12.04(64 bit) Microsoft LifeCam Cinema constantly binks

[defaria]

Since upgrading to 12.04 my 64-bit desktop (HP)'s Microsoft LifeCam Cinema doesn't seem to be working correctly. It works with Skype and Cheese (sorta) but it constantly blinks and various things seem to run slow like videos studder when the mouse moves, my bluetooth keyboard stops processing characters and all the while the blue light on the Microsoft LifeCam Cinema webcam's blue light is blinking.

Like I said, Skype works but the slowdowns of everything else is just about unbearable.

Oh and if I unplug the LifeCam's USB connection and plug it back in it becomes unrecognized never to return until I reboot.

[defaria]

I think I have a solution. The problem seems to be with Google Chrome and it's implementation of flash called Pepperflash. You see Adobe dropped support for Linux (assh*les) and have passed the torch to Google who is implementing flash for Linux. In the long run I think they will do it better but right now it doesn't work well. It's called Pepperflash and on my system is under /opt/google/chrome/Pepperflash.

I found that Firefox plays videos fine and I also found that if I exit Chrome the blinking LifeCam stops blinking! Additionally the sluggishness all around my system like rendering windows and typing characters has disappeared! So the culprit appears to be this Pepperflash thingy.

I tried moving the .so file under Pepperflash asside and symlinking it with /usr/lib/libflashplayer64.so and when I restarted Chrome it would not load this .so file!

If you go to chrome://plugins in the address bar I would see two files listed for flash but Chrome would always pick its Pepperflash over the other listed file - the libflashplayer64.so that I wanted it to use. It wasn't until I clicked on the little link saying Details in the upper right hand corner that it revealed both .so files and allowed me to disable the Pepperflash thing and to enable the other, working libflashplayer (which I think I downgraded to 11.1.102.63). Still need to play with this a little to see if I can get 11.2.202.236 or 11.3.31.109 working. At least I know now how this is working and how I can point it to other versions of Flash...

[nisith]

Disabling the new plugin worked for me! Maybe this thread should be marked as solved so that more people can discover this solution.

[VonSpyder]

How does it do for you in gucview for video recording?

[amtrakuk]

Hi there.... I've had the same issue with 12.04 64-bit and Skype with my Microsoft Lifecam HD 3000... I have only tried it with Skype from what I see, it seems to not initialize the cam correctly. Starts blinking 4 times then a long 5th blink. From experience it should then be initialized but seems to go though a continuous loop of initialization. It does seemed to behave itself if I unplug it and reattach but only for one session. Oddly enough the same setup works fine under the 12.04 32 bit version.