How to test webcam on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa

The objective of this tutorial is to show the reader a quick-start method of testing a Webcam on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa.

In this tutorial you will learn:

• How to test webcam

How to test webcam on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa

Software Requirements and Conventions Used

How to test webcam on Ubuntu 20.04 step by step instructions

Ubuntu aims to provide out of the box support for peripheral audio or video devices. The chances are that the only action you need to make is to plugin your Video camera ( if not built-in camera ) into your Ubuntu Linux system and start using it.

1. Plugin in your Video camera ( if not built-in camera ) and enter the following command:

   $ 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
   

   From here you should see some clues whether webcam has been connected and recognised by the Ubuntu system. Other commands you might use to list available Webcam cameras on your system are:

   $ 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
   

2. Next, install the cheese application. Open up your terminal and enter:

   $ sudo apt install cheese
   

3. Start Cheese application by search for cheese withing Activities menu or by executing the following command:

   $ cheese
   

   Once the Cheese starts it will pick up your default webcam and start streaming video from your webcam.