Hello, I recently got my hands on the Lenovo ThinkPad C13 Yoga, but the webcam doesn’t seem to work. The one above the keyboard, aka “world camera”, works fine, but the one above the display does not. I already noticed that it wasn’t working on ChromeOS, but I thought this was just a bug or something, and that the issue might go away once I install Linux, but it didn’t.
I doubt it’s a hardware failure because I got this laptop in a very good condition, everything else seems to work as expected, and when I opened it to disconnect the battery, it seemed like it was never taken apart before.
The only thing I was able to find on this issue is this Reddit post talking about having the same problem that I have. The person mentioned in the comments that it’s not available in their region according to Lenovo’s tech support, but that doesn’t make much sense to me. However, when I got this Chromebook, it was already running the latest version of firmware, so my guess would be that maybe it got disabled in an update?
If it helps, my model is the Ryzen 7, 128 GB NVMe (no eMMC), with a stylus and fingerprint reader. I’m currently running Fedora 41 Silverblue on it, with the Full ROM Coreboot installed.
I have got almost the same device as you (Ryzen 5) and everything works.
The persion you mentioned did actually say that the device was no more avalaible in his region so he simply returned it to Lenovo, you seem to have misunderstood his words.
The issue, in my opinion, it is very likely due to a loose cable or something like it, just as another guy said in the same reddit’s post: “Huh, I was able to return mine to the depot and have them reseat a cable. Works fine now”.
Sorry, I only now decided to check inside this laptop, as I also recently decided to switch from Fedora to Arch, to see if the problem was caused by the distro, and seems to not be related to the OS. I looked up Lenovo’s service manual, and I think the webcam cable is plugged-in correctly to the motherboard, but I’m not sure how the cable looks at the other end of it, under the display, and I’m too scared of taking it apart even further, as this laptop is now my main machine (I have another, older laptop, but that one is much weaker in terms of specs and isn’t a 2in1, and I can’t afford a replacement screen)
But also, from what I’ve read in Lenovo’s manual, I’m led to believe that the cable for the webcam is also used for the microphone next to it, and that works perfectly fine on Linux (besides it being a little quieter than on ChromeOS, but it was an easy fix with the help of an equalizer). So, either it’s missing firmware for the webcam, maybe my model uses one from a different manufacturer? Hyfetch says the motherboard is specifically Morphius rev6, so maybe it’s that? Or, I just got extremely unlucky and got this Chromebook with a broken webcam, which would be extremely disappointing, as I also intended to use this laptop for remote school… (That wasn’t my main reason why I bought it, it was just extremely cheap for the specs, I got it for just 120€, and I’m still happy with it, but having a built-in webcam would make things easier for me)
lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 05e3:0610 Genesys Logic, Inc. Hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 0bda:c123 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Bluetooth Radio
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 174f:2450 Syntek Integrated Camera
Bus 003 Device 007: ID 04f2:b639 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd EasyCamera 5M
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Is your camera being detected like mine here upon?
This only shows the EasyCamera 5M, which I’m assuming is the 5MP world-camera, but the Integrated Camera doesn’t show up for me. I think a friend also told me to run lsusb on Fedora, and that also didn’t show any camera besides the EasyCamera 5M
It just doesn’t show up as an available device. For example, if I add a camera source in OBS, the only camera that shows up on is the world camera, but the webcam isn’t even on the list
I don’t know what OBS is, I just installed cheese (camera app) as a test and could switch between the two cameras. Both cameras are USB-attached and there is zero reason for them to not show up under the OS