oDesk Team Setup for Linux

Introduction

This text should help to install and configure oDesk client software under Linux. I am using Mandrake 9.1, the same as the godesk developer, so I have had no problem with client startup.

In case of a different Linux distribution additional steps might be needed.

Please contact support at http://www.odesk.com/help/ticket so this file remains up-to-date.

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Webcam configuration

Configuration has been tested using Logitech QuickCam Express.

I will skip kernel USB configuration issue, because most modern Linux distributions has a well-configured USB support out-of-box.

Third-party kernel driver

Linux kernel has no Logitech Quickcam driver built-in.Linux distribution developers may include this driver as third-party kernel module. In my Mandrake, the binary kernel distribution has included third-party driver mod_quickcam. Nothing to do, just

    modprobe mod_quickcam mode=0 interpolations=1 bright=12032 keepexposure=1 tobgr=1

and then I could test webcam. This module require DEVFS.

Obtain and build Quickcam module

Module source code can be downloaded from sourceforge.net

To compile it you need package kernel-source or kernel-headers installed. If you use your own kernel, you must have fully-configured kernel source available (with kernel modversions.h etc.) Module easy to build, download it and read instructions included.

Turn on camera support

Edit file /etc/modules.conf. Add the following lines:

    alias     char-major-81     videodev
    alias     char-major-81-0   quickcam
    options   quickcam          keepexposure=1 tobgr=1

The last parameter turns on BGR->RGB translation (or turn off RGB to BGR?).Anyway, if you see your webcam picture in-the-blue, switch this parameter to 0 or vice versa.

Create device file

Device /dev/video0 already exist on my system. If your distribution does not have /dev/video0 or /dev/v4l/video0, you must create this device file using mknod:

    mknod /dev/video0 c 81 0
    chmod 0666 /dev/video0
    ln -s /dev/video0 /dev/video

An alternative would be to compile kernel with DEVFS support. It will enable to device drivers or modules to create device files on-the-fly without any user disturbance. Modern Linux distributions come with DEVFS support compiled-in.

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Webcam testing

To see how webcam works please install and use gqcam.It will help you test camera settings.

If you see that gain 'floating' in the wide range and image change brightness from too intensive to dark and backyou should turn off the Automatic gain control or Autoscale brightness.By the way, I can not turn off it anyway -- I don't know why this thing won't work and all my camera shots are just white squares. Maybe you need a superuser permissions and run gqcam under root access rights, but I am not sure if this would help.

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Configure client

oDesk Team client reads its configurations settings from ~~/.odesk file.

A minimal one looks like:

    host            team.odesk.com
    port            443
    path            /client/receiver
    company         your_company
    user            your_user_name
    password        your_password
    sniffinterval   600
    CompName        RustedKettle
    SendWebcam      1

Add your own credentials for company,user,password above.

Any other settings can be changed from the GUI in the Edit menu.

• NB - In current release of the oDesk Team Client, the above steps are not needed since the Settings pane performs all needed configuration changes.

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Start client

In order to launch oDeskTeam, a link to the main desktop menu has been inserted.

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