If you have done cabling correctly and a device file /dev/video* does not appear, your kernel probably does not know the hardware. Troubleshooting heavily depends on the distribution and version you are using.

if you have mplayer installed you can use the command.

if you have vlc installed you can start it and choose Media -> Open Capture Device -> Video device name = /dev/video0 -> Play.

You can also test your webcam the following ways: But the time (in this case Nov 11 09:06) will be the time when you plugged it in. If you have several video4linux devices, for example a tv card your webcam may show up as /dev/video1 or whatever. If you have no /dev/video file, read #Troubleshooting. In this example your webcam device is named /dev/video0.

open a console and list your video4linux devices:Ĭrw-rw-+ 1 root video 81, 0 Nov 11 09:06 /dev/video0.If cheese starts, but does not find a webcam, you need to dig deeper. for Debian, Raspbian, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Flubuntu, Xubuntu, GEUbuntu, Edubuntu.Here is how to find out your distribution. To install cheese, you need to know your distribution. you want to #record_a_video with your webcam.cheese does not show the camera's content -> read on at Check the Setup.terminal says 'command not found', you need to install cheese.Ok, you are reading on, so there is still something left, maybe: This should switch on your webcam and you should see what it's recording.

First let's try if it works out of the box, so, connect your webcam (if it's not inbuilt), open a terminal and start the application cheese:

Msi laptop webcam not installed