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I bought this TeckNet C016 webcam and I'm having trouble getting it to work. Before buying it, I checked to see if anyone else was using it with Linux and there were positive results.

When I plug the webcam into my PC, I am able to turn a little wheel which activates the LEDs so it's getting power. When it's plugged in, I can see a video0 entry in /dev/ (though sometimes it appears as video1)

I have Cheese and VLC installed. Starting cheese shows the message There was an error playing video from the webcam, the same as in this question. I followed the answers for that question. Cheese outputs the following to the console:

libv4l2: error turning on stream: Invalid argument
(cheese:4523): cheese-WARNING **: Internal data flow error.: gstbasesrc.c(2865): gst_base_src_loop (): /GstCameraBin:camerabin/GstWrapperCameraBinSrc:camera_source/GstBin:bin17/GstV4l2Src:video_source:

streaming task paused, reason not-negotiated (-4)

Running as su doesn't help.

I installed guvcview which opens 2 windows, of which one disappears before I get a chance to see what it is. I am left with the guvcviewer controls window. I assume the other window was to relay the video back to the screen. Among other things, this is printed to the console:

checking format: 1196444237
VIDIOC_G_COMP:: Inappropriate ioctl for device
fps is set to 1/25
drawing controls

libv4l2: error turning on stream: Invalid argument
VIDIOC_STREAMON - Unable to start capture: Invalid argument
Checking video mode 640x480@32bpp : OK 
libv4l2: error turning on stream: Invalid argument
VIDIOC_STREAMON - Unable to start capture: Invalid argument
libv4l2: error turning on stream: Invalid argument
VIDIOC_STREAMON - Unable to start capture: Invalid argument

Finally, I tried VLC and opening a capture device. I set capture mode to Video Camera, device to /dev/video0 and video standard to All. I get the following message:

Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'v4l2:///dev/video0'. Check the log for details.

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After messing around a bit, I found that guvcview will show the video stream when it is plugged in to a USB 2.0 port, instead of the USB 3.0 port I was using before. Cheese will not work, however. I did manage to get a few seconds of video out of it before giving the same error message. VLC also works through USB 2.

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  • Is it meant to be an answer to the question or an update to the question?
    – Anwar
    Dec 28, 2016 at 18:45

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