[Solved] Unable to identify laptop webcam

flying_squirrel · 2015-05-29 11:30:20

Hi all!

I bought my computer some months ago but never really needed the webcam untill now. I went to check the website of the shop that built and sold me the computer but was unable to find out what kind of webcam there is on my computer (I sent an e-mail).

I tried lsusb, lspci and lshw. Here are the output of lsusb and lspci:

Bus 004 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp. 
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 8087:8008 Intel Corp. 
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 8087:07dc Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 090c:1000 Silicon Motion, Inc. - Taiwan (formerly Feiya Technology Corp.) Flash Drive
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 06)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor PCI Express x16 Controller (rev 06)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)
00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio Controller (rev 06)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI (rev 05)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #2 (rev 05)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev d5)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #2 (rev d5)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #3 (rev d5)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #4 (rev d5)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #1 (rev 05)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM86 Express LPC Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] (rev 05)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 05)
03:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5229 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
04:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 (rev 73)
05:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 5289 (rev 01)
05:00.2 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 0a)

A grep on hwinfo also gave that:

           video: /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0A08:00/LNXVIDEO:01
    input device: bus = acpi, bus_id = LNXVIDEO:01 driver = video
  P: Phys=LNXVIDEO/video/input0
  E: DRIVER=video
  E: PHYS="LNXVIDEO/video/input0"
  E: LIBINPUT_DEVICE_GROUP=LNXVIDEO/video
  video 24576 1 i915, Live 0xffffffffa00b7000

Thank you for any advice,

Last edited by flying_squirrel (2015-05-29 16:23:16)

mrunion · 2015-05-29 12:37:38

Have you installed/ran guvcview and see if it finds the webcam? If you laptop is anything like mine, there is a hotkey that you have to use to "enable" the web cam before it will work. For me, it's Fn + F6. That turns the webcam "on". Then I can use lsusb to see it, and dmesg|tail shows it. (It's a Bison brand. Never heard of that one!)

jsoy9pQbYVNu5nfU · 2015-05-29 15:22:48

Post the output of

v4l2-ctl --all

(from v4l-utils) This is going to show us if your camera is being recognized as such, and if yes, which driver is in use, and what it can do. Your output will ideally be similar to this:

Driver Info (not using libv4l2):
	Driver name   : uvcvideo
	Card type     : Integrated Camera
	Bus info      : usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.8
	Driver version: 4.0.4
	Capabilities  : 0x84200001
		Video Capture
		Streaming
		Extended Pix Format
		Device Capabilities
	Device Caps   : 0x04200001
		Video Capture
		Streaming
		Extended Pix Format
Priority: 2
Video input : 0 (Camera 1: ok)
Format Video Capture:
	Width/Height  : 640/480
	Pixel Format  : 'YUYV'
	Field         : None
	Bytes per Line: 1280
	Size Image    : 614400
	Colorspace    : SRGB
	Flags         : 
Crop Capability Video Capture:
	Bounds      : Left 0, Top 0, Width 640, Height 480
	Default     : Left 0, Top 0, Width 640, Height 480
	Pixel Aspect: 1/1
Streaming Parameters Video Capture:
	Capabilities     : timeperframe
	Frames per second: 30.000 (30/1)
	Read buffers     : 0
                     brightness (int)    : min=0 max=255 step=1 default=128 value=128
                       contrast (int)    : min=0 max=255 step=1 default=32 value=32
                     saturation (int)    : min=0 max=100 step=1 default=64 value=64
                            hue (int)    : min=-180 max=180 step=1 default=0 value=0
 white_balance_temperature_auto (bool)   : default=1 value=1
                          gamma (int)    : min=90 max=150 step=1 default=120 value=120
           power_line_frequency (menu)   : min=0 max=2 default=1 value=1
      white_balance_temperature (int)    : min=2800 max=6500 step=1 default=4000 value=4000 flags=inactive
                      sharpness (int)    : min=0 max=7 step=1 default=2 value=2
         backlight_compensation (int)    : min=0 max=2 step=1 default=1 value=1
                  exposure_auto (menu)   : min=0 max=3 default=3 value=3
              exposure_absolute (int)    : min=4 max=1250 step=1 default=333 value=333 flags=inactive
         exposure_auto_priority (bool)   : default=0 value=1
                     brightness (int)    : min=0 max=255 step=1 default=128 value=128
                       contrast (int)    : min=0 max=255 step=1 default=32 value=32
                     saturation (int)    : min=0 max=100 step=1 default=64 value=64
                            hue (int)    : min=-180 max=180 step=1 default=0 value=0
 white_balance_temperature_auto (bool)   : default=1 value=1
                          gamma (int)    : min=90 max=150 step=1 default=120 value=120
           power_line_frequency (menu)   : min=0 max=2 default=1 value=1
      white_balance_temperature (int)    : min=2800 max=6500 step=1 default=4000 value=4000 flags=inactive
                      sharpness (int)    : min=0 max=7 step=1 default=2 value=2
         backlight_compensation (int)    : min=0 max=2 step=1 default=1 value=1

Last edited by jsoy9pQbYVNu5nfU (2015-05-29 15:23:31)

flying_squirrel · 2015-05-29 16:22:38

Thank you very much 2ion and mrunion, I was coming back to post the solution to my problem when I saw your messages. I received help on the IRC channels.

Just like you said mrunion, I needed to press Fn + F10 on my keyboard to activate the webcam (even if I didn't setup any of the keys and it didn't display a thing on screen, the difference did appear when checking dmesg). Then I followed the tutorial on the Arch wiki and only had a small problem with a known issue in Cheese that was solved by another recent thread in this very forum.

Arch Linux

#1 2015-05-29 11:30:20

[Solved] Unable to identify laptop webcam

#2 2015-05-29 12:37:38

Re: [Solved] Unable to identify laptop webcam

#3 2015-05-29 15:22:48

Re: [Solved] Unable to identify laptop webcam

#4 2015-05-29 16:22:38

Re: [Solved] Unable to identify laptop webcam

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