Cheese refuses to use webcam

[Gil Bahat]

Hi,

I have a USB webcam attached to my ubuntu machine:

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0c45:600d Microdia TwinkleCam USB camera

this device uses gspca_sonixb:

gilbahat@meadow:~$ lsmod | grep gspca
gspca_sonixb 20480 0
gspca_main 24576 1 gspca_sonixb
videobuf2_vmalloc 20480 1 gspca_main
videobuf2_v4l2 24576 1 gspca_main
videobuf2_common 49152 2 gspca_main,videobuf2_v4l2
videodev 225280 4 gspca_main,videobuf2_v4l2,videobuf2_common,gspca_sonixb

the device passes v4l2 tests:

$ v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video0 --all
Driver Info:
 Driver name : sonixb
 Card type : USB camera
 Bus info : usb-0000:00:14.0-1
 Driver version : 5.4.24
 Capabilities : 0x85200001
  Video Capture
  Read/Write
  Streaming
  Extended Pix Format
  Device Capabilities
 Device Caps : 0x05200001
  Video Capture
  Read/Write
  Streaming
  Extended Pix Format
Priority: 2
Video input : 0 (sonixb: ok)
Format Video Capture:
 Width/Height : 352/288
 Pixel Format : 'S910' (GSPCA SN9C10X)
 Field : None
 Bytes per Line : 352
 Size Image : 126720
 Colorspace : sRGB
 Transfer Function : Default (maps to sRGB)
 YCbCr/HSV Encoding: Default (maps to ITU-R 601)
 Quantization : Default (maps to Full Range)
 Flags :
Streaming Parameters Video Capture:
 Frames per second: invalid (0/0)
 Read buffers : 2

User Controls

                     brightness 0x00980900 (int) : min=0 max=255 step=1 default=127 value=127 flags=slider
                       exposure 0x00980911 (int) : min=0 max=1023 step=1 default=66 value=66 flags=inactive
                 gain_automatic 0x00980912 (bool) : default=1 value=1 flags=update
                           gain 0x00980913 (int) : min=0 max=31 step=1 default=15 value=15 flags=inactive

the device even works with vlc when opened as a v4l2 capture device and picture is detected and displayed.

however, cheese just insists there is no webcam installed, even when run with -d /dev/video0 on the command line.

system details:

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu Focal Fossa (development branch)
Release: 20.04

$ dpkg -l | grep cheese
ii cheese 3.34.0-1build1 amd64 tool to take pictures and videos from your webcam

expected behaviour:

/dev/video0 appears on the list of usable devices and cheese uses it

observed behaviour:

cheese complains about no video devices being available.
---
ProblemType: Bug
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu21
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-03-23 (1 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Alpha amd64 (20200315)
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair
Package: cheese 3.34.0-1build1
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-18.22-generic 5.4.24
RelatedPackageVersions:
 cheese 3.34.0-1build1
 cheese-common 3.34.0-1build1
Tags: focal gstreamer-error
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-18-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip lpadmin lxd plugdev sambashare sudo video
_MarkForUpload: True
dmi.bios.date: 07/09/2018
dmi.bios.vendor: Intel Corp.
dmi.bios.version: PYBSWCEL.86A.0074.2018.0709.1332
dmi.board.name: NUC5CPYB
dmi.board.vendor: Intel Corporation
dmi.board.version: H61145-413
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnIntelCorp.:bvrPYBSWCEL.86A.0074.2018.0709.1332:bd07/09/2018:svn:pn:pvr:rvnIntelCorporation:rnNUC5CPYB:rvrH61145-413:cvn:ct3:cvr:

[Gil Bahat (gilbahat)]

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[Gil Bahat (gilbahat)]

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[Gil Bahat (gilbahat)]

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[Gil Bahat (gilbahat)]

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[Gil Bahat (gilbahat)]

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[Gil Bahat (gilbahat)]

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[Gil Bahat (gilbahat)]

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[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report. Could add your 'journalctl -b 0' log after getting the issue?

Could you start it using that command
$ GST_DEBUG=*cheese*:3 cheese

and copy the log to the bug?

[Gil Bahat (gilbahat)]

I have stdout for a run with GST_DEBUG but I don't have instructions to locate the real CheeseDebug.txt.gz , I don't suspect that's all there is to it i'm afraid.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks, it doesn't seem to find the device for some reason. Does the webcam work in other softwares?
Also note that the -d option doesn't take a device path, see https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/cheese/-/issues/4

[Gil Bahat (gilbahat)]

yes, it does, works with vlc.
v4l2-ctl also detects it properly.
interestingly enough, firefox and zoom also detect it properly, but grab only black frames.
chromium fails to detect the webcam at all.

[Gil Bahat (gilbahat)]

Hi, can we please untag this from 'incomplete' as I believe it should have all the debug data needed?