Hi guys!

So…I bought a Latitude 7350 detachable laptop, as a replacement for a Surface where the cams don’t work on Linux. This laptop seemed rather powerful and compatible, while still keeping the weight constrained (something the Minisforum V3 isn’t as successful in). Also, I prefer the rear being a stand thingy like on the Surface, and not some detachable flap you need to turn about 150 degrees to turn it into a mandatory stand (because when closed…it blocks the intake fans).

Anyway…Seems that while the camera module IPU6 is meant to be supported on Linux…I don’t seem to be able to get any image. Any ideas what I might be doing wrong? I installed KDE Neon (I’d prefer a KDE-based distro) and installed intel-ipu6-dkms and intel-usbio-dkms. But the camera doesn’t seem to work. Any ideas how could I troubleshoot this?

  • talEnglish
    2·
    8 days ago

    Might be that that failure is caused by not having the firmware file on your system? I have seen that happen before with a GPU. Probably not the case, but at least it’s easy to check for.

    It looks like a bunch of unhappy Windows users have also been having trouble with that particular laptop and camera, from a quick search, so I don’t know how solid the driver work is for that particular camera:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/1fw1icj/latitude_7350_webcams_dont_work/

    Could be that the development is underfunded or other problems are going on. Intel had a huge number of layoffs recently.

    I don’t have familiarity with that camera, but I will suggest a fallback plan if you don’t get it ironed out: grab yourself a clip-on USB webcam. More to lug around, but you’ll also be able to get better image quality, so…shrugs

    • iturnedintoanewt@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      1·
      7 days ago

      Yeah…I really hope I don’t have to do that. This is a detachable laptop. Plenty of storage, CPU and RAM…and absolutely barebones on everything else. That means, no USB-A for example. So if I were to get a camera, I’d need to connect it to a damn dongle, too. I’d need a whole bag of cables to lug around. I’m pissed because I got this laptop thinking being all intel, with an intel chipset, and being a Dell, it would have stellar Linux support. I might have to consider reselling it.

      Regarding the reddit thread, I think that’s related to a bungled CU release from MS from earlier this year? I think that’s…unrelated to Linux, and fixed by now. But yeah…A bit frustrating how the camera modules are meant to be open in this case…but they don’t work. I think the firings might have had something to do with this indeed.