Accessing Macbook Webcam on Ubuntu via VMWare Fusion

Question

I am writing a program in C++ using opencv. I am working on Ubuntu via VMWare Fusion.

When I run my program, it seems the integrated webcam on my Mac is not recognized so I get the error message I coded when not able to access a camera footage. Does anyone have any experience with this and can give me some suggestions.

Answer 1

If you haven't found the answer yet:

Power down virtual machine. From the "Virtual Machine" menu, go to settings.

Then, double check the advanced settings in the USB/Bluetooth menu and make sure they are at least USB2 compatible.

Then, again in the settings menu, click on "add device" and in the following dialog: select camera here and you should be going.

Answer 2

Certain cameras may not work well with virtual USB camera. Perform these steps to enable pass through of cameras in to virtual machine:

1. Ensure to shutdown all virtual machines and quit VMware Fusion if its running.

2. Open Terminal ( /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app)

3. Run this command to change the current location.

   cd ~/Library/Preferences/VMware\ Fusion/
   

4. Open the preferences file using vi or nano editors in terminal

   nano preferences
   

5. Add this parameter at the end of the file:

   vusbcamera.passthrough = "TRUE"
   

6. Save and close the preferences file.

7. Launch VMware Fusion and startup your virtual machine.

8. Important: Remove all existing camera devices.

9. Click Virtual Machine menu > USB and Bluetooth Setting

10. Select the Camera you want from the list to connect it to the virtual machine.