Driver adventures for a 1999 webcam

Driver adventures for a 1999 webcam
blog.benjojo.co.uk

  $ cat /usr/src/linux-headers-`uname -r`/include/uapi/asm-generic/errno.h | grep 90
  #define        EMSGSIZE        90        /* Message too long */

https://man.archlinux.org/man/errno.1

  $ errno 90
  EMSGSIZE 90 Message too long

  $ errno -s "too long"
  E2BIG 7 Argument list too long
  ENAMETOOLONG 36 File name too long
  EMSGSIZE 90 Message too long

I cracked open (both out of curiosity and for recycling) my own 1999 Logitech QuickCam Express just a few days ago, then tossed away the parts. It was a decent webcam for the time, which was when Windows 98 was all the rage.

My desktop admittedly being a Windows system, I dabbled for a while trying to get the old drivers and software to work on Windows 11, alas, not a chance.

I liked the quirky thing especially for the physical visor that assured me nobody is watching me when the camera SHOULD be off, and saved me the masking tape (except for a single strip permanently glued to the inside of the visor, because for some odd reason, the thing was semi-translucent!)

I went out and bought a Trust webcam with Windows 11 support which astonishingly cost me less than three Euros (!!) new, at the bargain store. The Logitech, once upon a time, was more than ten times as much, not adjusted for inflation. Alas, the Logitech QuickCam had lower resolution, but still a better picture.

This was a very intreresting read, as I naively assumed that USB cameras had to follow some HID-like standard also for polling images off of it, like a scanner's TWAIN driver model back in the days. It was enlightening to read that they indeed seem to have had a unique encoding not shared with other cameras.