I’m having problems with my laptop’s webcam (the built-in one). It used to work just fine (aside from awful quality) but then one day it stopped working. Sometimes, the LED by the camera blinks (on its own, without me trying to use it) but it never works.
Here are a few commands and their results that I hope could help you help me. In cases, there are no results and that’s why you’ll next the next command right away.
$ ls /dev/ | grep video
$ v4l2-ctl --list-devices
Cannot open device /dev/video0, exiting.
$ lsmod | grep uvcvideo
uvcvideo 151552 0
videobuf2_vmalloc 20480 1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_v4l2 40960 1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_common 86016 4 videobuf2_vmalloc,videobuf2_v4l2,uvcvideo,videobuf2_memops
videodev 307200 3 videobuf2_v4l2,uvcvideo,videobuf2_common
mc 65536 4 videodev,videobuf2_v4l2,uvcvideo,videobuf2_common
$ lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
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 8087:0029 Intel Corp. AX200 Bluetooth
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
BTW, I have an external webcam as well and when I connect that one, the external one works perfectly fine while the built-in one is still broken. When the external one is connected, I’ll get the following results:
$ ls /dev/ | grep video
video0
video1
$ v4l2-ctl --list-devices
Logitech Webcam C930e (usb-0000:00:14.0-1.3):
/dev/video0
/dev/video1
/dev/media0
$ lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 007: ID 0bda:8153 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8153 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
Bus 002 Device 006: ID 2109:0820 VIA Labs, Inc. VL820 Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 8087:0029 Intel Corp. AX200 Bluetooth
Bus 001 Device 008: ID 046d:0843 Logitech, Inc. Webcam C930e
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 208e:0001 Luxshare DELL DA300
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 2109:2820 VIA Labs, Inc. VL820 Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Apparently, both of those video0 and video1 are the same external webcam since when I open an app like guvcview there are two webcams listed and both of them are “Logitec Webcam C930e”. The funny thing is that only the first item works. Selecting the second webcam results in:
no video device (/dev/video1) found
Can someone please help me understand what the problem could be? Or even better, how to fix it?