Ubuntu – CLI webcam image grabber that works with a video4linux2 device

I've tried everything in

apt-cache search webcam |sort -u

and everything has some problem. Correcting any syntax mistakes, showing how to use a "GUI only" from the CLI or a good ffmpeg/mencoder/vlc one-liner would answer my question. Or since I know how to make ffmpeg take a short MJPEG, showing how to strip off the first jpeg would work, I guess. Still, this ought to be more straightforward than that.

$ camgrab
/dev/video0: no v4l device

(camgrab probably doesn't handle v4l2)

$ fswebcam --list-inputs
--- Opening /dev/video0...
Trying source module v4l2...
/dev/video0 opened.
--- Available inputs:
0: Camera 1
No input was specified, using the first.
Adjusting resolution from 384x288 to 352x288.
--- Capturing frame...
Premature end of JPEG file
Captured frame in 0.00 seconds.
--- Processing captured image...
There are unsaved changes to the image.
$ fswebcam --input 0 boo.jpg
--- Opening /dev/video0...
Trying source module v4l2...
/dev/video0 opened.jjjjjjjjj
Adjusting resolution from 384x288 to 352x288.
--- Capturing frame...
Premature end of JPEG file
Captured frame in 0.00 seconds.
--- Processing captured image...
Writing JPEG image to 'boo.jpg'.

produces this

$ motion

is beyond me.

$ uvccapture -oboo.jpg 
$ file boo.jpg        
boo.jpg: data
$ qiv -t boo.jpg 
Unable to read file: Failed to load image 'boo.jpg': Error interpreting JPEG image file (Not a JPEG file: starts with 0x8f 0x5a)

not really an image.

$ /usr/bin/vgrabbj -d /dev/video0 -f boo.jpg
Could not open configfile /usr/etc/vgrabbj.conf, ignoring
Reading image from /dev/video0

produces this

$ webcamd
RTFM, missing template (/home/$USER/.webcamd/index_up.html)
$ man webcamd |cat
WEBCAMD(1)                                                                     WEBCAMD(1)
NAME
    webcamd - Take a image from your webcam
SYNOPSIS
    webcamd [ start | stop | refresh ]
DESCRIPTION
    This manual page documents briefly the webcamd daemon.
    This manual page was written for the Debian distribution because the original pro‐
    gram does not have a manual page.
    webcamd is a program that take images from your webcam and put it on a ftp  server
    on a local (web) directory
OPTIONS
    start  Start the daemon.
    stop   Stop the daemon.
    refresh Take a shot !
AUTHOR
    This  manual  page  was  written by Julien Danjou <acid@debian.org> for the Debian
    system (but may be used by others).  Permission is  granted  to  copy,  distribute
    and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
    Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software  Foundation;  with
    no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts and no Back-Cover Texts.
                                  2002 april 21                            WEBCAMD(1)
$ webcamd start
RTFM, missing template (/home/$USER/.webcamd/index_up.html)
$ webcamd refresh
RTFM, missing template (/home/$USER/.webcamd/index_up.html)

webcam seems to demand that I set a config file to ftp the images somewhere and seems to do nothing by default

$ /usr/bin/webcam 
reading config file: /home/$USER/.webcamrc
video4linux webcam v1.5 - (c) 1998-2002 Gerd Knorr
grabber config:
  size 320x240 [none]
  input (null), norm (null), jpeg quality 75
  rotate=0, top=0, left=0, bottom=240, right=320

• GUI only
  • camorama
  • cheese
  • kamoso
  • luvcview