A fully open source stack for MIPI cameras
Many recent Intel laptops have replaced the standard UVC USB camera module with a raw MIPI camera-sensor connected to the IPU6 found in recent Intel laptop chips.
Both the hw interface of the ISP part of the IPU6 as well as the image processing algorithms used are considered a trade secret and so far the only Linux support for the IPU6 relies on an out of tree kernel driver with a proprietary userspace stack on top, which is currently available in rpmfusion.
Both Linaro and Red Hat have identified the missing ISP support for various ARM and X86 chips as a problem. Linaro has started a project to add a SoftwareISP component to libcamera to allow these cameras to work without needing proprietary software and Red Hat has joined Linaro in working on this.
FOSDEM talk
Bryan O'Donoghue (Linaro) and I are giving a talk about this at FOSDEM.
Fedora COPR repository
This work is at a point now where it is ready for wider testing. A Fedora COPR repository with a patched kernel and libcamera is now available for users to test, see the COPR page for install and test instructions.
This has been tested on the following devices:
Description of the stack
Both the hw interface of the ISP part of the IPU6 as well as the image processing algorithms used are considered a trade secret and so far the only Linux support for the IPU6 relies on an out of tree kernel driver with a proprietary userspace stack on top, which is currently available in rpmfusion.
Both Linaro and Red Hat have identified the missing ISP support for various ARM and X86 chips as a problem. Linaro has started a project to add a SoftwareISP component to libcamera to allow these cameras to work without needing proprietary software and Red Hat has joined Linaro in working on this.
FOSDEM talk
Bryan O'Donoghue (Linaro) and I are giving a talk about this at FOSDEM.
Fedora COPR repository
This work is at a point now where it is ready for wider testing. A Fedora COPR repository with a patched kernel and libcamera is now available for users to test, see the COPR page for install and test instructions.
This has been tested on the following devices:
- Lenovo ThinkPad X1 yoga gen 8 (should work on any ThinkPad with ov2740 sensor)
- Dell Latitude 9420 (ov01a1s sensor)
- HP Spectre x360 13.5 (2023 model, hi556 sensor)
Description of the stack
- Kernel driver for the camera sensor, for the ov2740 used on current Lenovo designs (excluding MTL) I have landed all necessary kernel changes for this upstream.
- Kernel support for the CSI receiver part of the IPU6 Intel is working on upstreaming this and has recently posted v3 of their patch series for this upstream and this is under active review.
- A FOSS Software ISP stack inside libcamera to replace the missing IPU6 ISP (processing-system/psys) support. Work on this is under way. I've recently send out v2 of the patch-series for this.
- Firefox pipewire camera support and support for the camera portal to get permission to access the camera. My colleague Jan Grulich has been working on this, see Jan's blogpost. Jan's work has landed in the just released Firefox 122.