Win 7 Guest/Linux host - integrated webcam on Dell 5520 laptop - black display

[H0wdy]

On a Dell 5520 laptop, Fedora 64 bit 21 host, Win 7 64 bit guest, the integrated webcam provides nothing but a black display on passthrough, but on direct connect, the video shows but very slow/choppy.

It works fine on host applications.

An external USB camera works fine passthrough on the same system.

Attached is log.

[sunlover]

Which application do you use in the Win7 guest with the webcam?

Please get a debug log:

• start the Windows 7 VM
• on the host execute

VBoxManage debugvm Win7 log --release "+USB_WEBCAM.e.l2.l3,-USB_WEBCAM.restrict"

• attach the integrated webcam to the Win7 VM using webcam passthrough (via Devices/Webcams menu)
• try to use the webcam in the guest to reproduce the black image

Attach the new VBox.log to this ticket.

[kend]

I have the same problem with win8.1 gest on gentoo x64 host.

[kend]

The log created with your provide debug command.

I'm using Win8.1 setting program to capture user image.

[sunlover]

kend, according to the log the webcam has been connected using USB passthrough (for example using menu Devices/USB Devices). This does not work reliably, see ticket https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/242

You could try to use webcam passthrough via Devices/Webcams menu. The debug command from comment 1 is for the webcam passthrough mode.

[kend]

Hi, sunlover.

The log created with my do this:

1. Start the Win8.1 VM.
2. Run the command with debugvm parameter.
3. Connect the webcam to VM.
4. Start setting program in VM and using webcam capture function
5. Setting program display back image and system is very slow.
6. Exit setting program and shutdown VM.
7. Upload the log file.

[bor]

I have the same issue.

Dell Latitude E5540 + Gentoo x64 host + virtualbox 4.3.20 + Win7 + lync = black video screen.

[sunlover]

bor, please attach the debug log. See https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/13728#comment:1

[sunlover]

bor, it looks like there is nothing wrong in the log: video frames are delivered to the guest. Please try to disable 2D and 3D acceleration in the VM setting and test again. Thanks.

[bor]

I've tried to disable 2D & 3D acceleration but no luck :( And one more notice: AFAIR in the previous version of virtualbox (4.2.x) the camera worked fine.

[H0wdy]

I tried disabling 2d acceleration, and the same problem occurs.

1. With passthrough, black screen. I can use some external usb cams with passthrough, though
2. With usb direct, I get an image, but incredibly slow. usb 2.0 is enabled.

Prior to passthrough, it worked fine with usb 2.0 device mode.

Now, it doesn't work correctly either way(either black screen with passthrough or incredibly slow with USB 2.0 mode)

[bor]

I don't know if it matters but I have BIOS firmware version A06.

H0wdy, what is yours? did you tried to get the latest one?

[bor]

I've installed the new 4.3.28 version and webcam seems to work now!

[sunlover]

bor, thanks for feedback. Apparently the fix for Linux host backend helped (see changelog "Webcam passthrough improvements for Linux (V4L2) hosts to support more webcam models ").

H0wdy, kend, does VirtualBox 4.3.28 works for you?

[H0wdy]

Unfortunately, it doesn't :(. Not to mention, I upgraded to an Inspiron 15 5000 series, with F22 64bit, and Win 8.1 guest. I confirmed yesterday that the output is black :(

[H0wdy]

Sunlover, can you please advise? It still is not working for me. I have a new dell, Fedora 22, and windows 8 guest. I still get black display for webcam on passthrough.

[H0wdy]

UPDATE:

This is fixed for me in VB5rc1.

[Vader]

Just installed Virtualbox 5.0 on Ubuntu as host and Win 8.1 as client. Camera I'm using is special CCD camera ant not supported on linux, which is the main reason I installed Windows with Virtualbox. Everything else is working great: camera is detected, drivers installed fine, but image contains nothing. I can't use the passthrough since linux doesn't display it as webcam.

Anyone have any suggestions? I can provide some testing data if needed.

[Frank Mehnert]

My suggestion is that you make your Linux host detect the webcam. Webcams will always have limited support as USB devices because when using the isochronous protocol, there are very strict timing constraints which can't be fulfilled in virtualized environments.

[Dhiren Hamal]

I've virtualbox 5.0.0_r101573 on Fedora 22 KDE and my guest os are win 8.1 and win 10 but on the both guest os my web cam is not working properly. If I turn on the camera on guest os the guest os runs slowly. I allocated 8 GB memory for the guest os and 4 cpu on process too. I event tested by plugging external usb webcam but still the same problem occur. I have the latest Bios firmware version and I also checked on VirtualBox 4.3.28 but there is no luck for me. Can somebody help me? please...