- Video 4 Linux loopback device kernel module (
v4l2loopback) - Source: https://github.com/umlaeute/v4l2loopback (You might find builds in your distro's repos - I'm using Fedora so had to build it myself using https://github.com/danielkza/v4l2loopback-fedora/) - gPhoto2 - this is what allows you to access your cameras live feed over USB - this was available in Fedora's repos.
- GStreamer or ffmpeg - this is what lets you stream the output from gPhoto2 into the loopback device.
It's been a little while since I set it all up so I can't remember all of the installation details, which will probably be different for your distro anyway unless you're using Fedora. Apologies if I have forgotten something as wel.
- Connect your camera, ensuring that if the camera is automatically mounted by your operating system that you unmount it, otherwise you will get "device busy" errors.
- Make sure the loopback kernel module is loaded:
This should create a new video device in
sudo modprobe v4l2loopback
/dev, the device name will depend on what other video devices are already present (E.g. built-in laptop webcam). You can see all the devices by running the following:Your new loopback device should be the one with the highest number.ls /dev/video* - Stream the output from your camera to the virtual video device
Using GStreamer:Using ffmpeg:gphoto2 --stdout --capture-movie | gst-launch-0.10 fdsrc ! decodebin2 name=dec ! queue ! ffmpegcolorspace ! v4l2sink device=/dev/video0
(Ensure that the binary names and device names match what is on your system)gphoto2 --stdout --capture-movie | ffmpeg -i - -vcodec rawvideo -pix_fmt yuv420p -threads 0 -f v4l2 /dev/video0
You should now be able to select the Dummy Video Device in your video capturing software of choice (E.g. Zoom, Hangouts, etc.)
Oh wow, I see! Thanks for your reply, I'll be sure to use this more sparingly. Thanks again for the awesome and easy to follow guide.