I started the webcam using openCV but (stupidly) did not assign code for proper closing up of resources. So now the webcam is stuck. How can I restart the webcam without rebooting ?
I know rebooting will be able to release the webcam but I need a proper fix that doesn't need a reboot for every time I muck up.
OS:ubuntu 14.04
opencv v3.1
Try unloading the kernel module
sudo modprobe -r uvcvideo
and reload again
sudo modprobe uvcvideo
This resets the cam if it is a UVC cam. For other cams it shall be similar reloading a different module. Experimenting with openCV sometimes makes the cam reinitialize using a different device (e.g. /dev/video1 instead of /dev/video0). So have a look at
ls /dev/video*
Maybe it is not locked but just on a different number.