Webcam does not work on kernel >4.19.223. Under Ubuntu 14.4 to 20.4 it was no problem

Did you install Linux-headers?

Hi Zesko,

4.19.255 - Webcam works with and without kernel headers
5.15.12 - Webcam does not work with and without kernel headers

Then you are not alone. It is the known issue:


Stay 4.19, if you want to use this cam.

Hmm… that’s not nice. Thanks anyway.

Does anyone know why support is being removed from such hardware?

As you found out already, nothing has been removed.

It’s just not working and we and you do not know why.

  • Did you check this cam in other Debian based OS or Fedora with Kernel 5.4+ in USB Live-system?

  • Does it work in other computer with Kernel 5.4+?

You are right. :thumbsup:

I will test this afternoon.

Hi all.

As i wrote already:
In a Linux Mint forum someone reported the same stopping with Kernel 5.4.0-92,
and Kernel 5.4.0-91 was mentioned as working.
For me, the ubuntu Kernel 5.13.0-22 was working, and from 5.13.0-23 it was broken.

So now at least 4 different kernels ( 4.9, 5.4, 5.13, 5.15 ) show the same behavior.
What was the common change on them?
In my case (5.13) i am pretty sure that it must be something in the kernel area.
I am just booting two different kernels in the same root partition,
so everything else is unchanged.
One candidate could be the UVC driver (that should handle the cam).
I am missing log messages from that driver in dmesg with the “broken” kernel.
Another thing could be the v4l stuff.
The /dev/v4l folder and the /dev/videoN files are not created with “broken” kernels.
(But that would be normal, when there is no working driver for the cam.)

Am i right so far?

greetings
Ralf

Sooo… I have tested something.

Live in KVM in Manjaro 5.15.12
Fedora 31   5.3.7-301   Webcam works
Fedora 32   5.6.6-300   Webcam works
Fedora 35   5.14.10-300 Webcam works
ubu 21.10   5.13.0-19   Webcam works
mint 20.2   5.4.0-74    Webcam works
mint 20.3   5.4.0.91    Webcam works
endeavour   5.15.8      Webcam not working

Installed in KVM in Manjaro 5.15.12
opensuse TW 5.16.1-1    Webcam works
mint 20.3   5.4.0.91 Webcam works updated to 5.4.0.96    Webcam not working

Tested from USB-Live dircet on the Laptop
Fedora 35   5.14.10-300 Webcam works

We need the ghostbusters. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

Right.

See message 3 and 4.

I understand:

  • 5.3, 5.13 and 5.14 are EOL, they are no longer updated, but they support your cam like before.

  • 5.4 and 5.15 are LTS, but they updated or changed the driver of this cam. That’s why the problem appears.

As I thought. :point_up_2:


Kernels with LTS may support new cams with the same name “Creative Live”, but not the legacy cams.

Hi all.

Some info:
I plugged the VF0770 WebCam into my Laptop with Ubuntu Kernel 5.13.0-27
and guess what: It works!
The difference is: The Laptop has a built-in cam that is handled by the uvc driver, too.
So that driver gets loaded at boot time and provides the /dev/v4l and /dev/videoN stuff already.
May be there is an issue with detecting the cam when the driver is loaded,
and this issue does not exists, when the driver is already loaded for the first cam.
I will try to use the quirks that can be applied when loading the driver manually.

I will keep you informed.
Ralf

Unfortunately, even that will soon no longer be possible.

@RalfN

That is interesting.

I installed the latest stable update yesterday late evening. All kernels got an update. I did not reboot immediately after the update. But immediately after the update the webcam suddenly worked with 15.5. Then I rebooted and /dev/video0 was not there again.

Hi.

Short update:
Playing around with the quirks of uvcvideo does not help.

A kernel 5.13.0.-27 on elementary OS in a virtual box vm
starts the uvcvideo and the /dev/v4l folder and the /dev/videoN devices
are created. (Ok, cheese does not show an image from the cam, but that
is another story.)

greetings
Ralf

Thanks Ralf for the update.

I must say I will buy a cheap other webcam with UVC specification. I need a webcam every sunday and don’t have time to tinker around with it. I am now video chatting with my android phone.

This is the first time I’ve seen hardware without special drivers just stop working under Linux overnight.

The question is: What to buy, to be sure, it works…

I have ordered these:

One picture says: “The HD webcam works in UVC mode”. I hope that such cheap China things do nothing special, and that the webcam is then always supported.

For your information, my webcam is a Logitech Webcam C930e, and it works reliably on my systems from kernel 4.19 to kernel 5.15 without special tweaking. Maybe try that one to see if it work for you too.

The webcam works without any problems. The quality is of course appropriate the price. I test the webcam properly on Sunday.