Ubuntu Howto: ov511 USB Camera + Skype 2.0 beta

Recently I managed to get a friends pretty old webcam to work with his Ubuntu 7.10, Gutsy Gibbon, installation and the latest Skype 2.0 beta version that supports video calls in Linux. There is already a lot of information out there about the subject, but I did not find a howto that was made for Ubuntu.

First of all you have to check whether this guide could be useful for you. Therefore open a terminal and type "dmesg" (without quotes). Make also sure, that your webcam is plugged in. Now you should see an output like:

... Sensor is an OV7620
... Device at usb-0000:00:1d.0-2 registered to minor 0
... usbcore: registered new interface driver ov511
... v1.64 for Linux 2.5 : ov511 USB Camera Driver

In Skype the webcam should be recognized, but the image is always black. If everything is like that, read on and try the steps that worked for me. Basically we will replace the webcam driver that comes with Ubuntu by a patched, self-compiled version. Every line that you have to enter in the terminal begins with a $-sign.

You will need a compiler installed, so first install the build-essential package by typing:
$ sudo aptitude install build-essential

Then disconnect your webcam and unload the old ov511-driver:
$ sudo rmmod ov511

Remove the old driver files:
$ sudo rm /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/ubuntu/media/ov511/ov511.ko
$ sudo rm /lib/modules/$(uname-r)/kernel/drivers/media/video/ovcamchip/ovcamchip.ko

Download the new driver at http://ovcam.org/ov511/download/2.xx/distros/ov511-2.32.tar.bz2 an unzip it.
Download the patch ov511_2.32_skype_patch.txt.
Put the patch file in the unzipped driver folder.
Go into the driver folder in the terminal.

Patch the driver source by typing:
$ patch < ov511_2.32_skype_patch.txt

Compile and install the patched driver by doing:
$ make
$ sudo make install

Load the new driver by typing:
$ sudo modprobe ov511 compress=1 forceblock=1
$ sudo modprobe ovcamchip

Make sure that the driver is correctly loaded after reboot by creating a file:
$ sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/ov511_webcam

Now put the following line in that new file and save it:
install ov511 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install ov511 compress=1 forceblock=1; /sbin/modprobe ovcamchip

That's it. Now you can reboot and hope for the best. For my friend's and my system it worked. I now that ATI graphic cards might cause some problems with Skype, but since I do not own one, I could not test it.

References:
http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=101297&st=280&p=466914&
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SkypeWebCams
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-149214.html