Built-in webcam not working on Loki

[StefanGA]

having issues to get my buil-in webcam to work on freya on a Sony Vaio Pro 13 machine.
when opening "cheese" picture starts to build up for a few seconds, then get the message that "there was an issue playing video from the webcam". Same behavior occurs when trying to take a user picture in the account settings - picutre starts to build up, then I get the "stop" sign.
checked kernel startup messages and it appears webcam is found and initialized.
updated to latest kernel (3.15) but no difference.
was working fine out of the box in Luna under 3.11 kernel.
compared lspci and lsusb devices between Luna and Freya and list is identical.
something else in the distribution must be broken.
thanks for checking,

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: elementary OS 0.3
Package: elementary-desktop 1.350+394~ubuntu0.3.1 [origin: LP-PPA-elementary-os-daily]
Uname: Linux 3.15.7-031507-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.3
Architecture: amd64
CrashDB: elementary_meta
CurrentDesktop: Pantheon
Date: Sat Aug 23 10:47:42 2014
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-08-19 (3 days ago)
InstallationMedia: elementary OS 0.3 "Freya" - Daily amd64 (20140810)
SourcePackage: elementary-meta
ThirdParty: True
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[StefanGA (stefan-g-altnau)]

to my very surprise I just realized, that "Snap" works flawlessly!
System settings however does not - wouldn't they address the same device??

[David Heidelberg (okias)]

They both may ask "device" with little different set of commands, so in one case it works, in another not.

Anyway, try find kernel version, where it broke (between 3.11 and 3.15).

[Zisu Andrei (matzipan)]

OP, does this issue still exist in Loki?

[StefanGA (stefan-g-altnau)]

Hi, did not get to install Loki, yet - but I just tried to replicate on the latest Freya release with 4.4 kernel. The option in the account management section of the settings to take a picture seems to be gone. The webcam itself through the camera program works. I guess this bug can be marked as obsolete by now.

[StefanGA (stefan-g-altnau)]

I just installed Loki and found out, that the webcam unfortunately no longer works.. Please let me know, if you want me to create a new bug or if you want to reopen this one.. Also please let me know, what data you need again - I can't recall, what I did at the time :-)

[Zisu Andrei (matzipan)]

Hello Stefan,

Can you please try different kernel version (prefferably newer) and see if this problem is fixed?

[StefanGA (stefan-g-altnau)]

Which procedure would you want me to use to update to a newer kernel? I thought it was discouraged to update the kernel isolated from the distro, or has this philosophy been overhauled?

[Zisu Andrei (matzipan)]

As you can imagine, different kernel versions may break some drivers and fix others, while bringing new drivers in. Of course, if you put in a very old kernel, some new features might be missing or might be changed, which will break the OS, but it might also not.

[Srimal Priyanga (s-priyanga22)]

Hi,
After installing Loki, this bug affected to me also. Previously when i use Freya my laptop inbuilt camera works fine(with camera app also) but now Camera does not recognize by any app. Please find the attachment.
Please let me know how can i fix this.
Thank you.

[Craig Skipsey (cmskipsey)]

Same problem here, but webcam only not working on Macbook Air 2014. Toshiba Portege is ok. I'm running off a unetbootin live USB

Tell me what data / outputs you want to help fix this bug

[Zisu Andrei (matzipan)]

Can you try a newer version from [1] and see if it helps or not?

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/MainlineBuilds

[Sergio Arboleda (sergiogeek7)]

same here