iriunwebcam doesn't work on 20.04

Question

iriunwebcam (https://iriun.com) has worked fine on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS as well as on Ubuntu 20.04 beta on another VMware virtual machine, while it won't still work on a real PC. Also it works fine in Ubuntu 19.10 on another virtual machine. In addition I've confirmed it can work in Fedora 31 on another virtual machine.

The followings are the results of lsof -i before and after connected from a smartphone app.

1. on a virtual machine (20.04, 19.10, Fedora 31)

   (1) before connection from sp:

   COMMAND    PID      USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
   iriunwebc 2553 htakenaka   14u  IPv4  60002      0t0  UDP *:4698 
   iriunwebc 2553 htakenaka   15u  IPv6  60005      0t0  UDP *:4698 
   adb       2572 htakenaka    6u  IPv4  55976      0t0  TCP localhost:5037 (LISTEN)
   adb       2572 htakenaka   14u  IPv4  55962      0t0  UDP *:4698 
   adb       2572 htakenaka   15u  IPv6  55966      0t0  UDP *:4698 
   

   (2) after connection from sp:

   COMMAND    PID      USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
   iriunwebc 2078 htakenaka   22u  IPv4  73587      0t0  TCP Ubuntu1910-vmw:39256->192.168.79.201:4699 (ESTABLISHED)
   adb       2098 htakenaka    6u  IPv4  56531      0t0  TCP localhost:5037 (LISTEN)
   adb       2098 htakenaka   20u  IPv4  56514      0t0  UDP *:4698 
   adb       2098 htakenaka   21u  IPv6  56518      0t0  UDP *:4698 
   

2. on a real PC

   COMMAND    PID USER   FD   TYPE  DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME  
   adb     117743 hiro    7u  IPv4 1420502      0t0  TCP localhost:5037 (LISTEN)  
   

From the above results iriunwebcam listens to 4698/udp port to find an available smartphone, and once the connection establishes, the port is closed and a tcp connection is established from a high port to the smartphone's 4699/tcp.

The problem on the real PC is that it cannot open 4698/udp port while 5037/tcp port can be opened both on virtual and real machines.

4698/udp and 5037/tcp are opened in the firewall both on virtual and real machines. Of course, if they are closed, iriunwebcam smartphone app cannot connect to PC app. However, PC app opens the ports even when the ports are closed.

I wonder why it cannot open 4698/udp port on the real PC.

The following is my environment.
_{Host (the real PC): iMac late 2011 (Core i3, 16GB RAM)
VMware Workstation 15.5.2 is used for virtual machines.
The virtual machines are bridged to the LAN through the host.
I'm not using NAT for virtual machines network interface.}

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I've tried using iriunwebcam (https://iriun.com). At first I installed it in Ubuntu 20.04 beta on a VMware vitual machine and it successfully works. Then I installed it in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on a real PC, however it doesn't work. The application itself successfully boots but it won't find the connection from the smartphone app.

lsof -i shows that iriunwebcam can open 4698/udp in 20.04 beta, but it can't in LTS. iriunwebcam seems to use the port to receive the connection from the smartphone app.

I wonder why it cannot open the port in 20.04. Is there anything changed from beta to LTS concerning socket connection or something else?

Answer 1

I had the same problem and also tested it in a VM with Ubuntu 20.04 and 19.10. Both worked right away. Then i tried it on my laptop again with a wired network connection because there was only a wired connection available in the VM and that worked also! After a lot of trying and searching to get it to work via the WIFI Adapter (i mostly work wireless), i ended up with setting the WIFI adapter name to default wlan0. To change the adapter name do this:

1. Open /etc/default/grub
2. Add "net.ifnames=0" to the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT. On my system, it now looks like this: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash net.ifnames=0"
3. Save the file
4. Run update-grub and reboot your machine
5. You might have to reconnect to your network and enter your passphrase

Answer 2

Try sudo modprobe v4l2loopback exclusive_caps=1

Answer 3

you can also try adding the rule in your firewall settings with the command.
ufw allow from <your-device-local-ip>.
it should start from '192.x.x.x' something in that line.
it worked for me

Answer 4

If Iriun webcam is not working after updating GRUB, it could be due to you computer's firewall which sometimes causes problems.

You need to reset all network firewalls in Ubuntu by using the following commands:

sudo ufw --force disable
sudo ufw --force reset
sudo reboot

Answer 5

For me, iriun webcam was working great in ubuntu 18.04 (with setting if_names=0 in grub) but in ubuntu 20.04 as soon as I lauch the client it shows a message "initialization failed, you may want to run: sudo modprobe v4l2loopback exclusive_caps=1" (off course with if_names=0). Running this command has no effect. DroidCam however works flawlessly. Although I noticed that the picture quality of iriun has been better than DroidCam.