From Newsgroup: muc.lists.freebsd.ports

Hello,

I was appointed as maintainer of webcamd, and I realize the situation is
a bit complicated on the human side of things as the original author
passed away and he was an important member of the community. I hope to
be able to respect his work moving things forward.


The upstream project is now unmaintained and we apply patches as port
files but this is not a good situation.

The webcamd project is very important to FreeBSD on the desktop and I
think it deserve to be maintained properly.

While I am quite confident in C, I am ignorent of USB stack and linux
kernel so I don't feel like I am the best person to write significant
changes to the project. But I think I can manage patches and hope the
project will stay stable.

The project is on an unmaintained github repository and will need to be forked.

I would prefer to put the project outside of github and under a common
control (under a foundation organization or something).

So I am wondering if freebsd has such umbrella where we could put the
proect.

Best regards
--
Nicolas Goy



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Message-ID: <c450541f-4720-485b-af16-560350567e70@freebsd.org>
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2026 10:52:12 -0400
MIME-Version: 1.0
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird
Subject: Re: Webcamd future
To: Nicolas Goy <me@kuon.ch>, freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.org
References: <673795d2-fed0-4fde-bc1c-b81532309aa8@kuon.ch>
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Organization: FreeBSD Project
In-Reply-To: <673795d2-fed0-4fde-bc1c-b81532309aa8@kuon.ch>

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From Newsgroup: muc.lists.freebsd.ports

On Sun, Aug 23, 2026 at 1:56rC>PM Nicolas Goy <me@kuon.ch> wrote:

Hello,

I was appointed as maintainer of webcamd, and I realize the situation is
a bit complicated on the human side of things as the original author
passed away and he was an important member of the community. I hope to
be able to respect his work moving things forward.

The upstream project is now unmaintained and we apply patches as port
files but this is not a good situation.

The webcamd project is very important to FreeBSD on the desktop and I
think it deserve to be maintained properly.

While I am quite confident in C, I am ignorent of USB stack and linux
kernel so I don't feel like I am the best person to write significant
changes to the project. But I think I can manage patches and hope the
project will stay stable.

The project is on an unmaintained github repository and will need to be forked.

I would prefer to put the project outside of github and under a common control (under a foundation organization or something).

So I am wondering if freebsd has such umbrella where we could put the
proect.

Best regards

--
Nicolas Goy

Thank you Nicolas for stepping up with continuation of the (in loving
memory of) HPS's amazing work!
Webcamd is _very_ important on desktop and I use it daily with my
webcam as well as usb-hdmi grabber for daily videoconferences and
often for streaming related events from my FreeBSD workstation.
I know kernel level video drivers are being introduced, but not yet
covers the current webcamd functionality, and not available in older
releases such as 14.
Thus it still deserves a maintenance, until maybe it is moved into
kernel-level video driver (maybe not), for sure a solid repository, I
hope TFF can help here :-)
When in need of help with USB please ask on the mailing lists maybe we
could sort things out with the community :-) What are relations to
Linux kernel that you mentioned? How this can be avoided?
Thank you again and have fun! :-)
Tomek
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Hi!

I was appointed as maintainer of webcamd,

When I search for webcamd, there are quite a few projects
that use that name currently ?

So I guess you mean HPSs project, right ? Can you be a bit more
verbose on this appointment 8-) ?

and I realize the situation is a
bit complicated on the human side of things as the original author passed away and he was an important member of the community. I hope to be able to respect his work moving things forward.

[...]

The project is on an unmaintained github repository and will need to be forked.

You mean the repo at

https://github.com/hselasky/webcamd

?

I would prefer to put the project outside of github and under a common control (under a foundation organization or something).

So I am wondering if freebsd has such umbrella where we could put the project.

You mean if there's a repo under FreeBSD Foundation control where the
code can be put ?

I'm not aware if there's such a repo right now.
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Hi!

What are relations to
Linux kernel that you mentioned? How this can be avoided?

If I understand it correctly, webcamd at https://github.com/hselasky/webcamd was started as a user-space daemon that provides Linux USB Kernel
functions, so that relevant Linux-based webcam drivers can somehow
be integrated.

At least that's how HPS announced it in 2010:

https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-usb/2010-January/008069.html
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From Newsgroup: muc.lists.freebsd.ports

On Sun, Aug 23, 2026 at 3:37rC>PM Kurt Jaeger <pi@freebsd.org> wrote:

Hi!

What are relations to
Linux kernel that you mentioned? How this can be avoided?

If I understand it correctly, webcamd at https://github.com/hselasky/webcamd was started as a user-space daemon that provides Linux USB Kernel
functions, so that relevant Linux-based webcam drivers can somehow
be integrated.

At least that's how HPS announced it in 2010:

https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-usb/2010-January/008069.html

Yeah. It resides in the userland because of GPLv2 license, so it
cannot be just copy-pasted into the new in-kernel webcam code which
must be BSD licensed. Also because it supports ~1500 devices the
rewrite may not be feasible?
https://github.com/hselasky/webcamd:
"""
Introduction
Webcamd is a small daemon that enables about 1500 different USB based
webcam, DVB and remote control USB devices under the FreeBSD operating
system. The webcam daemon is basically an application which is a port
of Linux USB drivers into userspace on FreeBSD. The daemon currently
depends on libc, pthreads, libusb and libcuse.
Licensing
Webcamd is GPLv2 licensed due to the external Linux part which is
GPLv2, though some files inside the webcamd remains BSD licensed which
allows for building similar BSD licensed daemons.
"""
Because "daemon currently depends on libc, pthreads, libusb and
libcuse" there is not much kernel involved right? Except the Linux
kernel is a moving target so the copy-paste into webcamd may not
always be trivial :-P
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Hi!

What are relations to
Linux kernel that you mentioned? How this can be avoided?

If I understand it correctly, webcamd at https://github.com/hselasky/webcamd
was started as a user-space daemon that provides Linux USB Kernel functions, so that relevant Linux-based webcam drivers can somehow
be integrated.

At least that's how HPS announced it in 2010:

https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-usb/2010-January/008069.html

Yeah. It resides in the userland because of GPLv2 license, so it
cannot be just copy-pasted into the new in-kernel webcam code which
must be BSD licensed. Also because it supports ~1500 devices the
rewrite may not be feasible?

From what I learned about AI coding success stories, not much is
'not feasible' any longer.

Because "daemon currently depends on libc, pthreads, libusb and
libcuse" there is not much kernel involved right?
Except the Linux
kernel is a moving target so the copy-paste into webcamd may not
always be trivial :-P

Yes, I think this is why kuon mentioned Linux kernel topics.
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On Sun, Aug 23, 2026 at 3:53rC>PM Kurt Jaeger <pi@freebsd.org> wrote:

Hi!

What are relations to
Linux kernel that you mentioned? How this can be avoided?

If I understand it correctly, webcamd at https://github.com/hselasky/webcamd
was started as a user-space daemon that provides Linux USB Kernel functions, so that relevant Linux-based webcam drivers can somehow
be integrated.

At least that's how HPS announced it in 2010:

https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-usb/2010-January/008069.html

Yeah. It resides in the userland because of GPLv2 license, so it
cannot be just copy-pasted into the new in-kernel webcam code which
must be BSD licensed. Also because it supports ~1500 devices the
rewrite may not be feasible?

From what I learned about AI coding success stories, not much is
'not feasible' any longer.

Because "daemon currently depends on libc, pthreads, libusb and
libcuse" there is not much kernel involved right?
Except the Linux
kernel is a moving target so the copy-paste into webcamd may not
always be trivial :-P

Yes, I think this is why kuon mentioned Linux kernel topics.

True true :-) Very nice to hear amazingly helpful and useful HPS work
is continued! :-)
When HPS created LibUSB compatible stack here that was my "switch for
good to FreeBSD" moment as I daily work with embedded stuff. Right now
I have two 8 port and five 16 ports USB HUBs for boards development
and testing. Man I miss him. Thank You HPS :-)
--
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--992985b5282e932e8ef65d0b02eea3e4b3cc82a0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

I think much of the efforts in this area have gone towards base system=20 integration, ie video(4) and uvideo(4). These are present and under=20
active development in -CURRENT.
=20
--=20
Charlie Li
...nope, still don't have an exit line.
=20
=20
=20

Hi there,

I was part of the effort that brought `uvideo(4)` and `video(4)` to Free=
BSD. The kernel code originally comes from OpenBSD, and we have been ext= ending it on the FreeBSD side.

We now have a native video stack that handles capture and already expose=
s many standard UVC controls.

I think the next step should be an userland layer for controlling the ca=
mera as a device.

Modern cameras can expose much more than a single video stream. Userland=
should be able to handle things such as:
=E2=80=A2 opening and closing a physical privacy shutter
=E2=80=A2 switching between camera modes
=E2=80=A2 controlling IR emitters, LEDs, focus, zoom, and other features
=E2=80=A2 selecting and coordinating multiple sensors exposed as one ca=
mera
=E2=80=A2 RGB + IR or RGB + depth cameras
=E2=80=A2 thermal cameras
=E2=80=A2 UVC extension units and vendor-specific controls
Thermal cameras are an interesting case. Some expose something that look=
s like an ordinary video stream, but the pixels may actually represent t= emperature measurements instead of colors. The device may also provide c= alibration data, temperature ranges, emissivity settings, shutter calibr= ation, or a separate visible-light sensor. We should not have all those = quirks in the kernel side.

That also gives us ability to handle cameras where several physical sen=
sors appear as one logical device without pushing all of that policy int=
o the kernel. I remember some Logitech conference cameras have eyes that=
look like fly eyes but still show as 1 camera.

But instead of creating a new binary, we can modify webcamd to have new =
part with BSD code only. So in 16+ it will compile only the new part.

Nicolas , don't hesitate to reach out if you need help. I also like the=
idea of having the project moved to a neutral org owned by the foundati=
on .. freebsd-contrib ?
We can reach out to Github to make the move. --992985b5282e932e8ef65d0b02eea3e4b3cc82a0
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title></title></head><body><div class=3D"ali= gn-start" style=3D"text-align:start;"><br></div><blockquote type=3D"cite=
" id=3D"qt" style=3D""><div>I think much of the efforts in this area hav=
e gone towards base system&nbsp;</div><div>integration, ie video(4) and = uvideo(4). These are present and under&nbsp;</div><div>active developmen=
t in -CURRENT.</div><div><br></div><div>--&nbsp;</div><div>Charlie Li</d= iv><div>...nope, still don't have an exit line.</div><div><br></div><div= ><br></div><div><br></div></blockquote><div class=3D"align-start" style=3D= "text-align:start;">Hi there,</div><div class=3D"align-start" style=3D"t= ext-align:start;"><br></div><div class=3D"align-start" style=3D"text-ali= gn:start;">I was part of the effort that brought&nbsp;<code style=3D"bor= der-top-width:1px;border-right-width:1px;border-bottom-width:1px;border-= left-width:1px;border-top-style:solid;border-right-style:solid;border-bo= ttom-style:solid;border-left-style:solid;border-top-color:rgb(204, 204, = 204);border-right-color:rgb(204, 204, 204);border-bottom-color:rgb(204, =
204, 204);border-left-color:rgb(204, 204, 204);border-image-source:none;= border-image-slice:100%;border-image-width:1;border-image-outset:0;borde= r-image-repeat:stretch;border-top-left-radius:3px;border-top-right-radiu= s:3px;border-bottom-right-radius:3px;border-bottom-left-radius:3px;backg= round-image:none;background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:0%;backg= round-size:auto;background-repeat:repeat;background-attachment:scroll;ba= ckground-origin:padding-box;background-clip:border-box;background-color:= rgb(246, 246, 246);font-family:menlo, consolas, monospace;font-size:90%;= padding-top:1px;padding-right:3px;padding-bottom:1px;padding-left:3px;">= uvideo(4)</code>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<code style=3D"border-top-width:1px;borde= r-right-width:1px;border-bottom-width:1px;border-left-width:1px;border-t= op-style:solid;border-right-style:solid;border-bottom-style:solid;border= -left-style:solid;border-top-color:rgb(204, 204, 204);border-right-color= :rgb(204, 204, 204);border-bottom-color:rgb(204, 204, 204);border-left-c= olor:rgb(204, 204, 204);border-image-source:none;border-image-slice:100%= ;border-image-width:1;border-image-outset:0;border-image-repeat:stretch;= border-top-left-radius:3px;border-top-right-radius:3px;border-bottom-rig= ht-radius:3px;border-bottom-left-radius:3px;background-image:none;backgr= ound-position-x:0%;background-position-y:0%;background-size:auto;backgro= und-repeat:repeat;background-attachment:scroll;background-origin:padding= -box;background-clip:border-box;background-color:rgb(246, 246, 246);font= -family:menlo, consolas, monospace;font-size:90%;padding-top:1px;padding= -right:3px;padding-bottom:1px;padding-left:3px;">video(4)</code>&nbsp;to=
FreeBSD. The kernel code originally comes from OpenBSD, and we have bee=
n extending it on the FreeBSD side.</div><div class=3D"align-start" styl= e=3D"text-align:start;"><br></div><div class=3D"align-start" style=3D"te= xt-align:start;">We now have a native video stack that handles capture a=
nd already exposes many standard UVC controls.</div><div class=3D"align-= start" style=3D"text-align:start;"><br></div><div class=3D"align-start" = style=3D"text-align:start;">I think the next step should be an userland =
layer for controlling the camera as a device.</div><div class=3D"align-s=
tart" style=3D"text-align:start;"><br></div><div class=3D"align-start" s= tyle=3D"text-align:start;">Modern cameras can expose much more than a si=
ngle video stream. Userland should be able to handle things such as:</di= v><ul><li>opening and closing a physical privacy shutter</li><li>switchi=
ng between camera modes</li><li>controlling IR emitters, LEDs, focus, zo=
om, and other features</li><li>selecting and coordinating multiple senso=
rs exposed as one camera</li><li>RGB + IR or RGB + depth cameras</li><li= >thermal cameras</li><li>UVC extension units and vendor-specific control= s</li></ul><div class=3D"align-start" style=3D"text-align:start;">Therma=
l cameras are an interesting case. Some expose something that looks like=
an ordinary video stream, but the pixels may actually represent tempera=
ture measurements instead of colors. The device may also provide calibra=
tion data, temperature ranges, emissivity settings, shutter calibration,=
or a separate visible-light sensor. We should not have all those quirks=
in the kernel side.</div><div class=3D"align-start" style=3D"text-align= :start;"><br></div><div class=3D"align-start" style=3D"text-align:start;= ">That also gives us ability to &nbsp;handle cameras where several physi=
cal sensors appear as one logical device without pushing all of that pol=
icy into the kernel. I remember some Logitech conference cameras have ey=
es that look like fly eyes but still show as 1 camera.</div><div class=3D= "align-start" style=3D"text-align:start;"><br></div><div class=3D"align-= start" style=3D"text-align:start;">But instead of creating a new binary,=
we can modify webcamd to have new part with BSD code only. &nbsp;So in =
16+ it will compile only the new part.<br></div><div class=3D"align-star=
t" style=3D"text-align:start;"><br></div><div class=3D"align-start" styl= e=3D"text-align:start;">Nicolas , don't hesitate to &nbsp;reach out if y=
ou need help. I also like the idea of having the project moved to a neut=
ral org owned by the foundation .. freebsd-contrib ?</div><div class=3D"= align-start" style=3D"text-align:start;">We can reach out to Github to m=
ake the move.</div></body></html>
--992985b5282e932e8ef65d0b02eea3e4b3cc82a0--


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---- Am Sun, 23 Aug 2026 17:13:33 +0200 tomek@cedro.info schrieb ----

On Sun, Aug 23, 2026 at 1:56=E2=80=AFPM Nicolas Goy=20
wrote:

Hello,

I was appointed as maintainer of webcamd, and I realize the situation i=

s

a bit complicated on the human side of things as the original author
passed away and he was an important member of the community. I hope to
be able to respect his work moving things forward.

The upstream project is now unmaintained and we apply patches as port
files but this is not a good situation.

The webcamd project is very important to FreeBSD on the desktop and I
think it deserve to be maintained properly.

While I am quite confident in C, I am ignorent of USB stack and linux kernel so I don't feel like I am the best person to write significant changes to the project. But I think I can manage patches and hope the project will stay stable.

The project is on an unmaintained github repository and will need to be forked.

I would prefer to put the project outside of github and under a common control (under a foundation organization or something).

So I am wondering if freebsd has such umbrella where we could put the proect.

Best regards

--
Nicolas Goy

=20
Thank you Nicolas for stepping up with continuation of the (in loving
memory of) HPS's amazing work!
=20
Webcamd is _very_ important on desktop and I use it daily with my
webcam as well as usb-hdmi grabber for daily videoconferences and
often for streaming related events from my FreeBSD workstation.
=20
I know kernel level video drivers are being introduced, but not yet
covers the current webcamd functionality, and not available in older
releases such as 14.
=20
Thus it still deserves a maintenance, until maybe it is moved into kernel-level video driver (maybe not), for sure a solid repository, I
hope TFF can help here :-)

webcamd is also the solution to use DVB-C/T/S2 devices with FreeBSD. So wha=
t we know as video4linux in the Linux world.=C2=A0 All users of MythTV, tvh= eadend (used by Kodi) and minisatip have it.


I don't expect that any of this devices will ever get a FreeBSD kernel driv=
er but the drivers exist in the Linux world and webcamd was a masterpiece t= hat made it possible. Yeah we should at least make sure that the code will =
be available and maintainable for the time being. It probably will not need=
any big Linux version updates because I guess the market for DVB devices i=
s dead and even video4linux project is basically dead.


To answer your question, yes there is a FreeBSD Organisation on GitHub and =
it already contains projects like pkg, vm-bhyve etc. and I think it would b=
e a suitable home for webcamd as well.


I will get in contact with bofh@ how we can deal with that - or I will nag = some people in Brussels at the next DevSummit about it. ------=_Part_1247724_1282545923.1787514321622
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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"><html><head>= <meta content=3D"text/html;charset=3DUTF-8" http-equiv=3D"Content-Type"></h= ead><body ><div dir=3D'auto' style=3D'font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana,Ar= ial,Helvetica,sans-serif;'><div id=3D"message" dir=3D"auto"><div>---- Am Su=
n, 23 Aug 2026 17:13:33 +0200 tomek@cedro.info schrieb ----</div></div><div=
id=3D"content" dir=3D"auto"><div><br><br>&gt; On Sun, Aug 23, 2026 at 1:56= =E2=80=AFPM Nicolas Goy <me@kuon.ch[mailto:me@kuon.ch]><br>&gt; wrote:<br>&= gt; &gt;<br>&gt; &gt; Hello,<br>&gt; &gt;<br>&gt; &gt; I was appointed as m= aintainer of webcamd, and I realize the situation is<br>&gt; &gt; a bit com= plicated on the human side of things as the original author<br>&gt; &gt; pa= ssed away and he was an important member of the community. I hope to<br>&gt=
; &gt; be able to respect his work moving things forward.<br>&gt; &gt;<br>&= gt; &gt;<br>&gt; &gt; The upstream project is now unmaintained and we apply=
patches as port<br>&gt; &gt; files but this is not a good situation.<br>&g=
t; &gt;<br>&gt; &gt; The webcamd project is very important to FreeBSD on th=
e desktop and I<br>&gt; &gt; think it deserve to be maintained properly.<br= >&gt; &gt;<br>&gt; &gt; While I am quite confident in C, I am ignorent of U=
SB stack and linux<br>&gt; &gt; kernel so I don't feel like I am the best p= erson to write significant<br>&gt; &gt; changes to the project. But I think=
I can manage patches and hope the<br>&gt; &gt; project will stay stable.<b= r>&gt; &gt;<br>&gt; &gt; The project is on an unmaintained github repositor=
y and will need to be<br>&gt; &gt; forked.<br>&gt; &gt;<br>&gt; &gt; I woul=
d prefer to put the project outside of github and under a common<br>&gt; &g=
t; control (under a foundation organization or something).<br>&gt; &gt;<br>= &gt; &gt; So I am wondering if freebsd has such umbrella where we could put=
the<br>&gt; &gt; proect.<br>&gt; &gt;<br>&gt; &gt; Best regards<br>&gt; &g= t;<br>&gt; &gt; --<br>&gt; &gt; Nicolas Goy<br>&gt; <br>&gt; Thank you Nico= las for stepping up with continuation of the (in loving<br>&gt; memory of) = HPS's amazing work!<br>&gt; <br>&gt; Webcamd is _very_ important on desktop=
and I use it daily with my<br>&gt; webcam as well as usb-hdmi grabber for = daily videoconferences and<br>&gt; often for streaming related events from =
my FreeBSD workstation.<br>&gt; <br>&gt; I know kernel level video drivers = are being introduced, but not yet<br>&gt; covers the current webcamd functi= onality, and not available in older<br>&gt; releases such as 14.<br>&gt; <b= r>&gt; Thus it still deserves a maintenance, until maybe it is moved into<b= r>&gt; kernel-level video driver (maybe not), for sure a solid repository, = I<br>&gt; hope TFF can help here :-)<br><br></me@kuon.ch[mailto:me@kuon.ch]= ></div><div><me@kuon.ch[mailto:me@kuon.ch]>webcamd is also the solution to = use DVB-C/T/S2 devices with FreeBSD. So what we know as video4linux in the = Linux world.&nbsp; All users of MythTV, tvheadend (used by Kodi) and minisa= tip have it.</me@kuon.ch[mailto:me@kuon.ch]></div><div><me@kuon.ch[mailto:m= e@kuon.ch]><br></me@kuon.ch[mailto:me@kuon.ch]></div><div><me@kuon.ch[mailt= o:me@kuon.ch]>I don't expect that any of this devices will ever get a FreeB=
SD kernel driver but the drivers exist in the Linux world and webcamd was a=
masterpiece that made it possible. Yeah we should at least make sure that = the code will be available and maintainable for the time being. It probably=
will not need any big Linux version updates because I guess the market for=
DVB devices is dead and even video4linux project is basically dead.</me@ku= on.ch[mailto:me@kuon.ch]></div><div><me@kuon.ch[mailto:me@kuon.ch]><br></me= @kuon.ch[mailto:me@kuon.ch]></div><div><me@kuon.ch[mailto:me@kuon.ch]>To an= swer your question, yes there is a FreeBSD Organisation on GitHub and it al= ready contains projects like pkg, vm-bhyve etc. and I think it would be a s= uitable home for webcamd as well.</me@kuon.ch[mailto:me@kuon.ch]></div><div= ><me@kuon.ch[mailto:me@kuon.ch]><br></me@kuon.ch[mailto:me@kuon.ch]></div><= div>I will get in contact with bofh@ how we can deal with that - or I will = nag some people in Brussels at the next DevSummit about it.</div></div></di= v><br></body></html>
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