RE: cheese-3.10.2 does not detect webcam but guvcview does

[John Frankish <j-frankish slb com>]

> > > > > > > > > > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > > > > > > > > > From: Bastien Nocera [mailto:hadess hadess net]
> > > > > > > > > > > > Sent: Monday, 26 May, 2014 14:15
> > > > > > > > > > > > To: John Frankish
> > > > > > > > > > > > Cc: cheese-list gnome org
> > > > > > > > > > > > Subject: Re: cheese-3.10.2 does not detect webcam
> > > > > > > > > > > > but guvcview does
> > > > > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > > > > On Sat, 2014-05-24 at 15:07 +0000, John Frankish wrote:
> > > > > > > > > > > > > #6  0x000000000040f0d3 in
> > > > > > > > > > > > > cheese_effects_manager_add_effect (effect=<optimized out>, name=<optimized out>, 
> > > > > > > > > > > > > self=0x1ed5610)
> > > > > > > > > > > > >     at src/cheese-effects-manager.c:222
> > > > > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > > > > Still missing important debug information I'm afraid.
> > > > > > > > > > > 'seems the trick is to compile with "-ggdb"
> > > > > > > > > > It's trying to build the Time delay effect which needs
> > > > > > > > > > the
> > > > > > > > > > "frei0r-filter- delay0r" plugin (which lives in the
> > > > > > > > > > gst-plugins-bad package). Cheese should probably do better at avoiding crashing when an 
> > > > > > > > > > effect isn't available.
> > > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > > Could you please re-test with cheese 3.12.x, and file
> > > > > > > > > > a bug if the problem persists?
> > > > > > > > > Thanks
> > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > Hmm - assuming we're referring to
> > > > > > > > > /usr/local/lib/gstreamer-
> > > > > > > > 1.0/libgstfrei0r.so, it is present and correct...
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > Are you sure that your GStreamer installation knows to go
> > > > > > > > get the plugin there?
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Some progress being made at last
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I don't see it written anywhere, but the gstreamer frei0r
> > > > > > plugin requires
> > > > > frei0r-plugins in order to work.
> > > > >
> > > > > Are you filing bugs about this, or are we just debugging your
> > > > > hand-made distribution?
> > > >
> > > > https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=730786
> > > >
> > > > > There's a test call cheese-test-monitor in the cheese sources
> > > > > which you can use to debug your problem. The device monitor code
> > > > > uses udev to enumerate devices. Attach the output of "udevadm
> > > > > info --export-db" so we can see if the camera is detected properly.
> > > >
> > > > cheese-test-monitor doesn't do anything (cheese-test-camera seg faults).
> > > >
> > > > Udev output attached
> > >
> > > Your udev installation is probably broken, as it doesn't tag the
> > > laptop builtin camera with the necessary V4L tags.
> >
> > Indeed - hopefully fixed now - see attached.
> >
> > But (is it missing a ~/.config/something file not created on install?)..
> I discovered cheese will work if run as root, but not as a normal user.
>
> Neither gdb nor strace show any permissions errors and I don’t see that
> cheese is looking for /dev/video0 to be in the 'video" group or similar.
>
> Dconf shows cheese to be looking for XDG_PHOTO/Webcam as default
> whereas xdg-user-dirs has this as XDG_PICTURE, but I doubt this is causing it
> and using dconf-editor to change the default does not fix things.

If xdg-user-dirs-update has not been run then cheese tries to store images in the root (/) folder with user 
permissions.

Running xdg-user-dirs-update or using dconf-editor to adjust the default location fixes things.

Cheese now works - I have not had so much trouble with what should be a simple application for a long time - 
thanks for all of your help with this.

Cheers
John