Hello all,

Has anyone managed to make the Umax AstraPix 470 (usb) camera to work under Linux? The usb driver is loaded properly (I can see the camera under /proc/scsi/scsi as a massive storage device) but when I try to mount it (mount /dev/sda1 -t vfat /mnt/cam) I get a "no medium found" error.

Any ideas?

Tnx,

Tom.

Boot with no 'cam' plugged in.

Then plug in cam and please post all the relevant parts of your 'dmesg', 'lsusb' commands, and the /var/log/messages file.

It might just be a simple 'no format' on disk, what does 'fdisk /dev/sda' show you?

We await your results!!!

Ok, here we go:
SuSE 8.2 Pro,
uname -a gives : [..] 2.4.20-4GB-athlon [..],
dmesg (after plugging the camera) gives :
----------------------
hub.c: new USB device 00:02.1-2, assigned address 2
usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x733/0x1310) is not claimed by any active driver.
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
scsi1 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Vendor: Model: 1.3M DigitalCAM Rev: 1.00
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
SCSI device sda: 16384 512-byte hdwr sectors (8 MB)
sda: test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
sda: sda1
WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured
USB Mass Storage device found at 2
USB Mass Storage support registered.
SCSI device (ioctl) reports ILLEGAL REQUEST.
SCSI device sda: 16384 512-byte hdwr sectors (8 MB)
sda: test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
sda: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing seven more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing seven more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 16376
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing seven more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 16376
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing seven more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing three more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing three more times]
unable to read partition table
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
SCSI device (ioctl) reports ILLEGAL REQUEST.
SCSI device sda: 16384 512-byte hdwr sectors (8 MB)
sda: test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
sda: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing seven more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing seven more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 16376
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing seven more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 16376
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing seven more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing three more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing three more times]
unable to read partition table
SCSI device (ioctl) reports ILLEGAL REQUEST.
SCSI device sda: 16384 512-byte hdwr sectors (8 MB)
sda: test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
sda: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing seven more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing seven more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 16376
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing seven more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 16376
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing seven more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing three more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing three more times]
unable to read partition table
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing three more times]
usb.c: USB disconnect on device 00:02.0-2 address 3
printer.c: usblp0: removed
SCSI device (ioctl) reports ILLEGAL REQUEST.
SCSI device sda: 16384 512-byte hdwr sectors (8 MB)
sda: test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
sda: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing seven more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing seven more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 16376
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing seven more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 16376
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing seven more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing three more times]
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing three more times]
unable to read partition table
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
[same thing three more times]
hub.c: new USB device 00:02.0-2, assigned address 4
printer.c: usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 4 if 0 alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x03F0 pid 0x4004
----------------------------

lsusb gives (the other device is a usb printer) :
---------------
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0733:1310 ViewQuest Technologies, Inc.
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 03f0:4004 Hewlett-Packard
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
-------------------

If I try "mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt" I get "mount: /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device" and /var/log/messages is filled with some more :
---------
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh kernel: SCSI device (ioctl) reports ILLEGAL REQUEST.
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh kernel: SCSI device sda: 16384 512-byte hdwr sectors (8 MB)
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh kernel: sda: test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh kernel: sda: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh kernel: lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh last message repeated 7 times
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh kernel: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh kernel: lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh last message repeated 7 times
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh kernel: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 16376
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh kernel: lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh last message repeated 7 times
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh kernel: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 16376
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh kernel: lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh last message repeated 7 times
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh kernel: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh kernel: lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh last message repeated 3 times
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh kernel: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh kernel: lost async page write due to I/O error on 08:00
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh last message repeated 3 times
> Sep 23 00:58:19 niobh kernel: unable to read partition table
------------------------------

"fdisk /dev/sda" returns "Unable to read /dev/sda"

Tnx for your patience...

Tom.

OK, using the info I got from you, ie '0x733/0x1310' , see http://www.qbik.ch/usb/devices/showdev.php?id=1909 and more specifically http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/lin...05.2/0559.html .

Can someone explain how to apply the patch in the referenced 2nd link above?
It looks like the camera itself is not usable in Linux (in the sense of online video), per the 1st link above?

Any Takers, Helpers, put in your two cents, as I'm at the end of my resources.

Hey that 2nd link of yours was really good. Here is how I did manage to read the contents of my camera.
a) Copy the code included in the page to a new file.
b) Do a 'gcc -g -Wall myfile.c -o dumpcamera'.
c) Run as root 'dumpcamera > image'
d) Run (as root) the following script :
-------
OFFSET=0
while ! mount -t vfat image -o loop,offset=$OFFSET /mnt
do
OFFSET=$(($OFFSET + 512))
done
echo $OFFSET
---------
For me the offset ended to 12800. So a simple 'mount -t vfat image -o loop,offset=12800 /mnt' works just fine (for me again). The only drawback is that each time I want to view something, I have to dump the whole 8MBs of the camera memory...
Any developer here who would make a driver which mounts the device skipping the first 12800 bytes (is this possible, actually?)
Or at least someone to give me general guidelines how to do it?
OK, next step is to make it work as a web-cam under linux (any clues about that?).

Tnx for the help, anyway,

Tom.

It might say 'newbie' under your name on the board, but you are certainly no 'noob'.
As for your other question, you might start at http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-usb/ and see if you can either get assistance, or some guidance on what you can do to 'help'.
Most excellent that you can at least read the card!!!