Are all cam sites compatible with Linux?

[Miss Honey Analvekehr]

So getting ready to start camming and reading another thread I noticed someone ask a question about if a site was compatible with a certain running system.

Made me go 'WHAT?!!! Oh crap I may have a problem then...'

I have an older laptop that when windows 10 was installed on it the laptop wouldnt work.
Put it in to get fixed and long story short the operating system was changed to Linux to be able to get around the problem (most techs told me just to throw the laptop out all together -theres no point fixing the mess win 10 made of it)

So if camsites arnt compatible with Linux I'm screwed basically.

Does anyone know if they are compatible?

(PS I'm not technologically minded so I hope I've written this in a way that makes sense)

 

[JerryBoBerry]

Not a cam model here, so i can't speak to every site. But as a general rule, if the site allows you to broadcast through a browser, and your webcam is working in Linux, then yes, you should be able to work on the site. If the only way to broadcast is through special software you have to download, then that software may not be compatible with Linux.

But since you can install Chrome, Firefox, and Chromium in Linux you should be able to use those to work on a site. I know it works on MyFreeCams at least. MFC is an example of having both methods. The software you can download won't work on Linux, but broadcasting through the website will.

Sadly I don't think there are too many models who use Linux to get much more input. I've only ever run across one so far. Most talk of Linux here dies out pretty quickly. Which is sad since Linux Mint is awesome and works so much better even on older computers. Every time I see another tweet about 'a laptop dying' and the model has to go buy another one, i think if they had Mint installed as a 2nd install, or even just on a USB flash drive, they'd be back on MFC in minutes. Just restart from the stick.

Just out of curiosity, what did Win 10 mess up on the laptop? Did it not start all together, or just run really slow? Not enough ram to run things?

 

[AriaRose]

Look up wine bottler. It would also be more helpful to those of us with Linux experience if you told us what system you were running and what version. I'd give links and stuff but I'm on mobile. Short version though is that you should have zero issues running anything in Linux.

 

[AudriTwo]

If it turns out you cannot stream, you are not entirely screwed! So you can still breathe ! You can start making clips to save up for a better computer and get income coming in. Also work on your social media presence to start creating an audience to stream to.

 

[Miss Honey Analvekehr]

ubuntu 16.04 LTS

I'm glad there's others with Linux experience cause Im flying by the seat of my pants n it all gobbledee gook to me. Technology has always been something I've struggled with but I'm trying to learn to understand it since its such a vital part of camming.

Re the windows 10: it wouldn't start

Will the apps and bots on chaturbate work with Linux ?
Chaturbate is where I'm starting and will then branch out to other sites

 

[ExcellaExe]

*raises hand* I use Linux for my day job and on my work laptop with which I do my camming-insert death to Windows as a programmer mantra blah blah blah-and I know that at least on MFC it works fine. However, on Chaturbate at least, it has a hard time detecting the webcam on a laptop if you're using an external. On Chaturbate, I've never been able to get it to just use my external webcam, so it always tries to use my laptop's built in one--which is rubbish. As far as other sites go, I honestly don't know.

Linux doesn't have the benefit of being massively used like Windows and Apple boxes, so it isn't catered to nearly as much.

 

[Miss Honey Analvekehr]

*raises hand* I use Linux for my day job and on my work laptop with which I do my camming-insert death to Windows as a programmer mantra blah blah blah-and I know that at least on MFC it works fine. However, on Chaturbate at least, it has a hard time detecting the webcam on a laptop if you're using an external. On Chaturbate, I've never been able to get it to just use my external webcam, so it always tries to use my laptop's built in one--which is rubbish. As far as other sites go, I honestly don't know.

Linux doesn't have the benefit of being massively used like Windows and Apple boxes, so it isn't catered to nearly as much.

Oh crap if it wont use an external camera! From everything I've read using the built in one just doesnt cut it to be competitive *wonders how to fix this problem*

 

[AriaRose]

Oh crap if it wont use an external camera! From everything I've read using the built in one just doesnt cut it to be competitive *wonders how to fix this problem*

There is LITERALLY nothing that you shouldn't be able to do on Ubuntu anymore. If an external camera isn't working, you need the right drivers. If Ubuntu can't run it on your computer, the problem is your specs, not your OS. If you want to PM me, I'll fire up my Ubuntu dedicated desktop and try and give you whatever run downs I have. The easiest way to get support for Linux though is to pretend you have a Mac. Most things in Ubuntu and on my MacBook are identical. Again, look up wine bottler. If you run a VM or Wine there's literally nothing you shouldn't be able to do.

 

[DFT]

Things on the variants of linux don't necessarily work the same as in Windows or Mac. For example the audio panel exposed in Ubuntu is fairly limited. (linux is the kernel, Debian is the distribution: think Ford. Ubuntu is a refinement that parts from the former work on: think conversion van. Mint is a detail on Ubuntu: think Eddie Bauer Edition) The limitations are to make it 'friendly', like a Mac or Windows. Bring up the Alsamix and you can do anything you could ever want with your soundcard.

Which is to say your camera may be working, but not easily accessed to switch to. Your particular issue I don't have a solution for, but I'll give you a linux help tip: always search by date and expand backward. Unfortunately old help articles and chats never go away, and with linux evolving faster than Windows today that leads to struggles trying to use old help. Search by "your model cam Ubuntu switching" recent first. Hopefully that'll lead you to the solution that works for you.

If not report back with camera model and I'll do my best to help you out. linux isn't an OS, but it is a community.

 

[AriaRose]

Things on the variants of linux don't necessarily work the same as in Windows or Mac. For example the audio panel exposed in Ubuntu is fairly limited. (linux is the kernel, Debian is the distribution: think Ford. Ubuntu is a refinement that parts from the former work on: think conversion van. Mint is a detail on Ubuntu: think Eddie Bauer Edition) The limitations are to make it 'friendly', like a Mac or Windows. Bring up the Alsamix and you can do anything you could ever want with your soundcard.

Which is to say your camera may be working, but not easily accessed to switch to. Your particular issue I don't have a solution for, but I'll give you a linux help tip: always search by date and expand backward. Unfortunately old help articles and chats never go away, and with linux evolving faster than Windows today that leads to struggles trying to use old help. Search by "your model cam Ubuntu switching" recent first. Hopefully that'll lead you to the solution that works for you.

If not report back with camera model and I'll do my best to help you out. linux isn't an OS, but it is a community.

Why are you so offended?

 

[lycha]

So I've only ever cammed under Linux. Chrome with Adobe/Shockwave Flash seems to work fine for most sites. The recent versions of flash can capture from V4L2 devices, so as long as your camera is supported by a kernel module you're good.

However, configuring sound can leave a bit to be desired. Flash lets you choose your input mic, but you can't choose which sound output device it uses. Under Chrome, it sometimes will grab the default ALSA device, other times it will grab the first-numbered ALSA device (which you may have changed from your default via some app writing to ~/.asoundrc).

Flash also will sometimes grab the input mic but not buffer data from it properly. This seems to happen about 10% of the time---it will appear to open the sound device, but it won't actually be processing the incoming audio. Thus your customers hear no sound. Almost always, I can tell if there's an issue by checking the input sound level within the Flash Camera+Mic config panel, but very occasionally that doesn't work as expected.

Under recent versions of Chrome and Chromium, you have also allow Flash to access your camera and mic within the browser. This is *in addition to* Flash asking for permission for the site to access Camera and Mic.

Flash sometimes will cause my GL/GLU libs to send calls to Xorg that end up crashing the DRM kernel interface for my video card on my laptop (Slackware 14.1 on Linux 4.1.6/x86_64). This started happening a lot, so I set up a dedicated Ubuntu 16.10 (x86_64) box for camming. I'm using an external Logitech HD webcam, model C270, with no issues (other than low framerate at very high res, but that's partly due to the box being older and having a slower FSB and CPU than my laptop). Getting a modern version of Flash on Ubuntu can be a bit of a headache---you run into PepperFlash vs NPI Adobe Flash vs PPI Adobe Flash and which browsers those run on. PepperFlash only works on Chrome and Chromium. NPI Flash works on Seamonkey, Firefox, and most other Mozilla-based browers. PPI Flash works on Chromium (and maybe Chrome). I had issues getting Chrome to run any Flash without crashing on Ubuntu, so I switched to Chromium and tried to install an upgraded/different version of Flash. What I ran into there is that the various recent versions of Flash that are pre-packaged for apt-based distros have packages hosted on sites whose security keys are out of date in the Ubuntu 16 apt key repository. I had to manually retrieve a Flash package, extract and copy files, and tweak the filesystem to get it to work. (I couldn't get the apt key repository to update correctly, even including external sources for keys and packages, due to some random issue the apt key manager seems to have.)

Also Adobe on Chromium outputs audio with PulseAudio now (which is more configurable than grabbing some random ALSA device, for sure).

So, long story short, sometimes it's a snap to fire up Chrome or Firefox and cam with linux. When I first started camming, I had zero issues. Even when I upgraded my webcam to an external camera (I re-wired a Playstation Eye high-frame-rate device to plug into a standard USB port), there was a linux driver that worked perfectly (that camera doesn't even have a windows or mac driver available, by the way). Other times it will take a Linux user likr mr (with 20 years of experience including making my own mini libc5-based distro waaaay back in the day and doing some minor kernel programming back in kernel 2.0) close to a week to get a cam setup working.

As far as external USB camera, pop open a shell and type: lsusb
Copy+paste the output to me. I can try to look up the USB vendor/dev hex ID pair in some linux usb webcam wikis and check status of driver. Also what kernel are you using? If you're not sure, pop open a shell and run this command and copy+paste me the output: uname -a

Best of luck!