Laptop Webcam not listed

[garethd]

Hi,
My inbuilt laptop webcam isn't found. It doesn't show up in /dev/ (there are no video). I have no idea how to begin troubleshooting this.

It has been working in the past (on 10.04).

Any tips greatly appreciated.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Laptop Webcam not listed

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=4216.0

[garethd]

Re: Laptop Webcam not listed

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=4216.0

Yeah, I did search thanks. I only saw other unanswered threads.

[garethd]

Re: Laptop Webcam not listed

Ok, so by the way my laptop is a Novatech X16 NV pro (bought Microsoft tax-free). The model is no longer for sale so you won't find it online.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Laptop Webcam not listed

That is enough info, in this case, to find a solution ON THE WEB, no less!

Your webcam solution is here.

If you need help following the steps let us know!

[claydoh]

Re: Laptop Webcam not listed

did it work out of the box in 10.04?

http://forum.novatech.co.uk/showthread.php?p=209045 - May not relevent in 10.04, though, as you say it was working for you in 10.04 (and assuming you are still using 10.04) --- I see GreyGeek beat me to the Google

Some on novatech's forums seem to know a bit about the hardware and linux, which is pretty darn cool , and quite a few Ubuntu topics overall there. Their product line looks pretty nice too.

[garethd]

Re: Laptop Webcam not listed

Many thanks GG. I'm now in the queue for mod approval on their site. It's getting late here now so will have to try tomorrow...

[garethd]

Re: Laptop Webcam not listed

did it work out of the box in 10.04?

http://forum.novatech.co.uk/showthread.php?p=209045 - May not relevent in 10.04, though, as you say it was working for you in 10.04 (and assuming you are still using 10.04) --- I see GreyGeek beat me to the Google

Some on novatech's forums seem to know a bit about the hardware and linux, which is pretty darn cool , and quite a few Ubuntu topics overall there. Their product line looks pretty nice too.

Yes, I'm still on 10.04 with (KDE 4.5.1), the only things I had to tweak were enabling the NVidia and using NDiswrapper for the wireless G. Overall, it's pretty neat.

Only now I have to figure out what I've done with the webcam...

[claydoh]

Re: Laptop Webcam not listed

does the device show when running lsusb?

You can also see if a driver is loaded by running lsmod and looking for uvcvideo, or following some of the things from that forum post

When your machine restarts, open a terminal & type:-
dmesg | grep video

it should return something like the following:-

[ 0.633360] pci 0000:01:00.0: Boot video device
[ 8.207929] Linux video capture interface: v2.00
[ 8.244769] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device BisonCam, NB Pro (5986:0241)
[ 8.248362] usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo

[garethd]

Re: Laptop Webcam not listed

With lsusb I've only got root hub and my wifi:

>$ lsusb
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bda:8189 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8187B Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps Network Adapter
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

[garethd]

Re: Laptop Webcam not listed

dmesg:

>$ dmesg | grep video
[ 0.249247] pci 0000:01:00.0: Boot video device

[claydoh]

Re: Laptop Webcam not listed

Does the cam work in another OS? It does not look like it is beign detected, maybe it's connection is broken/loose somehow?

[garethd]

Re: Laptop Webcam not listed

I don't know - I won't install windows just to test it.

I did pop in my kubuntu 10.04 live CD, just in case somehow I've mangled my current my current one, but it didn't detect either.

[garethd]

Re: Laptop Webcam not listed

Neither does 10.10 beta.

[garethd]

Re: Laptop Webcam not listed

And after all straws have been clutched at....

It turns out there are a set of shortcuts, such as Function key + F1 = toggle mousepad, Fn + F2 = Blank screen, Fn+F3=toggle sound, etc... All the way at Fn+F10 we have.... toggle camera module power!

I must have pressed it a while ago without realising what it is. (In fact, I seem to recall thinking that it was some kind of "take screenshot" button. I now see it, in the manual, now that I have dug it out from under the stairs )

Well, I feel a teensy bit silly, but I don't care, as I've got a working webcam, and there's no hardware issues, and certainly nothing wrong with linux.

On the plus side, I now have 10.10 beta to play with too...

Many thanks guys, you're awesome!