oem-config detecting camera where no camera exists

Bug #924419 reported by Tobin Davis
22
This bug affects 3 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
linux-ti-omap4 (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Medium
Unassigned
ubiquity (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Medium
Unassigned

Bug Description

SRU:

BUG:

while panda boards have a camera interface, there's no camera (in the optical sense) attached to it

IMPACT:

software (like our installer) detecting the presence of a webcam presented the user with a black screen

FIX:

turn off camera interface support in Ubuntu-3.2.0-1412.15

---

On omap4, the camera module is built into the kernel for development purposes, and creates a /dev/video0 device, but there is no actual camera.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: oem-config 2.9.15
ProcVersionSignature: User Name 3.2.0-1405.7-omap4 3.2.1
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-1405-omap4 armv7l
ApportVersion: 1.91-0ubuntu1
Architecture: armel
Date: Tue Jan 31 10:00:22 2012
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

Revision history for this message
Tobin Davis (gruemaster) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa) wrote :

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/924419

tags: added: iso-testing
Changed in ubiquity (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Low
status: New → Triaged
tags: added: ubi-webcam
Revision history for this message
Ricardo Salveti (rsalveti) wrote :

I wonder if we should fix this bug by disabling the camera at the kernel side, but I believe the proper fix here is for ubiquity to check if the camera is valid before trying to use it.

Revision history for this message
Ricardo Salveti (rsalveti) wrote :
Changed in ubiquity (Ubuntu):
importance: Low → Medium
Revision history for this message
Ricardo Salveti (rsalveti) wrote :

Changing this to medium because it affects the user experience while installing the image, giving the impression something else is broken.

Revision history for this message
Stéphane Graber (stgraber) wrote :

Ubiquity actually checks if the webcam is valid using:
gboolean
ubiquity_webcam_available (void) {
 GUdevEnumerator *enumerator;
 GUdevClient *client;
 GList *devices;
 guint length;
   const gchar *const subsystems[] = {NULL};
   client = g_udev_client_new (subsystems);
 enumerator = g_udev_enumerator_new (client);
 g_udev_enumerator_add_match_property (enumerator, "ID_V4L_CAPABILITIES", ":capture:");
 devices = g_udev_enumerator_execute (enumerator);
 length = g_list_length (devices);
 g_list_free_full (devices, g_object_unref);
 return length > 0;
}

As you can see, this doesn't actually try to use it, it just checks for a v4l capture device.
How would one differentiate one of your broken capture devices from a working one?

I'm really not sure we should have that logic in ubiquity, it sounds like a bug to me to expose a /dev/videoX device that has the v4l capture flag set and doesn't actually work like a capture device...

Changed in ubiquity (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Ricardo Salveti (rsalveti) wrote :

Checking for a v4l device in this case is not enough, you'd need to try to use it before knowing that it's broken.

While I agree that something can be done at the kernel side, I believe having a better error checking code at ubiquity for devices that fail when accessing it might be something good to have.

Revision history for this message
Oliver Grawert (ogra) wrote :

well, teh code not only checks for the device availability but if it exposes a capture feature. imho the driver should not expose this unless there is actually a camera attached (it surely doesnt on my uvcvideo devices on all other platforms)

Changed in linux-ti-omap4 (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Medium
Paolo Pisati (p-pisati)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in linux-ti-omap4 (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Gema Gomez (gema) wrote :

Why is this bug marked as incomplete for Ubiquity? if it is not in ubiquity then it is invalid, isn't it?

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :
Download full text (13.5 KiB)

This bug was fixed in the package linux-ti-omap4 - 3.2.0-1412.15

---------------
linux-ti-omap4 (3.2.0-1412.15) precise-proposed; urgency=low

  [ Paolo Pisati ]

  * [Config] Sync fs with master (AUFS, CODA, EXT2, LOGFS and NFS)
  * [Config] Sync core subsys with master (ATA and HID)
  * [Config] sync ata drivers with master
  * [Config] sync input drivers with master
  * [Config] Sync HID drivers with master
  * [Config] Sync sensors wrt master
  * [Config] Sync crypto wrt master
  * [Config] Sync dangerous options wrt master
  * [Config] Sync Industrial IO wrt master
  * [Config] Sync backlight drivers wrt master
  * [Config] Sync charger drivers wrt master
  * [Config] Sync dvb drivers wrt master
  * [Config] Sync pcmcia net drivers wrt master
  * [Config] updateconfigs following rebase
  * blend upstream hdmi detection code and TI bits
    - LP: #963512
  * [Config] disable omap4 camera interface
    - LP: #924419
  * rebased on 3.2.0-23.36

  [ Upstream Kernel Changes ]

  * coda: compilation fix

  [ Ubuntu: 3.2.0-23.36 ]

  * tools/hv: add basic Makefile
    - LP: #977246
  * tools/hv: add basic manual pages
    - LP: #977246
  * Hyper-V KVP daemon -- add to the tools package
    - LP: #977246
  * SAUCE: (drop after 3.3) ALSA: HDA: Remove quirk for Gigabyte
    GA-H61M-S2PV
    - LP: #948360
  * d-i: Add dm-mirror and dm-raid to md-modules
    - LP: #919281
  * [Config] Fix invalid linux-headers link
    - LP: #974403
  * Remove headers asm symlink entirely
    - LP: #974403
  * Revert "x86/ioapic: Add register level checks to detect bogus io-apic
    entries"
    - LP: #974982
  * ALSA: HDA: Realtek: Take vmaster dac from multiout dac list
    - LP: #974090
  * kexec: remove KMSG_DUMP_KEXEC
    - LP: #944772
  * kmsg_dump: don't run on non-error paths by default
    - LP: #944772
  * pstore: Introduce get_reason_str() to pstore
    - LP: #944772

  [ Ubuntu: 3.2.0-22.35 ]

  * Revert "SAUCE: hotkey quirks for various Zeptro Znote and Fujitsu Amilo
    laptops"
  * SAUCE: (no-up) elide some ioctl warnings which are known benign
    - LP: #972355
  * SAUCE (no-up) Provide a param for allowing the BIOS to handle changing
    the brightness on AC/battery status changes.
    - LP: #949311
  * SAUCE (drop after 3.4) Quirk for enabling backlight hotkeys on Samsung
    N150P
    - LP: #875893
  * SAUCE: PCI: Allow pcie_aspm=force to work even when FADT indicates it
    is unsupported
    - LP: #962038
  * SAUCE: (drop after 3.5) drm/i915: reinstate GM45 TV detection fix
    - LP: #638939
  * SAUCE: SECCOMP: audit: always report seccomp violations
  * SAUCE: SECCOMP: adjust prctl constant
  * [Config] Enable CONFIG_USBIP_CORE=m
    - LP: #900384
  * Rebase to v3.2.14
  * [Config] Updateconfigs after rebase to v3.2.14
  * d-i: Fix module name for dm-raid45
    - LP: #969248
  * SAUCE: remove __initdata from vesafb_fix
    - LP: #969309
  * Revert "sched: tg->se->load should be initialised to tg->shares"
  * toshiba_acpi: make one-bit bitfields unsigned
    - LP: #810015
  * ACPI: EC: Add ec_get_handle()
    - LP: #810015
  * toshiba_acpi: Support alternate hotkey interfaces
    - LP: #810015
  * toshiba_acpi: Support additional hotkey scancod...

Changed in linux-ti-omap4 (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package ubiquity - 2.13.17

---------------
ubiquity (2.13.17) raring; urgency=low

  * Remove webcam step (LP: #1118589):
    - User testing showed people are not expecting to be photographed and
      raise privacy concerns as to where the picture will be uploaded to.
    - Provides limited benefit, as avatar only ever shown on multi-login
      systems in the switch user indicator / pkexec.
    - Crashes the installer or doesn't work with certain webcams.
    - Miss detects camera presence, when it's just a sensor.
    - The recommendation is to move webcam test to checkbox / hw testing,
      as video conferencing is very popular these days and should work
      reliably out of the box.
    - LP: #924419 , LP: #981644 , LP: #987392, LP: #1152254, LP: #843354,
      LP: #1008204, LP: #1021449, LP: #1082458, LP: #1103780, LP: #1142751
  * Do not count optional pages, when updating the progress dots. This
    fixes "Porgress dots, well don't progress after partman step"
    LP: #1152746
  * Do not mark explanatory text on "Installation Type" screen
    insensitive, as otherwise it's ineligible (LP: #1074386)
 -- Dmitrijs Ledkovs <email address hidden> Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:17:51 +0000

Changed in ubiquity (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Fix Released
To post a comment you must log in.
This report contains Public information  
Everyone can see this information.

Duplicates of this bug

Other bug subscribers

Remote bug watches

Bug watches keep track of this bug in other bug trackers.