How to install the IBM Ultracam II driver

1. First you have to get the kernel patch for the ultracam.

The patch is for Kernel 2.4.20, so if you are using any other 2.4 series kernel you might have to adjust the patch to work.

On 2.6 the structure of the usb source tree changed a lot, a patch is available for 2.6.10 at: http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-usb-devel&m=111802180804300&w=4

The driver provided by the latest kernels does not work. For kernels >=2.6.22.x use the driver available at http://home.mnet-online.de/foerster/ultracam instead (i.e. copy it to drivers/media/video/usbvideo/ultracam.c).

2. Change to the drivers directory in the kernel source tree: # cd /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/drivers

3. Apply the patch: # patch -p0 -i <path to saved patch-file>

If the patch was successful, you should see the following:

patching file usb/Config.in
patching file usb/Makefile
patching file usb/ultracam.c
patching file usb/usbvideo.c

4. Go up one level to the kernel source root: # cd ..

5. Configure the kernel: # make menuconfig

6. Activate the following Options as modules (set to <M>):

Device Drivers → Multimedia devices → <M>Video For Linux

Device Drivers → USB support → <M>Support for USB

Device Drivers → USB support → [*]Preliminary USB device filesystem

Device Drivers → USB support → <M>UHCI Alternate Driver (JE) support

Device Drivers → USB support → <M>USB IBM Ultraport II Camera support

In case some of them should already be activated (<*> oder <M>), just let them as they are.

Exit the configuration and save your settings.

7. Recompile the kernel modules: # make dep && make modules modules_install && depmod -ae.

NOTE!

If you are using non standard kernel modules they have to be recompiled afterwards as well.

8. Now you can do a # modprobe ultracam and launch "xawtv".

If everything works, you should see yourself now. The driver is quite unstable and you might have to unload and reload the ultracam module every now and then.