Disclaimer: these are really just personal notes on how I got my camera to work. I hope you find them useful but I can't be held liable for any mishaps or frustrations you may experience. These notes are largely from http://www.unknown-days.com/docs/dsc-s75.php.

---

Background

My setup:

• Debian Linux 3.0 (woody)
• Kernel 2.4.18
• A brand new Sony DSC-P71 camera. Which I am very happy with by the way. ;-)

1. Kernel Settings

If you don't have USB and Hotplug support compiled into your kernel, you'll have to do that. I won't even try and explain how to build a new kernel. Consult the many wonderful HOWTOs out on the web.

Here are the USB and Hotplug options I have enabled in my 2.4.18 kernel:

• CONFIG_USB=y
• CONFIG_USB_DEVICEFS=y
• CONFIG_USB_UHCI=y
• CONFIG_USB_SERIAL=y
• CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_VISOR=m <-- haha, that has nothing to do w/ our camera!
• CONFIG_HOTPLUG=y

Reboot into the new kernel if necessary.

2. Hotplug installation

apt-get to the rescue:

> apt-get install hotplug

3. gphoto2 installation

First, install libusb-dev

> apt-get install libusb-dev

As of today (9/16/2002), woody has only version gphoto-2.0. I installed version gphoto-2.1.0 from Gphoto's SourceForge Site. Do the usual "./configure && make && make install" thing.

To set it up run:

> gphoto2 --print-usb-usermap >> /etc/hotplug/usb.usermap
From the gphoto2 install dir:
> cp packaging/linux-hotplug/usbcam.console /etc/hotplug/usb/usbcam

4. Camera Setup

The DSC-P71 has 2 posible modes for moving pics to your computer: 'normal' and 'PTP'. Normal mode I think is the "USB Mass Media" standard. We need PTP mode. You can change the mode under the 'setup' menu on the camera.

5. gphoto Operation

Now, if all goes well and you've paid your taxes, you should be able to get your beautiful pics off the camera (well, off the memory stick).

> gphoto2 --auto-detect // lists my camera as a "Sony DSC-F707V", but I don't care ;-)
> gphoto2 --get-all-files // will put all the pics/movies into your current dir

Hope this is useful!