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I've been having this problem and I haven't been able to solve it for days now. It should be very simple, but I'm also very much a novice.

My webcam is flipped upside down. Tried flipping it back with v4l2, but the settings doesn't apply. In Cheese I can manually flip the webcam but the effect doesn't generalize to other applications, such as firefox/chrome or skype.

I know that internal ASUS cameras are physically installed upside-down and that there is software to flip it, but it seems v4l isn't able to do it.

The common solution for skype, LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /usr/bin/skype doesn't fix the problem either.

Except actually turning my computer upside down, what options do I have?

VegardSO
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2 Answers2

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UPDATE: Since the new skype app is basically a WebApp this solution won't work with Skype for Linux Beta (Skype 5.0+). Also many functions present in older releases are not yet implemented in this new one. For this solution to work you need to look for a multi arch build of an older version, e.g. skype-4-3-0-37-multi-ubu.deb

Try this, mate:

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/skype

(or whatever your text editor is)

add entry (64x)

#!/bin/bash
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /usr/bin/skype

Save. Ctrl+O Close. Ctrl+X

sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/skype

Close terminal. Run Skype.

  • This worked for me, Linux Mint 18 Sarah - Xenial Xerus 16.04
  • Also tested in Ubuntu Mate 16.04
Dorian
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  • Exactly. Thanks for pointing out that this won't work anymore in SkypeForLinux. – G. Demecki Feb 12 '18 at 07:27
  • I forgot to mention how I solved the problem. So since the software solution doesn't exist, I went towards a hardware one. I've bought an external web camera... and it works flawlessly :) – G. Demecki Jun 16 '18 at 17:04
  • Probably a newer version of v4l would've done the job anyway as the below comment from José suggests. Newer linux kernels don't have this problem, I believe. – Dorian Oct 31 '19 at 15:22
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Install the v4l-utils package which contains the v4l2-ctl utility:

sudo apt-get install v4l-utils

Verify if your video device supports the vertical_flip option:

v4l2-ctl --list-ctrls

In the output, verify if you see the control vertical_flip. If so, then edit your .profile:

nano ~/.profile

And add to the end:

# Flip webcam video
v4l2-ctl -c vertical_flip=0
v4l2-ctl -c vertical_flip=1

(the double command is intentional)

Aschwin
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José
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    Thanks for the reply!

    I followed your instructions but after reboot and login I get a notice saying:

    unknown control 'vertical_flip' unknown control 'vertical_flip'

    I also tried to use webcam anyway and unfortunately it's still upside down

     – VegardSO Oct 26 '16 at 17:40
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    I got to the same place as @VegardSO I ran the command $ v4l2-ctl -l and did not see the vertical_flip option listed. In case this helps. – Andres Dec 08 '16 at 13:34