I’m a happy Galaxy Nexus owner, that I won in a google contest @ UDS-Q, and I thought that maybe It would be possible to use it as a webcam. After googling for a while I found an application called DroidCam[1][2], It was exactly I was looking for. For your info I bought the PRO version, since it saved me some hundred reais.

Here go some instructions to install, configure and run.

Installing

First create a dot dir for DroidCam

mkdir ~/.droidcam

Follow the instructions on the DroidCam Linux website http://www.dev47apps.com/droidcam/linuxx/

sudo chown <your username>:<your username> -R ~/.droidcam

Configuring

Add your username to the group video

sudo addgroup <your username> video

Give to your user instantly group permissions

newgrp video

Running

Warning! Run adb as a regular user. If you don’t know how I will make another blog post about setting up your environment in a proper way.

Start your adb server and list your android devices connected to your computer

adb devices

Forward the streamed video from DroidCam to your localhost, otherwise it will not work.

adb forward tcp:4747 tcp:4747

Start DoidCam on your android device.

Start DroidCam client.

droidcam

Now you can configure your google hangout, google talk, skype or whatever you want a webcam for. Enjoy!

It is time to retire my current key, 0xDDE0D5B0. A new RSA 4096, 0xF9F6F2B1, will be my default. If you signed my current key, now old, please consider signing my new key too.

My signed transition statement, http://media.rbelem.info/key-transition-2011-01-11.txt.

Thanks :-)

TODO:

• Automate this
• Try to use schroot instead of chroot directly
• ??? Another idea?

P.S.: For the armel arch replace i386 by armel in the following steps :-P

Download the rootstrap

$ wget http://repository.maemo.org/stable/5.0/i386/maemo-sdk-rootstrap_5.0_i386.tgz

Unpack the rootstrap

$ sudo mkdir -p /opt/devel/chroots/maemo/fremantle/i386
$ cd /opt/devel/chroots/maemo/fremantle/i386
$ sudo tar -xvzf /path/to/maemo-sdk-rootstrap_5.0_i386.tgz

ATTENTION: ARMEL ONLY STEP

$ sudo apt-get install qemu-arm-static
$ sudo cp /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static /opt/devel/chroots/maemo/fremantle/armel/usr/bin

Identify your chroot target

$ sudo -s
$ echo fremantle-i386 > /opt/devel/chroots/maemo/fremantle/i386/etc/debian_chroot

Copy the essential files

$ sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /opt/devel/chroots/maemo/fremantle/i386/etc
$ sudo cp -a /etc/ld.so.conf* /opt/devel/chroots/maemo/fremantle/i386/etc

Get rid of the dpkg-preconfigure warnings

Edit the /opt/devel/chroots/maemo/fremantle/i386/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/70debconf file and
comment the line as follows.
// DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true";};

Get nokia binaries repository access.
Go to http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/eula/index.php
Do what you have to do there.
And get the resulting repository. It is something like this

deb http://repository.maemo.org/ fremantle/00000000000000000000000000000000 nokia-binaries

The sources.list should look something like

deb http://repository.maemo.org/ fremantle/sdk free non-free
deb-src http://repository.maemo.org/ fremantle/sdk free
deb http://repository.maemo.org/ fremantle/tools free non-free
deb-src http://repository.maemo.org/ fremantle/tools free
deb http://repository.maemo.org/ fremantle/00000000000000000000000000000000 nokia-binaries

deb http://repository.maemo.org/extras/ fremantle free non-free
deb-src http://repository.maemo.org/extras/ fremantle free

deb http://repository.maemo.org/extras-devel/ fremantle free non-free
deb-src http://repository.maemo.org/extras-devel/ fremantle free

Mount the filesystems

$ sudo mount -t proc proc /opt/devel/chroots/maemo/fremantle/i386/proc
$ sudo mount -t sysfs sysfs /opt/devel/chroots/maemo/fremantle/i386/sys
$ sudo mkdir /opt/devel/chroots/maemo/fremantle/i386/dev
$ sudo mount -o bind /dev /opt/devel/chroots/maemo/fremantle/i386/dev
$ sudo mount -t devpts devpts /opt/devel/chroots/maemo/fremantle/i386/dev/pts
$ sudo mkdir -p /opt/devel/chroots/maemo/fremantle/i386/var/lib/dbus
$ sudo mount -o bind /var/lib/dbus /opt/devel/chroots/maemo/fremantle/i386/var/lib/dbus

Enter the chroot

$ sudo LC_ALL=C chroot /opt/devel/chroots/maemo/fremantle/i386

# apt-get update
# apt-get -y --force-yes dist-upgrade

Create the dir where scratchbox devel tool will be located (later on we will add a symbolic link)

# mkdir /scratchbox/tools/bin

Install the development tools

# apt-get install libc6-dev g++ make dpkg-dev autoconf automake

# ln -s /usr/bin/perl /scratchbox/tools/bin
l# n -s /usr/bin/m4 /scratchbox/tools/bin

If you use https repositories

# apt-get source apt
# apt-get build-dep apt
# cd apt-<version>
# dpkg-buildpackage
# dpkg -i apt-transport-https....deb

Install nokia desktop packages

# apt-get install nokia-binaries nokia-apps

During the installation alarmd and mce will fail.
Solution:
Edit /etc/init.d/alarmd from alarmd package and comment the lines with start_alarmd and stop_alarmd. After that repeat the previous step. Do the same for the mce package.

Create some scratchbox compatibilities.

# mkdir -p /scratchbox/tools/bin
# ln -s /bin/kill /scratchbox/tools/bin/

Run the following command to start dbus and others daemons.

# af-sb-init.sh start

Continue with the installation

# apt-get install nokia-binaries nokia-apps

Stop dbus and other daemons

# af-sb-init.sh stop