Installation of ov511 2.28 drivers for an ov518+ webcam on Fedora Core 3 updated with a 2.6.11 kernel

• Preliminary notes
• Installation process

Preliminary notes

The ov511 driver is already installed by default in the kernel. You only need to install it separatly if, like in my case, you own an OV518+ cameras (as PCVC720K/20) which requires compression.

There has been a change in the kernel which leads to an error when you try to load ov511 module with the following message in dmesg: "ov511: Unknown symbol remap_page_range)". This is because the remap_page_range function was removed from the kernel in favour of the new remap_pfn_page function. There is also a very small bug in the Makefile which will lead to a "unable to delete .tmp_versions directory" when you "make clean"

Note: the patches I use below have been created by me and submitted to Mark McClelland, the author of the driver. So hoppefully, these problem will be fixed in the next version.

Installation process

• Download the driver version 2.28 and save it in an appropriate folder
• Download the patches in the same folder
• Move to that folder:

cd /path/to/folder/where/you/saved/file

• Decompress the driver:

tar jxf ov511-2.28.tar.bz2

• Decompress the patches:

tar jxf ov511-2.28-driver-patches.tar.bz2

• Patch the files in the driver decompressed folder:

patch -p0 < Makefile-unable-to-delete-.tmp_versions-dir.patch
patch -p0 < ov511_core-kernel-2.6.11.patch
patch -p0 <ovfx2-kernel-2.6.11.patch

• Move to the decompressed driver folder with files patched:

cd ov511-2.28

• Make sure the build environment is clean:

make clean

• Compile the driver:

make

• Become root and move again to your dir

su -
cd /path/to/folder/where/you/saved/file/ov511-2.28

• Make sure the ov511 default module is not already loaded:

modprobe -r ov511

• Install the driver:

make install

• add the following two lines to your /etc/modprobe.conf file:

install ov511 /sbin/modprobe --first-time --ignore-install ov511 && { /sbin/modprobe ovcamchip; /bin/true; }
remove ov511 { /sbin/modprobe -r ovcamchip; } ; /sbin/modprobe -r --first-time --ignore-remove ov511"

• plug your camera in (or load the driver with "modprobe ov511" if it is already plugged).

Your driver should work now. Check for any errors in /var/log/messages