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I have a c270 Logitech webcam and I just noticed, that the LED is on, indicating that the webcam is recording. However there is no application (I would be aware of) using the webcam. So how do I find out how and what activated it?

System is ubuntu 12.04 with the 3.4 rc 4 kernel

miceterminator
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1 Answers1

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You can use lsof to track back what is accessing a file. I, personally, have a homebrew app that uses lsof and an underlying API to let me know when something opens my webcam.

RobotHumans
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    Thank you for the hint. However lsof /dev/video0 does not return anything as normal user and returns "lsof: WARNING: can't stat() fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon file system /home/clemens/.gvfs Output information may be incomplete." when run as root – miceterminator Jun 19 '12 at 00:38
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    I also checked the usb data in wireshark, but there was no visible data transfer from the camera. Still very strange that the LED is on. – miceterminator Jun 19 '12 at 00:48
  • when I open the webcam in skype it shows up in wireshark as well as in lsof. So this could just have been a glitch in the driver/module. Still gave me quite a shock. – miceterminator Jun 19 '12 at 01:05
  • Strange... lsof /dev/video0 has this output. WARNING: can't stat() aufs file system /var/lib/docker/aufs/mnt/xxxx – ji-ruh Feb 13 '16 at 11:47