No image in Cheese/Skype webcam issue

[madrabbit]

(Well, let's assume what your log says isn't crazy, so you're on an older version. I guess that's all I really need to know!)

wget http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/...2.0-1_i386.deb
or
wget http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/....0-1_amd64.deb
if you're on 64 bit.

I'm on 32 bit, so:

ray@phoenix:/tmp$ wget http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/libw/libwebcam/libwebcam0_0.2.0-1_i386.deb
--2013-02-24 18:16:27--  http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/libw/libwebcam/libwebcam0_0.2.0-1_i386.deb
Resolving us.archive.ubuntu.com (us.archive.ubuntu.com)... 91.189.91.15, 91.189.91.14, 91.189.91.13
Connecting to us.archive.ubuntu.com (us.archive.ubuntu.com)|91.189.91.15|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 23884 (23K) [application/x-debian-package]
Saving to: `libwebcam0_0.2.0-1_i386.deb'

100%[==========================================================================================================================================>] 23,884      --.-K/s   in 0.1s    

2013-02-24 18:16:28 (161 KB/s) - `libwebcam0_0.2.0-1_i386.deb' saved [23884/23884]

ray@phoenix:/tmp$ sudo dpkg -i libwebcam0_0.2.0-1_i386.deb 
[sudo] password for ray: 
Selecting previously unselected package libwebcam0.
(Reading database ... 184568 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libwebcam0 (from libwebcam0_0.2.0-1_i386.deb) ...
Setting up libwebcam0 (0.2.0-1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin ...
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
ray@phoenix:/tmp$

but after playing around, I decide the old version isn't fixing the problem, so:

ray@phoenix:/tmp$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libwebcam0
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
Need to get 26.0 kB of archives.
After this operation, 18.4 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

and then I answer 'y', etc.

[alexmoon]

First I tried this:

wget http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/libw/libwebcam/libwebcam0_0.2.0-1_i386.deb

and then

sudo apt-get upgrade

Then restarted: no change, Cheese and GUVCVideo are still showing a black screen.

Then I thought perhaps I'd missed something, and tried:

wget http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/libw/libwebcam/libwebcam0_0.2.0-1_i386.deb

followed by:

sudo dpkg -i libwebcam0_0.2.0-1_i386.deb

Which got this response:

dpkg: error processing libwebcam0_0.2.0-1_i386.deb (--install):
 libwebcam0:i386 0.2.0-1 (Multi-Arch: no) is not co-installable with libwebcam0:amd64 0.2.1-1build1 (Multi-Arch: no) which is currently installed
Errors were encountered while processing:
 libwebcam0_0.2.0-1_i386.deb

[madrabbit]

The second one is very close. You apparently are on a 64 bit install, not 32 bit, so do the other wget I listed above, and dpkg -i that other filename.

wget http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/libw/libwebcam/libwebcam0_0.2.0-1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i libwebcam0_0.2.0-1_amd64.deb

(You're doing great, by the way. This is the hardest it will ever be. Thanks for taking the time to do all the fussy commands!)

[alexmoon]

How embarrassing. I forgot that I have a 64-bit installation (for the first time).

I did this:

wget http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/libw/libwebcam/libwebcam0_0.2.0-1_amd64.deb

then:

sudo dpkg -i libwebcam0_0.2.0-1_amd64.deb

When I ran sudo apt-get upgrade after that, I got this response:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run ‘apt-get -f install’ to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies.
 uvcdynctrl : Depends: libwebcam0 (= 0.2.1-1build1) but 0.2.0-1 is installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.

[alexmoon]

Also now that I've restarted I get this error message:

"An error occurred. Please run Package Manager from the right-click menu or run apt-get in a terminal to see what is wrong. The error was: 'BrokenCount > 0'. This usually means that your installed packages have unmet dependencies"

[madrabbit]

Ah, no worries. I haven't mentioned it to you yet explicitly, but this is all harmless and easy to undo. (via sudo apt-get upgrade, at any time.)

Please also do a

wget http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/libw/libwebcam/uvcdynctrl_0.2.0-1_amd64.deb

and add that file to your sudo dpkg -i line, as such:

sudo dpkg -i libwebcam0_0.2.0-1_amd64.deb uvcdynctrl_0.2.0-1_amd64.deb

[alexmoon]

Okay, did that and restarted. No more error messages, but also no signs of life from my webcam.

[madrabbit]

Sigh. So it's that same process but for the rest of the packages at the top of the thread as well. Hence my apology that the techie side of the community hasn't written something to make this much easier.

[alexmoon]

ye squids. Okay, I'm not quite up to that today. I think what I'll do is:
1) Upgrade to 12.10 in the vague hope that it somehow fixes things.
2) Check whether that magically fixed things.
3) If it has not magically fixed things, possibly I will just get an external webcam that is supported or something. Or learn to live without a webcam.

Or possibly future-sky will be less daunted by the prospect of this and will manage to get through it for the other packages you suggested.

Thank you for the help! Even if it didn't quite work out I still really appreciate you taking the time to talk me through this.

[madrabbit]

I would suggest postponing the upgrade to 12.10 until after your critical period is over? (Unless not having a webcam is the worst part.) Some programs work a little differently each time, y'know? I'd hate there to be a worse tradeoff in your future (as unlikely as it might be).

You are of course welcome, sorry it wasn't more productive.