Well, after searching several forums and trial and error, I finally got my builtin webcam to work. Its r5u870 05ca:1836.

The only problem I now have is that after a hard boot (system was powered down), I then have to do a soft boot for this to work properly.

It seems to me that the problem is the firmware loading. Obviously, doing a shutdown -r means that the firmware remains in the webcam device and then everything seems OK.

After a soft boot:


linus:~/bin # lsmod|grep -e sony -e uvc -e r5u
r5u870 26436 0
usbcam 47808 1 r5u870
sony_laptop 35688 0
uvcvideo 66124 0
rfkill 22772 2 cfg80211,sony_laptop
videodev 39168 2 usbcam,uvcvideo
v4l1_compat 16004 2 uvcvideo,videodev
linus:~/bin # lsusb|grep Ric
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 05ca:1836 Ricoh Co., Ltd Visual Communication Camera VGP-VCC4 [R5U870]
linus:~/bin # luvcview -L
luvcview version 0.2.1
Video driver: x11
A window manager is available
video /dev/video0
/dev/video0 does not support read i/o
{ pixelformat = 'YUYV', description = 'YUV 4:2:2 (YUYV)' }
{ discrete: width = 320, height = 240 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 480 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 176, height = 144 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,
{ discrete: width = 160, height = 120 }
Time interval between frame: 1/30,

NOTE: After a hard boot, luvcview will not display anything after the line beginning with
{ pixel...

Any ideas on how to make this all work without the soft reboot?

Thanks in advance.

Are the same drivers successfully loaded after both a hard and soft reboot? Anything in the error log concerning failure to load a driver after a hard reboot?

It Looks as if the r5u870 module is loaded in the hard boot AFTER uvcvideo fails to initialize the video0 device. This
leads to loading the firmware.

On a soft boot, uvcvideo does not fail to initialize the video0 device, and also there is an additional input: line where
the UVC camera is discovered. It doesn't seem that the r5u870 module is loaded, and the firmware does not seem to be
reloaded.

It seemsIt Looks as if the r5u870 module is loaded in the hard boot AFTER uvcvideo fails to initialize the video0 device. This
leads to loading the firmware.

On a soft boot, uvcvideo does not fail to initialize the video0 device, and also there is an additional input: line where
the UVC camera is discovered. It doesn't seem that the r5u870 module is loaded, and the firmware does not seem to be
reloaded.

It seems that the r5u870 module should be loaded before uvcvideo. I am not sure if that is so or how to do this should it be
necessary.

Below are some relavent lines from dmesg for both hard and soft boots.

linus:/var/log # cat dmesg.soft |grep -e sony -e 05ca -e input: -e uvc -e 1-8 -e r5u870 -e firm -e EDD
[ 1.217457] input: PS/2 Mouse as /devices/platform/i8042/serio4/input/input0
[ 1.234063] input: AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint as /devices/platform/i8042/serio4/input/input1
[ 1.240021] input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /devices/platform/i8042/serio0/input/input2
[ 1.249864] input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /devices/platform/i8042/serio0/input/input3
[ 1.361036] usb 1-8: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
[ 1.478585] usb 1-8: New USB device found, idVendor=05ca, idProduct=1836
[ 1.478593] usb 1-8: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[ 1.478758] usb 1-8: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 6.889269] input: Lid Switch as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0D:00/input/input4
[ 6.901318] input: Power Button as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0C:00/input/input5
[ 6.958502] input: PC Speaker as /devices/platform/pcspkr/input/input6
[ 6.966636] input: Video Bus as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0A08:00/device:03/input/input7
[ 7.078986] sony-laptop: Sony Notebook Control Driver v0.6.
[ 7.101537] input: Sony Vaio Keys as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0A08:00/device:2b/SNY5001:00/input/input8
[ 7.101654] input: Sony Vaio Jogdial as /devices/virtual/input/input9
[ 7.136751] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device <unnamed> (05ca:1836)
[ 7.137682] input: UVC Camera (05ca:1836) as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-8/1-8:1.0/input/input10
[ 7.137752] usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo
[ 7.220536] usbcam: registering driver r5u870 0.11.3
[ 7.220583] usbcore: registered new interface driver r5u870
[ 7.226566] input: HDA Intel Mic at Ext Left Jack as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card2/input11
[ 7.226674] input: HDA Intel HP Out at Ext Left Jack as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card2/input12
[ 23.800334] BIOS EDD facility v0.16 2004-Jun-25, 2 devices found
[ 27.604660] iwl3945 0000:06:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode
[ 27.618596] iwl3945 0000:06:00.0: loaded firmware version 15.32.2.9

linus:/var/log # cat dmesg.hard |grep -e sony -e 05ca -e input: -e uvc -e 1-8 -e r5u870 -e firm -e EDD
[ 1.212495] input: PS/2 Mouse as /devices/platform/i8042/serio4/input/input0
[ 1.229088] input: AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint as /devices/platform/i8042/serio4/input/input1
[ 1.235047] input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /devices/platform/i8042/serio0/input/input2
[ 1.244857] input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /devices/platform/i8042/serio0/input/input3
[ 1.358044] usb 1-8: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
[ 1.475643] usb 1-8: New USB device found, idVendor=05ca, idProduct=1836
[ 1.475651] usb 1-8: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[ 1.475817] usb 1-8: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 8.025919] input: Lid Switch as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0D:00/input/input4
[ 8.054183] input: Power Button as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0C:00/input/input5
[ 8.059128] input: Video Bus as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0A08:00/device:03/input/input6
[ 8.188082] sony-laptop: Sony Notebook Control Driver v0.6.
[ 8.197845] input: Sony Vaio Keys as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0A08:00/device:2b/SNY5001:00/input/input7
[ 8.197961] input: Sony Vaio Jogdial as /devices/virtual/input/input8
[ 8.288555] input: PC Speaker as /devices/platform/pcspkr/input/input9
[ 8.475303] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device <unnamed> (05ca:1836)
[ 8.475610] uvcvideo: UVC non compliance - GET_DEF(PROBE) not supported. Enabling workaround.
[ 8.475864] uvcvideo: Failed to query (129) UVC probe control : -32 (exp. 26).
[ 8.475880] uvcvideo: Failed to initialize the device (-5).
[ 8.475932] usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo
[ 8.486575] input: HDA Intel Mic at Ext Left Jack as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card2/input10
[ 8.486681] input: HDA Intel HP Out at Ext Left Jack as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card2/input11
[ 8.520427] usbcam: registering driver r5u870 0.11.3
[ 8.520470] r5u870-0: Detected Sony VGP-VCC4
[ 8.520614] usb 1-8: firmware: requesting r5u870_1836.fw
[ 8.674852] r5u870-0: registered as video0
[ 8.674897] usbcore: registered new interface driver r5u870
[ 32.949489] BIOS EDD facility v0.16 2004-Jun-25, 1 devices found
[ 36.395783] iwl3945 0000:06:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode
[ 36.410208] iwl3945 0000:06:00.0: loaded firmware version 15.32.2.9

After looking up the uvcvideo error code, I found that the webcam audio should be initialized before the video and that that may not happen on hard reboot as the webcam takes a while to get up and running. Related to that, there is a really short initialization timeout (reports were for Logitech devices) of 2 seconds that was extended to 5 seconds (but your driver may not yet have that fix). I think this is what is biting you.

As a fix (taken from here), create a file named /etc/modprobe.d/uvcvideo.conf (with permissions of 0x644) that will force the usb audio system to load before the video:

Note: the link provided said to add that line to "/etc/modprobe.conf.local", but I didn't have that when running Ubuntu. If you do, I say add it there instead of creating "uvcvideo.conf".

There's also a module parameter to manually set the timeout eg , but you'll need an up-to-date driver as it was added in on 2010-03-30.

Hope that helps.