Ubuntu

Akoya P6622 webcam not recognized/activatable

Asked by Peter Idko

I've got 12.04.04 64bit on an Medion Akoya P6622. Everything's working except my webcam (I don't know which make and model it is). I've installed cheese, which does not find the device (neither does skype). It's also not listed under lsusb or lspci.
There is a keyboard-based "switch" (fn+f9) that should enable it. This hotkey doesn't do anything (the one for wifi fn+f7 neither, but e.g. the one for muting fn+f5, brightness and volume do).
The gstreamer-video-input yields an error, too: "Video for Linux 2 (v4l2): Cannot identify device '/dev/video0'". The test-input yields a coloured window, but no real video signal.
So I don't know whether it's a missing driver, the non-working switch, both or something else. Needless to say, the webcam worked fine under Win7 before.
Any help would be highly appreciated! :)

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

What is the output of:

lsb_release -a; uname -a; lsusb

Thanks

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Peter Idko (pokerspam123) said : 		#2

thanks for the fast response. here are the details:
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise
Linux Laptop-P6622 3.5.0-51-generic #76~precise1-Ubuntu SMP Fri May 16 16:50:34 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#3

Have you tried the backported kernel? The newer version may support your device.

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Peter Idko (pokerspam123) said : 		#4

I installed 3.11 and did a reboot. But the output of the commands above did not change:

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise
Linux Laptop-P6622 3.11.0-22-generic #38~precise1-Ubuntu SMP Fri May 16 20:47:57 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Any other thoughts?

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Peter Idko (pokerspam123) said : 		#5

I just realized 3.13 is available. So I updated again, yielding
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise
Linux Laptop-P6622 3.13.0-27-generic #50~precise1-Ubuntu SMP Fri May 16 20:47:56 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Still, the webcam is not seen/recognized/usable.

Any other thoughts, please?

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#6

Do you have a dual boot system with Windows? If yes, can you try booting into Windows, enable the camera with fn+f9 and then reboot into Ubuntu?

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Peter Idko (pokerspam123) said : 		#7

"Sadly", I don't have a dual boot system.

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#8

The problem that you have is similar to the "wifi disabled by hardware switch" case that several other persons have. It seems that there is a specific functionality to enable/disable certain hardware (especially wifi and camera devices) with a function key combination, but apparently that function key works only with the windows operating systems.

Some suggested workarounds from the web (not sure whether they really work):

1. check whether there is something in the BIOS to enable the device
2. Press fn+f9 very early in the boot process (before the OS is loaded)
3. reset the BIOS by powering down the system and removing battery and AC cord and wait few minutes or
4. reset the BIOS by powering down the system and pressing the power button for 30 seconds
5. combination of 3. and 4. (power down, remove battery and AC and press power button)

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