# Raspberry Pi Video Communications Terminal
I've been configuring a Raspberry Pi 3B+ to be a video terminal, using a ZeroCam and a ReSpeaker 2Mics PiHat to provide the interface.  This should be simple.  Dear reader, it is not.

## Problem 1: Raspbian Buster
Turns out Raspbian Buster doesn't like to make the ZeroCam available to Jitsi and Cheese etc, so I downgraded to Raspbian Stretch, ran an `apt-get upgrade`, enabled the camera, rebooted to check it and carried on.

## Problem 2: The Kernel
So the [ReSpeaker Installer](https://github.com/respeaker/seeed-voicecard) doesn't like the latest kernel.  Luckily, it can load a backup.  Unfortunately the backup is newer and causes a whole host of issues.  After some digging I found where the backups were loaded from and tried [older ones](http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/pool/main/r/raspberrypi-firmware/).  This led to another problem in that once you start experimenting, the automated way the script knows where to find the archives stops working, so I had to edit that.  I was still having problems (though I forget the exact details), so, long story short, I found the last [released version](https://github.com/respeaker/seeed-voicecard/releases/tag/v4.1) of the installer rather than the last commit, edited the makefile to use my chosen kernel, edited dkms.conf to [make it compile](https://github.com/aircrack-ng/rtl8812au/issues/408) (it needed `MAKE="ARCH=arm 'make' "` added to it, though I also used this to pass the new kernel version through), and tried kernel 4.19.42-v7 (raspberrypi-kernel_1.20190517-1_armhf.deb).  This compiled but gave weird `dmesg` errors.  Luckily, a search found [this](https://github.com/respeaker/seeed-voicecard/issues/159) and, after trying various fixes, I just downgraded to the version before (raspberrypi-kernel_1.20190401-1_armhf.deb / kernel 4.14.98+v7), re-edited my hacks, ran the script again and [it worked](https://mastodon.social/@dheadshot/104588712391755910)!

## Problem 3: Camera has stopped working
The ReSpeaker may have worked using this setup, but the camera did not.  I examined `dmesg` to no avail, but remembered a problem I'd seen mentioned somewhere about `/dev/video0` disappearing.  I had a look and, sure enough, it was gone.  A quick search found [this thread](https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=498140) and `sudo modprobe bcm2835-v4l2` seemed to fix it (though weirdly only on the second attempt).  I [added](https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=783109) it to `/etc/modules`, rebooted and *finally* success!

## Where from here
I need to make Jitsi open automatically.  Sadly I can't get Jami on Stretch, so it can only be Jitsi, but that's better than nothing.