linux-kernel - Re: [RFC PATCH] media: Virtual camera driver

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Message-ID: <20260202001704.2419778a@foz.lan>
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2026 00:17:20 +0100
From: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+huawei@...nel.org>
To: Oleksandr Natalenko <oleksandr@...alenko.name>
Cc: Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart@...asonboard.com>, Jarkko Sakkinen
 <jarkko@...nel.org>, linux-media@...r.kernel.org,
 jani.nikula@...ux.intel.com, anisse@...ier.eu, Mauro Carvalho Chehab
 <mchehab@...nel.org>, Hans Verkuil <hverkuil@...nel.org>, Sakari Ailus
 <sakari.ailus@...ux.intel.com>, Jacopo Mondi
 <jacopo.mondi@...asonboard.com>, Ricardo Ribalda <ribalda@...omium.org>,
 open list <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH] media: Virtual camera driver

On Sun, 01 Feb 2026 21:26:24 +0100
Oleksandr Natalenko <oleksandr@...alenko.name> wrote:

> On neděle 1. února 2026 21:21:33, středoevropský standardní čas Mauro Carvalho Chehab wrote:
> > > My use-case for v4l2loopback is to stream a webcam from one machine to another (with the help of ffmpeg). Is this covered by something other than v4l2loopback now?  
> > 
> > Using a kernel driver for something like that is a bad idea and may end
> > causing dead lock problems. You may also have performance issues and
> > high network traffic. The best solution for it is to use a proper
> > userspace tool, like obs:
> > 
> > 	https://obsproject.com/kb/linux-installation  
> 
> Ignoring the fact I've never had any performance issues, and I don't care much about how big the traffic is in my isolated VLAN dedicated to this specific task, the OBS solution still uses v4l2loopback under the hood. Could you please tell me what do I miss in this regard?

No. At the machine with the camera, obs can read from a V4L2 input,
generate a mpeg TS stream, and listen to a UDP port (for instance). 

At the remote machine, you can just pass the URL to ffmpeg.

No need to use OOT kernel drivers. 

Btw, there are other solutions that work the same way, like
motioneye.

Thanks,
Mauro