Configuring Webcam

Configuring Hardware - Configuring Webcam

First and foremost, you'll need to know the type of webcam you have. Most webcams, even internal ones, are attached to the system via the USB bus. If there is an option to enable or disable your internal webcam via your BIOS, you'll want to ensure it is enabled before getting started. To list the devices attached to the usb bus, we'll use a utility called lsusb, which is part of the sys-apps/usbutils package.

$ sudo lsusb

The output should look something like this:

Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0b05:1788 ASUSTek Computer, Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 13d3:5122 IMC Networks 
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0020  
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 046d:c06a Logitech, Inc. 
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0020  
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

It may take some investigation to determine which device is your webcam if it isn't provided in the description string by the hardware vendor. Usually a bit of googling will find you an answer.

Once you know the type of hardware you need to configure, you'll need to configure it in the kernel. To prevent the need of having to load and unload modules, we'll compile support directly into the kernel.

Device Drivers  --->
 <*> Multimedia support  --->
 ...
 <*>   Video For Linux
 [*]     Enable Video For Linux API 1 (DEPRECATED)
 ...
 [*]   Video capture adapters  --->
  ...
  [*]   V4L USB devices  --->
   <*>   USB Video Class (UVC)
   [*]     UVC input events device support

This may be enough for most webcams, but if you see your device listed in the list, enable the driver for it. Compile and copy your new kernel to /boot. Before you reboot your system into your new configuration, be sure you add yourself to the video group if you haven't already.

$ sudo gpasswd -a username video