Unable to find a compatible palette format

Question

I just buy a new webcam and attach it with RPI

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9514 Standard Microsystems Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 093a:2620 Pixart Imaging, Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0461:4d81 Primax Electronics, Ltd 
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 046d:c308 Logitech, Inc. Internet Navigator Keyboard 

and then install fswebcam successfully.

sudo apt-get onstall fswebcam

when I entered a command to take an image,

fswebcam image.jpg

it shows me an error

--- Opening /dev/video0...
Trying source module v4l2...
/dev/video0 opened.
No input was specified, using the first.
Unable to find a compatible palette format.

Can you please guide me to resolve this error?

Answer 1

You will most likely need the video4linux support libraries.

Check if you have them already.

locate v4l1compat.so

In my case, the output is /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libv4l/v4l1compat.so, yours might be different if you're on 32bit.

If it't not there, just install it:

sudo apt-get install libv4l-0

and try to locate it again.

Try to launch cheese with preloading the library

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/your-path-to-lib/v4l1compat.so fswebcam test.jpeg

Answer 2

This is classic 'incompatible' behaviour, The Pi's USB is somewhat compromised and not all devices (especially webcams) work as they should. I have half a dozen webcams of various types that all work with PC hardware on Linux but don't work with a Pi. The message about compatible palettes is common to many of them. There are webcams that do work with the Pi but the list is way out of date : http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals.

I favour the Microsoft VX800, available cheaply, refurbished on Ebay : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Microsoft-Lif ... 43ba2d6b13