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Bug 607064 - Show a visual cue when a webcam (v4l device) gets enabled / disabled
Show a visual cue when a webcam (v4l device) gets enabled / disabled
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 627098
Product: gnome-settings-daemon
Classification: Core
Component: plugins
2.28.x
Other Linux
: Normal enhancement
: ---
Assigned To: gnome-settings-daemon-maint
gnome-settings-daemon-maint
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2010-01-15 10:58 UTC by Hans de Goede
Modified: 2010-10-13 18:14 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: ---


Description Hans de Goede 2010-01-15 10:58:44 UTC 
Hi,

This bug is filed as (one of) the result(s) of this thread:
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/devel/2010-January/129092.html

The "problem" is that on some laptops the webcam can be disabled
(to save energy) using a Fn + F## key combi (for example on a MSI Wind 100),
but there is no way to find out whats it state
is (no status LED), other then trying a webcam app.

The idea offered in this thread was to handle this the same as volume control
keys (and brightness). Show a visual cue when this happens.

The way this works (in my case), is that the firmware catches the Fn+F## key,
and cuts (or restores) the power to the cam, leading to a usb plugin / disconnect event, which in turn leads to the creation of a /dev/video# device.

The idea is that gnome-settings-daemon could monitor the creation of the
/dev/video# device (and/or its removal)  using udev events, and then show
some sort of visual cue that the webcam was disconnected / connected.

Regards,

Hans
Comment 1 Bastien Nocera 2010-01-15 11:37:44 UTC 
If that's the only cue ever available, and everything is handled in hardware (not in the kernel), the easy way is to look for webcams using gudev and show a popup when the webcam is enabled.

There's code like that in cheese, would just need to be trimmed, though you'd probably get false positives when plugging in another webcam via USB...

If there really no events other than the device appearing? ACPI events, or laptop specific events that could be handled through the MSI laptop module?
Comment 2 Hans de Goede 2010-10-05 13:29:49 UTC 
Sorry for being so slow to respond on this. I no longer have the laptop in question, so I guess the best course of action is to simply close this bug.

To answer the original information request. When the webcam gets soft plugged
in / out through the key combi a ps2 keypress is reported, but currently the
scancode (which I don't know as I no longer have the machine) does not get
mapped to an evdev input event. My plan was to fix this before updating this bug, alas...
Comment 3 Bastien Nocera 2010-10-13 18:14:18 UTC 
Closing as a dupe of bug 627098, which is about pretty much the same thing.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 627098 ***