UbuntuHandbook

Don’t have a built-in webcam in your Ubuntu PC? You can use your Android or iPhone as wireless or USB webcam.

By installing a free open-source ‘DroidCam‘ app in both your phone and Linux Desktop, then you can use the Android/iOS phone just like built-in webcam, through either wireless network or USB cable.

It also works with OBS/XSplit/etc for streaming to Twitch or YouTube. You can also use DroidCam as an IP webcam (or Surveillance Camera) via a Internet browser virtually on all networks. Use it as a simple pet cam, spy cam, or a security camera.

Features:

Chat using “DroidCam Webcam” on your computer, including Sound and Picture.
Connect over WiFi or USB cable.
Use other apps with DroidCam in background (Android).
Surveillance/IP webcam MJPEG access

my iPhone camera screen in OBS Studio

Step 1: Install DroidCam in Ubuntu:

To install the app in Ubuntu & other Linux, first go to the Github release page to download the latest package:

Download DroidCam (under ‘Assets’)

Then, in user Downloads folder extract the package. Right-click on new generated folder, and select “Open in Terminal” (or Open Terminal Here).

In the pop-up terminal, finally run command to install Droidcam:

First, run command to install the client:
```
sudo ./install-client
```
Then, install the DKMS kernel model:
```
sudo ./install-dkms
```
It defaults to 640×480 resolution. To change it, use sudo ./install-dkms 1920 1080 for example to set 1920×1080.

Once installed, you can start “DroidCam” from start menu or ‘Activities’ overview depends on your desktop environment.

Step 2: (optional) Install usbmuxd

If you would like to connect through USB cable, then you have to install and enable usbmuxd service in Ubuntu Linux.

First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When terminal opens, run command to install usbmuxd:

sudo apt install usbmuxd

Then, start the service by running command:

systemctl start usbmuxd

And verify by running systemctl status usbmuxd.service

Step 3: Install DroidCam in your Phone

The app is available for Android and iPhone either from Google Play or App Store:

DroidCam in Google Play

DroidCam in Apple Store

Step 4: Start connecting

Finally, either connect both phone and Ubuntu PC into same local network, or connect through USB.

Open the app in both devices, and select either WiFi or USB in Ubuntu client app, try phone IP address if required and click “Connect”.

Once successfully connected, open up a V4L2 compatible program (e.g., VLC player, Skype, OBS Studio) and you should see DroidCam listed as a video device.

In addition, as you see in last screen, the app has a few buttons to configure white-balance, exposure-locked, zoom in/out, flip/mirror, and toggle LED flash, etc.

As well as screen resolution, user can edit the .config/droidcam (press Ctrl+H to view in Files) file for the configurations.

Uninstall:

To remove DroidCam client in Ubuntu, simply open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to run uninstall script:

sudo /opt/droidcam-uninstall

Merry Christmas to all my dear readers!

Don’t have a camera on your Ubuntu machine? Well, you can use your Android phone as a webcam or IP Cam through WIFI or USB.

In below steps I’ll show you how to do it through the DroidCam software.

1. Install DroidCam client in Ubuntu machine.

Open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run the commands below one by one to install the app from PPA:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:paolorotolo/droidcam

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install droidcam

Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint 13/17 are supported.

If you don’t want to add PPA, grab the .deb package directly from the launchpad page.

2. Install DroidCam app in your Android device from Google Play.

3. Launch DroidCam app in your Android device: