How can I disable my webcam?

Question

I have an integrated webcam in my laptop. I know that it works and that ubuntu recognized it because at installation it asked if I wanted a photo taken for some kind of image associated with my account. When I look in system settings, I do not see any webcam in the hardware section. I would like to disable the webcam like you can do in Windows, but as I can't find it in my hardware section, how can I disable it? I cannot even unplug it as it is integrated into the monitor. Am I looking in the wrong place?? I am using 12.04

Answer 1

Run:

gksu gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Add

blacklist uvcvideo

at the bottom. Save the file and quit the text editor.

Answer 2

Cameras are controlled by the uvcvideo kernel module.

You can disable the camera until reboot by opening a terminal and typing sudo modprobe -r uvcvideo. You will be asked for your password, and after typing it, if there are no errors shown in the terminal, your webcam should be disabled.

To enable your webcam again, type sudo modprobe uvcvideo into terminal.

If you want the camera to be disabled when you reboot, then press ALT+F2 and paste this command:

gksu gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

You will be asked for your password. After giving it, a text file should open. Paste at the end of the text file on a new line:

blacklist uvcvideo

Then save the file and exit. Next time you start Ubuntu, the webcam should be disabled.