some special cases the camera get's on and never go offf... i try winbuntu, devuan, debian... in various versions.. only MS  guindows 7 works.. (well "was" due i removed jejeje)

the only way i find to solve its power off, reboot does not are enough

In any case, i'm surprised if you are having an issue, as I have two HP laptops and have installed Devuan on 4 other HP and Compaq machines, and cameras all work so far in every machine.

VLC or Cheese will run the HP built-in laptop cameras just fine.

As for plugging in digitals, Devuan recognizes them when you plug them in, every one i've tried.

in my laptop and hp dv1000 the camera have some problem.. i noted its same problem with many hp hardware..

take in consideration that hp and linux are not preciselly friends..

camera starts.. light of camera get on! but the program that start the camera dont lauch or lauch but said no devices detected...

camera now mantains light on, seems get hang and not respond...

if try to use it, with any other program does not respond or seems not exist anymore..

the problem its that the camera its a usb internal device, and the usb bus could restart the device.. only happened in the laptos..

if the camera are usb extenal, with changin of port are enough