Dell xps 13 9370 Webcam support

I also received xps  (developer edition) today. My webcam does not work either.  After opening http://www.turncameraon.com I don't get any prompt. Google Hangouts says the camera is not there.

Any luck anyone ?

Hi,

Same problem here and I've another colleague who received also the xps13 9370 yesterday, also with the same problem.

I've difficulties to accept that's a hardware problem: we are a lot with the same symptoms, the bios diagnostic tool does not find a problem and the device is show in lsusb.

I think it's more a driver/initialisation problem.

So here is some of my finding:

1) first my own dmesg output:

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

2) here is here an intersting discussion from kernel guys about the "unknown video format error":

https://www.mail-archive.com/linux-media@vger.kernel.org/msg127992.html

Not the same problem (their cam seems to work), but what I find interesting here is their dmesg output: it shows:

 uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device Integrated_Webcam_HD (0bda:58f4)

=> 1.00 device instead of 1.50 device in my case.

3) the 'failed to query error' comes from drivers/media/usb/uvc/uvc_video.c,
in uvc_get_video_ctrl when quering for UVC_GET_CUR (0x81 aka 129),
after tried to query for UVC_GET_DEF who failed (we can see this in our dmesg output)

In both cases, the failed query cause is a comparaison between the return of the query
and the 'size' which is dependent of the device version !

So, why some 0bda:58f4 devices are detected as 1.00 devices and other 0bda:58f4 (same) devices
are detected as 1.50 devices ?
(for now I did not found why)

below is the full lsusb -v output, it can be good to compare it with guys havind a 1.00 device detected.

4) If found also another possiblity here:

https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux/issues/4

Not the same cam, but the symptoms are nearly the same.
And their solutions is interesting: if the device need some kind of initialisation,
perhaps some of us did not initialize it and some other did.
(in my case, I certainly did not: I received the ubuntu edition and directly wipe all partitions
and install archlinux from scratch, without even terminate the ubuntu welcome process)

5) for the guys who have had the screen changed, could you please write here the new dmesg output you get ? (and also the lsusb -v for the device ?), thanks.

full lsusb: [edit: full was too big, so here is only the beginning of the lsusb]

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bda:58f4 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
Device Descriptor:
  bLength                18
  bDescriptorType         1
  bcdUSB               2.01
  bDeviceClass          239 Miscellaneous Device
  bDeviceSubClass         2
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Interface Association
  bMaxPacketSize0        64
  idVendor           0x0bda Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
  idProduct          0x58f4
  bcdDevice           72.79
  iManufacturer           3 CN0FFMHCLOG00823BCFAA01
  iProduct                1 Integrated_Webcam_HD
  iSerial                 2 200901010001
  bNumConfigurations      1
  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength                 9
    bDescriptorType         2
    wTotalLength         1088
    bNumInterfaces          4
    bConfigurationValue     1
    iConfiguration          4 USB Camera
    bmAttributes         0x80
      (Bus Powered)
    MaxPower              500mA
    ** UNRECOGNIZED:  28 ff 42 49 53 54 00 01 06 07 10 00 00 00 00 00 01 08 f4 01 02 09 f4 01 03 0a f4 01 04 0b f4 01 05 0c f4 01 06 0d e8 03
    Interface Association:
      bLength                 8
      bDescriptorType        11
      bFirstInterface         0
      bInterfaceCount         2
      bFunctionClass         14 Video
      bFunctionSubClass       3 Video Interface Collection
      bFunctionProtocol       0
      iFunction               5 Integrated Webcam
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        0
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           1
      bInterfaceClass        14 Video
      bInterfaceSubClass      1 Video Control
      bInterfaceProtocol      1
      iInterface              5 Integrated Webcam
      VideoControl Interface Descriptor:
        bLength                13
        bDescriptorType        36
        bDescriptorSubtype      1 (HEADER)
        bcdUVC               1.50
        wTotalLength          138
        dwClockFrequency       15.000000MHz
        bInCollection           1
        baInterfaceNr( 0)       1
      VideoControl Interface Descriptor:
        bLength                18
        bDescriptorType        36
        bDescriptorSubtype      2 (INPUT_TERMINAL)
        bTerminalID             1
        wTerminalType      0x0201 Camera Sensor
        bAssocTerminal          0
        iTerminal               0
        wObjectiveFocalLengthMin      0
        wObjectiveFocalLengthMax      0
        wOcularFocalLength            0
        bControlSize                  3
        bmControls           0x0000000e
          Auto-Exposure Mode
          Auto-Exposure Priority
          Exposure Time (Absolute)
      VideoControl Interface Descriptor:
        bLength                13
        bDescriptorType        36
        bDescriptorSubtype      5 (PROCESSING_UNIT)
        bUnitID                 2
        bSourceID               1
        wMaxMultiplier          0
        bControlSize            3
        bmControls     0x0000177f
          Brightness
          Contrast
          Hue
          Saturation
          Sharpness
          Gamma
          
          White Balance Temperature
          Backlight Compensation
          Gain
          Power Line Frequency
          White Balance Temperature, Auto
        iProcessing             0
        bmVideoStandards     0x00

I received my XPS13 9370 (Ubuntu FHD) a few days ago with some problems:

• It didn't recognize the webcam,
• The spacebar was missclicking. Even the key was physically being pushed, the OS didn't receive any input. That only happened to the corners of the spacebar, it worked fine in the center.

With all this, I've returned the machine, expecting that a new one will work like a charm.

Surprisingly, the technical assistant told me that Linux is a "limited" software, so the camera may not work... What kind of (bad) joke is that?

Here is the dmesg output https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gOG2-Z8uYykivUJIzibt5Z1tKah1-Rer/view?usp=sharing

And here is the lsusb one https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MmZqNOjVNsvw8K_CH31kdVk3AG6eQsbi/view?usp=sharing

At first glance I would say it is the same device with an updated firmware.

Thanks,

Yes I agree. Now, we need to find how to upgrade this firmware.

As it's going technical, i've opened a thread in archlinux forum to continue the investigations:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=235628

More info:

• No light on booting
• My camera is identified by lsusb as 001:002 ID 0bda:58f4 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. If I ask for verbose info on that USB device, I get the same info reported here (if run as root), firmware 1.50
• dmesg shows no info about uvcvideo devices. This module wasn't even loading, I have forced its load on boot, and still no uvcvideo device reported.

Hi All, 

I tried lsusb -v and I didn't see 

iProduct                1 Integrated_Webcam_HD

It tells its unknown. 

Also I noticed yesterday and I want someone to test as well. When I put my cell phone near the screen ( on left hand side). The screen flickers badly. Is anyone having same issue ?

I tried running Windows 10 VM and it is also not detecting web camera even after installing Real tek camera driver for same model thru drivers download provided by Dell. 

Just got mine XPS, and I have the same problem - using Ubuntu 16.04, but I have some news. I was able to use the webcam in windows (using VirtualBox) but the image seems to be "distorted".

I don't know if the webcam works correctly if executing Windows natively, but it will be my next try.

I can confirm that the webcam is working correctly on Windows 10 (natively and VirtualBox).

---

@Shadockwrote:

Yes I agree. Now, we need to find how to upgrade this firmware.

---

Can the dear gentlemen from Dell drop us a chime on this ? It's now been established that something went wrong in assembly or staging.

I mean , xps 13 de is supposed to be  one of the best 2018 linux PC and support requests are answered by "Meh, Windows" ? It is difficult to accept. Besides it's not the cheapest model from Dell. At least can someone acknowledge the issue and orient us to someone at Realtek or take responsiblity and obtain the good firmware for their (beloved) clients ?

I know it's a dev edition and we're supposed to manage by ourselves but this is some hardware sold as one of the most compatible one and sold without essential binary blobs to make it work.

After trying with different kernels, different linux distros, bios update, calling Dell twice, a Dell engineer kindly came to help.

He replaced the screen... and this fixes the webcam issue. So, in my case, I can confirm that it is hardware issue on my XPS 13 9370 developer edition (with ubuntu 16.04).

NOTE: Most of the Dell help desk knows Windows OS well enough to help, but they seem have limited knowledge on Linux. Their first question would probably: have you installed the webcam driver. So, just provide them the correct answer and convince them that this problem is not unique and the solution (up to know) is simply by replacing the screen (since the webcam is integrated in it).

Yes but clearly replacing the screen is an overkill solution for what's certainly a firmware update problem.

Your new screen has a webcam with the new firmware, so yes replacing the hardware "solved" the problem..

I agree with ektat_: dell must be able to provide a clear solution for what's clearly now a common problem for the xps13 linux edition. And this solution should be a software one (but at least dell should communicate).

Changing the screen equals to a failure in resolution to me, a new piece of hardware is used, an old one is discarded someone has to move to do the fixing etc etc.

Why aren't they publishing an updater with the good blob inside, or better send the good patch to uvcvideo devs ?

This device IS working, since you can switch it on under windows (even with an usb passthrough on a vm).

Anyway I'll probably give up and get my screen changed too but it's so lame to buy a "state of the art" 2018 pc and get the screen changed the next week. Sorry if I'm a bit salty :)

My issue has been resolved. Dell Support had no clue what Linux was apparently and gave me instructions for flashing the BIOS in windows and asked me to do a couple of other windows things. I was able to flash the BIOS which didn't help. They then offered to change the webcam and sent a contractor over to do it. The contractor was very nice and as far as the hardware was concerned seemed to know exactly what he was doing. He didn't know anything about Linux either and I had to shut the computer down for him. He also remarked he didn't know Dell sold a Linux computer.

He replaced the entire screen with a new one in just a few minutes. When he was done he got me to turn on the webcam and it works fine now.  I agree that this is overkill for what is probably a software issue but my problem is resolved now. 

Good luck to you all. 

@Community,

Thank you for your troubleshooting and feedback so far. I can confirm that I have one unit with the same issue on it's way to our lab for issue replication.

In the mean time please contact Dell technical support and troubleshoot as normal.

If you've already had your hardware replaced please send me a private message with your service tag. I will compile the data in order to present our case to Dell engineering.