Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000 with Ubuntu 12.04: webcam light blinks, and freezes with guvcview

[redfox7691]

I am trying to use my USB Microsoft LifeCam Cinema webcam with Ubuntu 12.04. When not in use, it blinks incessantly and seems to slow down my system. Using google voice or guvcview, the camera works for 5 seconds and then freezes. After that camera permanently stops working.
Disconnecting the camera system back running again without slowing down.
Many users report that the hd-3000 lifecam works fine on ubuntu 10.04

Dmesg reports:

...
[ 1968.044053] usb 1-4: new high-speed USB device number 8 using ehci_hcd
[ 1968.193236] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device Microsoft\xffffffc2\xffffffae\xffffffae LifeCam HD-3000 (045e:0779)
[ 1968.197504] input: Microsoft\xffffffc2\xffffffae\xffffffae LifeCam HD-3000 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-4/1-4:1.0/input/input13
[ 1969.316160] 8:3:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x82
[ 1970.492155] 8:3:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x82
[ 1971.628163] 8:3:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x82
[ 1971.675779] uvcvideo: Failed to set UVC probe control : -32 (exp. 26).
[ 1972.456145] retire_capture_urb: 45 callbacks suppressed
[ 1979.116157] 8:3:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x82
...
(a lot of "cannot get freq at ep 0x82")
...
[ 2033.396171] 8:3:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x82
[ 2033.396289] uvcvideo: Failed to set UVC probe control : -32 (exp. 26).
[ 2033.900171] uvcvideo: Failed to query (GET_CUR) UVC control 13 on unit 1: -110 (exp. 8).
[ 2034.200173] uvcvideo: Failed to query (GET_CUR) UVC control 13 on unit 1: -110 (exp. 8).
[ 2034.592175] 8:3:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x82
[ 2034.592289] uvcvideo: Failed to set UVC commit control : -32 (exp. 26).
[ 2035.732177] 8:3:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x82
[ 2035.732287] uvcvideo: Failed to set UVC commit control : -32 (exp. 26).
[ 2037.116184] 8:3:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x82
...
(a lot of "cannot get freq at ep 0x82")
...
[ 2163.373217] usb 1-4: USB disconnect, device number 9
[ 2163.377038] 9:3:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x82
[ 2163.377146] cannot submit datapipe for urb 0, error -19: no device
[ 2163.385254] 9:3:1: usb_set_interface failed

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: guvcview 1.5.3-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-27.43-generic 3.2.21
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-27-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu11
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Aug 5 08:58:31 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=it_IT.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: guvcview
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-05-17 (79 days ago)

[redfox7691 (claudio-bizzarri)]

Just tested 3.4.7 kernel, same results: LifeCam HD-3000 does not work.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[redfox7691 (claudio-bizzarri)]

Temporary solution: it seems that the problem is caused from snd-usb-audio module: this module is loaded because LifeCam is an double USB device, audio and video.
Putting the line "blacklist snd-usb-audio" into /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf solves problem with video but stops every other usb audio device.

[redfox7691 (claudio-bizzarri)]

SOLVED: all my troubles were caused by the latest built-in chrome flash player (pepper version 11.3.31.232). In chrome:plugins, advanced settings, I've disabled pepper flash player, leaving only adobe flash player 11.2.r202. All of troubles are gone.

[Felipe Tanus (fotanus)]

@redfox7691: Thanks for the information. Disabling snd-usb-audio works for me, but I don't have the pepper plugin installed on chromium or google chrome. Can you share the procedure you used to find this problem, and hopefully I'll be able to detect the problems on my box?

Thanks

[redfox7691 (claudio-bizzarri)]

Well, it was a lot of time ago... :-)

I asked to linux-uvc-devel list and Oleksij Rempel suggested me to look the
audio module: he wrote me

"This message is not from uvcvideo, it comes from snd-usb-audio: "cannot
get freq at ep 0x82". What if you black list the snd-usb-audio, will then
video work?"

After some days I realized that I was doing the tests always with Chrome
running, with gmail (and google chat) opened: I've made some tries and I've
found that embedded flash player was buggy.

Ciao,
Claudio

2013/12/20 Felipe Tanus <email address hidden>

> @redfox7691: Thanks for the information. Disabling snd-usb-audio works
> for me, but I don't have the pepper plugin installed on chromium or
> google chrome. Can you share the procedure you used to find this
> problem, and hopefully I'll be able to detect the problems on my box?
>
> Thanks
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1033146
>
> Title:
> Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000 with Ubuntu 12.04: webcam light blinks, and
> freezes with guvcview
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/guvcview/+bug/1033146/+subscriptions
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[redfox7691 (claudio-bizzarri)]

Well, it was a lot of time ago... :-)

I asked to linux-uvc-devel list and Oleksij Rempel suggested me to look the audio module: he wrote me

"This message is not from uvcvideo, it comes from snd-usb-audio: "cannot get freq at ep 0x82". What if you black list the snd-usb-audio, will then video work?"

After some days I realized that I was doing the tests always with Chrome running, with gmail (and google chat) opened: I've made some tries and I've found that embedded flash player was buggy.

Ciao,
Claudio

[Shantanu Tushar (shaan7in)]

Well disabling "snd-usb-audio" is not really a solution, one needs the mic to work when on a video call. Also, I have only Adobe flash player installed in Chrome, and even closing Chrome doesn't help.

[Ian (superian)]

This is a problem that affects programs that don't use the video or Flash.

If I I try to set the webcam as the source of sound in audacity, there is a delay of a count of 20 or so before it acknowledges that it is set up, and another long delay of many seconds before anything actually is recorded when I press record.

So this isn't a guvcview bug - although that's where I came across it too - it's a problem with the webcam / snd-usb-audio.

[Stuart (stuart-ward)]

This problem is present in Ubuntu 14.04 and 14.10

[François Jacques (francois-jacques)]

Same problem with Linux 3.16.0-28-lowlatency #38-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT Fri Dec 12 18:06:05 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[lars_stefan_axelsson (lars-stefan-axelsson)]

I'm on ubuntu 12.04.5 (Linux daemon 3.13.0-49-generic #81~precise1-Ubuntu SMP Wed Mar 25 16:32:15 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux) and I can also confirm this bug. Ironic since I checked uvcvideo for useable webcams before buying it...

[François Jacques (francois-jacques)]

Hi,

This is a development message which shouldn't be reported that often. It's not the root cause of issues seen with the LifeCam... just misleading.

I investigated the issue down to the kernel driver with additional traces. The set frequency operation at 48 khz goes through just fine, but the validation get frequency request performed right after isn't supported by the lifecam. The error code returned on that operation isn't 0, and in that case the driver issues that message. However, having a non-success for this operation is perfectly fine.

For more information, refer to USB Audio specification, when the adapter doesn't support such Get operation. See page 67 in http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/devclass_docs/audio10.pdf

"If the addressed Control or Entity does not support readout of a certain attribute, the control pipe must
indicate a stall when an attempt is made to read that attribute."

So, IMHO, the warning that we see is a development warning, not a bug per se. The status code should be checked and the driver should remain silent UNLESS some really unexpected status code comes up.