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My builtin webcam stopped working after a kernel update issued after 22 April 2020 . Before this date i was able to take pictures on cheese and video call etc , and for a while i didn't use my webcam until yesterday i noticed that my webcam is getting detected as "usb 2.0 web camera" but its not working at all . Cheese shows a black screen when opened and Firefox asks for permission and then nothing happens . So i changed the kernel to version 5.0 and webcam started working properly . But i need to work it on the latest Ubuntu kernel . Any help will be thankful .

output of sudo lshw:

*-usb:1
    description: Video
    product: USB 2.0 Web Camera
    vendor: Alcor Micro, Corp.
    physical id: 2
    bus info: usb@1:1.2
    version: 0.08
    capabilities: usb-2.00
    configuration: driver=uvcvideo maxpower=200mA speed=480Mbit/s
Afsal
  • 927

5 Answers5

6

For me there was permission issue.

The group and permissions for your /dev/video* files were icorrect. The group root for your /dev/video* will deny access to the camera for users outside this group.

The output of ls -l /dev/video0 should look like this:

crw-rw----+ 1 root video 81, 1 Apr 19 22:25 /dev/video0
crw-rw----+ 1 root video 81, 1 Apr 19 22:25 /dev/video1

Try fixing the group by running:

sudo chown root:video /dev/video*

Then fix permissions by running:

sudo chmod 666 /dev/video*

It worked!!

akond
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NEERAJ SWARNKAR
  • 186
6

The solution for me is to use my laptop's webcam toggle button to turn it off and back on. On my keyboard, the toggle is Fn+F6.

crypdick
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3

issue got solved with kernel 5.4.0-37-generic . https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-signed/+bug/1881757

Afsal
  • 927
1

my issue was resolved by updating the Kernel since sometimes newer kernels include fixes for camera initialization issues. so you need to update it to the latest available kernel:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install linux-generic-hwe-20.04

and then you need to reboot the system:

sudo reboot
Reza Pourrahim
  • 11
0

In my case I don't know what the issue was but:

  1. Go to BIOS and disable the cam.
  2. Restart.
  3. Go to BIOS and enable back the camera.

This helped me.

skrat
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