Webcam setup on Manjaro Linux and other user-friendly Linux distributions should be automatic. You can usually plug in your webcam and have instant access to it. If you have a built-in camera, that should also work without any extra configuration.
In this guide, we’ll go over testing a webcam on Manjaro and give some troubleshooting pointers in case yours isn’t being detected automatically.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to test webcam
| Category | Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used |
|---|---|
| System | Manjaro Linux |
| Software | Cheese |
| Other | Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command. |
| Conventions |
# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user |
Testing a Webcam on Manjaro
Plug in your camera (if it’s not built-in) and use the following steps to see some clues about how Manjaro is detecting your webcam.
- Open a terminal and type the following command:
$ sudo dmesg | grep -i camera [ 6.656705] uvcvideo 1-1:1.0: Entity type for entity Camera 1 was not initialized! [ 6.656744] input: UVC Camera (046d:0990) as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/input/input13
- You can also use the following two commands to list webcam devices available on your system:
$ ls -ltrh /dev/video* crw-rw----+ 1 root video 81, 1 Jan 16 09:27 /dev/video1 crw-rw----+ 1 root video 81, 0 Jan 16 09:27 /dev/video0
or
$ v4l2-ctl --list-devices UVC Camera (046d:0990) (usb-0000:00:14.0-1): /dev/video0 /dev/video1 - Configurable options such as brightness, zoom, etc. are viewable with this command (you may need to substitute
video0with a different device name):$ v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video0 --list-ctrls
- You can use the
cheeseapplication to utilize your webcam and record videos or take pictures with it. Install it by executing this command in terminal:$ sudo pacman -S cheese
- To open it, search for it in your application launcher:
Open Cheese (or any applicable program) to use your webcamOr just use the following command in terminal:
$ cheese
Conclusion
That’s all there is to it. Cheese is just one of many video capture programs available for Manjaro; feel free to install one or more of your favorites. As long as the above commands are indicating that your webcam is discoverable, then any video capture program should be able to utilize your webcam.
