Camera not working on Pop!_OS, howdy test fails with GStreamer error

[Trevor-Mwanzia]

Bug Report

1. System Details & Hardware

• OS: Pop!_OS 24.04
• Hardware: HP Laptop with integrated IR Camera
• Camera ID (from lsusb): ID 04f2:b66a Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd HP HD Camera

2. Issue Description
   Howdy does not activate for sudo or login prompts. Running sudo howdy test fails with a
   GStreamer/OpenCV error: Could not read from resource.

Interestingly, when device_path is set to /dev/video2, the camera's IR emitters do light up
during the test, suggesting the hardware is being accessed but the video stream cannot be
decoded.

3. Logs and Configuration

A. sudo howdy test Error Output

1 [ WARN:0@0.225] global ./modules/videoio/src/cap_gstreamer.cpp (2401) handleMessage OpenCV
GStreamer warning: Embedded video playback halted; module source reported: Could not read
from resource.
2 [ WARN:0@0.225] global ./modules/videoio/src/cap_gstreamer.cpp (1356) open OpenCV |
GStreamer warning: unable to start pipeline
3 [ WARN:0@0.226] global ./modules/videoio/src/cap_gstreamer.cpp (862) isPipelinePlaying
OpenCV | GStreamer warning: GStreamer: pipeline have not been created
4 ...
5 qt.qpa.xcb: could not connect to display :1
6 ...
7 This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized.
8 ...
9 /usr/bin/howdy: line 2: 3935 Aborted (core dumped) python3 /usr/lib/
security/howdy/cli.py "$@"

B. Howdy config.ini
(Path: /lib/security/howdy/config.ini)

1 [core]
2 detection_notice = false
3 no_confirmation = false
4 suppress_unknown = false
5 ignore_ssh = true
6 ignore_closed_lid = true
7 disabled = false
8 use_cnn = false
9

10 [video]
11 certainty = 3.5
12 timeout = 4
13 device_path = /dev/video2
14 max_height = 320
15 frame_width = -1
16 frame_height = -1
17 dark_threshold = 50
18 recording_plugin = opencv
19 device_format = v4l2
20 force_mjpeg = false
21 exposure = -1
22
23 [snapshots]
24 capture_failed = true
25 capture_successful = true
26
27 [debug]
28 end_report = false

C. Detected Video Devices

1 $ ls -l /dev/video*
2 crw-rw----+ 1 root video 81, 0 Dec 13 17:08 /dev/video0
3 crw-rw----+ 1 root video 81, 1 Dec 13 17:08 /dev/video1
4 crw-rw----+ 1 root video 81, 2 Dec 13 17:08 /dev/video2
5 crw-rw----+ 1 root video 81, 3 Dec 13 17:08 /dev/video3

4. Troubleshooting Steps Already Taken

• Confirmed user is in the video group.
• Confirmed PAM configuration is correct.
• Tested all available video devices (/dev/video0 through /dev/video3) in the device_path
  setting. The IR emitters only activate with /dev/video2.
• Tested with force_mjpeg = true (did not resolve the issue).
• Tested with recording_plugin = ffmpeg (did not resolve the issue).