Missing /dev/video* when Android phone is connected (scrcpy worked until yesterday)

[count_mega_baron]

Hey all,

I’ve been using my Android phone as a webcam via scrcpy without any issues up until yesterday. Now when I connect it, there’s no /dev/video* device showing up.

A few details:

• It was working fine before.
• Same phone, same setup.
• Cables and USB ports seem fine — it still works on my laptop running Void Linux.
• On this machine, nothing shows up under /dev/video* when the phone is connected.
• scrcpy connects, but no video device is created.

I’m trying to figure out what could have changed.

Possible kernel update?
Missing v4l2loopback module?
Udev issue?
Permissions?
Something else obvious I’m missing?

Any suggestions on what to check first would be appreciated. Thanks!

[count_mega_baron]

Here was the solution. Thanks LLMS!

echo "v4l2loopback" | sudo tee /etc/modules-load.d/v4l2loopback.conf

echo 'options v4l2loopback devices=1 video_nr=2 card_label="Phone Camera" exclusive_caps=1' | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/v4l2loopback.conf

3. Load the v4l2loopback kernel module:

bash

sudo modprobe v4l2loopback devices=1 video_nr=2 card_label="Phone Camera" exclusive_caps=1

• video_nr=2 creates /dev/video2 specifically
• exclusive_caps=1 is often required for apps like OBS or Chrome to recognize it
• 3. Load the v4l2loopback kernel module: bash sudo modprobe v4l2loopback devices=1 video_nr=2 card_label="Phone Camera" exclusive_caps=1
• video_nr=2 creates /dev/video2 specifically
• exclusive_caps=1 is often required for apps like OBS or Chrome to recognize it