PHILIPS SPC900NC WEBCAM under Ubuntu

This Philips webcam is nice - not only because there is a good Linux driver for it but also because it has a CCD-Chip instead of the crappy CMOS.

You should make sure that you have the same gcc installed, that was used to compile your kernel and you are almost done...

Provided that you do have the right gcc installed you now should visit www.saillard.org.
There you can find the Linux-drivers for Philips webcams. Download the latest version and extract them into a directory of your choice.
You could do that with

bash:~$ tar xjf pwc-10.0.9-rc1.tar.bz2

Ubuntu does provide an older Version of the driver but the SPC900NC is not supported.
So the first thing to do is to remove the kernel module provided by Ubuntu. You can do that with the following command

bash:~$ sudo rm -r /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/usb/media/pwc

To compile the new driver change into the source directory that you have created and type

bash:~/mysrcdir$ make

After that you install the driver by typing

bash:~/mysrcdir$ make install

Now you can load the new kernel module with

bash:~$ sudo modprobe pwc

Congratulations, you're done and can use your webcam. "Camorama" is a nice little program that will show you, that your camera is correctly installed. You should also download the setpwc program from www.vanheusden.com.
You can set all different camera parameters (e.g. framerate, white balance...) with that little program.

Once the camera is connected, it should be detected as a V4L or V4L2 device.
Have a lot of fun with your webcam...

Author: Frederic Siepmann, published: 2007-03-03 16:06:59