webcam

My webcam doesn’t work on my gentoo machine. I actually have a list of hardware that I want to make sure works.

webcam
CAC card reader
hdmi out
bluetooth
external dvd burner

The gentoo wiki doesn’t seem to have a page for webcams but arch linux does.

Using lsusb

To view all devices

    lsusb

    Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0a5c:5800 Broadcom Corp. BCM5880 Secure Applications Processor
    Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
    Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
    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 001 Device 004: ID 1bcf:280b Sunplus Innovation Technology Inc.
    Bus 001 Device 003: ID 413c:8187 Dell Computer Corp. DW375 Bluetooth Module
    Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
    Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

To view the details of the web cam

    lsusb -s 001:004

    Bus 001 Device 004: ID 1bcf:280b Sunplus Innovation Technology Inc.

To view more details

    lsusb -v -s 001:004

    Bus 001 Device 004: ID 1bcf:280b Sunplus Innovation Technology Inc.
    Device Descriptor:
      bLength                18
      bDescriptorType         1
      bcdUSB               2.00
      bDeviceClass          239 Miscellaneous Device
      bDeviceSubClass         2
      bDeviceProtocol         1 Interface Association
      bMaxPacketSize0        64
      idVendor           0x1bcf Sunplus Innovation Technology Inc.
      idProduct          0x280b
      bcdDevice            3.10
      iManufacturer           1 CN0CJ3P27248724CBBDJA01
      iProduct                2 Laptop_Integrated_Webcam_FHD
      iSerial                 0
      bNumConfigurations      1
    ...

Check for messages about the device

    dmesg | less

    typing /usb+enter will highlight the word usb. Type n to go to next match.

    [    9.505824] usb 1-1.5: new high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci-pci
    [    9.787353] usb 1-1.5: New USB device found, idVendor=1bcf, idProduct=280b
    [    9.787356] usb 1-1.5: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
    [    9.787357] usb 1-1.5: Product: Laptop_Integrated_Webcam_FHD
    [    9.787358] usb 1-1.5: Manufacturer: CN0CJ3P27248724CBBDJA01

Now we know the device is recognized but it doesn’t look like a driver is being loaded. This is indicated by a missing /dev/video0. Devices are assigned by udev. After trying to test using

    udevadm --debug test /sys/class/video4linux/video0

I found that I do not have video4linux. This could mean the kernel does not support video4linux.

running my buildkernel.sh I found that I did not have the kernel setup for webcams.

Device Drivers –> <M> Multimedia support —> [*] Cameras/video grabbers support [] Media USB Adapters —> <M> USB Video Class (UVC) [] UVC input events device support (NEW)

Now that the kernel is compiled with these options I am restarting the system to see what happens. … The camera works in Cheese!

Note: when making this post I was able to file an issue with tmux.

John Mercier

Using lsusb