Webcam video good, mic bad, and (huh?) no blue light

drcouzelis · 2011-06-19 02:33:33

Skype used to work perfectly, but I haven't used it in about six months. I tried using it today and found some strange behavior:

* The mic isn't working anymore. (tried in Skype)

* The video works, but the blue "video in use" light doesn't turn on anymore. (tried in Skype and Cheese)

I'm very confused. Can anyone imagine what could cause this? Could it be because "v4l-utils" is at version 0.8.4 and "lib32-v4l-utils" is at version 0.8.3?

It's a webcam that's labeled as "Hercules Dualpix Exchange". I'm using Arch 64. I confirmed my volume settings as per the Arch Wiki. Just now, I attached the webcam to another computer, and the video, mic, and blue light worked perfectly.

Thank you.

drcouzelis · 2011-07-13 02:12:30

I found out the webcam works perfectly (as it did in the past) if I use the long term support kernel. (2.6.32)

Since webcam drivers in Linux are "built in" to the kernel, I guessed that the problem might be there. I installed the "kernel26-lts" package and selected it in GRUB. Like I said, the webcam works perfectly with the LTS kernel (2.6.32) but still has the same problems I mentioned above when using the current kernel. (2.6.39)

I'll search the Linux kernel bug tracker for any reports.

Do you think this would be an issue I report to the Linux kernel or to Arch Linux? EDIT: I filed a bug report here: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=39262

Thank you.

Last edited by drcouzelis (2011-07-13 02:48:27)

eldragon · 2011-07-13 11:11:15

if you are willing to file a bug report at the kernel bugzilla.

you should remember:

- they will not help you with binary blobs (aka skype)
- if you dont provide more detailed info, nothing good will come out of it. (eg. try all kernels from 32 to 39 and see when it breaks, you could even try to bisect between versions and find the offending code commit).

so i would try and test if you can reproduce the issue with cheese or ekiga. or any other voip software which is actually opensource

in the last 6 monthes, if i recall correctly, there was a skype upgrade too.

desaparecido · 2011-07-15 06:48:27

hi, like @drcouzelis I have the same problem with the same model of webcam and I tested with ekiga, twinkle and the problem is still there. I tried to find which is the difference between current kernel (in my case in all others kernels except LTS's kernels) and LTS kernel (about modules, dmesg, etc) but nothing relevant.. I will take more time to try again..

only like reference, in kernel26-lts-ck actually 2.6.35.13-3 works fine too.. the're something about LTS that works... but what? :s

vepjan · 2011-07-20 23:00:41

I have the same problem under kernel 2.6.39, but it seems specific to skype. Either I have no sound or
I sound like mickey mouse on skype test call. The problem showed when going from kernel 2.6.38 to 2.6.39.
However, sound recorder (from gnome) works just fine under kernel 2.6.39, so I don't think we can blame
the kernel.

Addendum: I tried skype static downloaded from skypes website and it worked like a charm. I will keep testing and update
with my findings. Let me know about your experiences.

Last edited by vepjan (2011-07-21 00:15:16)

drcouzelis · 2011-07-21 01:38:43

@vepjan
You and I are experiencing different bugs.

vepjan · 2011-07-21 11:57:37

Ok, they sounded very similar to me. For some reason skype static stopped working, so that was a fluke.
Instead I downgraded to kernel-2.6.38-7 found on this site http://schlunix.org/archlinux/
It needs more testing, but skype worked after that. Have you tried downgrading to that kernel?

luscinius · 2011-09-06 19:21:09

Hi
I googled for the same problem, and found this thread. For me rebuilding libv4l solved the problem:
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-89 … ight-.html
Is your camera a UVC one as well?

Arch Linux

#1 2011-06-19 02:33:33

Webcam video good, mic bad, and (huh?) no blue light

#2 2011-07-13 02:12:30

Re: Webcam video good, mic bad, and (huh?) no blue light

#3 2011-07-13 11:11:15

Re: Webcam video good, mic bad, and (huh?) no blue light

#4 2011-07-15 06:48:27

Re: Webcam video good, mic bad, and (huh?) no blue light

#5 2011-07-20 23:00:41

Re: Webcam video good, mic bad, and (huh?) no blue light

#6 2011-07-21 01:38:43

Re: Webcam video good, mic bad, and (huh?) no blue light

#7 2011-07-21 11:57:37

Re: Webcam video good, mic bad, and (huh?) no blue light

#8 2011-09-06 19:21:09

Re: Webcam video good, mic bad, and (huh?) no blue light

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