Installation instructions for the SRI Small Vision System or Capture Software, Linux

1. Install the SVS or Capture software
2. Install an appropriate framegrabber
3. Configure the correct SVS framegrabber interface library

1. Install the SVS / Capture software

Download the SVS or Capture software package from the links shown on the right.  You must have a username and password to access the download page.

NOTE: SVS includes the Capture software, so if you download SVS, you don't need to download the Capture software.

After downloading the .tgz file, unpack it in a new directory.  This directory will be your top-level SVS directory.

Capture Software version 2.4, latest release (0.7 MB)

2. Install an appropriate  framegrabber

To run SVS with the STH-V2 or STH-V3 stereo head, you must install an analog framegrabber. Instructions for installing a generic Bt8xx card, which is sold by Videre, or other Bt8xx cards (PXC200, Intel Smart Video Recorder, etc.) are on the right. The Matrox Meteor (but not the Meteor II) is also supported under SVS; installation instructions are on the right.

To run SVS with the STH-MD1(-C) stereo head, you must install a 1394 OHCI card, or have a working 1394 port on your PC. To install the 1394 card supplied by Videre Design, or your own 1394 card, look at the directions on the right.  

The BTTV drivers are part of most Linux distributions; we recommend the RH 7.2 distribution.  After installing the board, the new hardware manager should configure it correctly.  Check the driver modules (/sbin/lsmod) to see if the bttv driver is present.

Note for PXC200 users: this card is not auto-configured by the bttv driver.  Use the following method:

modprobe bttv card=29

IEEE 1394 PCI / PCMCIA card (Linux RH 7.3, kernel 2.4.18)

For the MEGA-D, it is possible to use Red Hat 7.3 as the Linux installation, without recompiling the kernel.  However, for the STH-DCAM, and in general for overall stability, we recommend upgrading to the 2.4.19 kernel.  See the instructions for setting up the Linux IEEE 1394 drivers here.

We do not recommend kernels between 2.4.7 and 2.4.17, as there are significant problems with the IEEE 1394 drivers under these kernels.

3. Configure the correct SVS framegrabber interface library

Configuring the interface libraries involves going to the distribution bin\ directory and copying the
correct interface shared object file to libsvscap.so.  The file assignments are shown on the right.

At this point, you should be able to run the smallv.exe application, and access the stereo head.