Sony VAIO GT1 - side ccd camera operation

[lurching]

HI everybody,

Thank you so much for your assistance in the previous thread, for specs please refer to it: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=791
We are down to two main LICK iso's running 1/ OK - Puppy4.31 the fluidest 2/ More compatible - Slacko5.6-4G but much slower even after solving the swap file issue; and 2 main issues related to the camera:

Issues thus related to the camera operation:
A/ checking if the WinXP/ME camera original software can activate through Wine - some of it can be installed but the rest no. See point 1/
B/ finding a way to install the native linux camera driver that actually exists, but it requires a kernel I'm not sure can run on the GT-1. See 2/

1/ Wine install on Slacko5.6-4G and Puppy4.31 for running camera software
Note1: Wine on Puppy4.3.1 wine1.3.28 confirmed compatible & working, tested for camera software. (install displayed an error while installing Gecko).
Note2: on Slacko5.6-4G Wine installation sluggish but works fine without error message.
Wine itself works fine: SOLVED

After trying both ME/XP compatibility I don't seem to be able to start the camera software through Wine on Puppy4.31 - Wine itself seems to run entirely ok though.
Not sure what to do next. Have to find both capture software's install (1of2 is ok but in Slacko it doesn't recognize the machine as a GT1 and interrupts the install process in wine). The second one doesn't produce an interface when started.
In Slacko it's the same problem, need to find a workaround to the setup.exe (but it's a Russian doll .exe, 3 levels) machine verification process, as it cannot recognize it as a Vaio pcg-GT1; I know it's not directly a Puppy issue but if you have a suggestion on how to solve this or where to ask or met a case where a machine could not be id'ed by software on Wine, feel free to refer to it/comment. Thank you!
ISSUE IN PROGRESS

2/ Camera native linux driver
It seems there's an existing pci camera driver but the question is the kernel version
00:0b.0 Multimedia controller: Kawasaki Steel Corporation ELSA72002 Motion JPEG (rev 01) // (lspci result)
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.10/m ... module-use
However I can't find the driver itself, can someone help me to locate it & maybe check for non-pae puppy versions that would run on 192Mb Ram/Celeron hardware in terms of the kernel being compliant with the driver for the camera: someone in Puppy Facebook group commented: "noticed this kernel-link, describes kernel-4.xx.. and TahrPup (for instance) is on k-3.14" - please don't forget if you recommend .iso's the GT1 requires non-pae due to it's Crusoe TM5600 Transmeta processor.
ISSUE IN PROGRESS

Note: if you have questions about memory requirements for these soft's operation, or want to check the previous problems troubleshooting stage, please refer to page 5 of the original post: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=791&start=40

[rcrsn51]

Run the command: lspci -nnk

Identify the [vendor:product] ID codes for the camera, like [136b:ff01].

[lurching]

Run the command: lspci -nnk

Identify the [vendor:product] ID codes for the camera, like [136b:ff01].

See point 2/ of the above post:
lspci result:
00:0b.0 Multimedia controller: Kawasaki Steel Corporation ELSA72002 Motion JPEG (rev 01)
and the link to the driver doc:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.10/m ... module-use

But I can't seem to find the driver itself so far.

[rcrsn51]

You didn't follow my instructions.

[lurching]

You didn't follow my instructions.

Sorry I have but the instruction's arguments -nnk didn't pass in Puppy4.31 but in Slacko I have the following (did need time for both to boot! ):

0:0b.0 Multimedia controller [0480]: Kawasaki Steel Corporation ELSA72002 Motion JPEG [136b:ff01] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Device [104d:80b4]

[rcrsn51]

The [136b:ff01] device is supported by a driver called "meye". But it may not be compiled into old kernels.

Run the command: modprobe meye

If it's not present, there is not much you can do, unless you can find the source code and compile it yourself for a particular kernel.

[lurching]

The [136b:ff01] device is supported by a driver called "meye". But it may not be compiled into old kernels.

Run the command: modprobe meye

If it's not present, there is not much you can do, unless you can find the source code and compile it yourself for a particular kernel.

It's not present, which was to be expected. There is a module called GSPCA, though, that seems to include it, but I need assistance to install it:
https://www.linuxjournal.com/video/get- ... king-gspca

After downloading the gspca sources, running ./gspca_build I get a message: "Fatal: you need to install the kernel source for your running kernel".

I'm tyring to install it on Slacko5.6 4G which seems to be the most recent puppy I'm able to run on this machine yet.

[bigpup]

The different kernel sources sfs packages for Slacko are found here:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/
They will be in the different Slacko pet directories.
You probably need one from the pet_packages-slacko directory.
May have to look in other Slacko directories but not the 64 bit ones.

Slacko used several different kernels and there are several different versions of Slacko.
You have to get the kernel sources sfs for the kernel you are using in Slacko 5.6

In a terminal

Code: Select all

uname -r

This will give you the kernel version number

Download the kernel sources sfs with that number in the name.
Place in /mnt/home location.
Use SFS-load-on-the-fly-program to load it.

[lurching]

The different kernel sources sfs packages for Slacko are found here:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/
They will be in the different Slacko pet directories.
You probably need one from the pet_packages-slacko directory.
May have to look in other Slacko directories but not the 64 bit ones.

Slacko used several different kernels and there are several different versions of Slacko.
You have to get the kernel sources sfs for the kernel you are using in Slacko 5.6

In a terminal

Code: Select all

uname -r

This will give you the kernel version number

Download the kernel sources sfs with that number in the name.
Place in /mnt/home location.
Use SFS-load-on-the-fly-program to load it.

Ok I think I found the sfs versions for all 3 iso's that I'm using.

I could start Xenial with a 4.x kernel:
XenialPup7.5 runs (slow) on the GT1 and has kernel 4.4.95-noPAE; However, checking pupCamera gives no recognized devices. modprobe meye (the actual linux driver that exists for the motioneye camera of the GT1) also returns nothing; normally it should included in Xenial. Need to install vlc and check and eventually cheese if available, currently attempting but speed is non-human, rather tree-level of speed so I might just check what is recognized as a minimum there with the most recent kernel attainable for my machine, then check backwards to earlier version for more fluidity in operation, if compatibility allows.

When I have more time, I'll check gspca hoping the sfs files I downloaded although correct version are non-pae 32bits in each case. (Xenial, Puppy and Slacko)

[lurching]

Xenial runs simply too slow on this machine, despite the kernel 4.x.x being attractive to run the camera with the original driver.

Here are the news: bingo the drivers source are available!

sonypi and meye drivers are still present in the latest kernel source:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/ke ... r/sonypi.c
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/ke ... eye/meye.c

Now the only chance I have is either to retrofit them - or to install them on a more performing, 4.x.x kernel, non-pae puppy. Any suggestions apart from Xenial7.5?

[rcrsn51]

modprobe meye (the actual linux driver that exists for the motioneye camera of the GT1) also returns nothing; normally it should included in Xenial.

If the modprobe command returns nothing, the module was located and loaded. Run "lsmod | grep meye" or "modinfo meye".

[rcrsn51]

Here is the meye kernel module for Slacko533, which I believe is non-PAE.

Test it with the command: mplayer tv://

------------------

[lurching]

Here is the meye kernel module for Slacko533, which I believe is non-PAE.

Test it with the command: mplayer tv://

Everything goes right... up to (rebooted with the save file enabled in case, same output):

Code: Select all

Playing tv://.
TV file format detected
Selected driver: v412
name: Video 4 Linux 2 input
author: Martin Olchewski <olschewski@zpr.uni-koeln.de>
comment: first try, more to come ;-)
v412: unable to open 'dev/video0': No such device or address
v412: ioctl set mute failed: Bad file descriptor
v412: 0 frames successfully processed, 0 frames dropped

Exiting... (End of file)

Edit: could install VLC2.0.0 and in media > capture device Checked TV(digital) / Video for Linux 2(/dev/video // /dev/video0 // /dev/video1) in NTSC (default settings) and unable to get a signal...

Note: This Slacko5.3.3 is running really smooth, its a great choice. Thank you.

[rcrsn51]

The idea here is that the meye module should get you the device /dev/video0. But it didn't. Probably because it isn't loaded yet!

Run: modprobe meye

Run: lsmod | grep meye
Is the module loaded OK?

Try again: mplayer tv://

If there is still a problem, run: dmesg
Look for messages related to the camera

[lurching]

The idea here is that the meye module should get you the device /dev/video0. But it didn't. Probably because it isn't loaded yet!

Run: modprobe meye

Run: lsmod | grep meye
Is the module loaded OK?

Try again: mplayer tv://

If there is still a problem, run: dmesg
Look for messages related to the camera

modprobe meye
nothing displayed

lsmod | grep meye

Code: Select all

meye 210474 0
videodev 57950 1 meye
sony_laptop 23326 1 meye

mplayer tv:// same displayed message as post before

dmesg

Code: Select all

[52.604493] sony_laptop: Sony Programmable IO Control  Driver v0.6
[52.604493] sony_laptop: detected Type1 model
[52.836340] input: Sony Vaio Keys as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0A03:00/device:0a/SNY6001/input/input7
[52.860379] input: Sony Vaio Jogdial as /device/virtual/input/input8
[52.863407] sony_laptop: device allocated minor is 58
[53.187313] sony_laptop: Sony Notebook Control Driver v0.6
[53.823863] Linux video capture interface v2.00
[53.983117] meye: using 2 buffers with 600k (1200k total) for capture
[54.057619] meye 0000:00:0b.0: meye: unable to power on the camera
[54.057619] meye 0000:00:0b.0: meye: did you enable the camera in sonypi using the module options?
[54.058191] meye: probe of 0000:00:0b.0: failed with error -5

Looks like there's a requirement to activate the camera first. Because the jog-dial (a proprietary button on the side of the screen) is activated, I tried to renew the procedure by pushing the camera start filming button, which activates the camera under windows, but the mplayer tv:// remains the same.
A procedure requirement is indicated in dmseg results linked to the camera, how can it be performed?

Code: Select all

[54.057619] meye 0000:00:0b.0: meye: did you enable the camera in sonypi using the module options?

Edit:
File sonypi locations on my machine:

Code: Select all

/initrd/mnt/dev_ro2/WINDOWS/system32/dllcache/sonypi.dll
/initrd/mnt/dev_ro2/WINDOWS/system32/dllcache/sonypi.sys
/initrd/pup_ro2/lib/modules/3.1.10-slacko_4gA/kernel/drivers/char/sonypi.ko
/initrd/pup_rw/dev/sonypi
/lib/modules/3.1.10-slacko_4gA/kernel/drivers/char/sonypi.ko
/dev/sonypi
/sys/devices/virtual/misc/sonypi
/sys/class/misc/sonypi

Which one do I have to edit? And what arguments to modify in it? Thanks in advance!

[rcrsn51]

Try this: modprobe sonypi
Or maybe modprobe sonypi camera=1
Then: modprobe meye
Then: mplayer tv://

OR

modprobe sony_laptop camera=1
modprobe meye
mplayer tv://

[lurching]

Try this: modprobe sonypi
Or maybe modprobe sonypi camera=1
Then: modprobe meye
Then: mplayer tv://

OR

modprobe sony_laptop camera=1
modprobe meye
mplayer tv://

I don't know what happened with this version of Slacko, but it went amnesic, I cannot load the userfile anymore for some reason, and puppy doesn't load the desktop icons. Have to leave it for now. Trying again tomorrow but I suppose I'll have to reinstall everything again.

Edit: solved the problem by moving the userfile .2fs in the same directory as my Puppy boot dir on c:

First attempt with modprobe sonypi delivers same result / and the 2 other attemps as well, same error for mplayer tv://

[rcrsn51]

modprobe sony_laptop camera=1
modprobe meye video_nr=0
mplayer tv://

[lurching]

modprobe sony_laptop camera=1
modprobe meye video_nr=0
mplayer tv://

Booted and tried, still the same result...

[rcrsn51]

That's too bad. It's clearly the job of meye to create /dev/video0, but it still won't do it.

Is there any change in dmesg?

[lurching]

reissued the following after boot:

Code: Select all

modprobe sony_laptop camera=1
modprobe meye video_nr=0
mplayer tv://

dmesg still unchanged.

[rcrsn51]

I don't know what else to try. I suspect that this camera is not Linux-compatible.

[lurching]

I might ask the question to the responsible individuals of the driver development: they may know whether this model is compatible with the driver or not.

Edit: message sent, let's hope this thread will not end like this....

[lurching]

Here is the advancement of the camera troubleshooting on the VAIO GT1:

Starting comment: If the modprobe command returns nothing, the module was located and loaded. Run "lsmod | grep meye" or "modinfo meye"

Tried all of these sequences:

Code: Select all

lsmod | grep meye 

displays:

Code: Select all

meye 210474 0
videodev 57950 1 meye
sony_laptop 23326 1 meye

There is once concerning message supplied by typing dsmesg:

Code: Select all

[54.057619] meye 0000:00:0b.0: meye: did you enable the camera in sonypi using the module options?

Code: Select all

modprobe sonypi
modprobe meye
mplayer tv://

OR

Code: Select all

modprobe sonypi camera=1
modprobe meye
mplayer tv://

OR

Code: Select all

modprobe sony_laptop camera=1
modprobe meye
mplayer tv:// 

Supplying all the same return:

Code: Select all

Playing tv://.
TV file format detected
Selected driver: v412
name: Video 4 Linux 2 input
author: Martin Olchewski <olschewski@zpr.uni-koeln.de>
comment: first try, more to come ;-)
v412: unable to open 'dev/video0': No such device or address
v412: ioctl set mute failed: Bad file descriptor
v412: 0 frames successfully processed, 0 frames dropped
Exiting... (End of file)

The problem is that the meye driver authors don't know whether the driver will function with the GT1 (they replied to my question), although from the developer notes, it suggest it will. Now there are other directions needed to try and troubleshoot the machine with this driver or maybe even look for another one, more complete, that uses it, like investigated earlier in this thread. Who would be able to test this further down the line? Help needed!

Especially, the dmesg error message suggest intervention inside sonypi which is something that we didn't investigate!

Code: Select all

[54.057619] meye 0000:00:0b.0: meye: did you enable the camera in sonypi using the module options?

[bigpup]

Your error message:

did you enable the camera in sonypi using the module options?

Maybe this is what you need
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/ ... sonypi.rst

Also, if you do a Google search for sonypi.
There are other results on this sonypi.

[lurching]

Thank you!

Maybe this is what you need
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/ ... sonypi.rst

Yes, this at least leaves any doubt that the driver is for the complete product range and also covers the GT1: it's very clear it does from the functionality specifications of the driver.

Now the question is how to edit the driver file as mentioned in the document, as I have no experience in doing so: which file do I have to edit?
This is the list of available files I find:

Code: Select all

/initrd/mnt/dev_ro2/WINDOWS/system32/dllcache/sonypi.dll
/initrd/mnt/dev_ro2/WINDOWS/system32/dllcache/sonypi.sys
/initrd/pup_ro2/lib/modules/3.1.10-slacko_4gA/kernel/drivers/char/sonypi.ko
/initrd/pup_rw/dev/sonypi
/lib/modules/3.1.10-slacko_4gA/kernel/drivers/char/sonypi.ko
/dev/sonypi
/sys/devices/virtual/misc/sonypi
/sys/class/misc/sonypi

Also does the system have to be restarted after the edit? Thanks in advance, and sorry for my noobyness, I hope it'll fade away with some good time spent here

I'll have a look at the rest of the sonypi info google has up it's sleeve..

[rcrsn51]

Yes, this at least leaves any doubt that the driver is for the complete product range and also covers the GT1: it's very clear it does from the functionality specifications of the driver.

How did you make that conclusion?

You can try loading sonypi with some other options, like

Code: Select all

modprobe sonypi mask=0x0001

BTW, the sony_laptop module replaces sonypi in newer kernels.

[lurching]

Thank you for the additional driver info. Let's hope it's not a conflict then since both seem to be loaded.

Yes, this at least leaves any doubt that the driver is for the complete product range and also covers the GT1: it's very clear it does from the functionality specifications of the driver.

How did you make that conclusion?

From the link sent by bigpup:
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/ ... onypi.rst
It is mentionned the following:

This driver enables access to the Sony Programmable I/O Control Device which can be found in many Sony Vaio laptops. Some newer Sony laptops (seems to be limited to new FX series laptops, at least the FX501 and the FX702) lack a sonypi device and are not supported at all by this driver.

It will give access (through a user space utility) to some events those laptops generate, like:

jogdial events (the small wheel on the side of Vaios)
capture button events (only on Vaio Picturebook series)
Fn keys
bluetooth button (only on C1VR model)
programmable keys, back, help, zoom, thumbphrase buttons, etc. (when available)

Especially the camera controls like capture button events and zoom are unique to the GT1/GT3-K which are very similar models, exterior look the same. Hence, I conclude the driver is including this line of laptop that includes the GT1. QED.

Also I'd like your take on this:

In order to automatically load the sonypi module on use, you can put those lines a configuration file in /etc/modprobe.d/:

Code: Select all

alias char-major-10-250 sonypi
options sonypi minor=250

This supposes the use of minor 250 for the sonypi device:

Code: Select all

# mknod /dev/sonypi c 10 250

Please do not forget to answer the question raised by bigpup regarding which file has to be edited for sonypi on the machine to troubleshoot the issue. Thanks

[rcrsn51]

I had already read that article many times. So here are some things from the article to try.

1. Run the command:

Code: Select all

mknod /dev/sonypi c 10 250

2. Go to the folder /etc/modprobe.d

3. Create file called sonypi.conf with these lines

Code: Select all

alias char-major-10-250 sonypi
options sonypi minor=250

4. Reboot.

6. Has the sonypi module auto-loaded? Has meye auto-loaded?

[lurching]

I had already read that article many times. So here are some things from the article to try.

1. Run the command:

Code: Select all

mknod /dev/sonypi c 10 250

2. Go to the folder /etc/modprobe.d

3. Create file called sonypi.conf with these lines

Code: Select all

alias char-major-10-250 sonypi
options sonypi minor=250

4. Reboot.

6. Has the sonypi module auto-loaded? Has meye auto-loaded?

OK
1. Returns

Code: Select all

mknod /dev/sonypi: File exists

Done 2.3.4.

Code: Select all

modprobe meye
modprobe sonypi

returns nothing, looks like they are loaded

Code: Select all

mplayer tv:// 

returns the same error message

But there is a message in dmesg from sonypi as follows that sony-laptop should maybe used instead:

Code: Select all

[ 2065.321700] sonypi: Sony Programmable I/O Controller Driver v1.26.
[ 2065.354067] sonypi: please try the sony-laptop module instead and report failures, see also http://www.linux.it/~malattia/wiki/index.php/Sony_drivers
[ 2065.355202] sonypi: ioport 0x10c0 busy, using sony-laptop? if not use check_ioport=0
[ 2065.355287] sonypi: failed to request ioports
[ 2065.355800] sonypi: probe of sonypi failed with error -16

So indeed there seems to be a conflict with sony-laptop which should be loaded instead. What to do next?