Problem with webcam and Cheese

Can you give the output of:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade; sudo apt-get --purge remove cheese; sudo apt-get --purge autoremove; sudo apt-get clean; sudo apt-get install cheese

Thanks.

Here is all the information I get... Cheese still doesn't work... but if you look below, you will see the error messages I get regarding Pidgin.

sudo apt-get update

Hit http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security Release.gpg
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy Release.gpg
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/universe Translation-en_US
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security Release
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates Release.gpg
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/main Translation-en_US
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/main Packages
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/restricted Translation-en_US
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/restricted Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/universe Packages
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/universe Translation-en_US
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy Release
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates Release
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy/restricted Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy/universe Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/main Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/restricted Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/universe Packages

sudo apt-get upgrade

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Setting up pidgin-ppa (0.0.2) ...
OK
dpkg: error processing pidgin-ppa (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 pidgin-ppa
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

sudo apt-get --purge remove cheese

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libarts1c2a kdelibs4c2a libartsc0 kdelibs-data libkdegames1 liblualib50
  libavahi-qt3-1 libqt3-mt liblua50 libaudio2
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  cheese*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 5685kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 106676 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing cheese ...
Purging configuration files for cheese ...
Setting up pidgin-ppa (0.0.2) ...
OK
dpkg: error processing pidgin-ppa (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 pidgin-ppa
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

sudo apt-get --purge autoremove

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libarts1c2a kdelibs4c2a libartsc0 kdelibs-data libkdegames1 liblualib50
  libavahi-qt3-1 libqt3-mt liblua50 libaudio2
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  kdelibs-data* kdelibs4c2a* libarts1c2a* libartsc0* libaudio2*
  libavahi-qt3-1* libkdegames1* liblua50* liblualib50* libqt3-mt*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 10 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 72.2MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 106587 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing libkdegames1 ...
Purging configuration files for libkdegames1 ...
Removing kdelibs4c2a ...
Purging configuration files for kdelibs4c2a ...
Removing kdelibs-data ...
Purging configuration files for kdelibs-data ...
Removing libarts1c2a ...
Purging configuration files for libarts1c2a ...
Removing libartsc0 ...
Purging configuration files for libartsc0 ...
Removing libavahi-qt3-1 ...
Purging configuration files for libavahi-qt3-1 ...
Removing libqt3-mt ...
Purging configuration files for libqt3-mt ...
Removing libaudio2 ...
Removing liblualib50 ...
Purging configuration files for liblualib50 ...
Removing liblua50 ...
Purging configuration files for liblua50 ...
Processing triggers for libc6 ...
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
Setting up pidgin-ppa (0.0.2) ...
OK
dpkg: error processing pidgin-ppa (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 pidgin-ppa
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

sudo apt-get clean

sudo apt-get install cheese

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  cheese
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 1107kB of archives.
After this operation, 5685kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/main cheese 2.22.3-0ubuntu1.1 [1107kB]
Fetched 1107kB in 11s (97.1kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package cheese.
(Reading database ... 101729 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking cheese (from .../cheese_2.22.3-0ubuntu1.1_i386.deb) ...
Setting up pidgin-ppa (0.0.2) ...
OK
dpkg: error processing pidgin-ppa (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Setting up cheese (2.22.3-0ubuntu1.1) ...

Errors were encountered while processing:
 pidgin-ppa
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pidgin-developers/ppa; sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade

Should be ok. If not then you will need this:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1285455.html

Just use pidgin-ppa instead of flash which is being advised in the guide.

This sort of thing is one of the MASSIVE weaknesses in package based systems.

Tried that first command in terminal and got the following:

sudo: add-apt-repository: command not found

Is that correct?

What is the output of:

lsb_release -a

Thanks

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS
Release: 8.04
Codename: hardy

Yeah thought so, it doesn't have to command so we have to do it old school.

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

add these 2 lines:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/pidgin-developers/ppa/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/pidgin-developers/ppa/ubuntu hardy main

Save the new file and close gedit, then run this command:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys A1F196A8; sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get --reinstall install pidgin

Should be ok