sonixb camera is unusable on Chromium

[Leonardo Müller]

I'm trying to use an USB camera on Chromium, however it is not being detected. lsusb shows it as:

Bus 001 Device 076: ID 0c45:6001 Microdia Genius VideoCAM NB

While this camera isn't the best I've ever seen, it works properly when using ffplay and guvcview. The following is the output of some utilities related to the camera:

$ v4l2-ctl --info

Driver Info:
 Driver name : sonixb
 Card type : USB camera
 Bus info : usb-0000:00:14.0-1
 Driver version : 5.11.22
 Capabilities : 0x85200001
  Video Capture
  Read/Write
  Streaming
  Extended Pix Format
  Device Capabilities
 Device Caps : 0x05200001
  Video Capture
  Read/Write
  Streaming
  Extended Pix Format

$ v4l2-ctl --list-formats-ext
ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT
 Type: Video Capture

 [0]: 'S910' (GSPCA SN9C10X, compressed)
  Size: Discrete 160x120
  Size: Discrete 176x144
  Size: Discrete 320x240
  Size: Discrete 352x288
 [1]: 'BA81' (8-bit Bayer BGBG/GRGR)
  Size: Discrete 160x120
  Size: Discrete 176x144

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.11.0-27.29~20.04.1-generic 5.11.22
Uname: Linux 5.11.0-27-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.18
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Wed Sep 1 15:12:28 2021
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-06-13 (1540 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 17.04 "Zesty Zapus" - Release amd64 (20170412)
Snap: chromium 92.0.4515.159 (latest/candidate)
SnapSource: ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2019-12-22 (618 days ago)

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Can you please share the output of `snap connections chromium` ?

[Leonardo Müller (leozinho29-eu)]

Hi, here is the output:

$ snap connections chromium
2021/09/02 15:46:16.299701 main.go:176: description of prepare-image's "<target-dir>" is lowercase in locale "pt_BR": "o directório de destino"
Interface Plug Slot Notas
audio-playback chromium:audio-playback :audio-playback -
audio-record chromium:audio-record :audio-record -
bluez chromium:bluez :bluez -
browser-support chromium:browser-sandbox :browser-support -
camera chromium:camera :camera -
content[gnome-3-28-1804] chromium:gnome-3-28-1804 gnome-3-28-1804:gnome-3-28-1804 -
content[gtk-3-themes] chromium:gtk-3-themes gtk-common-themes:gtk-3-themes -
content[icon-themes] chromium:icon-themes gtk-common-themes:icon-themes -
content[sound-themes] chromium:sound-themes gtk-common-themes:sound-themes -
cups-control chromium:cups-control :cups-control -
desktop chromium:desktop :desktop -
desktop-legacy chromium:desktop-legacy :desktop-legacy -
gsettings chromium:gsettings :gsettings -
home chromium:home :home -
joystick chromium:joystick :joystick -
mount-observe chromium:mount-observe - -
mpris - chromium:mpris -
network chromium:network :network -
network-bind chromium:network-bind :network-bind -
network-manager chromium:network-manager - -
opengl chromium:opengl :opengl -
password-manager-service chromium:password-manager-service :password-manager-service manual
personal-files chromium:chromium-config :personal-files -
pulseaudio chromium:pulseaudio - -
raw-usb chromium:raw-usb :raw-usb manual
removable-media chromium:removable-media :removable-media -
screen-inhibit-control chromium:screen-inhibit-control :screen-inhibit-control -
system-files chromium:etc-chromium-browser-policies :system-files -
system-packages-doc chromium:system-packages-doc ...

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

That looks alright.
Can you run `journalctl -f | grep DEN` in a terminal, launch chromium and see if there are any relevant denials in the journal when trying to use your camera?

[Leonardo Müller (leozinho29-eu)]

Hi, here is the output of `journalctl -f | grep DEN`

I started the command, then connected the USB camera, then opened Chromium. I tried accessing Google Meet and then the WebRTC test page. In neither, the USB camera was available to choose.

I tested with another USB camera, and that other camera worked. Here is the lsusb and output of the same commands for this second camera:

Bus 001 Device 013: ID 1908:2311 GEMBIRD USB2.0 PC CAMERA

$ v4l2-ctl --info -d /dev/video2
Driver Info:
 Driver name : uvcvideo
 Card type : USB2.0 PC CAMERA: USB2.0 PC CAM
 Bus info : usb-0000:00:14.0-2
 Driver version : 5.11.22
 Capabilities : 0x84a00001
  Video Capture
  Metadata Capture
  Streaming
  Extended Pix Format
  Device Capabilities
 Device Caps : 0x04200001
  Video Capture
  Streaming
  Extended Pix Format

$ v4l2-ctl --list-formats-ext -d /dev/video2
ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT
 Type: Video Capture

 [0]: 'YUYV' (YUYV 4:2:2)
  Size: Discrete 640x480
   Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
   Interval: Discrete 0.067s (15.000 fps)
  Size: Discrete 352x288
   Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
   Interval: Discrete 0.067s (15.000 fps)
  Size: Discrete 320x240
   Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
   Interval: Discrete 0.067s (15.000 fps)
  Size: Discrete 176x144
   Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
   Interval: Discrete 0.067s (15.000 fps)
  Size: Discrete 160x120
   Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
   Interval: Discrete 0.067s (15.000 fps)

The output of the v4l2-ctl --list-formats-ext seem different. I'm suspecting this could be a colorspace issue

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

The denials on "/run/udev/data/b43:128" and "/run/udev/data/b43:0" may be relevant.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Can you please share the output of the following commands (when your camera is plugged)?

    cat /run/udev/data/b43:128

    cat /run/udev/data/b43:0

[Leonardo Müller (leozinho29-eu)]

Here is the output of the commands:

$ cat /run/udev/data/b43:0
W:122
I:5238867
E:ID_FS_TYPE=
E:SYSTEMD_READY=0
G:systemd
Q:systemd
V:1

$ cat /run/udev/data/b43:128
W:123
I:5238868
E:ID_FS_TYPE=
E:SYSTEMD_READY=0
G:systemd
Q:systemd
V:1