Webcam on Ubuntu

Ubuntu Documentation > Community Documentation > Webcam

Many webcams will "just work" in Ubuntu. There is a USB standard that defines USB streaming video called UVC. This stands for Universal Video Class, and it does for webcams what UMS does for USB memory sticks and hard drives. This allows one driver to work with many webcams. When looking to purchase a webcam for use with Ubuntu, you should look for a UVC compatible camera. The Linux-UVC project has a good list of UVC compatible webcams as well as The Quickcam Team for Logitech cameras.

Contents

1. Testing your webcam
2. Driver installation
3. Additional software
4. Recording video
   1. cheese
   2. ffmpeg
   3. MPlayer / MEncoder
   4. VLC
5. Manual installation instructions
   1. Installing spca5xx manually
   2. Installing ov51x manually
   3. Installing ov51x-jpeg manually
   4. Installing UVC manually
6. Intrepid/Updated Hardy current issues with webcams
   1. List of Kernel modules with problems
7. Fixing Webcam issues while using Flash since Intrepid
8. See also

Here is a list of Webcams that just work for Skype.