Webcam passthrough not working

[ChrisMW]

Hi,

I remember this used to work, but I rarely do, so I am not 100% when it stopped working, but 5.2.22 does this, as do the two predecessors.

Mostly it affects the Windows clients, I seem to have two devices /dev/video0 and /dev/video1. Cheese on the host, simply finds one, and uses that, Virtualbox offers a passthrough for both, but only the second works, well sort of, I have a virtualbox webcam, but it shows just a blue rectangle. The other webcam (both called integrated camera) doesn't. /dev/video1 produces some reaction, /dev/video0 doesn't. Windows 10 does its hardware changes sound on both. Skype on Windows says ' no camera found' when there is no webcam or /dev/video0 attached and shows the blue rectangle when I pass it /dev/video1.

I run LMDE 3 and Debian stretch with some of the backports, kernel 4.18. 32GB RAM, Windows 10 is 64 or 32 bit (same response). I tried Ubuntu MATE as a client, but passthrough didn't seem to do much, cheese kept saying there was no camera. But I haven't ever tried that, so can't say if this was the case, or has appeared.

I suspect the Linux host is a little messed, but how to approach the issue and find out. For instance, is there a way to remove /dev/video0 and /dev/video1 and just have one (like my camera, there's only one). Oddly my X230 also has 2 camera's, but yawcam works on the windows side, if both are attached. One shows up as VirtualBox camera, the other one picks up the 'integrated camera' title I see in the host. And that camera works. That is using a W7 client. I should try a W10 client on that laptop, if it will run... But on my P50, it doesn't happen.

Any suggestions?

[ChrisMW]

One update, under Windows 10, 64 bit, the one that loads with "integrated camera' fails, windows reports it cannot start the device. Not sure if this a Windows 10 client issue or a Linux host issue. I'll see if I can get the Windows 7 image that works on the X230 onto the P50 and see what that does.

[ChrisMW]

After trying Windows 7, and it still coming up with a blue screen, I am wondering if something on the host side is incorrect. So I ran some commands, on video0 and video1

This is what I got:

Code: Select all

# udevadm info -n video0 -q all
P: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-8/1-8:1.0/video4linux/video0
N: video0
S: v4l/by-id/usb-Chicony_Electronics_Co._Ltd._Integrated_Camera_0001-video-index0
S: v4l/by-path/pci-0000:00:14.0-usb-0:8:1.0-video-index0
E: COLORD_DEVICE=1
E: COLORD_KIND=camera
E: DEVLINKS=/dev/v4l/by-path/pci-0000:00:14.0-usb-0:8:1.0-video-index0 /dev/v4l/by-id/usb-Chicony_Electronics_Co._Ltd._Integrated_Camera_0001-video-index0
E: DEVNAME=/dev/video0
E: DEVPATH=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-8/1-8:1.0/video4linux/video0
E: ID_BUS=usb
E: ID_FOR_SEAT=video4linux-pci-0000_00_14_0-usb-0_8_1_0
E: ID_MODEL=Integrated_Camera
E: ID_MODEL_ENC=Integrated\x20Camera
E: ID_MODEL_ID=b52c
E: ID_PATH=pci-0000:00:14.0-usb-0:8:1.0
E: ID_PATH_TAG=pci-0000_00_14_0-usb-0_8_1_0
E: ID_REVISION=0029
E: ID_SERIAL=Chicony_Electronics_Co._Ltd._Integrated_Camera_0001
E: ID_SERIAL_SHORT=0001
E: ID_TYPE=video
E: ID_USB_DRIVER=uvcvideo
E: ID_USB_INTERFACES=:0e0100:0e0200:
E: ID_USB_INTERFACE_NUM=00
E: ID_V4L_CAPABILITIES=:capture:
E: ID_V4L_PRODUCT=Integrated Camera: Integrated C
E: ID_V4L_VERSION=2
E: ID_VENDOR=Chicony_Electronics_Co._Ltd.
E: ID_VENDOR_ENC=Chicony\x20Electronics\x20Co.\x2cLtd.
E: ID_VENDOR_ID=04f2
E: MAJOR=81
E: MINOR=0
E: SUBSYSTEM=video4linux
E: TAGS=:seat:uaccess:
E: USEC_INITIALIZED=6617865

# udevadm info -n video1 -q all
P: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-8/1-8:1.0/video4linux/video1
N: video1
S: v4l/by-id/usb-Chicony_Electronics_Co._Ltd._Integrated_Camera_0001-video-index1
S: v4l/by-path/pci-0000:00:14.0-usb-0:8:1.0-video-index1
E: COLORD_DEVICE=1
E: COLORD_KIND=camera
E: DEVLINKS=/dev/v4l/by-id/usb-Chicony_Electronics_Co._Ltd._Integrated_Camera_0001-video-index1 /dev/v4l/by-path/pci-0000:00:14.0-usb-0:8:1.0-video-index1
E: DEVNAME=/dev/video1
E: DEVPATH=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-8/1-8:1.0/video4linux/video1
E: ID_BUS=usb
E: ID_FOR_SEAT=video4linux-pci-0000_00_14_0-usb-0_8_1_0
E: ID_MODEL=Integrated_Camera
E: ID_MODEL_ENC=Integrated\x20Camera
E: ID_MODEL_ID=b52c
E: ID_PATH=pci-0000:00:14.0-usb-0:8:1.0
E: ID_PATH_TAG=pci-0000_00_14_0-usb-0_8_1_0
E: ID_REVISION=0029
E: ID_SERIAL=Chicony_Electronics_Co._Ltd._Integrated_Camera_0001
E: ID_SERIAL_SHORT=0001
E: ID_TYPE=video
E: ID_USB_DRIVER=uvcvideo
E: ID_USB_INTERFACES=:0e0100:0e0200:
E: ID_USB_INTERFACE_NUM=00
E: ID_V4L_CAPABILITIES=:capture:
E: ID_V4L_PRODUCT=Integrated Camera: Integrated C
E: ID_V4L_VERSION=2
E: ID_VENDOR=Chicony_Electronics_Co._Ltd.
E: ID_VENDOR_ENC=Chicony\x20Electronics\x20Co.\x2cLtd.
E: ID_VENDOR_ID=04f2
E: MAJOR=81
E: MINOR=1
E: SUBSYSTEM=video4linux
E: TAGS=:uaccess:seat:
E: USEC_INITIALIZED=6616772

I looked with lshw-gtk and can only find one camera. On the host, there seem to be no issues, all programs work out which webcam to use. Virtualbox allows a passthrough on both. One yields a working Virtualbox Webcam device, that presents a blue pic and the other installs a VirtualBox Webcam: integrated cam device and reports an error 10, unable to start device. This is one I think should work, but it doesn't, and could that be because of the other?

How would find out what's going on? Advice is appreciated....

[ChrisMW]

I've tried a Logitech cam, connected to my USB port, that is passed through correctly. My Lenovo P50 camera is not working when I pass it to a Windows client (tried XP, & and 10, both 32 and 64 bit) and it is also not working on the two linux clients I have (MX and Ubuntu Mate, I think 18.03). The external old Logitech cam does work.

So it is something that VirtualBox is not doing correctly. All the Linux programs that I've tried have no issue using the webcam. The default driver is the correct driver on Windows 10 (as per Lenovo forums), ergo Virtualbox is not passing the camera correctly. So the next step is to gather evidence. As there is not an obvious error, other that in the client, which yields the non-descriptive error failed to initialize, is there something I can do to record in more detail what is going on?

[socratis]

So the next step is to gather evidence.

You might want to start with this search: webcam site:www.virtualbox.org/ticket, I'm sure you'll find something that fits the description...