"Cheese" does not work correctly after upgrade to LM 21 Vanessa

[default0]

Hey,

after updating to LM 21 "Vanessa" Cheese hasn't been working properly.
As far as I can tell, the problem is Cheese-specific: Discord for example has no trouble correctly displaying my webcam feed.

What happens specifically is that Cheese will loop a very short replay buffer (maybe ~300-500ms?) shortly after starting / performing an action and also have a gray bar at the bottom of the frame (variable length, doesn't even necessarily align with a full row).
The replay buffer will refresh and loop a new ~300-500ms interval after taking a picture, but pictures I take will also contain the gray bar at the bottom of the frame with whatever length it happened to be at the time the picture was taken.

Recording video will create a video that contains only the replay buffer loop (complete with randomly fluctuating gray bar at the bottom). It is for the most part impractical for me to attach an example video or image right now, but if that happens to be necessary to troubleshoot, I can see about providing some visual examples as well.

Cheese has been working fine before the upgrade to LM 21, outside the upgrade I have not made any relevant changes to my configuration.

Since I was told to mention like all the relevant info that could possibly exist in the universe, here is

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxxxz

output:

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-46-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.2.0
    Desktop: Cinnamon 5.4.9 tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: Mutter dm: LightDM 1.30.0
    Distro: Linux Mint 21 Vanessa base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: MAG B550M MORTAR (MS-7C94) v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: 1.80
    date: 07/01/2021
CPU:
  Info: 6-core model: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X bits: 64 type: MT MCP smt: enabled
    arch: Zen 3 rev: 0 cache: L1: 384 KiB L2: 3 MiB L3: 32 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3390 high: 3940 min/max: 2200/4650 boost: enabled
    cores: 1: 3055 2: 3680 3: 3595 4: 3940 5: 3487 6: 3062 7: 3035 8: 3709
    9: 3616 10: 3697 11: 2880 12: 2928 bogomips: 88807
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GM200 [GeForce GTX TITAN X] driver: nvidia v: 515.65.01
    pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: none off: HDMI-A-1
    empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, DVI-I-1 bus-ID: 2b:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:17c2
    class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Focusrite-Novation Scarlett 2i2 Camera type: USB
    driver: snd-usb-audio,usb-storage bus-ID: 1-6.2.3:12 chip-ID: 1235:8210
    class-ID: 0806 serial: <filter>
  Device-3: Microdia Webcam Vitade AF type: USB
    driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus-ID: 3-1:2 chip-ID: 0c45:6366
    class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa gpu: nvidia display-ID: :0
    screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x2160 s-dpi: 139 s-size: 702x392mm (27.6x15.4")
    s-diag: 804mm (31.7")
  Monitor-1: HDMI-0 res: 3840x2160 hz: 60 dpi: 140
    size: 698x393mm (27.5x15.5") diag: 801mm (31.5")
  OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN X/PCIe/SSE2
    v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 515.65.01 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GM200 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 2b:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0fb0
    class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 2d:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487 class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: MediaTek RMX3151 type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio
    bus-ID: 1-6.2.2:10 chip-ID: 0e8d:2046 class-ID: 0103 serial: <filter>
  Device-4: Focusrite-Novation Scarlett 2i2 Camera type: USB
    driver: snd-usb-audio,usb-storage bus-ID: 1-6.2.3:12 chip-ID: 1235:8210
    class-ID: 0806 serial: <filter>
  Device-5: C-Media Blue Snowball type: USB
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid bus-ID: 1-6.2.4:15
    chip-ID: 0d8c:0005 class-ID: 0300 serial: <filter>
  Device-6: Microdia Webcam Vitade AF type: USB
    driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus-ID: 3-1:2 chip-ID: 0c45:6366
    class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-46-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: r8169
    v: kernel pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: f000 bus-ID: 2a:00.0
    chip-ID: 10ec:8125 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp42s0 state: up speed: 2500 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: br-70af8ca60603 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-2: docker0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-3: virbr0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Realtek Bluetooth Radio type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 1-3:19 chip-ID: 0bda:8771 class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: up address: <filter>
    bt-v: 3.0 lmp-v: 5.1 sub-v: 8a6b hci-v: 5.1 rev: 9a9
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.3 TiB used: 506.16 GiB (21.5%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital model: WDS100T1X0E-00AFY0
    size: 931.51 GiB speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter>
    rev: 613000WD temp: 47.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 QVO 1TB size: 931.51 GiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 2B6Q scheme: GPT
  ID-3: /dev/sdb vendor: Samsung model: SSD 850 EVO 500GB size: 465.76 GiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 2B6Q scheme: GPT
  ID-4: /dev/sdc type: USB model: Scarlett Welcome Disk size: 192 KiB
    type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: 0.10 scheme: MBR
  ID-5: /dev/sdd type: USB vendor: Generic model: USB3.0 CRW -SD
    size: 29.72 GiB type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: 1.00 scheme: MBR
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 915.82 GiB used: 506.11 GiB (55.3%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 96 MiB used: 30.2 MiB (31.5%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda2
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
    file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: N/A mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 75 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 33%
Repos:
  Packages: 3725 apt: 3693 flatpak: 25 snap: 7
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/blaze-main-focal.list
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/librewolf.list
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nvidia-docker.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com vanessa main upstream import backport
    2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn3.list
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.skype.com/deb stable main
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list
Info:
  Processes: 412 Uptime: 4h 35m wakeups: 0 Memory: 31.27 GiB
  used: 8.9 GiB (28.4%) Init: systemd v: 249 runlevel: 5 Compilers:
  gcc: 11.2.0 alt: 11/9 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.16 running-in: gnome-terminal

This is running the Cinnamon desktop.

[mikeflan]

Thanks for posting this. Nice post. Maybe someone will reply soon.
If you can get a picture of that gray bar at the bottom, please post it.

[MiZoG]

According to your system report Focusrite-Novation Scarlett 2i2 is listed as "camera" too. Have you ensured that it is not picked as default by mistake?
Try to switch USB ports, unplug not crucial devices during capture etc. You never know with newer kernels.
If problem persists, you may give Webcamoid a go (sudo apt install webcamoid).

[default0]

Hey, thanks for the quick replies!

According to your system report Focusrite-Novation Scarlett 2i2 is listed as "camera" too. Have you ensured that it is not picked as default by mistake?
Try to switch USB ports, unplug not crucial devices during capture etc. You never know with newer kernels.
If problem persists, you may give Webcamoid a go (sudo apt install webcamoid).

I double-checked this - cheese does indeed list two cameras as "USB Live Camera" - changing which one is active does not change its behavior however (doing the change - like any other change in resolution or taking a picture - just updates the replay buffer in the preview) and both correspond to the same physical camera.

I managed to fetch a picture (its pointed at a wall - this is just to show off the gray bar) here: https://mega.nz/file/MCBz2YCK#qwzKSNxkF ... Gz4DICp9HQ

And I also took a video of me counting from 3 to 0 with my fingers (you cannot see the counting and only vaguely see my hand moving, as the issue described in the OP effectively prevents me from taking video with cheese in any meaningful way): https://mega.nz/file/hehgwaQT#6NPrxz8tz ... nZadJAr-hE

VLC player reports the video as being 8 hours 7 minutes 7 seconds long (but refuses to play anything beyond 5 seconds, which is about the actual length of the video), and stopping to record on cheese takes as what I perceive as an abnormally long time (~20 seconds).

Edit: I've switched to webcamoid in the meantime, though I do prefer Cheese's simplicity and afaict there isn't a way to get webcamoid to stop asking me about where to save a picture every time I take one.

Edit 2: Also changed around USB ports and unplugged the focusrite - no changes. I am mildly suspicious of the notion that this is a kernel-level issue in the sense that other applications work with that same camera just fine (Discord, Webcamoid, ...). That certainly doesn't rule it out since only certain types of app<->kernel interactions might be affected and therefore this is only hitting Cheese but not any other application, but it makes it less likely to be the culprit afaict.

[Sinnis250]

I noticed that Cheese was missing from LM21 after I upgraded from 20.3, it had been removed by the installation.

When I re-installed it from the software manager, it was completely useless and it wouldn't even open.

Webcamoid on the other hand, as mentioned by MiZog works fine; having said that, the Flathub v8 was buggy and out of date, so I headed over to the Webcamoid website and downloaded the AppImage v9 and it runs very smoothly. The app creates folders automatically in Pictures and Videos for both snapshots and videos without asking. Perhaps you may try a different version.

After all this, upon playback of a webcam video, I found that VLC player wouldn't function either. Nor would it on any of my video projects. Celluloid to the rescue.

[ajgreeny]

I've never used Webcamoid (never even heard of it till now) and I never found cheese to be worth the hassle of getting it to work.
For probably the past 10 years or thereabouts I have always used guvcview, available in the repos, which has worked without any problems at all.

Worth trying I think!

[Bill_D]

I have 64-bit Linux Mint on a 2006 white MacBook, courtesy of Matt Gadient. The Apple isight.fw firmware is installed. Cheese stopped working after the upgrade to version 21. Now, it's is very slow to launch, then shows an error - it doesn't see the built-in webcam. Webcamoid finds the camera but is too slow and choppy to use.

Thanks for the tip on guvcview. It works just fine.

BTW, the touchpad on the MacBook has always been too jumpy in Mint. I use a cheap wireless mouse with a USB transceiver instead. For a 16 year old computer, performance is not bad.

[Foxy Stoat]

I can confirm Cheese is working fine on my Mint 21, at least with my laptop's built-in web cam. I didn't upgrade from Mint 20 but rather did a full wipe and install from scratch. The version of Cheese is the one from the Ubuntu 22.04 / Mint 21 repositories, not the Flatpak version. Was able to record a short clip with mic audio. No problems.