Motion does not identify /dev/video0 on Ubuntu Lucid, but VLC can see it.

Question

Hello, I am new to Linux! I installed Motion using sudo apt-get install motion (seemed to be OK) but all I get is [1] Retrying until successful connection with camera [1] Failed to open video device /dev/video0: If I do lsusb I find the USB capture device at .. Bus 001 Device 007: ID 05e1:0408 Syntek Semiconductor Co., Ltd and VLC media player can find it at v4l2:///dev/video0 The file motion.conf comes with a "X" across it in the file browser. Is that bad? Hope you can find the time to help me in the right direction. --Grahame

I'm afraid I do not know how to get the information you need about libraries (mentioned below)?

grahame@C-2-Q-Ubuntu:~$ motion -c/etc/motion/motion.conf
[0] Configfile /etc/motion/motion.conf not found - trying defaults.: 
[0] could not open configfile /etc/motion/motion.conf: 
[0] Not config file to process using default values
[0] Motion 3.2.11 Started
[0] ffmpeg LIBAVCODEC_BUILD 3412993 LIBAVFORMAT_BUILD 3415808
[0] Thread 1 is from /etc/motion/motion.conf
[1] Thread 1 started
[1] Failed to open video device /dev/video0: 
[1] Could not fetch initial image from camera
[1] Motion continues using width and height from config file(s)
[1] Resizing pre_capture buffer to 1 items
[1] Retrying until successful connection with camera
[1] Failed to open video device /dev/video0: 
[1] Retrying until successful connection with camera
[1] Failed to open video device /dev/video0: 
[1] Retrying until successful connection with camera
[1] Failed to open video device /dev/video0: 
[1] Video signal lost - Adding grey image
[1] Retrying until successful connection with camera
[1] Failed to open v

Environment

Motion version:	3.2.12
ffmpeg version:
Libraries:	ffmpeg, mysql, postgresql
Server OS:	Ubuntu Lucid

-- GrahamePratt - 16 Jan 2011

Answer

I had a perfect set-up for over a year, and a careless upgrade caused me exactly the same problem. In my case, I tracked it down to permissions on

/dev/video* not being correct anymore. Try:

sudo chmod /dev/video* a+rw

If that fixes it (without a reboot - motion will pick it up immediately) then you have the same issue

HOWEVER, these changes will not survive a reboot.

You have to write a udev rule to fix that.

Use your favourite editor to create the following file:

/etc/udev/rules.d/10-local.rules

and insert the following line

KERNEL=="video[0-9]*", MODE=="0666"