New to Linux. Need help

[JWest8414]

I have read through many threads. I am brand new to linux. Windows did everything for me, but I hate MS products. So... I have this webcam installed, (built in) that worked with Windows 7. That is gone. Windows 7 I mean.
uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device. Video WebCam (064e:a103) comes back from dmesg|less. It is mostly greek to me. I am reading through this HOWTO document, but I don't understand what it is talking about. I just want this WebCam to work. Am working diligently on learning Linux, as I have no choice. I killed MS completely. Don't want it.
What information is needed to make this work, or to guide me? I will do anything to get this working. No point in having it if not working, and I KNOW that linux is much better than MS. I love it already, and only been working with it for 1 week.
Can anyone help me to understand? I am using Version 10.04 of linux, Ubuntu. I try to keep it updated daily, so it is pretty up-to-date. I sure wish I knew what I was doing.

Thanks for any and all assistance. I will get better I think. I'm 68 years old, and I want to learn this system. Joe

[sgosnell]

What do you want it to do? What have you tried? What programs have you used to get video from it? Hardware doesn't do much on its own, it requires software to control it. If we knew more about what you want, we could offer better advice.

[MikeTbob]

Hello and Welcome.
Just take yout time and try to absorb the information you are reading. You will get better no doubt, it just takes time and patience.
Webcams usually just work and I'm a bit surprised that yours isn't working. Open a terminal window and issue these commands, past your results back here please.

sudo lspci -knn

sudo dmesg |grep -i Cam

[JWest8414]

I want it to behave as a WebCam, so I can use it with Pidgin IM, and take pictures and video. Exactly was it used to do with Windows 7. But now it does not even come up in the list of available devices, except that it shows up when I do a 'dmesg | less' command.

[JWest8414]

00:1a.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 [8086:293c] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller [8086:293e] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
	Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 [8086:2940] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2 [8086:2942] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1c.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 3 [8086:2944] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:2934] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:2935] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:2936] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.3 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 [8086:2939] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 [8086:293a] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev 93)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation ICH9M LPC Interface Controller [8086:2919] (rev 03)
	Kernel modules: iTCO_wdt
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation ICH9M/M-E SATA AHCI Controller [8086:2929] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: ahci
	Kernel modules: ahci
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller [8086:2930] (rev 03)
	Kernel modules: i2c-i801
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5784M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe [14e4:1698] (rev 10)
	Kernel driver in use: tg3
	Kernel modules: tg3
04:00.0 Network controller [0280]: RaLink RT2860 [1814:0781]
	Kernel driver in use: rt2860
	Kernel modules: rt2860sta

THIS WAS FROM THE FIRST COMMAND. THE SECOND WAS:

[ 0.000000] AMD AuthenticAMD
[ 123.386417] uvcvideo:Found UVC 1.00 device video WebCam (064e:a103)
[ 13.405487] input: Video WebCam as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:ld7 usb2/2-5/2-5:1.0/input/input8

I hope this helps. I have no clue. Thanks. Joe

[MikeTbob]

Try this link, hopefully it'll get you somewhere.
Linux UVC driver & tools

[sgosnell]

I've never tried video with Pidgin, but you will almost certainly need to edit the preferences to enable the camera. Cheese is the standard package for taking pictures and making videos. I don't know if it's installed by default in Ubuntu 10.04, but it should be available in the repositories. Empathy is another IM client that uses video, along with Google Talk, but I've never been successful using video on Google Talk.

You may also need to enable the camera in the BIOS. If it's disabled there, it won't work with anything.

[elija]

I'm wondering if it needs proprietary drivers. If so, they might be found under System -> Administration -> Hardware drivers. Admittedly, it's a long shot but if your webcam shows up in there, simply enable the driver and it will be downloaded and installed for you.

[JWest8414]

Thanks sgosnel. I was able to install the cheese program, and the video cam is not working. I'm not sure how to use it yet, but going to play around with Empathy and see if it is better than Pidgin. Pidgin is working fine so far, but will only allow me to text. Not much else is available as far as I can see. Thanks much. It is doing more than it did before. Good Buy MS forever. What a swell bunch of people we have in Linux. Don't you agree?
Joe

[JWest8414]

Seems that cheese fixed the problem, but when I try to install Empathy, or initialize it, it asks for a keyring or something like that. I have no idea what that is, and anything I type in is rejected. Who sets that up, and what could it possibly be? I'm lost here. Joe