Dell xps 13 9370 Webcam support

Can you also post the output of: dmesg | grep uvcvideo

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@Gshinewrote:

I think this is what you want. This is from my XPS with the new screen. If I did it wrong feel free to correct me and I'll get what you want. Also, feel free to explain this, lol. 

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bda:58f4 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

Interestingly it seems the same model as the one it is not working in the systems with the original screen. It would be great if somebody from Dell could explain what is going on, how a screen change can solve this if the webcam is the same model. It can't be a hardware problem, otherwise it wouldn't work in Windows either, which seems not to be the case.

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@cfaberwrote:

Can you also post the output of: dmesg | grep uvcvideo

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Sure:

[    2.188376] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.50 device Integrated_Webcam_HD (0bda:58f4)
[    2.189001] uvcvideo: UVC non compliance - GET_DEF(PROBE) not supported. Enabling workaround.
[    2.189426] uvcvideo: Failed to query (129) UVC probe control : -75 (exp. 34).
[    2.189429] uvcvideo: Failed to initialize the device (-5).
[    2.190336] uvcvideo: Unknown video format 00000032-0002-0010-8000-00aa00389b71
[    2.190341] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.50 device Integrated_Webcam_HD (0bda:58f4)
[    2.190925] uvcvideo: UVC non compliance - GET_DEF(PROBE) not supported. Enabling workaround.
[    2.191183] uvcvideo: Failed to query (129) UVC probe control : -75 (exp. 34).
[    2.191186] uvcvideo: Failed to initialize the device (-5).
[    2.191214] usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo

Edit: Sorry, it looks this was a request for the previous post.

It is exactly the same hardware, but with a different firmware. 

This is the working one -> uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device Integrated_Webcam_HD (0bda:58f4)

This is the broken one ->  uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.50 device Integrated_Webcam_HD (0bda:58f4)

They're basically just downgrading the firmware to make work.

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@jvalletwrote:

It is exactly the same hardware, but with a different firmware. 

This is the working one -> uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device Integrated_Webcam_HD (0bda:58f4)

This is the broken one ->  uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.50 device Integrated_Webcam_HD (0bda:58f4)

They're basically just downgrading the firmware to make work.

 

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Thanks, that makes it completely clear. Good to know it is not a hardware problem.

Now the decision is: 1) Call Dell and report the issue? I don't know how they will deal with it here in Spain, they probably don't have a clue and will suggest to reinstall Ubuntu 16.04 before doing anything else (I wiped it and installed 18.04 already, and I have done a lot of configuration already), or 2) Wait to see if a newer kernel can deal with the newer firmware?

I think I'm going to go for 2). I trust linux to solve these type of things eventually. This is also my third or fourth Dell with Linux, and for the first ones which came with no support to Linux I had to deal with this type of issues, and much more, all of my own, and they ended up being solved eventually.

Mine is not even showing in the syslog or dmesg output.

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@wagafowrote:

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Now the decision is: 1) Call Dell and report the issue? I don't know how they will deal with it here in Spain, they probably don't have a clue and will suggest to reinstall Ubuntu 16.04 before doing anything else (I wiped it and installed 18.04 already, and I have done a lot of configuration already), or 2) Wait to see if a newer kernel can deal with the newer firmware?

I think I'm going to go for 2). I trust linux to solve these type of things eventually. This is also my third or fourth Dell with Linux, and for the first ones which came with no support to Linux I had to deal with this type of issues, and much more, all of my own, and they ended up being solved eventually.

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When I contacted Dell Support I wrote the following:

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Hello, My Dell XPS 13 Developer's Edition (9370) is suffering from the same webcam problem that's been reported by many users in this thread: https://www.dell.com/community/Linux-General/Dell-xps-13-9370-Webcam-support/td-p/6032049/page/4 As others, checking logs, dmesg, journalctl, lspci and lsusb I see the same error messages. It sounds as if others have had their screens replaced and it's fixed the problem. I'm not opposed to the solution but would also be willing to go through further troubleshooting or attempted fixes. I'll note that I had the problem with the Ubuntu 16.04 that shipped on the laptop, a fresh install of Ubuntu 17.10 I installed, as well as Linux Mint 18.3, so the problem is persistent between different versions of Ubuntu based Linux builds.

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Although it took a couple days to get a response the very first response was basically "Would you like to send your laptop into the Advanced Resolution Center (ARC) or have a technician come out?" I can't speak to if Spain's Dell Support center would do the same, as you're worried about, but being clear about what's happening, what you've done, and why you're concerned about it is usually all you need to do.

The real concern I have is that I submitted that request on April 7th, and the on site tech called me this morning to let me know the part was coming in today and scheduled a on-site time of 10:30am tomorrow morning.

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@JPPowerswrote:

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Although it took a couple days to get a response the very first response was basically "Would you like to send your laptop into the Advanced Resolution Center (ARC) or have a technician come out?" I can't speak to if Spain's Dell Support center would do the same, as you're worried about, but being clear about what's happening, what you've done, and why you're concerned about it is usually all you need to do.

The real concern I have is that I submitted that request on April 7th, and the on site tech called me this morning to let me know the part was coming in today and scheduled a on-site time of 10:30am tomorrow morning.

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Thanks. To be fair, I haven't tried yet to get the webcam issue fixed, I only received my laptop 7 days ago. But I would like to try a couple of things first.

First thing I did is I tried with the latest mainline kernel in Ubuntu (4.17.rc1) and the issue is still there. What I'm trying now is to recompile this kernel with the patch mentioned here:

https://www.mail-archive.com/linux-media@vger.kernel.org/msg128230.html

The kernel is recompiling now. If the webcam still doesn't work with this patched kernel,  most likely I will try to contact Dell.

A web search for linux uvc 1.5 support doesn't show anything promising in the near future.

My fear is that, for all the people that have gotten a downgrade, wouldn't you just get a firmware update at some point in the future? I had one through Ubuntu that I thought it was just a regular update. Will you avoid every upgrade coming from Dell from now on?

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@Sergio Delgadowrote:

My fear is that, for all the people that have gotten a downgrade, wouldn't you just get a firmware update at some point in the future? I had one through Ubuntu that I thought it was just a regular update. Will you avoid every upgrade coming from Dell from now on?

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I doubt that will be a problem.

I just had a tech come out and replace my screen. Camera works now. I checked all the usual dmesg stuff and see it's reporting the same camera just with a different firmware, as everyone else has. The screen and camera looks identical both in software and physically to me, so any fear of "is it a completely different screen/camera?" some have appears to be unnecessary.

As volfyd mentioned, this problem is less about a software upgradeable firmware and what's actually in the chipset that runs the camera. I found the same information while researching this. From what I can grasp of the situation, there is a webcam format/protocol/whatever you want to call it called UVC. The problem is UVC support in Linux is lacking. It looks like a lot of webcams still use older UVC revisions, but some modern cameras are using UVC 1.5 which simply isn't yet supported by the Linux UVC drivers.

A firmware upgrade isn't going to magically appear for these cameras via Linux. This is Linux, we don't get upgrades like that for consumer grade hardware. If you want to wait it out and hope the UVC drivers in the kernel mature enough to support 1.5 you most certainly can, it will almost certainly eventually work.

If you're also running Windows, it's still unlikely a firmware upgrade will happen to the webcam that breaks it in Linux. Simply, that's not the kind of thing that usually happens. I work in IT and the last ~3 years I've worked in places that exclusively use Dell laptop, and I've never once seen a webcam firmware upgrade happen. Doesn't mean it doesn't happen, but I've never seen it.

To sum up: This is effectively a software problem. The issue is that the drivers for UVC revision 1.5 webcams basically don't exist in Linux. As such, I get why Dell is just replacing the screen. There's no software upgrade they can do without committing resources to expanding a very specific driver. If you account for how much that'll cost compared to how many screens they'll actually have to replace due to this issue... it's probably cheaper to replace the screens. The tech actually asked me if it was a recall which is what made me realize that. There's no point in doing a recall, it doesn't affect a large enough number of users, but it also is effectively being treated as one due to what the actual cause of the problem is. "They should do a recall, the webcam is broken in Linux!" They might want to consider doing a recall for any Developer Edition laptops they've sold, but it's not necessary I guess. If you bought a Windows laptop and installed Linux on it, that's not really on them, is it? In that case they don't need to do a recall, nor should they have to. I'm happy they're doing this at all, really, considering.

@JPPowers,

We are indeed suspecting that a firmware update to the camera resulted in this issue. Dell is investigating this and I expect some internal progress on this soon. We're also trying to find a work around. I'll reply back if I can get one.

@Community,

Can you report both these 2 below items in a reply back to this forum?

1. Obtain your current UVC version by running: dmesg | grep uvcvideo

and

2. Note if you have the issue or if your issue has been resolved through LCD replacement

For those that have private messaged me and have not yet received my reply: I will try and get with you as soon as possible.

dmesg | grep uvcvideo
[ 8.505535] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.50 device Integrated_Webcam_HD (0bda:58f4)
[ 8.506197] uvcvideo: UVC non compliance - GET_DEF(PROBE) not supported. Enabling workaround.
[ 8.506533] uvcvideo: Failed to query (129) UVC probe control : -75 (exp. 34).
[ 8.506536] uvcvideo: Failed to initialize the device (-5).
[ 8.507110] uvcvideo: Unknown video format 00000032-0002-0010-8000-00aa00389b71
[ 8.507116] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.50 device Integrated_Webcam_HD (0bda:58f4)
[ 8.507685] uvcvideo: UVC non compliance - GET_DEF(PROBE) not supported. Enabling workaround.
[ 8.508098] uvcvideo: Failed to query (129) UVC probe control : -75 (exp. 34).
[ 8.508101] uvcvideo: Failed to initialize the device (-5).
[ 8.508146] usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo