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I have had a Dell XPS 13 (9315) for a month with Linux pre-installed. After testing it upon delivery, I installed the latest version of Ubuntu (LTS 22.04.1). Since then, the computer's built-in webcam is not recognised by the system. I had tested it before the upgrade and it worked. How can I reconfigure it? I have already contacted DELL support, no physical problem has been detected Thank you in advance.

Andrew Gaul
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a10
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    The XPS line often relies on OEM kernels and/or additional drivers installed from a PPA. One or the other is what you're missing in the Ubuntu you installed. Doing an online upgrade and then re-enabling the Dell PPA would have been preferable in this situation. – ChanganAuto Sep 12 '22 at 14:22
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    none of these solutions works with 22.04.01 or above for xps 9315 – user3364314 Sep 19 '23 at 08:38

5 Answers5

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Cause

This typically happens when the laptop has been installed with Ubuntu 22.04 by the owner. The installation was not carried out using the Dell Ubuntu Recovery Image.

Ubuntu stock install images from non-Dell sources do not contain all the Dell required packages. These packages allow the webcam to function and be detected.

Resolution

Ubuntu tracks and provides instructions for fixing issues from installing the Generic image on the following help site.

The following instructions take you through restoring the camera's full functionality.

If stock Ubuntu 22.04 was installed, the Intel kernel driver is out-of-tree. You must install the stack manually:

Open a terminal window:

The easiest way to open a terminal window is to use the keyboard shortcut: CTRL+ALT+T.

You can also open a terminal window from the search bar on the user interfaces (UI) desktop. Type Terminal into the bar and click on the results that appear.

Type each of the following terminal commands into the terminal window and press Enter:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oem-solutions-engineers/oem-projects-meta

For Dell XPS13 Model 9315:

sudo apt install oem-somerville-psyduck-meta

For Dell XPS13 Model 9320:

sudo apt install oem-somerville-tentacool-meta

Then:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

Note: You may see a secondary issue in Ubuntu 22.04 when opening the Cheese application. An error stating 'There was an error playing video from the webcam' appears. The same issue is not seen when opening Cheese using the following terminal command:

sudo cheese -d "Intel MIPI Camera"

Source: Dell Support Knowledgebase

Hope this helps

user68186
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  • I get this error: E: The repository 'https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/oem-solutions-engineers/oem-projects-meta/ubuntu lunar Release' does not have a Release file. – khatchad May 01 '23 at 20:03
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    @khatchad It looks like you are using Ubuntu 23.04. The instructions are for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. The PPA has not been updated for 23.04. I can't tell you when or if ever the PPA will be updated. Dell (and other original equipment manufacturers (aka OEMs) generally only preinstall LTS versions of Ubuntu. So, they may not fix problems with interim releases like 23.04. – user68186 May 01 '23 at 20:27
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    For Dell Precision 5480, the instructions can be found in the same document https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Dell under Dell Precision 5470. – fffred Jan 22 '24 at 15:56
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Instructions above are not correct, those (psysduck and tentacool) are for Ubuntu 20.04. If you are using Ubuntu 22.04 these are the correct steps:

Dell Latitude 9420

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oem-solutions-group/intel-ipu6
$ sudo apt install libcamhal0
$ sudo reboot

Dell XPS 13 9315

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oem-solutions-group/intel-ipu6
$ sudo apt install libcamhal-ipu6ep0
$ sudo reboot

Dell Precision 5470

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oem-solutions-group/intel-ipu6
$ sudo apt install libcamhal-ipu6ep0
$ sudo reboot

Dell Latitude 9430

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oem-solutions-group/intel-ipu6
$ sudo apt install libcamhal-ipu6ep0
$ sudo reboot
Jon
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  • Are these still the same instructions, even if one uses 22.04.1? – TeX Apprentice Feb 08 '23 at 20:56
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    I tried both proposed solutions, but my camera on XPS 9315 is still not working (black when I try to capture a photo for an account, something like an analog TV no signal when I try on Google Meet on Chrome). I tried on Wayland and Xorg, no luck. – garakkio Apr 02 '23 at 08:21
  • Are there repositories for Dell Precision 7560 and Ubuntu 22.04.02 ? – Antonio Petricca Apr 19 '23 at 20:21
  • I’ve used the intel ppa as described in the Ubuntu wiki. The camera seems to work well for zoom and teams. My only issue now is power drain when I close the lid and sleep. I’m on 22.04 – user3675131 Jun 12 '23 at 10:51
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These instructions from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Dell helped me on Ubuntu 22.04 + Dell XPS 13 9315:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oem-solutions-group/intel-ipu6
sudo apt install linux-modules-ipu6-generic-hwe-22.04 linux-modules-ivsc-generic-hwe-22.04
sudo apt install libcamhal-ipu6ep0
sudo reboot

The page contains similar instructions for other Dell laptops.

Tests

I tested with Google Meet and https://webcamtests.com.

  • Chromium: OK
  • Firefox: Not OK: the browser sees the camera but shows a black frame.

Warning

The wiki page says:

ppa:oem-solutions-group/intel-ipu6 is a development PPA

So support might improve or break in the future. The package versions installed at the time I tested are:

package version
linux-modules-ipu6-5.19.0-45-generic 5.19.0-45.46~22.04.1
linux-modules-ivsc-5.19.0-45-generic 5.19.0-45.46~22.04.1
linux-modules-ipu6-generic-hwe-22.04 5.19.0.45.46~22.04.20
linux-modules-ivsc-generic-hwe-22.04 5.19.0.45.46~22.04.20
libcamhal-ipu6ep0 0~git202302081109.884b81a~ubuntu22.04.2
Aurélien Gâteau
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  • Can confirm this works for me too (in Chrome, not Firefox), same config Dell XPS 13 9315 and Ubuntu 22.04. Cheese also works, but only if I tell it the device using sudo cheese -d "Intel MIPI Camera" as mentioned in one of the other answers. – Brian Pursley Jun 23 '23 at 14:47
  • Can confirm that this worked for XPS 9315 with Ubuntu 22.04. Thanks! – nvk Dec 01 '23 at 10:28
  • Works for Dell Precision 5480 – fffred Jan 22 '24 at 15:57
  • Also confirming this works on Ubuntu 23.10 + Dell XPS 13 9315. I tested Google Meet on Firefox and Cheese (installed with apt and using sudo and -d flag). There seem to be other issues with Cheese (e.g. I don't get audio in a video recording) but the camera functionality at least seems to work. – commanderdata Feb 07 '24 at 17:59
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Hi for Dell xps 9315 using Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS x86_64 it was not enough using intel-ipu6 package . I had to install additionally the driver for the ipu6 camera manually. So this way works for me :

To start you have to have intel-ipu6 package

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oem-solutions-group/intel-ipu6
sudo apt update
sudo apt install libcamhal-ipu6ep0

Then you have to build the driver, I use dkms but there are more possibilities: https://github.com/intel/ipu6-drivers

install driver using dkms

first install dkms then the driver

  1. install dkms https from https://github.com/dell/dkms, use the readme.
git clone https://github.com/dell/dkms.git
make install # ubuntu
  1. install ipu6 to load the driver https://github.com/intel/ipu6-drivers#3-build-with-dkms
git clone https://github.com/intel/ipu6-drivers.git
cd ipu6-drivers
git clone https://github.com/intel/ivsc-driver.git
cp -r ivsc-driver/backport-include ivsc-driver/drivers ivsc-driver/include .
rm -rf ivsc-driver
sudo dkms add .
sudo dkms autoinstall ipu6-drivers/0.0.0

reboot

After the reboot the camera was working in google chrome meet, also the camera led flicker for testing when starting the pc.

johanseto
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Weirdly I have this problem too. Cheese wouldn't work, nor Google Meet. Then I tried Zoom, and it worked! And then Google Meet worked too. Cheese still doesn't work though.

Steven Pemberton
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