Preview not shown on StarBook Mk V, but photos are still taken #198

cassidyjames · 2021-12-03T21:34:17Z

What Happened?

On my StarBook Mk V, the camera app shows a black preview and the hardware camera light does not turn on. When taking a photo, the light turns on briefly and a photo is saved, but no preview is ever shown.

Tested with both the latest release as a Flatpak and then master built and running natively.

Could be the same root cause as #149 and #175.

Before 62cf2ac there is still no preview, but no photo is taken (a 0-byte file is saved)

Steps to Reproduce

Have a StarBook Mk V (good luck, though testing on other hardware is helpful)
Open Camera
See no preview
Take a photo
See the photo is saved

Expected Behavior

The preview should show up, especially since we're able to access the camera some how when actually taking the photo. If we can't access it for some reason, we should show a more helpful error than a black screen.

OS Version

6.x (Odin)

Software Version

Compiled from git

Log Output

No response

Hardware Info

There is only one camera (not two, and not an IR camera or anything). I don't know what all this means but hopefully it may be helpful to someone. 😄

$ v4l2-ctl --list-devices
USB 2.0 Camera: USB Camera (usb-0000:00:14.0-4):
	/dev/video0
	/dev/video1

$ ll /dev/video*
crw-rw----+ 1 root video 81, 0 Dec  3 10:07 /dev/video0
crw-rw----+ 1 root video 81, 1 Dec  3 10:07 /dev/video1

$ v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video0 --all
Driver Info:
	Driver name      : uvcvideo
	Card type        : USB 2.0 Camera: USB Camera
	Bus info         : usb-0000:00:14.0-4
	Driver version   : 5.11.22
	Capabilities     : 0x84a00001
		Video Capture
		Metadata Capture
		Streaming
		Extended Pix Format
		Device Capabilities
	Device Caps      : 0x04200001
		Video Capture
		Streaming
		Extended Pix Format
Priority: 2
Video input : 0 (Camera 1: ok)
Format Video Capture:
	Width/Height      : 1280/720
	Pixel Format      : 'MJPG' (Motion-JPEG)
	Field             : None
	Bytes per Line    : 0
	Size Image        : 1843789
	Colorspace        : sRGB
	Transfer Function : Rec. 709
	YCbCr/HSV Encoding: ITU-R 601
	Quantization      : Default (maps to Full Range)
	Flags             : 
Crop Capability Video Capture:
	Bounds      : Left 0, Top 0, Width 1280, Height 720
	Default     : Left 0, Top 0, Width 1280, Height 720
	Pixel Aspect: 1/1
Selection Video Capture: crop_default, Left 0, Top 0, Width 1280, Height 720, Flags: 
Selection Video Capture: crop_bounds, Left 0, Top 0, Width 1280, Height 720, Flags: 
Streaming Parameters Video Capture:
	Capabilities     : timeperframe
	Frames per second: 30.000 (30/1)
	Read buffers     : 0
                     brightness 0x00980900 (int)    : min=-64 max=64 step=1 default=18 value=18
                       contrast 0x00980901 (int)    : min=0 max=64 step=1 default=32 value=32
                     saturation 0x00980902 (int)    : min=0 max=128 step=1 default=51 value=51
                            hue 0x00980903 (int)    : min=-40 max=40 step=1 default=0 value=0
 white_balance_temperature_auto 0x0098090c (bool)   : default=1 value=1
                          gamma 0x00980910 (int)    : min=72 max=500 step=1 default=100 value=100
                           gain 0x00980913 (int)    : min=0 max=100 step=1 default=7 value=7
           power_line_frequency 0x00980918 (menu)   : min=0 max=2 default=1 value=1
				0: Disabled
				1: 50 Hz
				2: 60 Hz
      white_balance_temperature 0x0098091a (int)    : min=2800 max=6500 step=1 default=4600 value=4600 flags=inactive
                      sharpness 0x0098091b (int)    : min=0 max=8 step=1 default=5 value=5
         backlight_compensation 0x0098091c (int)    : min=0 max=2 step=1 default=1 value=1
                  exposure_auto 0x009a0901 (menu)   : min=0 max=3 default=3 value=3
				1: Manual Mode
				3: Aperture Priority Mode
              exposure_absolute 0x009a0902 (int)    : min=1 max=5000 step=1 default=157 value=157 flags=inactive
         exposure_auto_priority 0x009a0903 (bool)   : default=0 value=1

$ v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video1 --all
Driver Info:
	Driver name      : uvcvideo
	Card type        : USB 2.0 Camera: USB Camera
	Bus info         : usb-0000:00:14.0-4
	Driver version   : 5.11.22
	Capabilities     : 0x84a00001
		Video Capture
		Metadata Capture
		Streaming
		Extended Pix Format
		Device Capabilities
	Device Caps      : 0x04a00000
		Metadata Capture
		Streaming
		Extended Pix Format
Priority: 2
Format Metadata Capture:
	Sample Format   : 'UVCH' (UVC Payload Header Metadata)
	Buffer Size     : 1024

The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered:

cassidyjames · 2021-12-03T21:44:10Z

Maybe not the most helpful thing, but after testing a handful of suspect commits, it looks like this is broken on this hardware since a5c08d8—which makes some sense since that completely redid how the preview is displayed. The commit before (831c858) shows the camera preview.

cassidyjames · 2021-12-06T20:51:54Z

Debugging output upon opening:

$ G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=all io.elementary.camera 
(io.elementary.camera:28319): GLib-DEBUG: 13:51:04.470: posix_spawn avoided (fd close requested) 
(io.elementary.camera:28319): GLib-GIO-DEBUG: 13:51:04.629: _g_io_module_get_default: Found default implementation dconf (DConfSettingsBackend) for ?gsettings-backend?
(io.elementary.camera:28319): dconf-DEBUG: 13:51:04.629: watch_fast: "/io/elementary/camera/settings/" (establishing: 0, active: 0)
(io.elementary.camera:28319): GLib-DEBUG: 13:51:04.629: unsetenv() is not thread-safe and should not be used after threads are created
(io.elementary.camera:28319): dconf-DEBUG: 13:51:04.630: watch_established: "/io/elementary/camera/settings/" (establishing: 1)
(io.elementary.camera:28319): GLib-GIO-DEBUG: 13:51:04.636: _g_io_module_get_default: Found default implementation gvfs (GDaemonVfs) for ‘gio-vfs’
(io.elementary.camera:28319): GLib-DEBUG: 13:51:04.656: unsetenv() is not thread-safe and should not be used after threads are created
(io.elementary.camera:28319): Gtk-DEBUG: 13:51:04.656: Connecting to session manager
(io.elementary.camera:28319): dconf-DEBUG: 13:51:04.881: change_fast
(io.elementary.camera:28319): dconf-DEBUG: 13:51:04.881: change_notify: /io/elementary/camera/settings/window-maximized
(io.elementary.camera:28319): dconf-DEBUG: 13:51:04.881: change_fast
(io.elementary.camera:28319): dconf-DEBUG: 13:51:04.881: change_notify: /io/elementary/camera/settings/window-size

No further output when taking a photo.

cassidyjames · 2021-12-06T20:53:59Z

And with GStreamer debugging:

$ G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=all GST_DEBUG=2 io.elementary.camera 
(io.elementary.camera:28592): GLib-GIO-DEBUG: 13:53:17.439: _g_io_module_get_default: Found default implementation dconf (DConfSettingsBackend) for ?gsettings-backend?
(io.elementary.camera:28592): dconf-DEBUG: 13:53:17.439: watch_fast: "/io/elementary/camera/settings/" (establishing: 0, active: 0)
(io.elementary.camera:28592): GLib-DEBUG: 13:53:17.439: unsetenv() is not thread-safe and should not be used after threads are created
(io.elementary.camera:28592): dconf-DEBUG: 13:53:17.440: watch_established: "/io/elementary/camera/settings/" (establishing: 1)
(io.elementary.camera:28592): GLib-GIO-DEBUG: 13:53:17.446: _g_io_module_get_default: Found default implementation gvfs (GDaemonVfs) for ‘gio-vfs’
(io.elementary.camera:28592): GLib-DEBUG: 13:53:17.461: unsetenv() is not thread-safe and should not be used after threads are created
(io.elementary.camera:28592): Gtk-DEBUG: 13:53:17.462: Connecting to session manager
0:00:00.196353813 28592 0x55e847bbc860 WARN                 basesrc gstbasesrc.c:3072:gst_base_src_loop:<v4l2src> error: Internal data stream error.
0:00:00.196369436 28592 0x55e847bbc860 WARN                 basesrc gstbasesrc.c:3072:gst_base_src_loop:<v4l2src> error: streaming stopped, reason not-negotiated (-4)
(io.elementary.camera:28592): dconf-DEBUG: 13:53:17.790: change_fast
(io.elementary.camera:28592): dconf-DEBUG: 13:53:17.790: change_notify: /io/elementary/camera/settings/window-maximized
(io.elementary.camera:28592): dconf-DEBUG: 13:53:17.790: change_fast
(io.elementary.camera:28592): dconf-DEBUG: 13:53:17.790: change_notify: /io/elementary/camera/settings/window-size

Appended when taking a photo:

0:00:04.418675961 28592 0x55e847bbc800 WARN          v4l2bufferpool gstv4l2bufferpool.c:809:gst_v4l2_buffer_pool_start:<v4l2src:pool:src> Uncertain or not enough buffers, enabling copy threshold
0:00:05.436008155 28592 0x55e847bc32a0 WARN                 basesrc gstbasesrc.c:3072:gst_base_src_loop:<v4l2src> error: Internal data stream error.
0:00:05.436036243 28592 0x55e847bc32a0 WARN                 basesrc gstbasesrc.c:3072:gst_base_src_loop:<v4l2src> error: streaming stopped, reason not-negotiated (-4)

cassidyjames · 2021-12-06T20:59:13Z

And the massive level 5 debug output (warning, 6 MB text file with like 34,000 lines): camera-debug-5.txt

stsdc · 2022-01-26T10:56:31Z

Interestingly it works nice on https://webcamtests.com/

cassidyjames · 2022-02-07T23:12:29Z

As an update (and thanks to the work of @tintou), the preview has been solved in master, however, it has introduced the regression where high-resolution cameras with low-framerate modes are selecting the highest resolution by default, giving a choppy appearance in the preview and video recording. I believe is the previous issue we saw with high-resolution webcams, not actually a performance issue but just a bad chosen resolution/framerate combination. However, the resolution cap we'd previously introduced caused the preview issue here on the StarBook.

Since the StarBook-specific issue is resolved in master, I'm going to close this issue; however, I've opened #225 with the framerate issue which #224 sort of addresses and might be the best we can do with the wide variety of hardware out there.

cassidyjames mentioned this issue Dec 3, 2021

Camera not working on Dell XPS 13 9370 #175

Open

cassidyjames added the Priority: High To be addressed after any critical issues label Dec 6, 2021

cassidyjames mentioned this issue Dec 6, 2021

CameraView: Use the native method to generate the GStreamer camera element #199

Closed

ekecso assigned cassidyjames Jan 4, 2022

cassidyjames closed this as completed Feb 7, 2022

cassidyjames mentioned this issue Feb 8, 2022

Release 6.1.0 #226

Merged

danirabbit added this to Hardware Support Jun 28, 2024

danirabbit moved this to Done in Hardware Support Jun 28, 2024

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Preview not shown on StarBook Mk V, but photos are still taken #198

Preview not shown on StarBook Mk V, but photos are still taken #198

cassidyjames commented Dec 3, 2021

cassidyjames commented Dec 3, 2021

cassidyjames commented Dec 6, 2021 •

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cassidyjames commented Dec 6, 2021 •

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cassidyjames commented Dec 6, 2021

stsdc commented Jan 26, 2022

cassidyjames commented Feb 7, 2022 •

edited

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Preview not shown on StarBook Mk V, but photos are still taken #198

Preview not shown on StarBook Mk V, but photos are still taken #198

Comments

cassidyjames commented Dec 3, 2021

What Happened?

Steps to Reproduce

Expected Behavior

OS Version

Software Version

Log Output

Hardware Info

cassidyjames commented Dec 3, 2021

cassidyjames commented Dec 6, 2021 • edited Loading

cassidyjames commented Dec 6, 2021 • edited Loading

cassidyjames commented Dec 6, 2021

stsdc commented Jan 26, 2022

cassidyjames commented Feb 7, 2022 • edited Loading

cassidyjames commented Dec 6, 2021 •

edited

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cassidyjames commented Dec 6, 2021 •

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cassidyjames commented Feb 7, 2022 •

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