Integrated webcam in lenovo t410 not working with 12.04

Question

I have a Lenovo T410 with an inbuilt webcam and I haven't been able to get the webcam working. I tried skype, cheese, both just give me a black window. The microphone works fine with skype, by the way. Can anyone provide any clues please? The webcam is enabled in the bios, but there is no light indicating the webcam is on (not sure if there should be, though). I tried this on Kubuntu 11.10 and have upgraded to 12.04 with the same results. The Fn-F6 keyboard combination doens't seem to do anything either.

EDIT: I got the webcam replaced, it looks like it was a hardware problem, because it works fine now. Thanks guys.

$ ls /dev/v4l/*
/dev/v4l/by-id:
usb-Chicony_Electronics_Co.__Ltd._Integrated_Camera-video-index0

/dev/v4l/by-path:
pci-0000:00:1a.0-usb-0:1.6:1.0-video-index0

And lsusb:

$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 147e:2016 Upek Biometric Touchchip/Touchstrip Fingerprint Sensor
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0a5c:217f Broadcom Corp. Bluetooth Controller
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 17ef:480f Lenovo Integrated Webcam [R5U877]
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 05c6:9204 Qualcomm, Inc. 
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 17ef:1003 Lenovo Integrated Smart Card Reader

Here is the output from guvcview, minus lots of lines describing the available capture formats. It says "unable to start with minimum setup. Please reconnect your camera.".

guvcview 1.5.3
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1018:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.rear
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.center_lfe
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.side
ALSA lib audio/pcm_bluetooth.c:1614:(audioservice_expect) BT_GET_CAPABILITIES failed : Input/output error(5)
ALSA lib audio/pcm_bluetooth.c:1614:(audioservice_expect) BT_GET_CAPABILITIES failed : Input/output error(5)
ALSA lib audio/pcm_bluetooth.c:1614:(audioservice_expect) BT_GET_CAPABILITIES failed : Input/output error(5)
ALSA lib audio/pcm_bluetooth.c:1614:(audioservice_expect) BT_GET_CAPABILITIES failed : Input/output error(5)
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:957:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) The dmix plugin supports only playback stream
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1018:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory
Cannot connect to server socket
jack server is not running or cannot be started
video device: /dev/video0 
Init. Integrated Camera (location: usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.6)
{ pixelformat = 'YUYV', description = 'YUV 4:2:2 (YUYV)' }
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 480 }
    Time interval between frame: 1/30, 
 ....
{ discrete: width = 1600, height = 1200 }
    Time interval between frame: 1/15, 
vid:17ef 
pid:480f 
driver:uvcvideo
checking format: 1196444237
libv4l2: error setting pixformat: Device or resource busy
VIDIOC_S_FORMAT - Unable to set format: Device or resource busy
Init v4L2 failed !! 
Init video returned -2
trying minimum setup ...
video device: /dev/video0 
Init. Integrated Camera (location: usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.6)
{ pixelformat = 'YUYV', description = 'YUV 4:2:2 (YUYV)' }
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 480 }
 ....
vid:17ef 
pid:480f 
driver:uvcvideo
checking format: 1448695129
libv4l2: error setting pixformat: Device or resource busy
VIDIOC_S_FORMAT - Unable to set format: Device or resource busy
Init v4L2 failed !! 
ERROR: Minimum Setup Failed.
 Exiting...
VIDIOC_REQBUFS - Failed to delete buffers: Invalid argument (errno 22)
cleaned allocations - 100%
Closing portaudio ...OK
Terminated.

Solution

Try this:

sudo apt-get install guvcview

Comments

[kristianp]

Hmm, it doesn't work in windows either. I'm thinking hardware issue.

[htorque]

If you are 100 % positive it's enabled in the BIOS (F1 → Security → I/O Port Access → Integrated Camera), and it's also not working in Windows, then maybe the camera is broken? I'm not sure about the differences between the camera hardware, but the one in my T510 works fine out of the box.

[kristianp]

@htorque yeah, I'm going to get it warranty-serviced. I checked the bios settings.

[Flo]

Not a real solution, but try this. Exit all browsers and try to use the webcam.

[kristianp]

Thanks for the feedback. I got the webcam replaced under warranty and it works fine now.

[htorque]

That's great! :-)

[MCan]

1. Install tool v4l2ucp (sudo apt-get install v4l2ucp) 2. Reset all values under it (brightness, Contrast, Saturation etc.) which are set to max by default. Enjoy.

[kristianp]

The output from guvcview is in my post. i.e. it's already installed.