After trying to get a labtec webcam to work for sometime I decided to buy a cheapish webcam in my local French supermarket for €17, call that £17 ish.

Go to : Tnb - audio-video and multimedia accessories - recordable supports, CD and DVD storage ...

The webCam is a USB2.0 "TnB Eye-D".

The resolution is 640 x 480 and it focuses between 3cm and infinity. It runs at 30 frames per second in 350 x 280pixels OR 15 frames per second in 640 x 480. It is rated as a 350k pixels camera - none of your megapixels. I have just been to the website and looked at the spec. Unfortunately, there is no mention of the chipset.

I had never heard of this make before.Although, there was a full range of these TnB cameras on sale; starting from €13
It comes with an integrated microphone though you do need another lead, not supplied, to connect it to your audio port.

I started up Mandriva (2008.0 in my case) with the camera already plugged in. Next I launched Kopete and went to set the video options. To my utter amazement this camera was, and continues to be , working. Kopete is fine, Skype is fine.

Mandriva Control Centre gives the following information on the webcam.
Identification
Vendor: ‎Vimicro Corp.

Description: ‎Vega USB 2.0 Camera.

Media class: ‎Video|Video Control

Connection
Bus: ‎USB

Bus PCI #: ‎3

PCI device #: ‎5

Vendor ID: ‎0x0ac8

Device ID: ‎0x332d

Sub vendor ID: ‎0x0000

Sub device ID: ‎0x0000

Misc
Module: ‎uvcvideo



All the best,

Tony Littlejohn, in deepest France.