18.10: how to set system default webcam?

Question

My Lenovo X1 Carbon contains an IR camera as well as a standard camera, and it wants to default to the IR device, which produces garbled-looking video. It also seems to exacerbate a related issue in Chrome where selecting an alternate camera device doesn't work properly.

I haven't been able to find any good info on this. I can confirm my visible-light camera works properly by selecting it in Cheese preferences, but there seems to be no OS-level interface for setting the camera device in use (as there is for a sound device).

I'm comfortable in the terminal environment as well, but so far have not been able to find information on how to do this in the terminal either. Any advice or (up-to-date) references?

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 21 '20 at 10:23

3

FYI I fixed this by doing the following:

sudo mv /dev/video0 /dev/video0.original
sudo ln -s /dev/video2 /dev/video0

In my case, /dev/video2 was the "standard" webcam. YMMV and some trial and error may be required.

edited Sep 21 '20 at 10:23

Zanna

70,465

answered May 08 '19 at 03:46

zzu

161

1

N.B. that this fix continued to work when I upgraded to 19.04 Disco Dingo. – zzu May 08 '19 at 03:47
Great solution, quick and easy!! worx great on ubuntu 20.04 – Jadeye Oct 31 '22 at 10:52

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 20 '19 at 12:38

1

I had the same problem, and ended up disabling the usb device for the IR camera, since I don't actually need it. My solution is here: How do I change the default webcam?

answered Feb 20 '19 at 12:38

Karl R.

101

18.10: how to set system default webcam?

2 Answers2

Linked