Webcams that are compatible with the UVC (USB Video Class) protocol will work out of the box in Linux.
UVC is a common, standard protocol that
should be implemented/supported by all modern webcams. Allowing them to be used on pretty much any modern platform without special drivers.
If your webcam
does NOT work in Cheese - then it means that your webcam probably
does not support UVC and
may require a dedicated Linux driver from the manufacturer.
Another thing you could try is to install
guvcview
and try that with your camera.
guvcview
should be in the repos of all Linux distributions. You can find and install it using your distros package management tools (apt, aptitude, software centre, dnf, yum, pacman etc etc....)
If it
does work with
guvcview
- then problem solved -once you have it working with
guvcview
, then
cheese
should be able to detect it too.
But if it
doesn't work with
guvcview
- then it definitely
does not support UVC and
will require a dedicated Linux driver from the manufacturer.
However - Getting a Linux driver from Quantum might be another story altogether!
I've never heard of Quantum before - so I have no idea about them as a company, or the quality of their products. But there are a surprising number of tech companies - particularly the less-known, or cheaper, low-end brands, who
do not use, or implement support for common, established protocols/standards (Like UVC) on their devices. And instead, implement their own protocols - which requires them to provide drivers for their devices.
And typically, companies who operate like this will only provide drivers for Windows and sometimes Mac, if you're lucky. Manuy still
will not consider developing Linux drivers, unless enough of their customers demand them. So you could try pestering Quantum to provide a Linux driver for your webcam. But you'll probably just be ignored!
That said - in order to support Linux - webcam manufacturers only need to set up their camera hardware to support UVC which is a standard protocol. Using standard protocols allows their devices to have greater interoperability on other platforms, completely out of the box - it seems strange that some tech companies still do just not do this. It seems like common sense to me - but there we go!
Worst case scenario:-
If you have no luck getting your webcam to work with
guvcview
- perhaps consider selling your webcam and try to get one made by a company that does support UVC. Like Logitech. Their webcams are compatible with UVC and work perfectly in Linux, with no need for any special drivers. Even their lower end models.
The following article lists someones opinions on the best web-cams for Ubuntu in 2020.
If they work in Ubuntu, then it stands to reason that they will work in any other Linux distro:
For some webcams, installation process on Ubuntu is not straight away like Windows or Mac. You may have to make use of native tools and perform additional steps to install a webcam driver on Ubuntu or any other Linux distro. In this article, we’ll list the best webcams for Ubuntu.
linuxhint.com
I currently have a Logitech C922 Pro HD Streaming webcam - it works flawlessly for me on Debian.[/code]