HP webcam not working

[RazorEdge]

Hey there, I've installed PureOS 10.0 on a HP Notebook 14s-CF0078TU. I've managed to get it running smoothly minus the built-in webcam; it appears to be missing a driver. I thought it was due to PureOS being completely FOSS, however I tried a live boot of Ubuntu and it still wasn't recognised. Any tips about where to find the correct driver? I'm not sure how to bring up the webcam hardware details and thought that would be the best first step.

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

 

[Brickwizard]

Welcome to the forums

Have you tried installed cheese, it works with most vid-cams

 

[RazorEdge]

Thank you.

Yes, Cheese was one of the multiple programs that was unable to find the webcam. I'm sure this is a driver problem, can you help with finding the camera hardware?

 

[KGIII]

Moved to audo/video sub forum.

 

[Brickwizard]

Do you have inxi installed? if not you can get the package here. https://software.pureos.net/package/bin/amber/inxi
the webcam should show in the list of USB connections, terminal code inxi --usb -xxx
if not try inxi -Nxxx

addendum, Pure have their own webcam drivers [I don't know how well they work] here https://software.pureos.net/package/bin/landing/webcam

 

[Brickwizard]

I thought it was due to PureOS being completely FOSS

IMO. FOSS Linux is for the purest, as many components & peripherals you may use every day only have proprietary drivers, so you need to accept not everything will work, most builds you can add these drivers, but then it's no longe FOSS, for the casual home user and newbie one of the many non-Foss "composite builds" are easier to install and use, [although some more recent hardware may still cause problems]

 

[RazorEdge]

Thanks for this. There may be some confusion here - the webcam I'm trying to configure is the built-in HP camera on the laptop, not an external USB plug in. How do I bring up the hardware details of this?

I tried installing these (https://software.pureos.net/package/bin/landing/webcam) as you recommended but unfortunately they haven't fixed the issue.

 

[Brickwizard]

The webcam even if built in is usually connected via the USB bus system and so normally will show up as a USB connection

 

[X104825]

A driver finder software may work or just a new USB camera.

 

[RazorEdge]

I tried those Inxi commands and this is what I got - no reference to a webcam?

I've never heard of driver finder software. What would you recommend trying?

 

[X104825]

you may want to try avast driver its free and effective (note you will need wine cause it only for windows and mac. Does it work on windows.

 

[RazorEdge]

Thanks, but Avast Driver Updater looks like it's designed to work specifically on Windows and it doesn't seem like it would solve this issue because of Linux's different architecture. I could be wrong though.

 

[KGIII]

Thanks, but Avast Driver Updater looks like it's designed to work specifically on Windows and it doesn't seem like it would solve this issue because of Linux's different architecture. I could be wrong though.

Correct. You can't install drivers from Wine. It doesn't work that way.

 

[RazorEdge]

Correct. You can't install drivers from Wine. It doesn't work that way.

Thanks KGIII. How would you recommend I proceed?

 

[KGIII]

If I had any recommendations, I'd have suggested them already.

Alas, I have none... Well, none that you already wouldn't have covered...

Well, I'd suggest trying a different webcam. You can also try installing an OS, picking install 3rd party drivers during the installation, and seeing if that works. You can also try finding the type of hardware (try 'lshw') and looking for drivers by device name.