Webcam not always working

[BM31500]

Hello
I have a Dell XPS 13 9350. When I installed Anduinos 2.0, the webcam was not working. More precisely, in the Camera application, it was showing a black screen. In the videoconferencing applications, it didn't show up. Then after a few days, and probably after I made some upgrades, it worked well. And the day after, it disappeared again.
I checked many fora and tried to do what was proposed but I can't make it work.
Can anybody help me?
Thanks in advance.

[Anduin2017]

Hello BM31500,

Thank you for reporting this, and welcome to AnduinOS! I’m sorry to hear your webcam is acting up. The XPS 13 9350 is a fantastic machine, but intermittent hardware issues like this can certainly be frustrating.

Given that the camera worked briefly and then disappeared, this sounds like a race condition during boot, a kernel module conflict, or potentially a USB power-saving feature aggressively suspending the camera device (as internal webcams are typically wired internally via USB).

To help me pinpoint exactly what's failing, could you please run the following diagnostic commands in your terminal and paste the full output here?

1. Check if the hardware is detected on the USB bus:

lsusb

2. Check for specific camera device nodes:

ls -l /dev/video*

3. Search the kernel logs for webcam-related events (errors or disconnects):

sudo dmesg | grep -iE 'uvcvideo|camera|webcam'

4. Check the status of the media framework:

v4l2-ctl --list-devices

(Note: If v4l2-ctl is not found, you can install it first with sudo apt install v4l-utils)

While we wait for those results, here is a quick potential mitigation you can try:

Sometimes, the uvcvideo driver gets stuck. You can try forcing it to reload without rebooting:

sudo rmmod uvcvideo
sudo modprobe uvcvideo

After running those two lines, check your Camera app again to see if it immediately comes back to life.

Once you reply with the output from the diagnostic commands, I'll be able to give you a much more specific and permanent fix. Hang in there!

[BM31500]

Thanks for replying so quickly!
Here are the results:

1. I can't see the camera when running lsusb

2. ls -l /dev/video* gives tens of answers like /dev/video0 until /dev/video31

3. sudo dmesg | grep -iE 'uvcvideo|camera|webcam' gives
   [ 3.641325] usb 3-1.3.3: Product: HD Pro Webcam C920
   [ 7.482874] intel-ipu7 0000:00:05.0: Connected 1 cameras
   [ 8.110386] uvcvideo 3-1.3.3:1.0: Found UVC 1.00 device HD Pro Webcam C920 (046d:0892)
   [ 8.602139] usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo
   [ 425.243396] usbcore: deregistering interface driver uvcvideo
   [ 425.287836] usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo
   but the HD Pro C920 is an external webcam (although it is currently disconnected)

4. v4l2-ctl --list-devices gives
   ipu7 (PCI:0000:00:05.0):
   /dev/video0
   /dev/video1
   /dev/video2
   /dev/video3
   /dev/video4
   /dev/video5
   /dev/video6
   /dev/video7
   /dev/video8
   /dev/video9
   /dev/video10
   /dev/video11
   /dev/video12
   /dev/video13
   /dev/video14
   /dev/video15
   /dev/video16
   /dev/video17
   /dev/video18
   /dev/video19
   /dev/video20
   /dev/video21
   /dev/video22
   /dev/video23
   /dev/video24
   /dev/video25
   /dev/video26
   /dev/video27
   /dev/video28
   /dev/video29
   /dev/video30
   /dev/video31
   /dev/media0

5. sudo rmmod uvcvideo
   sudo modprobe uvcvideo
   did not give any change.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Anduin2017]

Hello BM31500,

Thank you so much for providing these logs! They are incredibly helpful and I have good news: your hardware and cables are perfectly fine. The mystery is actually solved by these specific lines in your output:
[ 7.482874] intel-ipu7 0000:00:05.0: Connected 1 cameras
and the 32 /dev/video* nodes under ipu7 (PCI:0000:00:05.0).

Your Dell XPS 13 9350 (the new Lunar Lake version) does not use a traditional USB webcam. Instead, it uses a highly advanced MIPI camera wired directly via PCIe to the Intel IPU7 (Image Processing Unit). This is why it does not appear in lsusb and why standard USB drivers (uvcvideo) don't apply to it.

Why is it showing a black screen?
MIPI cameras output raw sensor data. Standard applications (like Zoom, browsers, or basic camera apps) cannot read this raw data. They require a background service (User-space ISP via libcamera and Intel's specific daemons) to translate that raw data into a virtual standard camera on the fly.

The fact that it worked briefly after an upgrade, then stopped, strongly suggests that the Intel IPU7 user-space daemon or the v4l2-relayd service failed to start properly after a subsequent update, leaving your apps trying to read raw nodes and getting a black screen.

Let's check the status of the required MIPI camera stack. Please run these commands and paste the output:

1. Check the status of the Intel camera daemon and relay service:

systemctl status v4l2-relayd.service
systemctl status intel-camera-custom-mipi-ipu6.service

(Note: The exact service name might vary, don't worry if one says "could not be found")
2. Check which MIPI/IPU packages you currently have installed:

dpkg -l | grep -iE 'libcamera|ipu6|ipu7|intel-vsc|v4l2-relayd'

3. Test if the raw camera stack can actually grab a frame:

libcamera-hello --list-cameras

Once I see these results, we can either restart the stuck service or reinstall the specific Intel IPU7 package that might have been broken during your recent apt upgrade. Hang in there, we are very close to fixing this!

[BM31500]

1. the services are not found

2. ii gstreamer1.0-libcamera:amd64 0.7.0-1ubuntu2 amd64 complex camera support library (GStreamer plugin)
   ii libcamera-ipa:amd64 0.7.0-1ubuntu2 amd64 complex camera support library (IPA modules)
   ii libcamera0.7:amd64 0.7.0-1ubuntu2 amd64 complex camera support library
   ii libspa-0.2-libcamera:amd64 1.6.2-1ubuntu1 amd64 libraries for the PipeWire multimedia server - libcamera plugin

3. libcamera-hello is not found and I can't find it with apt

[Anduin2017]

Hello BM31500,

Thank you for the quick follow-up! These results are incredibly revealing.

The fact that v4l2-relayd is not found, combined with the presence of libspa-0.2-libcamera, tells us exactly how your system is architected to handle this camera: your machine relies entirely on the modern PipeWire + libcamera stack, completely bypassing the legacy V4L2 loopback method.

Here is what is likely happening: The Linux kernel is perfectly detecting your IPU7 hardware (as we saw in your dmesg logs). However, because MIPI cameras output RAW data, libcamera needs Intel's proprietary, closed-source ISP (Image Signal Processor) firmware to decode the image into something your apps can see. If an apt upgrade updated your kernel but failed to rebuild the Intel modules, or if it accidentally removed the Intel ISP binaries, PipeWire will fail to grab the video stream, resulting in a black screen.

To figure out exactly where the chain is broken, please run these next diagnostic commands and paste the output:

1. Let's install the missing diagnostic tools and check libcamera again:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install libcamera-tools
cam --list

2. Check if the modern multimedia router (PipeWire) currently sees your camera:

wpctl status

(Please paste the "Video" section from the output of this command).
3. Check if the proprietary Intel ISP packages are still installed on your system:

dpkg -l | grep -iE 'intel.*camera|ipu6|ipu7|ivsc'

4. Check the background user-service logs for camera crashes:

journalctl --user -u pipewire -u wireplumber -b | grep -iE 'libcamera|camera|error'

Temporary Mitigation to Try Now:
Sometimes, the PipeWire session manager simply gets its camera nodes tangled up after a suspend or background update. You can force it to reset without rebooting by running this command as your normal user (do not use sudo for this):

systemctl --user restart wireplumber pipewire pipewire-pulse

After running that, check your Camera app again. If it is still a black screen, reply with the logs from the 4 commands above, thanks!!

[BM31500]

After searching and trying many things I get to this :
The issue stems from a confirmed and documented kernel bug (int3472-discrete does not recognise the GPIO 0x02 type used by the infrared LED) — a fix exists but has not yet been incorporated into the AnduinOS/Ubuntu repositories.
Even once this fix is available, there is still one missing piece: libcamera does not yet have a pipeline for the IPU7, which explains why the ‘Camera’ app remains blank even when the sensor is detected by the kernel — that is why you cannot even select it.

I begin to doubt whether I really found this integrated webcam working - and not my external webcam. Since it was more than one week ago, I'm not so sure anymore.
Anyway I still have this matter: how to have my integrated webcam working?
If this is related to the kernal bug, that seems to have been corrected in a new mainline kernal but that has not been implemented on Anduinos. Do you have any ideas about when it will be integrated?

Thanks in advance

[Anduin2017]

https://docs.anduinos.com/Skills/Developing/Build-Your-Own-Kernel.html

This doc helps you building the kernel from source. It's not that hard as it looks to be. I bet you can try building the latest kernel!

[BM31500]

Hi,
I built the kernel 7.1.3 but it still doesn't work. It shows:
ov02c10 i2c-OVTI02C1:00: supply dovdd not found, using dummy regulator
ov02c10 i2c-OVTI02C1:00: supply avdd not found, using dummy regulator
ov02c10 i2c-OVTI02C1:00: supply dvdd not found, using dummy regulator
ov02c10 i2c-OVTI02C1:00: Error reading reg 0x300a: -121
ov02c10 i2c-OVTI02C1:00: failed to find sensor: -121

Any idea to fix this?
Thanks in advance

[Anduin2017]

Hello! First, kudos to you for successfully compiling and deploying kernel 7.1.3; that truly requires strong hands-on skills!

However, unfortunately, your test results and logs reveal a very typical "hard nut to crack" that the Linux community currently faces when dealing with new MIPI cameras.

• using dummy regulator: The Linux kernel cannot find the component that actually controls the camera's power supply, so it pretends one exists (dummy) in an attempt to continue running.
• Error reading reg 0x300a: -121: Error code -121 in Linux represents -EREMOTEIO (Remote I/O error).
• failed to find sensor: Due to the read failure, the system assumes the sensor is not present.

Your camera chip (OV02C10) is currently powered off.

On newer Intel platforms (especially devices equipped with IPU6/IPU7), the camera's power supply, clock signals, and reset pins are controlled by a power management driver called int3472, which reads the motherboard's ACPI tables. If the int3472 driver fails to work correctly, the camera will not receive power. Since the motherboard does not provide power, it is natural to get a "device unresponsive (-121)" error when the kernel attempts to read the camera's device ID (register 0x300a) via the I2C bus.

1. ACPI / Power Management Matching Issue (Kernel Layer): Although the mainline kernel has fixed some bugs, the ACPI power routing for extremely new devices like the Dell XPS 13 9350 (especially those with Lunar Lake architecture) may not yet be fully adapted to open-source drivers. The int3472 driver might still fail to correctly identify and trigger the GPIO pins on your motherboard to power the camera.
2. Missing Image Processing Pipeline (User Space): This is the most brutal reality—even if the power issue is resolved and the sensor is successfully recognized (no longer reporting -121), it still will not produce an image. As you mentioned, IPU7 relies on Intel's proprietary ISP firmware and specialized plugins (IPA) for libcamera to convert raw sensor data (RAW) into a video stream. The mainline kernel does not include these proprietary firmwares or specific environment configurations.

As for the specific cause, I regretfully have to say: I don't know... This is indeed a very tricky issue I've encountered. Perhaps you could ask the camera team responsible for Intel in the kernel mailing list.

If you want to dig deeper, we can check the status of the power management driver:

1. Check if the power management driver (int3472) reports any errors:
We need to see what issues the kernel encountered while handling the camera power management chip during boot.

2. Check for motherboard BIOS updates:
For the Dell XPS series, many Linux-related ACPI and camera power issues are resolved by Dell through BIOS updates. I strongly recommend checking the Dell website for the latest BIOS version and upgrading if available.

3. Honest advice: Rely on an external webcam
If you urgently need to use video conferencing for work or daily life, I can only suggest that you temporarily continue using your external Logitech C920 webcam. For a completely new architecture like IPU7, Intel and Canonical (the upstream for Ubuntu/AnduinOS) are still in intensive collaborative development. Typically, you will need to wait for the official release of the dedicated "OEM Hardware Enablement Stack (HWE)," which bundles kernel patches along with all necessary proprietary daemons, before the built-in camera can function stably.