Toby Breckon

Senior Lecturer, Computer Vision and Image Processing

Hardware

This page details hardware triumphs, not documented elsewhere, for the use of others.

Cameras

• Texas Instruments TI 1394 MC680-DCC - Works 'out of the box' with Windows XP with standard IEEE 1394 camera driver. However, in order to use the electronic focus control for this camera use an application such as AmCAP that allows control via the windows API (From AmCAP : Options Menu -> Video Filter -> Camera Control Tab). AmCAP is available (including source code) as part of the DirectShow 9 SDK from Mircosoft. An enhanced version is available for download here. This option is available from some (but not all) windows video capture applications.
  
  This camera also works under linux (tested with SuSE 10.1, kernel 2.6.16.13-4) with IEEE 1394 camera application coriander (version 1.0.1). The test was carried out using a PCI Lynx IEEE 1394 card and produces the following kernel messages when the camera is connected:

     ieee1394: Node added: ID:BUS[0-00:1023]  GUID[0800286000000073]
     ieee1394: Node changed: 0-00:1023 -> 0-01:1023
     ieee1394: raw1394: /dev/raw1394 device initialized
     video1394: Installed video1394 module

  Ensure coriander is configured as follows in these screenshots [1] [2] (other configurations of image size / frame rate are possible). The camera focus can be controlled from this [3] tab in coriander and performance is given in this tab [4] (here for 640x480 @ ~ 12fps). Sample 640x480 image from this camera [JPEG].
• Logitech Quickcam Express (II) (USB: idVendor=046d, idProduct=0928) : This camera can be made to work under linux (tested with SuSE 10.1) with the spca5xx driver. Driver output in kernel messages:

     /..../spca5xx.c: USB SPCA5XX camera found.Logitech QuickCam Express II(SPCA561A)
     /..../spca5xx.c: [spca5xx_probe:5480] Camera type S561 
     /..../spca5xx.c: [spca5xx_getcapability:1765] maxw 352 maxh 288 minw 160 minh 120
     usbcore: registered new driver spca5xx
     /..../spca5xx.c: spca5xx driver 00.60.00 registered

  To get this camera to work with some v4l API applications (e.g. OpenCV applications) first run the following command at the terminal:

      v4lctl -c /dev/video0 setinput SPCA561

  This camera works with OpenCV under Windows XP &Linux but in linux it appears you must explicitly set the image size, which is limited to a max of 352x288, using cvSetCaptureProperty() before calling cvGrabFrame().
• Infrared (IR) Conversion : Logitech Quickcam Express USB - This camera can successfully be converted to a infrared IR webcam using the instructions available from here. For this webcam two layers of developed slide film were used as a filter.
  Use the qce-qa driver to use the camera with linux (kernel 2.6).
  
  Examples:
  • Regular, normal Bank of England £ 5 note viewed in infra-red [ JPEG ]
  • IR remote control &veins through skin [ WMV ]
    
    
    
  • Seeing in the dark using an infrared torch [ AVI ]
    
    
    

    Captured under darkened conditions using a infra-red camera constructed using a cheap webcam and infra-red light source. The toy and hand are not visible to the naked eye during filming but both reflect the infrared well. False colour added to raw infrared image using matlab (see movie).

Windows Hardware

Microsoft Windows hardware triumphs not documented elsewhere.....

• Toshiba Advanced Ethernet 10/100 Mbps PC Card (PCMCIA) - driver for Windows XP "Toshiba Information Systems - Advanced Ethernet PC Card (10/100)". The built in driver for this card and Xircom (actual card manufacturer, now owned by Intel) drivers do not always seem to work. Instead, use generic windows drivers by selecting to choose driver yourself in windows dialogue and then choose manufacturer as 'Generic' (NOT Toshiba) and card/device as 'Ethernet 10/100 PC Card'. [Works under linux (kernel 2.4 onwards) out of the box].
• Hewlett Packard UM9800-W external USB 56K modem - works with windows 2000 using HP drivers from here. This is a rebranded Aztech modem:- spec. here and fully compatible windows 98/ME/2000/XP/linux drivers here. Also known to work under linux with the www.smlink.com driver.
• Hauppauge WinTV-Express TV Tuner PCI card - to use two of these cards simultaneously under windows use the open source driver from the btwincap project. As this is a WDM video capture driver it will also works perfectly with OpenCV (tested with version 1.0) for computer vision type work. This card has a Bt878 chipset.

Linux Hardware

A few hardware (+ software) triumphs not documented elsewhere....
(Terse and not for the faint hearted)

• Fuji FinePix A101 digital camera - use kernel 2.4.16 (with USB support activated) or later and have usbmgr installed and running. Plugging in camera in 'DSC' mode will cause usbmgr to load usb-storage kernel module and configure camera as /dev/sda (provided no other scsi devices, else sd?). Use 'mount /dev/sda1 /mnt' etc. to access pictures on camera.
• Magic Star USB MP3 Player - as per above.
• Samsung A300e mobile phone - can be used as IR modem using IrDA with 'irattach /dev/ttyS?' (? = available serial device). Also works partially with gsmlib 1.9. for sending sms. Use wvdial with modem port as /dev/ttyS? to use phone as a modem from linux.
• Samsung C100 mobile phone - as per above.
• Samsung E600 mobile phone - as per above.
• Ajeco PCI+ Grabber PC-104+ Video Capture Card - works with bttv driver (version 0.7.57 or later). Use bttv module parameters ppl=0, radio=0, card=7 for best results and 4 usable inputs.
• Arbor Em104P-PCM/2 PC-104+ PCMCIA adapter - known to work with external linux PCMCIA (kernel 2.4.16 / pcmcia-cs 3.1.28). Requires modules pcmcia_core, i82365 and ds to be loaded. Use options irq_mode=0 and p2cclk=1 as parameters for module i82365 (see i82365 manual page for details). This card uses the TI-1420 chipset.
• IBM Microdrive - experiencing delays at boot time (while DMA times out)? Solve this by disabling the use of DMA by default on IDE/ATA disks in the kernel config file prior to compilation.
• Binatone WL-1000 Wireless Network Card (802.11b) - works with kernel 2.4.21 using the acx100 driver (version 0.2.0pre6 or later) from acx100.sourceforge.net under SuSE 9.0.
• Acer 1310 (1300 series) Laptop ACPI (power management / battery meter etc.) - for Red Hat 9.0 follow excellent instructions here for a Compaq Presario 2500. May result in PCMCIA module loading issues but a quick hack at the /etc/init.d/pcmcia startup script can resolve this.
• Sony Ericsson k510i mobile phone - connected to SuSE linux 10.1 is recognised as follows as a USB modem:

  usb 1-2: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 3
  usb 1-2: new device found, idVendor=0fce, idProduct=d041
  usb 1-2: new device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
  usb 1-2: Product: Sony Ericsson K510
  usb 1-2: Manufacturer: Sony Ericsson
  usb 1-2: SerialNumber: ***************_*
  usb 1-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
  cdc_acm 1-2:1.1: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
  cdc_acm 1-2:1.3: ttyACM1: USB ACM device
  usbcore: registered new driver cdc_acm
  drivers/usb/class/cdc-acm.c: v0.25:USB Abstract Control Model driver for USB modems and ISDN adapters
      		

  Selecting file transfer on the mobile phone display (that appears) once connected to the PC drops the phone into usb mass storage mode:

  scsi1 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
  usb-storage: device found at 4
  usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
    Vendor: Sony Eri  Model: Memory Stick      Rev: 0000
    Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 00
  SCSI device sda: 55994 512-byte hdwr sectors (29 MB)
  sda: Write Protect is off
  sda: Mode Sense: 00 6a 00 00
  sda: assuming drive cache: write through
  SCSI device sda: 55994 512-byte hdwr sectors (29 MB)
  sda: Write Protect is off
  sda: Mode Sense: 00 6a 00 00
  sda: assuming drive cache: write through
   sda: sda1
  sd 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi removable disk sda
  sd 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
      		

  Mounting the resulting device reveals the following read-write filesystem:

  user@host[/media/disk] ls
  audio/  image/  other/  system/  theme/  video/  webpage/
  

  This phone appears very linux compatible.

Linux on a Packard Bell ipower 7561 Laptop

Packard Bell 7000 series / NEC Versa P440

SuSE 10.1

• Distribution used: SuSE 10.1 (kernel 2.6.16.13)
• Standard Installation : all hardware supported OK by following standard installation procedure.
  • Network Card, PCMCIA, USB, CDROM-RW/DVD : ALL OK
  • Modem / IR : untested (for 10.1, see 9.0 below)
  • Nivdia GeForce 2 GO Graphics card: works fine with standard with SuSE 10.1 software nv driver but some flickering is apparent on the X display.
    Alternatively use Nvidia hardware driver (version 1.0-7182, available from www.nvidia.com) but this requires line:

    options nvidia NVreg_DeviceFileUID=0 NVreg_DeviceFileGID=33 \\
    NVreg_DeviceFileMode=0660 NVreg_SoftEDIDs=0 NVreg_Mobile=2

    to be added file /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia (all on single line, remove "\\"). Also requires the following device section in the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

    Section "Device"
      BoardName    "GeForce2 Go"
      BusID        "1:0:0"
      Driver       "nvidia"
      Identifier   "Device[0]"
      VendorName   "NVidia"
      Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP"
      Option "DigitalVibrance" "128"
      Option "RenderAccel" "on"
    EndSection

    Using this hardware driver removes the flickering problem of the software driver. My current xorg.conf also includes the parameters for TwinView but this does not seem to work - any further wisdom on this would be gratefully received. Adding the TwinView lines to the xorg.conf file seems to stop video rendering from working (e.g. realplayer) on the main display (?) - comment these out to avoid this problem.
• ACPI monitoring / Intel SpeedStep : works directly with supplied SuSE 10.1 kernel.
• Suspend to RAM (s2ram): works directly from keyboard function key BUT laptop will not resume from suspend.
• For further details of linux setup see SuSE 9.0 below

SuSE 9.0

• Conclusion: this laptop is 98% linux compatible.

user@host[~] /sbin/lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: ALi Corporation M1671 Super P4 Northbridge [AGP4X,PCI and SDR/DDR] (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ALi Corporation PCI to AGP Controller
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: ALi Corporation M5451 PCI AC-Link Controller Audio Device (rev 02)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: ALi Corporation M1533 PCI to ISA Bridge [Aladdin IV]
00:08.0 Modem: ALi Corporation Intel 537 [M5457 AC-Link Modem]
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
00:0b.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 46)
00:0f.0 USB Controller: ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03)
00:10.0 IDE interface: ALi Corporation M5229 IDE (rev c4)
00:11.0 Bridge: ALi Corporation M7101 PMU
00:13.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6912 Cardbus Controller
00:14.0 USB Controller: ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV11 [GeForce2 Go] (rev b2)

• Distribution used: SuSE 9.0 (kernel 2.4.21)
• Notes:
  • Motherboard: supported OK.
  • Sound (ALi Corporation M5451 PCI AC-Link): supported with SuSE default ALSA 0.9.6-96
  • Network: (Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+): supported OK (10/100Mps)
  • Firewire: supported OK.
  • USB: supported OK.
  • CD-RW: supported OK (use driveropts=burnfree argument to cdrecord for burn-proof writing).
  • DVD: to prevent jerky DVD playback (and generally improve IDE drive performance) use:

    (hdparm -d /dev/hda | grep 1 > /dev/null) || hdparm -q -d 1 /dev/hda
    (hdparm -d /dev/hdc | grep 1 > /dev/null) || hdparm -q -d 1 /dev/hdc
    (hdparm -c /dev/hda | grep 1 > /dev/null) || hdparm -q -c 1 /dev/hda
    (hdparm -c /dev/hda | grep 1 > /dev/null) || hdparm -q -c 1 /dev/hdc

    to ensure DMA and 32-bit I/O support for both DVD and hard drive are activated. In SuSE add these lines to /etc/init.d/boot.local for automatic activation at boot time (for Red Hat use /etc/rc.d/rc.local). N.B. /dev/hdc is DVD drive IDE device.
  • IrDA (infrared): supported OK to get SIR mode (default SuSE irda tools).

    Also thought to be compatible with the ali-ircc ALi FIR Controller Driver for FIR use. Use:

    setserial /dev/ttyS1 uart none
    /usr/sbin/irattach ali-ircc -s

    - to deactivate any SIR uart associated with the IrDA device and then load the ALi FIR driver. The driver loads OK:

    user@host[~] dmesg | tail
    IrCOMM protocol (Dag Brattli)
    ali-ircc, driver loaded (Benjamin Kong)
    IrDA: Registered device irda0
    ali_ircc_open(), ali-ircc, Found dongle: TFDS6000

    - and /proc/sys/net/irda/ gives details BUT this experimental driver seems to produce an intermittent IrDA service to any attached device. Use standard SIR for a working infrared device.
  • PCMCIA: supported OK (SuSE default kernel pcmcia).
  • Keyboard hotkeys : Mitsubishi 38867M8 controller with Phoenix MultiKey/M3886L firmware (Versa Note) - not supported (?)
  • Touchpad: basic operation with default ps/2 config in X. Advanced features available via synaptics touch pad X driver available from here (this driver is included by default in SuSE 9.0). Device can also be basically configured using tpconfig
  • ACPI (power management): CPU temp., battery level, AC power detection all supported OK. Intel SpeedStep for CPU not yet fully supported. Suspend/Hibernate also not supported. However, both of these are generally possible under linux. BIOS power management can be used for most other things.
  • Graphics: open source driver (no hardware acceleration)

    X -version
    ....
    XFree86 Version 4.3.0.1
    Release Date: 9 May 2003
    X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 6.6
    Build Operating System: SuSE Linux [ELF] SuSE
    Build Date: 12 February 2004

    - supported OK.
    Hardware acceleration: use NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-449 non-GPL driver from www.nvidia.com - supported OK.
  • Modem (Modem: ALi Corporation Intel 537 [M5457 AC-Link Modem]): using driver package smartlink-softmodem version 2.7.9-109 supplied as default with SuSE 9.0. Works despite kernel message:

    May  2 13:07:21 HOSTNAME kernel: Smart Link AMRMO modem.
    May  2 13:07:21 HOSTNAME kernel: This driver is not compatible with the installed modem codec.
    May  2 13:07:21 HOSTNAME kernel: Please contact your modem provider for support.

    Later versions of this driver are known to contain a race condition when dialling this modem. These non-GPL drivers are produced by / available from www.smlink.com
• Everything apart from graphics acceleration and modem configured using YaST.
• Known Problems:
  • System time tends to be erratic. Solution: sync from network/internet using NTP (xntpd).
  • Console screen flickers after x-server shutdown.
• Please email me with any advances / updates / corrections you made with linux support for this laptop.

Linux on a Philips X57 (Streamium) Laptop (a.k.a. Freevents Model - ???)

SuSE 10.2 (32-bit version)

Before you start: You may want to consider using the recovery DVD utility supplied with the laptop to create a recovery disk for the MS Windows Vista supplied as standard. This software is not actually on the disks supplied with the laptop. See p. 17 of the "Troubleshooting and recovery manual" or double click on the "The Tech Guys" icon supplied on the standard vista desktop.

This is a 64-bit laptop. Advice at the moment for SuSE 10.2 is to use the 32-bit version in general.

The following hardware functionality is based on the standard lead-through installation procedure of the SuSE 10.2 installer (YaST) with additional required configuration noted where required:

• The hardware configuration for this laptop is as follows:

  user@host[~] /sbin/lspci 
  00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
  00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and 945GT Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 03)
  00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
  00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
  00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
  00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
  00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 02)
  00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 02)
  00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 02)
  00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 02)
  00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
  00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
  00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
  00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller IDE (rev 02)
  00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
  01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce Go 7400 (rev a1)
  02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)
  04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8055 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 10)
  05:01.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
  05:01.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
  05:01.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)
  05:01.3 Generic system peripheral [Class 0805]: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller
  

• CPU: ( Intel Core 2 CPU T5500 @ 1.66GHz stepping 06) - works OK
• Hard Drive: (SATA 100Gb HD) - works OK
• DVD-/+RW / CD-RW Drive: (Optiarc DVD RW AD-7530A) - works OK
• Sound Card: (Intel 82801G) - works OK
• Ethernet Network Card: (Marvell Technology 88E8055 PCI-E Gigabit) - works OK
• Wireless Network Card: (Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945) - works OK
  Uses standard SuSE linux Intel 3945 driver. To get it to work you must first download firmware and place it in /lib/firmware and install the controller daemon. Finally ensure the wireless kill switch (5th button from power switch) is set to "ON".
• Graphics Card: (nVidia GeForce Go 7400 ) - works OK
  Follow openSuSE instructions to get closed-source Nvidia 3D hardware driver to work with it. Works fine with open-source Xorg software based 3D also. Twin-view tested and works - setup with YaST (via SaX2) on SuSE, need to restart X-server once external monitor/projector source is connected.
• Bluetooth: ( ) - untested
• Built in card reader: (Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD) ) - untested
• keyboard hotkeys: these returns X events when tested using xev so should be mapable using xbindkeys or similar.
• USB: (USB 2 - multiple controllers present) - works OK.
• IEEE1394 (Firewire) - works OK

Suspend: laptop suspends and resumes without any issues (or additional configuration) by pressing the power button once.

Further details are work in progress. Conclusion thus far - this laptop is very linux compatible.

Known issues:

• The SuSE 10.2 installer seems to have problems setting the partition type of partitions if you change or create them. Not clear if this is a SuSE 10.2 issue in general (although has been noted elsewhere) or specific to this type of drive. Solution: pre-partition with gparted.
• This machine seems to have a ~5Gb hidden partition at the start of the disk in the default factory install. Not mounted by windows by default, not sure what it may contain.

[Home] © 2013

Validate: HTML | CSS | Links | Words
Modified: 02/04/12 @ 11:02:57 PM