How to disable all webcams:

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49

How can I disable my webcam?

rated 0 times [ 49] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 126604 / 2 Years ago, wed, september 7, 2022, 6:46:22

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

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answered 2 Years ago ainsbeave · Accepted Answer

How to disable all webcams:

Run (for pre ubuntu 18.04):

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

Or run (for ubuntu 18.04 and later):

gedit admin:///etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Then add...

blacklist uvcvideo

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

How to disable a single webcam:

Find your webcam with lsusb. My output:

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0bda:0328 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 8087:0a2b Intel Corp.

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bda:568c Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

Bus 001 Device 042: ID 046d:c52b Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

If it isn't clear which device is your webcam, you can try lsusb -t and look for Class=Video or Driver=uvcvideo or similar to guess which one it is. My output:

/:  Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/6p, 5000M

    |__ Port 4: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=usb-storage, 5000M

/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/12p, 480M

    |__ Port 2: Dev 42, If 2, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M

    |__ Port 2: Dev 42, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M

    |__ Port 2: Dev 42, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M

    |__ Port 5: Dev 2, If 1, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M

    |__ Port 5: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M

    |__ Port 7: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M

    |__ Port 7: Dev 3, If 1, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M

Next, find the vendor id and device id from the output of lsusb surrounding the colon:

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bda:568c Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

So in my case, the vendor id is 0bda and the product id is 568c.

Next go to:

cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/

To find the correct directory do a grep there with the product id and if you get multiple results then also with the vendor id:

grep 568c */idProduct

returned:

1-5/idProduct:568c

and

grep 0bda */idVendor

returned:

1-5/idVendor:0bda

2-4/idVendor:0bda

In my case 1-5 is what I need.

cd into the directory from the previous step.

The file bConfigurationValue in this directory needs to contain a 0 to disable the device or a 1 to enable it. But this file is owned by root so to alter it (change the 0 to a 1 to enable) ...

echo 0 | sudo tee bConfigurationValue

...to disable. You can check the camera and it will be disabled.

This is not permanent yet. A reboot will set it back to what it was before. To make it permanent:

echo 0 | sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/devices/1-5/bConfigurationValue

(where 1-5 is the directory we used and use a 1 to enable)