Not a V4L2 device?
Trying source module v4l1...
/dev/bus/usb/001/007 opened.
/dev/bus/usb/001/007: Not a V4L device?
VIDIOCGCAP: Inappropriate ioctl for device
/dev/bus/usb/001/007 closed.
Unable to find a source module that can read /dev/bus/usb/001/007.

Does Unable to find a source module that can read /dev/bus/usb/001/00 mean my C170 not supported by Rasbian Jessie or is there a different problem?

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ls /dev/v*
/dev/vc-cma  /dev/vcs   /dev/vcs4  /dev/vcsa   /dev/vcsa4  /dev/vcsm
/dev/vchiq   /dev/vcs1  /dev/vcs5  /dev/vcsa1  /dev/vcsa5  /dev/vhci
/dev/vcio    /dev/vcs2  /dev/vcs6  /dev/vcsa2  /dev/vcsa6
/dev/vc-mem  /dev/vcs3  /dev/vcs7  /dev/vcsa3  /dev/vcsa7
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ fswebcam -d /dev/vc-cma 1.jpg
--- Opening /dev/vc-cma...
Trying source module v4l2...
Error opening device: /dev/vc-cma
open: Permission denied
Trying source module v4l1...
Error opening device: /dev/vc-cma
open: Permission denied
Unable to find a source module that can read /dev/vc-cma.
pi@raspberrypi:~ $

still the same problem, should I install driver manually or something else?

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 13 '17 at 23:53

I know this post is old, but I was looking for information about /dev/vc-cma and I've found this post. Only to document it if someone find this page with the same problem.

I see you are running the command as user "pi". Into my system (raspbian jessie) I can see:

crw------- 1 root root  250,   0 Jul 13 23:02 /dev/vc-cma

So that, make sense the error message you get about "Permission denied". Perhaps running the following can give a clue about the problem:

$ sudo chmod 0660 /dev/vc-cma
$ sudo chown root:video /dev/vc-cma

If the previous does not fix the problem, maybe more information can be collected with the command below:

$ strace fswebcam -d /dev/vc-cma 1.jpg

USB webcam can't take a picture

1 Answers1