Here are some notes.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Webcam

infectedproject.wordpress.com/.../set-up-a-webcam-security-sys
tem/

On Skype it works nicely.................

In Cheese, are you getting snow, colorbars, or a black screen?

Of the many webcams I have, the Logitech Comm Deluxe always shows
black until I shine a flashlight into the lens to trigger the
aperture/sensor. It takes a couple of seconds of bright light, then
it's fine.

Strange, because that model also makes me look fat with the Windows
driver, but normal in Ubuntu. Well, I am fat, but I mean "fatter".

Also you may need to check if the webcam is being detected!

Try opening terminal and typing "lsusb"

Then try turning on your webcam (usually hotkeys fn+f6 or whatever
works for you).

Then type "lsusb" into your terminal again to see if anything new has
appeared or turned off.

Depending on how things go have a look at this:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=593231

It is a good guide that should help with sorting this out, hopefully
something simple!

(I had the same problem on my Advent 4211, the link I used to help me
compile the code step by step is not broken, will keep trying though).

snow & colorbars...........................