Dlink DFW-500 Firewire Controller on Ubuntu 7.10 + Kino

Today I try to install the Dlink DFW-500 Firewire Controller on a new installation of Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon.

Ubuntu recognized it without problems. Thanks to Ubuntu Block Notes for a straightforward tutorial on video capturing from external dv videocamera. These the main steps to install:

1) Verifiy that 1394 modules are loaded:

lsmod | grep 1394

You should have an output similar to the following:

dv1394 20824 0
video1394 19800 0
raw1394 31096 0
ohci1394 36528 2 dv1394,video1394
ieee1394 96312 4 dv1394,video1394,raw1394,ohci1394

If modules are not loaded, edit the following file (evenutally you can make a security backup copy first)

sudo gedit /etc/modules

and add these lines at the end of the file:

raw1394
video1394
dv1394

Save and close.

2) You should set writing permissions on firewire port. So you have to edit this file (remember backup copy first):

sudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/40-permissions.rules

Locate the following section:

# IEEE1394 (firewire) devices
# Please note that raw1394 gives unrestricted, raw access to every single
# device on the bus and those devices may do anything as root on your system.
# Yes, I know it also happens to be the only way to rewind your video camera,
# but it's not going to be group "video", okay?
KERNEL=="raw1394", GROUP="disk"
KERNEL=="dv1394*", GROUP="video"
KERNEL=="video1394*", GROUP="video"

and add MODE=”0666″ between KERNEL and GROUP entry, like following lines:

# IEEE1394 (firewire) devices
# Please note that raw1394 gives unrestricted, raw access to every single
# device on the bus and those devices may do anything as root on your system.
# Yes, I know it also happens to be the only way to rewind your video camera,
# but it's not going to be group "video", okay?
KERNEL=="raw1394", MODE="0666", GROUP="disk"
KERNEL=="dv1394*", MODE="0666", GROUP="video"
KERNEL=="video1394*", MODE="0666", GROUP="video"

Save and close file.

3) Reboot

4) Install Kino:

sudo apt-get install kino

and launch it. Then go in the capture section. Here you can control all movements (play, stop, reverse, forward) of your DV camera. An example using Kino recording live by the camera: