For security or any other reason, here’s how to disable your laptop’s webcam in Ubuntu 18.04, and also all other current Ubuntu releases.
To disable Webcam temporarily:
You can disable your webcam device easily via modprobe command.
Open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching for ‘terminal’ from app launcher. When it opens, run command:
sudo modprobe -r uvcvideo
The command removes the module from Linux kernel. Webcam is disabled until you reboot Ubuntu. Just start (or restart) Cheese to check it out:
To permanently disable webcam in Ubuntu:
You can add a rule into configuration file, so your Ubuntu machine never starts the webcam kernel module on boot.
Open terminal and run command to edit the configuration file:
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
When the file opens, add two new lines and save it.
#Disable webcam blacklist uvcvideo
To revert the changes, simply remove the 2 lines, save the file and finally reboot.
or put a sticker over it ;)
To “temporarily” or “permanently” disable the web cam in one function, not very sophisticated but certainly “simple” and “flexible”, is to put a piece of masking tape on the camera lens. I chose black to match my laptop. :-) Cheers!
how do I enable it again
“To revert the changes, simply remove the 2 lines, save the file and finally reboot.” read all
thanks ;)
You do not need to reboot to reactivate it.
simply type:
sudo modprobe uvcvideo
And the camera is reactivated