V4L2Sink has disappeared

[Dunc80]

Hello,
Since the last update the V4l2sink plugin has disappeared from the tools menu.
I'm using Ubuntu 18.04

[stijnghesquiere]

Same here. I did "sudo snap revert obs-studio" for now to run the previous version (with V4L2Sink), but I do hope it will be included again in the new version.

[JamiesonC]

@stijnghesquiere — Thank you. I had the same issue, and reverting to a previous version circumvented the issue. I too hope this will be fixed soon.

[arm1e]

Hello,
Not sure why this is missing now, but I only found out as I went to start teaching a Teams lesson with my class. I too had to revert. Please can this be fixed, or can we have instructions to re-add the feature.

[rpodcast]

Same issue for me. Running the snap on Ubuntu 20.04. I had not run the app in about two weeks and noticed it was a lot different than the last time!

[rpodcast]

I did a little more digging for curiosity and confirmed that the (compiled) plugin is not present in what I believe is the plugins directory. I've never developed a snap before so I have no idea how to fix it, but maybe this diagnostic info can point others in the right direction.

The previous version of the snap had the following plugins available, including v4l2sink.so:

ls /snap/obs-studio/1071/usr/obs-plugins/64bit

advanced-scene-switcher.so  image-source.so      locales             obs-x264.so
cef_100_percent.pak         libcef.so            natives_blob.bin    rtmp-services.so
cef_200_percent.pak         libEGL.so            obs-browser-page    snapshot_blob.bin
cef_extensions.pak          libGLESv2.so         obs-browser.so      swiftshader
cef.pak                     linux-alsa.so        obs-ffmpeg.so       text-freetype2.so
chrome-sandbox              linux-capture.so     obs-filters.so      v4l2sink.so
decklink-ouput-ui.so        linux-decklink.so    obs-libfdk.so       v8_context_snapshot.bin
devtools_resources.pak      linux-jack.so        obs-outputs.so      vlc-video.so
frontend-tools.so           linux-pulseaudio.so  obs-transitions.so
icudtl.dat                  linux-v4l2.so        obs-websocket.so

Whereas the current snap has the the following files in the (new) plugins dir, with v4l2sink.so missing:

ls /snap/obs-studio/current/usr/lib/obs-plugins

advanced-scene-switcher.so  input-overlay.so     natives_blob.bin          obs-x264.so
cef_100_percent.pak         libcef.so            obs-browser-page          replay-source.so
cef_200_percent.pak         libEGL.so            obs-browser.so            rtmp-services.so
cef_extensions.pak          libGLESv2.so         obs-ffmpeg.so             scrab.so
cef.pak                     linux-alsa.so        obs-filters.so            snapshot_blob.bin
chrome-sandbox              linux-capture.so     obs-libfdk.so             source-switcher.so
decklink-ouput-ui.so        linux-decklink.so    obs-ndi.so                spectralizer.so
devtools_resources.pak      linux-jack.so        obs-outputs.so            StreamFX.so
freeze-filter.so            linux-pulseaudio.so  obs-transition-matrix.so  swiftshader
frontend-tools.so           linux-v4l2.so        obs-transitions.so        text-freetype2.so
icudtl.dat                  locales              obs-vintage-filter.so     v8_context_snapshot.bin
image-source.so             move-transition.so   obs-websocket.so          vlc-video.so

The instructions in the snapcraft.yaml show it is trying to install the plugin in the $SNAPCRAFT_PART_INSTALL dir, but I have no idea where that is supposed to be.

obs-studio/snap/snapcraft.yaml

Lines 533 to 548 in 8c27bc6

	obs-v4l2sink:
	plugin: cmake
	after: [ obs ]
	source: https://github.com/CatxFish/obs-v4l2sink.git
	override-build: |
	set -x
	cd $SNAPCRAFT_PART_SRC
	cmake \
	-DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=gcc-8 \
	-DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=g++-8 \
	-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr \
	-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
	-DLIBOBS_INCLUDE_DIR=$SNAPCRAFT_STAGE/usr/include/obs/ \
	$SNAPCRAFT_PART_SRC 2>/dev/null || true
	make
	make install DESTDIR=$SNAPCRAFT_PART_INSTALL

One other note: I visited the plugin's repo at github.com/CatxFish/obs-v4l2sink and it looks like it has not been maintained in a few years, plus the OBS developers look interested in using the code behind the plugin to make it part of OBS itself, see obs-v4l2sink/56. And there was an issue with someone also encountering the plugin missing from the Tools menu and they ended up having to do a manual copy, see obs-v4l2sink/54. I'm happy to provide more diagnostic info if it helps!

[jphein]

I have also discovered that the plugin is missing from the tools menu. Does anyone know how to manually add it? The snap mount seems to be read only. Looks like modifying the Squashfs filesystem, or using overlayfs is not trivial? I can't revert to a previous version as I don't have any installed. Also, using the ppa version of OBS means that I have manually compile and install all the other plugins that are included in the snap version. I'm sure this is a simple fix. I'm happy to help, or do any troubleshooting. I just don't have the skill or knowledge to create a fix and pull request.

[jphein]

I noticed that acording to this, it has been fixed: 9e45bcf
So I installed the edge channel
sudo snap install obs-studio --channel=latest/edge
Now the v4l2sink plugin is in the tools menu. =]

[JohnDeeBDD]

Any solutions to this? Ubuntu 20.04 OBS 26.1.0 and v4l2sink vanished, rendering OBS useless to me. As far as I can tell, about 75% of the content on the internet about OBS on Ubuntu is "V4L2ASink has vanished" version 16.. 18... 19.. 20...

[stijnghesquiere]

@JohnDeeBDD: It's now build-in. It's at the right-bottom side of the screen under 'controls'. There is a new button: 'Start Virtual Camera'.

[JohnDeeBDD]

Thank you.