I'm having a lot of trouble using the built-in isight camera on my macbookpro8,2 (early 2011) from an ubuntu 12.04 virtual machine, run inside VirtualBox.

The following is the log I get when I try to run guvcview

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ guvcview
guvcview 1.5.3
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.rear
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.center_lfe
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.side
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.surround71
ALSA lib setup.c:565:(add_elem) Cannot obtain info for CTL elem (MIXER,'IEC958 Playback Default',0,0,0): No such file or directory
ALSA lib setup.c:565:(add_elem) Cannot obtain info for CTL elem (MIXER,'IEC958 Playback Default',0,0,0): No such file or directory
ALSA lib setup.c:565:(add_elem) Cannot obtain info for CTL elem (MIXER,'IEC958 Playback Default',0,0,0): No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.hdmi
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.hdmi
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.modem
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.modem
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.phoneline
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.phoneline
ALSA lib audio/pcm_bluetooth.c:1614:(audioservice_expect) BT_GET_CAPABILITIES failed : Input/output error(5)
ALSA lib audio/pcm_bluetooth.c:1614:(audioservice_expect) BT_GET_CAPABILITIES failed : Input/output error(5)
ALSA lib audio/pcm_bluetooth.c:1614:(audioservice_expect) BT_GET_CAPABILITIES failed : Input/output error(5)
ALSA lib audio/pcm_bluetooth.c:1614:(audioservice_expect) BT_GET_CAPABILITIES failed : Input/output error(5)
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:957:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) The dmix plugin supports only playback stream
Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory
Cannot connect to server socket
jack server is not running or cannot be started
video device: /dev/video0 
Init. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in) (location: usb-0000:00:0b.0-1)
{ pixelformat = 'YUYV', description = 'YUV 4:2:2 (YUYV)' }
{ discrete: width = 160, height = 120 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 176, height = 144 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 320, height = 240 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 352, height = 288 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 480 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 1280, height = 720 }
    Time interval between frame: 1/10, 
{ pixelformat = 'MJPG', description = 'MJPEG' }
{ discrete: width = 960, height = 540 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 1024, height = 576 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 1280, height = 720 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ pixelformat = 'RGB3', description = 'RGB3' }
{ discrete: width = 160, height = 120 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 176, height = 144 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 320, height = 240 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 352, height = 288 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 480 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 1280, height = 720 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 960, height = 540 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 1024, height = 576 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ pixelformat = 'BGR3', description = 'BGR3' }
{ discrete: width = 160, height = 120 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 176, height = 144 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 320, height = 240 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 352, height = 288 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 480 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 1280, height = 720 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 960, height = 540 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 1024, height = 576 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ pixelformat = 'YU12', description = 'YU12' }
{ discrete: width = 160, height = 120 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 176, height = 144 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 320, height = 240 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 352, height = 288 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 480 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 1280, height = 720 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 960, height = 540 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 1024, height = 576 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ pixelformat = 'YV12', description = 'YV12' }
{ discrete: width = 160, height = 120 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 176, height = 144 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 320, height = 240 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 352, height = 288 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 640, height = 480 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 1280, height = 720 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 960, height = 540 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
{ discrete: width = 1024, height = 576 }
    Time interval between frame: 100/2997, 1/25, 1/24, 1/15, 
vid:05ac 
pid:8509 
driver:uvcvideo
checking format: 1196444237
VIDIOC_G_COMP:: Invalid argument
   compression control not supported
fps is set to 1/25
drawing controls

no codec detected for H264
no codec detected for MP3 - (lavc)
Checking video mode 960x540@32bpp : OK 
 Could not grab image (select timeout): Resource temporarily unavailable
 Could not grab image (select timeout): Resource temporarily unavailable
 Could not grab image (select timeout): Resource temporarily unavailable
 Could not grab image (select timeout): Resource temporarily unavailable
 Could not grab image (select timeout): Resource temporarily unavailable
 Could not grab image (select timeout): Resource temporarily unavailable
 Could not grab image (select timeout): Resource temporarily unavailable
 Could not grab image (select timeout): Resource temporarily unavailable
 Could not grab image (select timeout): Resource temporarily unavailable
write /home/ubuntu/.guvcviewrc OK
free controls
cleaned allocations - 100%
Closing portaudio ...OK
Closing GTK... OK
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Only clue I have is that I initially was having problems, tried using the old method of fixing isights (involving installing isight-firmware-tools) before realizing that I just hadn't turned on the VM setting to allow the VM to access the webcam. :) Anyway, I wonder if installing that messed something up. However, I think this is a red herring because I've: shut down and turned back on the Mac, restarted the VM, tried a different VM (for which I never installed isight-firmware-tools, and created an entirely new ubuntu vm. All instances have had this problem. Similarly, other viewers, such as cheese, avplay, avconv have had all various kinds of errors.