Arch Linux

0BADC0DE

Member

From: Regnum Utriusque Siciliae

Registered: 2018-02-21

Posts: 326

Pipewire seems not to work anymore with my USB camera

I have been using pipewire with my browsers (Firefox v132.0.1 , Chromium v130.0.6723.116 and Vivaldi 7.0.3495.11) for sometime now.
I have 2 webcams. One is built into my laptop lid (which normally stays closed) and one is an external USB one.

Everything has worked fine so far but since a few days only the camera that's built into my laptop lid (which normally stands closed) is recognized by browsers.
I use his website as a test bed.

V4L2 reports both cameras:

$ v4l2-ctl --list-devices; pipewire --version;  wpctl status
WEB CAM: WEB CAM (usb-0000:00:14.0-3.2):
        /dev/video4
        /dev/video5
        /dev/media2

Chicony USB2.0 Camera: Chicony  (usb-0000:00:14.0-7):
        /dev/video0
        /dev/video1
        /dev/video2
        /dev/video3
        /dev/media0
        /dev/media1

So does pw-dump and also wpctl:

$ wpctl status
PipeWire 'pipewire-0' [1.2.6, user@Feynman, cookie:3653737658]
 └─ Clients:
        32. kwin_wayland                        [1.2.6, user@Feynman, pid:640]
        33. WirePlumber                         [1.2.6, user@Feynman, pid:683]
        41. WirePlumber [export]                [1.2.6, user@Feynman, pid:683]
        52. xdg-desktop-portal                  [1.2.6, user@Feynman, pid:646]
        63. wpctl                               [1.2.6, user@Feynman, pid:6471]

Audio
 ├─ Devices:
 │  
 ├─ Sinks:
 │  
 ├─ Sources:
 │  
 ├─ Filters:
 │  
 └─ Streams:

Video
 ├─ Devices:
 │      42. Chicony USB2.0 Camera               [v4l2]
 │      43. Chicony USB2.0 Camera               [v4l2]
 │      44. Chicony USB2.0 Camera               [v4l2]
 │      45. Chicony USB2.0 Camera               [v4l2]
 │      46. Chicony USB2.0 Camera: Chicony      [libcamera]
 │      47. Chicony USB2.0 Camera: IR Camer     [libcamera]
 │      53. WEB CAM                             [v4l2]
 │      54. WEB CAM                             [v4l2]
 │      55. WEB CAM: WEB CAM                    [libcamera]
 │  
 ├─ Sinks:
 │  
 ├─ Sources:
 │  *   48. Chicony USB2.0 Camera (V4L2)       
 │      50. Chicony USB2.0 Camera (V4L2)       
 │      56. WEB CAM (V4L2)                     
 │  
 ├─ Filters:
 │  
 └─ Streams:

Settings
 └─ Default Configured Devices:

I have tried to downgrade pipewire packages (libpipewire, pipewire-libcamera, pipewire-session-manager, pipewire) and also reboted by machine several times.
No way.
I had to disable pipewire support into my browsers (ALL OF THEM!) to get the second camera working (through libcamera I presume).
I am discussing the thing with pipewire people, but my idea is that the problem could be unrelated to pipewire. Nor to the browsers.

Any idea?

Last edited by 0BADC0DE (2024-11-08 08:12:46)

---

Maybe Computers Will Never Become As Intelligent
As Humans. Surely They Won't Ever Become So Stupid.

agronholm

Member

Registered: 2025-01-09

Posts: 1

Re: Pipewire seems not to work anymore with my USB camera

I landed here looking for a solution to the same issue. The workaround for disabling pipewire in the browser helped, thanks for that! I'm not even using Arch, but Fedora! Everything used to work fine until recently. I have the same setup as you do.