Webcam is not Detected on XPS 13 Plus 9320 Laptops Running Ubuntu 22.04

Summary: The following article provides information about a webcam detection issue in Ubuntu 22.04 on XPS 13 Plus 9320 laptops.

This article applies to This article does not apply to This article is not tied to any specific product. Not all product versions are identified in this article.
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Symptoms

You may experience a detection issue with the onboard webcam on your XPS 13 Plus 9320 laptop.

This is only seen when running the Ubuntu 22.04 Linux operating system.

Cause

We have identified that this typically happens when you or your IT department installed the laptop with Ubuntu 22.04. The installation is not carried out using the Dell Ubuntu Recovery Image.

Ubuntu stock install images from non-Dell sources do not contain all the Dell-required packages. These packages allow the webcam to function and be detected.

Resolution

Ubuntu tracks and provides instructions for fixing issues from installing the Generic image on the Ubuntu Wiki site https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Dell This hyperlink is taking you to a website outside of Dell Technologies.

The following instructions take you through restoring the camera's full functionality.

Note: You require Administrator privileges to update or change the operating system. The sudo command requires you to run the following commands with administrator rights.

  1. If stock Ubuntu 22.04 was installed, the Intel kernel driver is out-of-tree. You must install the stack manually:

    1. Open a terminal window:

      • The easiest way to open a terminal window is to use the keyboard shortcut: CTRL + ALT + T

      • You can also open a terminal window from the search bar on the user interfaces (UI) desktop. Type Terminal into the bar and click the results that appear.

    2. Type each of the following terminal commands into the terminal window and press Enter:

      1. $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oem-solutions-engineers/oem-projects-meta

      2. $ sudo apt install oem-somerville-tentacool-meta

      3. $ sudo apt update

      4. $ sudo apt full-upgrade

      5. $ sudo systemctl poweroff

  2. You must reinstall the Dell Ubuntu Operating System Image using the instructions in the following link if step.1 does not work:

Note: You may see a secondary issue in Ubuntu 22.04 when opening the Cheese application. An error stating 'There was an error playing video from the webcam' appears. The same issue is not seen when opening Cheese using the following terminal command $ sudo cheese -d "Intel MIPI Camera"

For general information about webcams and Ubuntu, and general troubleshooting steps for the XPS 13 Plus 9320, see these Dell Knowledge Base articles:

Affected Products

XPS 13 Plus 9320
Article Properties
Article Number: 000203830
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 22 Apr 2025
Version:  9
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