[SOLVED] Is my webcam toast already?

Framework Laptop 13 Linux
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Since this morning, I’m all grey and there’s no way to get color back.

Tested on my current distro (tumbleweed running 6.6.3) but also on fedora Live media (KDE and gnome), kernel 6.5.6.

And also on an installed Fedora (on another partition) running a more recent kernel (6.6.2 IIRC).

I doubt it’s software/kernel related, as it’s been working fine until a few days ago and I didn’t take any updates (also, it should still look ok on the live media).

Fedora live KDE

PXL_20231211_121400651.MP
PXL_20231211_121400651.MP1920×1446 154 KB

Fedora live gnome

PXL_20231211_122614505
PXL_20231211_1226145051920×1446 105 KB

I’ve tried disconnecting the whole webcam + mic module by unplugging and replugging the flat wire, but nothing changed.

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This feels like hardware already, can you try and file ticket? See if support can get into the bottom of it and have possible replacement?

cheers! :slight_smile:

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Hi Loell,
thanks for chiming in, I’ve sent a support request a while after posting this, linking to this thread.
Hope it gets addressed soon :slight_smile:

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Update: FW support requested additional photos of the module + ribbon cable and connector, and upon inspection agreed to send a replacement module.

I’ll hopefully receive it by year’s end, and will report back. I really hope that’s the root cause of the problem, otherwise I wouldn’t know what else it could be…

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Final (I hope :smiley: ) update:

got the replacement part in my mail today, installed it in 5 minutes and it works great.

Happy to report the case is closed, thanks FW support!

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Thanks for the update @fw13amd , Happy to know webcam replacement is up and running. :slight_smile:

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*** DISCLAIMER: DO NOT TRY any of the steps mentioned below or you may break your laptop’s camera ***

Hi @Loell_Framework

a few months later, I have the same problem again, I will file another support request.

And I think I also found the culprit. Like the first time, I had just finished using my Pixel 8 Pro’s camera as webcam (I’m on Linux)

As soon as I was done with it and tried to jump into a meeting with my FW camera, the image was all wrong. Webcam was working fine just until that point.

I have rebooted, I have tested with another distro (Fedora dual boot) and I have disconnected and reconnected the webcam module - no way, it’s toast.

I hope that this is still covered by warranty, or that FW understands that this is still not my fault (and hopefully appreciate the QA and useful info I’m providing :smiley: ), and still send a replacement module like the first time.

With a 2 out of 2 bad outcome, I think it’s also in FW’s interest to investigate this problem urgently (shouldn’t be hard to reproduce), possibly with Google’s participation or the kernel folks, because it’s not acceptable that connecting and using an external device can actually brick a PIECE OF HARDWARE so easily.

And also send out some advisory to users discouraging them from trying the “Android/Pixel phone camera as webcam” capability.

Thanks

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This is me from the FW webcam (now toast):

Screenshot_20240627_125948
Screenshot_20240627_1259481123×1451 109 KB

Same pose, from phone camera

PXL_20240627_105949493.MP
PXL_20240627_105949493.MP1920×1440 209 KB

Exposure is giga high and colors are just muted now

Here’s what it looks like in OBS with the default settings (which used to work fine), where Video Format is set to Motion-JPEG):

image
image722×617 87.9 KB

And this is OBS again by overriding Video Format to YUYV (which isn’t the default):

image
image722×617 58.2 KB

I suspect that Kamoso (first screenshot) falls back to YUYV because it detects Motion-JPEG as not functional.

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Logs from the session where this happened, starting from 27 Jun at 12:33

journalctl:

journalctl -k: