How To Install v4l2loopback-dkms on Ubuntu 18.04
Introduction
In this tutorial we learn how to install v4l2loopback-dkms on Ubuntu 18.04.
What is v4l2loopback-dkms
v4l2loopback-dkms is:
This module allows you to create “virtual video devices”. Normal (v4l2) applications will read these devices as if they were ordinary video devices, but the video will not be read from e.g. a capture card but instead it is generated by another application.
This package provides the source code for the v4l2loopback kernel modules to be built with dkms.
There are three methods to install v4l2loopback-dkms on Ubuntu 18.04. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.
Install v4l2loopback-dkms Using apt-get
Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.
sudo apt-get update
After updating apt database, We can install v4l2loopback-dkms using apt-get by running the following command:
sudo apt-get -y install v4l2loopback-dkms
Install v4l2loopback-dkms Using apt
Update apt database with apt using the following command.
sudo apt update
After updating apt database, We can install v4l2loopback-dkms using apt by running the following command:
sudo apt -y install v4l2loopback-dkms
Install v4l2loopback-dkms Using aptitude
If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Ubuntu. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.
sudo aptitude update
After updating apt database, We can install v4l2loopback-dkms using aptitude by running the following command:
sudo aptitude -y install v4l2loopback-dkms
How To Uninstall v4l2loopback-dkms on Ubuntu 18.04
To uninstall only the v4l2loopback-dkms package we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get remove v4l2loopback-dkms
Uninstall v4l2loopback-dkms And Its Dependencies
To uninstall v4l2loopback-dkms and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Ubuntu 18.04, we can use the command below:
sudo apt-get -y autoremove v4l2loopback-dkms
Remove v4l2loopback-dkms Configurations and Data
To remove v4l2loopback-dkms configuration and data from Ubuntu 18.04 we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get -y purge v4l2loopback-dkms
Remove v4l2loopback-dkms configuration, data, and all of its dependencies
We can use the following command to remove v4l2loopback-dkms configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge v4l2loopback-dkms
References
Summary
In this tutorial we learn how to install v4l2loopback-dkms package on Ubuntu 18.04 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.
