Can an MX tweak disable a laptop camera?

[colin_b]

I've just read https://ostechnix.com/how-to-disable-bu ... in-ubuntu/

Can an MX tweak be created which makes it easy for the camera to be turned on and off, thus giving MX users the option of enhanced privacy?

[Stevo]

There's always the old school method of a little electrical tape.

[Eadwine Rose]

I have some paper in front of my camera :) Super safe hardware switch, that thing :) Never fails me.

[chrispop99]

If the requirement is that the camera is never available, it can be disabled in BIOS.

Chris

[dolphin_oracle]

so first question:

does

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sudo modprobe -r uvcvideo

disable the camera? like, it's probably still powered but not working I would guess.

conversely, to re-enable, does

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sudo modprobe uvcvideo

enough to bring it back up?

[Huckleberry Finn]

@dolphin_oracle tried with Webcamoid: .. -r is (sort of) successfull: It just makes it show an "infinite" 'window in window'

.. Then modprobe doesn't bring it back.. even after a logout, login , even not after a reboot (cause it gets stuck at "screen capture", you need to change to webcam manually) :)

[Jerry3904]

manually

sounds pretty troglodyte (though that's what I do anyway)

[Huckleberry Finn]

In the meantime, I mean, from it's settings : "Configure Sources" :)

[colin_b]

Thanks for the replies. Considering it would be useful for security there seems to be only one software method which is documented, and that was proposed by DO. I was expecting more.

Example:

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https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/32364/disabling-web-camera

You can disable the kernel drive module responsible for it, which is most cases is uvcvideo. The modprobe let's you enable and disable kernel module, therefore, you can disable your webcam like so:

modprobe -r uvcvideo

And enable it again like this:

modprobe uvcvideo

You can also check whether or not the module is actually disable looking for it using lsmod, which shows the status of modules in the kernel.

lsmod | grep uvcvideo

The output should be similar to this when the module is enabled:

uvcvideo               98304  0
videobuf2_vmalloc      20480  1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_v4l2         24576  1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_common       49152  2 videobuf2_v4l2,uvcvideo
videodev              225280  3 videobuf2_v4l2,uvcvideo,videobuf2_common
mc                     53248  4 videodev,videobuf2_v4l2,uvcvideo,videobuf2_common

And when it is disabled no occurrences to uvcvideo should be returned from the command.

I tried lsmod | grep uvcvideo and got the vidbuf list when the module was enabled, and the output disappeared when the module was disabled, but Huckleberry Finn didn't have success, so I guess it's a debatable tweak which may or may not work.

[Huckleberry Finn]

...and the output disappeared when the module was disabled, but Huckleberry Finn didn't have success, so ...

But, in my trial, the problem was not loading / unloading the module (that part is ok and immediate). Just (with that program at least, it may be different with other programs) it defaults to screen capture mode and then stays like that (till you turn it back to webcam mode from settings).