Cheese beeing Replaced as default Camera-App

Michael_Schmid · January 7, 2026, 8:44am

Hi there, im writing because of the replacement of Cheese as the default Camera-App. I was using Cheese as default Camera-App and never had issues so far.

Now that has been replaced by Snapshot aaaand:
Startup-Times well over 20 seconds, every 2nd time the framerate is so slow you can measure it with seconds per frame.

I've tried to identify causes but the issue remains in both Wayland and x11 sessions.

The Issue exists across several devices and ZorinOS Versions:

Core 17.3
Core 18

HP Elitebook 840G3
HP Probook X360 11g3ee
Thinkpad T14 Gen1
Thinkpad T470S
Dell Latitude 5580
HP Probook X360 11g3ee

Just installing Cheese as a fix would work, but after a Update that App automatically uninstalls itself again.

How can it be that the new default Camera-App "snapshot" is just completly broken?

Ponce-De-Leon · January 7, 2026, 11:07am

Welcome to the Forum!

You could try it with uninstalling snapshot and then installing Cheese.

sudo apt purge gnome-snapshot

for uninstall snapshot and after this for install Cheese:

sudo apt install cheese

Forpli · January 7, 2026, 1:24pm

I tried to purge gnome-snapshot in the live session and it was uninstalled, but even after logging out or restarting gdm3 the functionality to make screenshots from taskbar or with shortcuts was still there (and I have not installed another screenshot tool). Gnome-snapshot was not shown as installed now in synaptic or terminal, but why am I still able to take screenshots?

Can't it be removed or is there another tool installed? Is that because of the live session?

Ponce-De-Leon · January 7, 2026, 1:28pm

Not screenshot. It's snapshot. It is a Camera-App, not the Screenshot Tool.

Forpli · January 7, 2026, 1:30pm

Sorry, I meant gnome-snapshot. I wrote it wrong because I mostly use gnome-screenshot.

Ponce-De-Leon · January 7, 2026, 1:36pm

You can do Screenshots because Snapshot is for using a built-in or plugged in Camera.

And why You can still make Screenshost? Snapshot hasn't to do anything with it. And there is a Difference between the built-in Screenshot Tool and gnome-screenshot. gnome-screenshot is a seperate Tool what You can install and uninstall. The built-in Screenshot Tool in baked in the Dektop. It is part of it and not an individual Program like gnome-screenshot or Nautilus or other Gnome Apps.

Michael_Schmid · January 7, 2026, 3:20pm

Thanks for your reply!

As i said installing Cheese works, but this gets rolled back when updating my apt packages. As if Zorin insisted on "Cheese" beein evil or smth.

Its also still a kind of workaround - i would expect the default Camera-App to work reliably, no?

Really weird all this tbh

CarlCP · January 7, 2026, 3:23pm

Michael_Schmid:

Hi there, im writing because of the replacement of Cheese as the default Camera-App. I was using Cheese as default Camera-App and never had issues so far.

Now that has been replaced by Snapshot aaaand:
Startup-Times well over 20 seconds, every 2nd time the framerate is so slow you can measure it with seconds per frame.

I've tried to identify causes but the issue remains in both Wayland and x11 sessions.

The Issue exists across several devices and ZorinOS Versions:

Core 17.3

Core 18

HP Elitebook 840G3

HP Probook X360 11g3ee

Thinkpad T14 Gen1

Thinkpad T470S

Dell Latitude 5580

HP Probook X360 11g3ee

Just installing Cheese as a fix would work, but after a Update that App automatically uninstalls itself again.

How can it be that the new default Camera-App "snapshot" is just completly broken?

It might be a driver issue with how Snapshot handles the camera. Try checking the dmesg logs or running journalctl right when you launch Snapshot—there might be some clues in there as to why the performance is tanking.

Ponce-De-Leon · January 7, 2026, 5:44pm

Hmm ... is it possible that you could demonstarte it with Screenshots from the Terminal? And what exactly means ''gets rolled back''? Do You mean that Cheese gets removed and Snapshot installed again?

Oh, and only to be sure: You have Zorin installed and not running in Live Mode from the USB Stick, yes?

Michael_Schmid · January 13, 2026, 1:59pm

Yeah Zorin was installed properly on all of the mentioned devices
From what ive found it seems like that this had nothing todo with Zorin but instead with Ubuntu.

An sudo apt update triggered the removal and replacement of it.
Though that seems to only occur once per Device - which why reproducing this again seems quite difficult

We've decided to Install Kamoso on our Devices for now - which works flawlessly across a broad range of Devices.

But i can provide some logs from the Gnome-Snapshot issues which appear across all of the listed Devices. Would make sense for the Default Camera App to be working out of the Box.

Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi gnome-shell[3728]: Window manager warning: Buggy client sent a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW message with a timestamp of 0 for 0x5800004
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: 2026-01-13T13:46:27.247394Z  INFO ashpd::desktop::request: Creating a org.freedesktop.portal.Request /org/freedesktop/portal/desktop/request/1_802/ashpd_5GIFpwP8DM
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: 2026-01-13T13:46:27.250867Z  INFO ashpd::desktop::request: Received signal 'Response' on 'org.freedesktop.portal.Request'
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: 2026-01-13T13:46:27.250940Z  INFO ashpd::proxy: Calling method org.freedesktop.portal.Camera:OpenPipeWireRemote
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: 2026-01-13T13:46:27.284255Z  INFO aperture::device_provider: IR Camera ignored: Integrated Camera, target-object: Some(39)
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: Properties {
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "factory.name": (gchararray) "api.v4l2.source",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "factory.id": (gchararray) "10",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "clock.quantum-limit": (gchararray) "8192",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "media.role": (gchararray) "Camera",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "is-default": (gboolean) FALSE,
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "api.v4l2.cap.version": (gchararray) "6.8.12",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "device.id": (gchararray) "35",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "api.v4l2.cap.driver": (gchararray) "uvcvideo",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "api.v4l2.cap.card": (gchararray) "Integrated Camera: Integrated I",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "node.pause-on-idle": (gchararray) "false",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "object.path": (gchararray) "v4l2:/dev/video2",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "object.id": (gchararray) "39",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "node.name": (gchararray) "v4l2_input.pci-0000_06_00.0-usb-0_2_1.2",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "object.serial": (gchararray) "39",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "node.description": (gchararray) "Integrated Camera",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "device.product.id": (gchararray) "46800",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "media.class": (gchararray) "Video/Source",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "node.driver": (gchararray) "true",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "api.v4l2.cap.bus_info": (gchararray) "usb-0000:06:00.0-2",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "device.api": (gchararray) "v4l2",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "api.v4l2.cap.capabilities": (gchararray) "84a00001",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "device.vendor.id": (gchararray) "1266",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "api.v4l2.cap.device-caps": (gchararray) "04200001",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "client.id": (gchararray) "32",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     "api.v4l2.path": (gchararray) "/dev/video2",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: }
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: Caps: Some(
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     Caps(
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:         video/x-raw(memory:SystemMemory) {
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:             format: (gchararray) "GRAY8",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:             interlace-mode: (gchararray) "progressive",
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:             width: (gint) 640,
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:             height: (gint) 360,
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:             framerate: List(
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:                 [
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:                     (GstFraction) 15/1,
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:                     (GstFraction) 30/1,
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:                 ],
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:             ),
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:         },
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]:     ),
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: )
Jan 13 14:46:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: Please report upstream if this is a false-positive.


Jan 13 14:46:50 laptop-michi gnome-shell[3728]: Received error from D-Bus search provider org.gnome.Calendar.desktop: Gio.IOErrorEnum: Zeitüberschreitung wurde erreicht
Jan 13 14:46:57 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: 2026-01-13T13:46:57.369310Z ERROR aperture::viewfinder: Could not start camerabin: Element failed to change its state
Jan 13 14:46:57 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: 2026-01-13T13:46:57.370946Z ERROR aperture::viewfinder: Previous camerabin state changed failed: Element failed to change its state
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: 2026-01-13T13:47:27.373151Z ERROR aperture::viewfinder: Could not start camerabin: Element failed to change its state
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: 2026-01-13T13:47:27.390127Z ERROR aperture::viewfinder: Bus Error from Some("/GstCameraBin:camerabin0/GstMultiFileSink:imagebin-filesink")
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: Invalid location
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: Some("../gst/multifile/gstmultifilesink.c(443): gst_multi_file_sink_start (): /GstCameraBin:camerabin0/GstMultiFileSink:imagebin-filesink:\n(null)")
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: 2026-01-13T13:47:27.390178Z ERROR aperture::viewfinder: Bus Error from Some("/GstCameraBin:camerabin0/GstMultiFileSink:imagebin-filesink")
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: GStreamer-Fehler: Zustandswechsel schlug fehl und einige Elemente gaben keine richtige Fehlernachricht mit einer Ursachenbegründung.
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: Some("../libs/gst/base/gstbasesink.c(5902): gst_base_sink_change_state (): /GstCameraBin:camerabin0/GstMultiFileSink:imagebin-filesink:\nFailed to start")
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: 2026-01-13T13:47:27.390217Z ERROR aperture::viewfinder: Bus Error from Some("/GstCameraBin:camerabin0/GstFileSink:videobin-filesink")
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: Kein Dateiname zum Schreiben angegeben.
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: Some("../plugins/elements/gstfilesink.c(501): gst_file_sink_open_file (): /GstCameraBin:camerabin0/GstFileSink:videobin-filesink")
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: 2026-01-13T13:47:27.390252Z ERROR aperture::viewfinder: Bus Error from Some("/GstCameraBin:camerabin0/GstFileSink:videobin-filesink")
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: GStreamer-Fehler: Zustandswechsel schlug fehl und einige Elemente gaben keine richtige Fehlernachricht mit einer Ursachenbegründung.
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: Some("../libs/gst/base/gstbasesink.c(5902): gst_base_sink_change_state (): /GstCameraBin:camerabin0/GstFileSink:videobin-filesink:\nFailed to start")
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: 2026-01-13T13:47:27.390586Z ERROR aperture::viewfinder: Bus Error from Some("/GstCameraBin:camerabin0/GstWrapperCameraBinSrc:wrappercamerabinsrc0/GstBin:bin1/GstPipeWireSrc:pipewiresrc0")
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: Internal data stream error.
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: Some("../libs/gst/base/gstbasesrc.c(3187): gst_base_src_loop (): /GstCameraBin:camerabin0/GstWrapperCameraBinSrc:wrappercamerabinsrc0/GstBin:bin1/GstPipeWireSrc:pipewiresrc0:\nstreaming stopped, reason not-negotiated (-4)")
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: 2026-01-13T13:47:27.394710Z ERROR aperture::viewfinder: Bus Error from Some("/GstCameraBin:camerabin0/GstMultiFileSink:imagebin-filesink")
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: Invalid location
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: Some("../gst/multifile/gstmultifilesink.c(443): gst_multi_file_sink_start (): /GstCameraBin:camerabin0/GstMultiFileSink:imagebin-filesink:\n(null)")
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: 2026-01-13T13:47:27.394748Z ERROR aperture::viewfinder: Bus Error from Some("/GstCameraBin:camerabin0/GstMultiFileSink:imagebin-filesink")
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: GStreamer-Fehler: Zustandswechsel schlug fehl und einige Elemente gaben keine richtige Fehlernachricht mit einer Ursachenbegründung.
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: Some("../libs/gst/base/gstbasesink.c(5902): gst_base_sink_change_state (): /GstCameraBin:camerabin0/GstMultiFileSink:imagebin-filesink:\nFailed to start")
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: 2026-01-13T13:47:27.394785Z ERROR aperture::viewfinder: Bus Error from Some("/GstCameraBin:camerabin0/GstFileSink:videobin-filesink")
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: Kein Dateiname zum Schreiben angegeben.
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: Some("../plugins/elements/gstfilesink.c(501): gst_file_sink_open_file (): /GstCameraBin:camerabin0/GstFileSink:videobin-filesink")
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: 2026-01-13T13:47:27.394820Z ERROR aperture::viewfinder: Bus Error from Some("/GstCameraBin:camerabin0/GstFileSink:videobin-filesink")
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: GStreamer-Fehler: Zustandswechsel schlug fehl und einige Elemente gaben keine richtige Fehlernachricht mit einer Ursachenbegründung.
Jan 13 14:47:27 laptop-michi org.gnome.Snapshot[58444]: Some("../libs/gst/base/gstbasesink.c(5902): gst_base_sink_change_state (): /GstCameraBin:camerabin0/GstFileSink:videobin-filesink:\nFailed to start")
Jan 13 14:48:02 laptop-michi wpa_supplicant[1768]: wlp3s0: CTRL-EVENT-SIGNAL-CHANGE above=0 signal=-61 noise=9999 txrate=390000
Jan 13 14:48:13 laptop-michi wpa_supplicant[1768]: wlp3s0: CTRL-EVENT-SIGNAL-CHANGE above=1 signal=-61 noise=9999 txrate=390000
Jan 13 14:48:18 laptop-michi brave-browser.desktop[5730]: [5830:5830:0113/144818.947986:ERROR:ui/gl/gl_surface_presentation_helper.cc:260] GetVSyncParametersIfAvailable() failed for 851968 times!

Michael_Schmid · January 13, 2026, 2:01pm

I've provided the logs in an reply to another Comment.

But im not sure its driver related - KDE's Kamoso works flawlessly.

Frog · January 14, 2026, 8:48pm

I installed Cheese myself for my brand new camera .... which by the way works perfectly see my post about the camera " External Cameras " ..... didn't use the default camera app not sure what it is but after reading the thread above I just installed Cheese from the software store and it works fantastic .....

Hope you get it sorted out .....