Using OBS with Virtual Camera on Debian Bookworm

Question

I just installed OBS on Debian Bookworm and two things became apparent immediately:

1. "Screen Capture" only outputs a black screen.
2. There is no button under "Controls" for starting the virtual camera.

How can OBS be made usable?

Answer 1

1. OBS: Install the package obs-studio.

# apt install obs-studio

2. PipeWire: Install the package pipewire from the backports. (This enables screeen capturing.)

Open your sources.list file with the following command:

# apt edit-sources

You may need to choose your preferred text editor. (nano is recommended for new users.)

If it doesn't already exist, append the following line to the file:

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-backports main contrib non-free

Save and exit the file. (CTRL+X in nano)

Update APT's cache to include the backports in the list of available packages:

# apt update

Note that you don't have to repeat all of the above the next time you want to install a package from the backports.

Install the package pipewire from the backports:

# apt install -t bookworm-backports pipewire

3. v4l2loopback: Install the package v4l2loopback-dkms. (This enables the virtual camera.)

# apt install v4l2loopback-dkms