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Hello I have read that all entries in /dev are set up to work as if they were regular files. After plugging in my webcam, the OS creates /dev/video0 automatically. I then do:

maxtor@lounge:~$ sudo cat /dev/video0 > vyd 
[sudo] password for maxtor: 
cat:/dev/video0: 
No such devicemaxtor@lounge:~$

I was hoping that it would put a frame of video in 'vyd'. So why wont it?

Starting Cheese, next, works; so everything seems to be in order.

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Basically, that's not how the /dev/videoX interface works; you can't cat the device node to get a frame of video out.

There are a number of utilities to do this though, their suitability depending on what you're looking to do. For example, the webcam package can take a snapshot from a video device and upload it to the web.

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