Webcam driver installation on Microsoft Surface

General Help
1

Hello, I've been able to install the Surface kernel on my Surface Go which is running Zorin OS.

However, as is a known thing with Surface devices running linux, the webcam's don't work at first.

I am aware there is a solution, however, the guide is not helpful for those who aren't too familiar with Github. https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Camera-Support

It mentions about "lib camera" but not sure how best to download the repository in order to get the instructions to run in the terminal.

Anyone been successful in getting it to work and provide advice?

Thanks!

2

Zorin OS is based on Ubuntu. so that is your repository source. You need only paste into terminal:

sudo apt install libcamera0.2 gstreamer1.0-libcamera libcamera-ipa pipewire-libcamera libcamera-tools

3

Unfortunately this is what it returns with:

E: Unable to locate package libcamera0.2
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'libcamera0.2'
E: Unable to locate package gstreamer1.0-libcamera
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'gstreamer1.0-libcamera'
E: Unable to locate package libcamera-ipa
E: Unable to locate package pipewire-libcamera
4

I took a look; I see these packages are available in the Noble repository... But only one or two are in Jammy.

Well, we can try the .deb packages and see if they install:
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/libc/libcamera/libcamera0.2_0.2.0-3fakesync1build6_amd64.deb

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/libc/libcamera/gstreamer1.0-libcamera_0.2.0-3fakesync1build6_amd64.deb

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/libc/libcamera/libcamera-tools_0~git20200629+e7aa92a-9_amd64.deb

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/p/pipewire/pipewire-libcamera_1.0.5-1_all.deb

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/libc/libcamera/libcamera-ipa_0.2.0-3fakesync1build6_amd64.deb

1 Like
5

Only libcamera-tools installed. The rest came up with an error.

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  libcamera-ipa: Depends: libc6 (>= 2.38) but 2.35-0ubuntu3.9 is to be installed
                 Depends: libcamera0.2 (>= 0.2.0) but it is not installable
                 Depends: libstdc++6 (>= 13.1) but 12.3.0-1ubuntu1~22.04 is to be installed
6

I was afraid of this... this is actually an unnecessary dependency. The developers just copy and pasted a 'depends' list for Noble, without checking. Drives me nuts.
We know this because you do not need libc6 when you install it from the git source.

Well, let's try from Git. YOu only need to copy and paste into terminal each command:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install git build-essential meson ninja-build pkg-config libgnutls28-dev openssl python3-pip python3-yaml python3-ply python3-jinja2 qtbase5-dev libqt5core5a libqt5gui5 libqt5widgets5 qttools5-dev-tools libtiff-dev libevent-dev libyaml-dev gstreamer1.0-tools libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev

git clone https://git.libcamera.org/libcamera/libcamera.git

cd libcamera

meson build -Dpipelines=uvcvideo,vimc,ipu3 -Dipas=vimc,ipu3 -Dprefix=/usr -Dgstreamer=enabled -Dv4l2=true -Dbuildtype=release

ninja -C build

sudo ninja -C build install

7

meseson build etc

came back with
meson.build:3:0: ERROR: Meson version is 0.61.2 but project requires >= 0.63

8

Well, it looks like this developer has set a strict "Must be on Ubuntu 24.04" or higher limitation.

9

Ah, that's annoying, and I gather Zorin is still a bit away from having that version of Ubuntu underneath?

10

It is very annoying, for the reasons I outlined.

Yes, Zorin OS 18 will likely be based on Ubuntu 24.04.
That is still a ways off, yet.

1 Like
11

Thank you for your help though! Can always come back once OS18 is out. Thankfully I'm not actually intending to use the webcam on this device very often, was more of a nice to have.

12

Assalamu Alaikum, hi!

You could visit this page.
https://github-wiki-see.page/m/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Camera-Support

Since I haven't faced such issues on the laptop I used for Zorin OS (Fujitsu Lifebook LH531), I can't provide a proper answer.

Since Zorin OS is based on Ubuntu (16 based on 20.04 and 17 based on 22.04), you could try installing Ubuntu drivers for webcam.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Webcam