jbrains
New Member
Hi, folks. Please ask for any details you need. I chose not to include logs here until someone asks. Also, since this seems like an intermittent problem, I'm not sure how quickly I can produce logs showing the problem.
Summary: External cameras (one webcam, one video capture device) sometimes fail in OBS Studio with "Unable to start stream" and/or "Inappropriate ioctl for device". Here, "sometimes" is "often enough to be a problem worth posting about".
Here's what I've learned so far: System-installed (Pop!_OS, installed using nala/apt-get) obs-studio 30.2.3 exhibits the behavior, but Flatpak user-installed 30.2.3 seems not to. (I've reconnected my webcam six times and it hasn't failed _yet_. It might still fail in the future.)
My laptop's internal camera has never failed this way, not with OBS Studio 30.2.3, nor the earlier versions I've been using for at least five years.
When running System-installed OBS Studio, I got these messages at startup:
One of these is my generic USB video capture card, connected to an HDMI adapter connected to a tablet. The other is my external Anker PowerConf C200 webcam.
I've seen these messages both at startup and when reconnecting the USB-A connector to my laptop. I've tried both USB-A ports with sometimes different behavior.
In all cases, `ffmpeg` and `qv4l2` can capture the video without problems (at worst, dropping resolution to 640x480), even when OBS Studio is unable to start the stream.
I have noticed that OBS Studio might be trying to start the wrong video device: starting `video1` instead of `video0`. I might have that wrong.
For now, my workaround seems to be to use the Flatpak version of OBS Studio instead of the System-installed/package manager version. I presume that's itself either a clue or a red herring. :shrug:
OK. I'm ready for you to yell at me. Go for it.
Summary: External cameras (one webcam, one video capture device) sometimes fail in OBS Studio with "Unable to start stream" and/or "Inappropriate ioctl for device". Here, "sometimes" is "often enough to be a problem worth posting about".
Here's what I've learned so far: System-installed (Pop!_OS, installed using nala/apt-get) obs-studio 30.2.3 exhibits the behavior, but Flatpak user-installed 30.2.3 seems not to. (I've reconnected my webcam six times and it hasn't failed _yet_. It might still fail in the future.)
My laptop's internal camera has never failed this way, not with OBS Studio 30.2.3, nor the earlier versions I've been using for at least five years.
When running System-installed OBS Studio, I got these messages at startup:
Code:
info: v4l2-input: Start capture from /dev/video1
error: v4l2-input: Unable to set input 0
error: v4l2-input: Initialization failed, errno: Inappropriate ioctl for device
info: v4l2-input: Start capture from /dev/video3
error: v4l2-input: Unable to set input 0
error: v4l2-input: Initialization failed, errno: Inappropriate ioctl for deviceOne of these is my generic USB video capture card, connected to an HDMI adapter connected to a tablet. The other is my external Anker PowerConf C200 webcam.
I've seen these messages both at startup and when reconnecting the USB-A connector to my laptop. I've tried both USB-A ports with sometimes different behavior.
In all cases, `ffmpeg` and `qv4l2` can capture the video without problems (at worst, dropping resolution to 640x480), even when OBS Studio is unable to start the stream.
I have noticed that OBS Studio might be trying to start the wrong video device: starting `video1` instead of `video0`. I might have that wrong.
For now, my workaround seems to be to use the Flatpak version of OBS Studio instead of the System-installed/package manager version. I presume that's itself either a clue or a red herring. :shrug:
OK. I'm ready for you to yell at me. Go for it.