Cannot get started / Unable to find devce

[ajl236]

Thanks this looks like a nice project for my Logitech C920 but I cannot get started.

pi@raspberrypi:~/RaspiVWS $ ./Raspi_VLC_Webcam_Stream.sh -V 0 8090
returns
Error [1]: Device /dev/video0 required but could not be found. Aborting.

however this command works OK
cvlc v4l2:///dev/video0:chroma=h264 :input-slave=alsa://hw:1,0 --sout '#transcode{acodec=mpga,ab=128,channels=2,samplerate=44100,threads=4,audio-sync=1}:standard{access=http,mux=ts,mime=video/ts,dst=:8090}'

[London-Lass]

It's because the test chosen in the script doesn't find the device

pi@raspberrypi:~/camera/RaspiVWS $ ls -ld /dev/video0
crw-rw----+ 1 root video 81, 3 May  7 23:59 /dev/video0
pi@raspberrypi:~/camera/RaspiVWS $ [[ -f /dev/video0 ]] && echo "It is a file"
pi@raspberrypi:~/camera/RaspiVWS $ [[ -e /dev/video0 ]] && echo "It exists"
It exists

From the bash man page ...

       -a file
              True if file exists.
       -b file
              True if file exists and is a block special file.
       -c file
              True if file exists and is a character special file.
       -d file
              True if file exists and is a directory.
       -e file
              True if file exists.
       -f file
              True if file exists and is a regular file.
       -g file
              True if file exists and is set-group-id.
       -h file
              True if file exists and is a symbolic link.
       -k file
              True if file exists and its ``sticky'' bit is set.
       -p file
              True if file exists and is a named pipe (FIFO).
       -r file
              True if file exists and is readable.
       -s file
              True if file exists and has a size greater than zero.
       -t fd  True if file descriptor fd is open and refers to a terminal.
       -u file
              True if file exists and its set-user-id bit is set.
       -w file
              True if file exists and is writable.
       -x file
              True if file exists and is executable.
       -G file
              True if file exists and is owned by the effective group id.
       -L file
              True if file exists and is a symbolic link.
       -N file
              True if file exists and has been modified since it was last read.
       -O file
              True if file exists and is owned by the effective user id.
       -S file
              True if file exists and is a socket.

This works ...

pi@raspberrypi:~/camera/RaspiVWS $ [[ -c /dev/video0 ]] && echo "characer special file"
characer special file

Referring to code at bottom of script ...

if [ -e "${WEBCAM_DEVICE}" ] ; then
        VLC_C920_STREAM "${VIDEO_DEVICE_NB}" "${HTTP_PORT}" "${MOVIES_FOLDER}"
else

[ajl236]

Thanks @London-Lass changing -f to -e on line 416 helped

[LoneWanderer-GH]

Hi,
Thanks for the analysis @London-Lass . I'll put that into release, as soon as I have some time to check in my environment.
(That's surprising this test behaves differently on my raspi/distrib.)

[fmjensen]

I can confirm this.
I too see the excact same error and changing -f to -e makes the check work as intended.

But more problems surface after this fix. v4l2-ctl --all does not contain the LED controls so the script complains on this.
These things maybe linked to the fact that lsb_release -a reveals Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) is the current os level.

Anyway - thankyou for the work you put into this @LoneWanderer-GH I hope that you find a wee bit of sparetime to test/fix your project on Buster :-)

My setup:

• RPi Model B+ V1.2
• WiPi USB wifi dongle
• and a C920 ;-)

[edmanning555]

I'm having this issue also. When I edit line 416 of the script as suggested, it returns "Error [99]: I require ssmtp but it's not installed. Aborting." (regardless of if SSMTP is installed).

Project owner said a fix would be published in July last year, but seeing as the only commits in 2020 were adding Patreon details (lol) that this repo should be considered abandoned?

[LoneWanderer-GH]

@edmanning555 : I've had other things at hand lately, and as you mentioned somewhat, this project is not something that feeds me whatsoever (not a penny, and that was not the point anyway).

Long story short : if you have the time that I don't have right now for this, feel free to open a branch for this issue, and submit a merge request.

Any contributions are welcomed, this is an open project.

(Concerning the ssmtp, it was a planned feature for sending an email whenever a streaming started.)

I'll provide some hints : the fix revolves around the following lines

RaspiVWS/Raspi_VLC_Webcam_Stream.sh

Line 349 in 8a5eaaa

MAIL_CMD=ssmtp

RaspiVWS/Raspi_VLC_Webcam_Stream.sh

Line 352 in 8a5eaaa

checkCommandExists ${MAIL_CMD} ${ERROR_MAIL}

RaspiVWS/Raspi_VLC_Webcam_Stream.sh

Line 356 in 8a5eaaa

if [ ${_arg_use_ssmtp} != "off" ] ; then

RaspiVWS/Raspi_VLC_Webcam_Stream.sh

Line 357 in 8a5eaaa

echo -e "Starting VLC stream and record\nDate: $(date)\nVIDEO_DEVICE_NB: ${VIDEO_DEVICE_NB}\nDuration: ${GLOBAL_RECORD_TIMEOUT}\nVLC_PARAM_INFINITE_LOOP: ${VLC_PARAM_INFINITE_LOOP}\nFile duration: ${EACH_MOVIE_DURATION_SEC}" | ${MAIL_CMD} -vvv [email protected]