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#1 2021-09-22 17:41:32

7thSon
Member
Registered: 2017-05-07
Posts: 186

Elgato Facecam webcam not detected by applications

I just got an Elgato Facecam webcam, I'll be using it for video conferencing, sometimes with linux-fake-background-webcam to blur the background via a virtual camera in apps that don't support background blur natively, like Slack and Teams.
However I'm having some issues with it. The camera seems to connect fine to the OS as a device, but not all applications recognize it:

- Slack, Signal and Chromium based browsers (Brave, Chromium, Google Chrome) don't detect it
- Discord, Firefox, Cheese and OBS Studio detect it correctly and display the feed without issues
For the browsers I tested with Google Meet, which is something I use on a daily basis and need to have working.

So to investigate I checked with `lsusb`, the camera is listed as it should, `dmesg` also shows no errors when connecting the camera.
I tried this on two hosts, both have the same behavior, both running Arch.
An interesting point is however that on one of the hosts I have linux-fake-background-webcam set up (https://github.com/fangfufu/Linux-Fake- … und-Webcam),
when using it the feed from the Facecam is correctly processed to have a blurred background, and the resulting virtual camera can then be selected in Google Meet etc.

The Facecam is supposed to be a UVC webcam, which is why I don't see why it's not just popping up for use as it should.
I assume it has something to do with how the device is presented to the applications, but that's about as far as I get.

Some output:

❯ lsusb | grep Elgato
Bus 004 Device 005: ID 0fd9:0078 Elgato Systems GmbH Elgato Facecam
❯ v4l2-ctl --list-devices
Droidcam (platform:v4l2loopback_dc-000):
        /dev/video0

Elgato Facecam: Elgato Facecam (usb-0000:00:14.0-4):
        /dev/video1
        /dev/video2
❯ sudo dmesg --follow
[  +6.619967] usb 4-4: new SuperSpeed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[  +0.017052] usb 4-4: LPM exit latency is zeroed, disabling LPM.
[  +0.000174] usb 4-4: config 1 interface 2 altsetting 0 endpoint 0x89 has an invalid bInterval 81, changing to 10
[  +0.000436] usb 4-4: New USB device found, idVendor=0fd9, idProduct=0078, bcdDevice= 1.00
[  +0.000002] usb 4-4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=11
[  +0.000001] usb 4-4: Product: Elgato Facecam
[  +0.000002] usb 4-4: Manufacturer: Elgato
[  +0.000001] usb 4-4: SerialNumber: FW15K1A12513
[  +0.000945] usb 4-4: Found UVC 1.10 device Elgato Facecam (0fd9:0078)
[  +0.084246] input: Elgato Facecam: Elgato Facecam as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb4/4-4/4-4:1.0/input/input46
[  +0.000639] hid-generic 0003:0FD9:0078.000F: hiddev97,hidraw5: USB HID v1.01 Device [Elgato Elgato Facecam] on usb-0000:00:14.0-4/input2

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#2 2021-10-04 22:23:39

FromTheWalls
Member
Registered: 2021-09-30
Posts: 1

Re: Elgato Facecam webcam not detected by applications

I have the same issue on Arch and Ubuntu.  In for any possible solution/troubleshooting.

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#3 2021-10-05 06:30:40

icar
Member
From: Catalunya
Registered: 2020-07-31
Posts: 442

Re: Elgato Facecam webcam not detected by applications

This seems to be a bit involved
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/elgato-gchd/
https://github.com/tolga9009/elgato-gchd

You need to extract them yourself from the Windows "Game Capture" software, or the official Mac OS X drivers

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#4 2021-10-06 11:18:16

7thSon
Member
Registered: 2017-05-07
Posts: 186

Re: Elgato Facecam webcam not detected by applications

FromTheWalls wrote:

I have the same issue on Arch and Ubuntu.  In for any possible solution/troubleshooting.

My workaround for now is simple, I use OBS Studio which recognizes the camera fine and start the OBS virtual camera once it's set up.
This way I can use the camera in any application, it shows as "OBS Virtual Camera" in the device selection.
Basically you're just replacing the Elgato Game Capture software with OBS Studio instead.

icar wrote:

This seems to be a bit involved
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/elgato-gchd/
https://github.com/tolga9009/elgato-gchd

You need to extract them yourself from the Windows "Game Capture" software, or the official Mac OS X drivers

Those methods seem like a real pain. I'm surprised that the camera is not made to work as a generic UVC device straight out of the box.
Hopefully we'll see a firmware update from Elgato that would fix it.

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#5 2022-01-09 06:01:40

catrielmuller
Member
From: Argentina
Registered: 2022-01-09
Posts: 1
Website

Re: Elgato Facecam webcam not detected by applications

I have exactly the same issue. I tried with OBS, however I hate that OBS ask me for whats monitor should be use (Wayland Pipewire Portal) so I created this manual pipe using the same v4l2loopback solution of OBS.

https://gist.github.com/catrielmuller/7 … 570fd953d8

if you really want you can put the `facecam-inti.sh` script in the autorun.

I only share it in case it serves someone else.

If anybody have a better solution I will glad to know that.

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#6 2022-01-09 09:40:09

progandy
Member
Registered: 2012-05-17
Posts: 5,184

Re: Elgato Facecam webcam not detected by applications

Maybe the elgato device does not support a format that the chromium based stuff understands. You could try to add a converter from v4l-utils:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/v4l2convert.so your_chromium_based_binary

Edit: The supported formats: https://github.com/umlaeute/v4l2loopbac … -613308856 (newer version might also support V4L2_PIX_FMT_NV12)

Last edited by progandy (2022-01-09 09:45:01)


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#7 2022-12-20 12:58:43

kouak
Member
Registered: 2022-12-20
Posts: 1

Re: Elgato Facecam webcam not detected by applications

I had the same issue, but upgrading the facecam firmware (from 2.x to 4.09) fixed the issue and made the camera visible to Chrome/Chromium (tested on webcamtests.com, Chrome/Chromium 108).

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