Hi reinob,

Thanks for a great suggestion.

/dev/video0 did already exist, with major 81 minor 1, and video from the *rear* (main) camera can be streamed from it using mplayer.

If I create /dev/video1 with major 81 and minor 1, this understandably also connects to the same camera.

If I create a /dev/video1 node with major 81 minor 2 and then try and stream video from it with mplayer I get:

v4l2: unable to open '/dev/video1': no such device or address
v4l2: ioctl set mute failed: Bad file descriptor
...

The node definitely exists with correct permissions etc.

To confirm, are you saying your device has video0 attached to minor 2 and that is your rear (main) camera?

My understanding was that these nodes are built into the flash image, but if that is the case then I do wonder how I could wind up with one missing and the other on the wrong device minor number. Or are they created at runtime? I feel like I am missing a trick here.

I *did* restore a backup (from my first N900, which worked fine with the front camera) and that installed a lot of software etc.

Perhaps I will try another reflash but test the cameras before restoring the backup. If that doesn't work then it is looking more likely to be a hardware fault, in which case I will dismantle it and get the 'scope out :-)

All the best,
Phil