GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 597973
Cheese's viewfinder loads first image, but none after
Last modified: 2010-06-01 11:36:25 UTC
Created attachment 145196 [details] stderr log Fedora 11, Cheese version 2.26.3 Cheese's view finder doesn't display a steady stream of visuals, but rather displays the first image from the webcam and stops updating it. I can still take photos and video, and captured in them is the correct scene in front of the webcam, but the viewfinder's image remains un-updated. Cheese used to work fine for me. My webcam works fine in xawtv and gstreamer-properties, with a steady stream of imagery. I'm attaching the output of cheese when run with the following command in two files, one from stdout and one from stderr. $ cheese -v --gst-debug-level=3 cheese.err is annotated like this: "**** THIS IS WHERE SOMETHING HAPPENED ****" so searching for "****" might prove helpful. I point out when the static image first appears in the view finder (which never then updates). Also, I noticed the following gstreamer pipeline in the standard output, and when I try it with gst-launch, I get this output. Not sure if that helps at all -------------------------------------------------- [richard@yojimbo ~]$ gst-launch v4l2src name=video_source device=/dev/video0 ! capsfilter name=capsfilter caps=video/x-raw-rgb,width=320,height=240,framerate=30/1\;video/x-raw-yuv,width=320,height=240,framerate=30/1 ! identity Setting pipeline to PAUSED ... Pipeline is live and does not need PREROLL ... Setting pipeline to PLAYING ... New clock: GstSystemClock libv4lconvert: Error decompressing JPEG: unknown huffman code: 0000ffff ERROR: from element /GstPipeline:pipeline0/GstV4l2Src:video_source: Internal data flow error. Additional debug info: gstbasesrc.c(2378): gst_base_src_loop (): /GstPipeline:pipeline0/GstV4l2Src:video_source: streaming task paused, reason not-linked (-1) Execution ended after 198363316 ns. Setting pipeline to PAUSED ... Setting pipeline to READY ... Setting pipeline to NULL ... Freeing pipeline ... -------------------------------------------------- Finally, I'll reiterate that the camera works fine with xawtv and gstreamer-properties, and it *used* to work fine in cheese up until a couple of months ago. (I should have pinpointed which packages changed on my system at the time, but I don't use cheese that often.) I see a live, steady feed of imagery from both, corresponding to what's in front of the camera. It seems to be more an issue with Cheese's viewfinder.
Created attachment 145197 [details] stdout log
Created attachment 145198 [details] HP Pavilion tx 2000 stdout It happens to my other laptop too using Fedora 12 Alpha, cheese 2.27.5 This one uses its built-in webcam, which actually still works fine in Fedora 11 with cheese 2.26.3. (The other laptop, an IBM Thinkpad X41t uses a usb logitech one)
Created attachment 145199 [details] HP Pavilion tx 2000 stderr stderr, but NOT annotated. If annotations in this stderr like the ones in the Thinkpad's stderr would be helpful, I'll re-upload it with them.
Tested on Fedora's live nightly snapshot (so, Rawhide as of 20091009 or there abouts) which has Cheese 2.28.1 (I think) and it works again. It would sort of be nice to have it working F11, since it'll be a little over a month before F12, but I could wait in theory if there are better bugs to tackle :)
I'd say it's something related to that libv4lconvert error but that doesn't explain why it happens in the second laptop... Are you sure that it's exactly the same issue you're seeing in the two laptops? Does cheese 2.28 fix it in both?
I'm not sure if it's the same error. The second laptop (HP pavillion tx 2000, ATI graphics) only had the issue with the Fedora 12 Alpha Live CD. It doesn't with Fedora 11 or the Fedora snapshot for 20091009 (cheese 2.28.1). Both the logitech camera and its built-in camera work when they work. The problematic laptop (IBM Thinkpad X41t), at least with the Logitech Quickcam Connect USB webcam peripheral, doesn't even load the initial image on the Fedora snapshot for 20091009 (as it does with Fedora 11). (I tried the webcam with the other laptop and reported it working, having assumed that the problem would either apply or not to the webcam, independent of the laptop. Bad assumption apparently.) If it involves v4l, does this probably have more to do with my distro's setup than Cheese? I'll note that the stream appears properly in gstreamer-property's video input test for the webcam. Sorry that I'm not more useful. I do some programming, but I'm unfamiliar with gstreamer and multimedia :| However, I can obtain more information and test various things (e.g. Cheese from git) if that would help.
I'll note that with Fedora 12 Beta Live CD, on the IBM Thinkpad X41t, Cheese now displays a black screen. Unlike previously, where gstreamer-properties would display video, it now displays nothingness, as well. Ugh. It feels like my experience gets worse and worse with each upgrade. :(
Oh, for the record, it still successfully takes photos and video (though it freezes forever after I hit Stop Recording :|, and I have to kill it and reopen it to see my video in place, which, while successfully thumbnailed, plays black in Totem?!)
Er, actually, the issue with it just being black might have had something to do with the Default Output gstreamer was using. It was set to "Autodetect". Options were "Auto Detect" (pipeline: autovideosink) "X Window System (No Xv)" (pipeline: ximagesink) "X Window System (X11/XShm/Xv)" (pipeline: xvimagesink device="0") "Custom" When I set it to "X Window System (No Xv)" (but not when set to anything else), Totem manages to play the video back, Cheese is back to showing the first image and not updating the view finder.
So, F12 Beta on the HP Pavillion with ATI graphics works fine. F12 Beta on the IBM Thinkpad X41t with Intel graphics has a few issues. Since both use the same version of Cheese and everything, I think the main difference will be the graphics card driver, and suggest that the issue lies in that + gstreamer and not Cheese. Does that seem reasonable?
Good news! This issue actually has more to do with my computer setup than Cheese or GStreamer. I have an IBM Thinkpad X41t which has an Intel 915GM and a 1024x768 display. Recently, I took to using a second monitor! A 19" Philips with a display of up to 1600x1200. When they together reach a dimension of 2048x768 or greater, all sorts of things start breaking! For instance, GStreamer has to resort to the "X Window System (No xv)" output module instead of SDL or "X Window System (X11/XShm/Xv)", breaking things like Cheese's viewfinder, Rhythmbox's visualisation, and Compiz. I'm guessing there's issues with the available memory.
Eh. I'm closing as OBSOLETE then, I guess.