Ubuntu – Can’t access webcam settings

cameravideowebcamzoom-meeting

I am using Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS, Gnome version 3.28.2. I am struggling with my built-in webcam. I can use it with Zoom, but I can't seem to find how to change the webcam settings; I suspect I may have deleted something important when I was trying to "clean up" my computer. Specifically, I'd like to be able to zoom out since it shows an XL version of my face when I have the computer close enough to type on. The colors are fine.

According to the Zoom settings, it is using "Camera: USB2.0 VGA UVC WebCam: USB2.0 V". In the attached screenshot I've hidden my face for privacy, but you can see the list of settings and that the color is working correctly.

Zoom settings and camera example

I went to my application list for programs on my computer and didn't see anything related to webcam, camera, etc.

Ubuntu program list page 1

Ubuntu program list page 2

I tried running from my terminal sudo apt-get install --reinstall xorg; it didn't throw any errors but it also didn't fix the problem (didn't seem to change anything).

I went into my Ubuntu settings but there didn't seem to be anything there about cameras.

Ubuntu settings list

Based on Ubuntu's webcam help page (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Webcam), I tried entering in my command line: ls /dev/video* and got /dev/video0 /dev/video1. Great, looks good. Then I tried entering vlc v4l2:///dev/video0 from later in their instructions and I got:

/usr/share/libdrm/amdgpu.ids: No such file or directory
VLC media player 3.0.10 Vetinari (revision 3.0.10-0-g7f145afa84)
[00005603e0c8aa00] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface.
Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
Qt: Session management error: None of the authentication protocols specified are supported
/usr/share/libdrm/amdgpu.ids: No such file or directory
[00007f30a00010e0] v4l2 demux error: cannot open device '/dev/video0': Operation not permitted
[00007f30a00010e0] v4l2 demux error: cannot open device '/dev/video0': Operation not permitted
[00007f30a0002750] v4l2 stream error: cannot open device '/dev/video0': Operation not permitted

Edit: Hi @sc608, I installed guvcview as you suggested. However, when it installed the video was already zoomed out all the way, as shown here

gucview screenshot

and my face is not any larger. The Zoom video still looks the same unfortunately.

Best Answer

I am not sure if it will solve your issue with Zoom but the package guvcview contains zoom controls for most webcams. The package is in the Ubuntu repos and can be installed with sudo apt install guvcview. Once installed it will appear in your list of applications.

The application launches in two windows. One window is the view from your webcam the other is an extensive assortment of webcam controls including zoom. I hope this helps solve your issue.

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