electron_webcam

A lightweight, modern Electron-based webcam application to test and view your camera feed.

Download for Linux

Installation Options

Option 1: Native .deb Package (Recommended for Ubuntu / Debian)

Double-click the downloaded .deb installer to open in Ubuntu Software Center, or install via terminal:

sudo apt install ./WebCam-*.deb

Once installed, WebCam will automatically register system icons and appear directly in your Application Launcher menu search.

Option 2: Portable AppImage

Make executable and run:

chmod +x ./WebCam-*.AppImage
./WebCam-*.AppImage

Note for AppImage users:

• Ubuntu 22.04+: Install libfuse2:

  sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y libfuse2

• Ubuntu 24.04+ (AppArmor userns restrictions): Pass --no-sandbox:

  ./WebCam-*.AppImage --no-sandbox

Key Features

• 📦 Native .deb Installer: Standard Ubuntu package with automatic desktop launcher, menu integration, and system app search.
• 🔄 Seamless Background Auto-Updates: Powered by electron-updater, the app automatically checks GitHub Releases on launch and notifies/updates when a new release is published.
• 📷 Instant Camera Preview: Fast, low-latency live camera feed built on Electron and web APIs.
• 🔍 Interactive Zoom Controls: Mouse wheel scrolling for smooth 1x to 4x zoom adjustments, with single-click zoom reset.
• 🖼️ Flexible Aspect Ratio Modes: Seamlessly toggle between contain and cover object-fit views.
• 🔲 Frameless Modern Interface: Sleek dark UI with custom window controls (minimize, maximize, close).

Commands

Run the Application (Development)

To run the application in development mode:

npm install
npm start

Build Production Packages (.deb & AppImage)

To compile lightweight production packages into dist/:

npm run build

Run Unit Tests

To run unit tests and validation checks:

npm test

🚀 Automated Releases & CI/CD

Electron Webcam uses GitHub Actions to automatically compile production .deb installers and .AppImage packages and publish releases:

• Automatic Releases on Push: Every push to the main branch triggers .github/workflows/build.yml.
• Timestamped Executables: Compiles dist/WebCam-<TIMESTAMP>.deb and dist/WebCam-<TIMESTAMP>.AppImage binaries and attaches them directly to the GitHub Release.
• Git Changelog: Dynamically generates Markdown release notes listing recent commit messages and commit links.
• Floating latest Tag: Automatically updates the latest git tag pointer for effortless downloading.