Built-in iSight Howto, Intel Mac ( iMac, Macbook )

[rapido]

This is a quick Howto on getting the Built-in iSight to work on Intel Mac. So far I have installed on a 20" Intel iMac. I will also be installing on my 15" Macbook Pro ( as soon as it is back from a logic board replacement ). This guide assumes you have access to the iSight firmware, via harddrive partition. I can really take zero credit on the development work behind this. I am simply trying to piece together what I have found in a semi-coherent way.

INSTALLATION

Newest Super Quick 2-Step Install ( Updated for Gutsy 7.10 with 640x480 gstreamer support ):
$ wget http://www.shiftingheat.com/packages...ght_install.sh
$ sh isight_install.sh

GSTREAMER TEST

$ gst-launch-0.10 v4l2src ! video/x-raw-yuv,format=\(fourcc\)UYVY,width=640,height=480 ! ffmpegcolorspace ! ximagesink

EKIGA TEST

* Install prerequisites
$ sudo apt-get install ekiga libpt-plugins-v4l2

* Launch Ekiga, via menus or
$ ekiga

* Configuration. You may have to select the iSight device.
Edit > Preferences > Devices > Video Devices >
- Video plugin: V4L2
- Input device: Built-in iSight

CHEESE TEST
$ sudo apt-get install cheese
$ cheese



OLDER INSTALLERS AND NOTES
Below are previous installation techniques and notes. They should not really be needed any longer, but remain for completeness.


Older Quick Install:
* uvcvideo is now prebuilt in Feisty. Problem is that it doesn't work with iSight. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...20/+bug/105638
Hopefully this will change with a future kernel update and this guide will become mute. For now, we will disable it and build our own module.
$ sudo modprobe -r uvcvideo
$ sudo mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/ubuntu/media/usbvideo/uvcvideo.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/ubuntu/media/usbvideo/uvcvideo.ko.original

* Install prerequisites, libusb-dev, you might need kernel headers that match your kernel ( I already had them )
$ sudo apt-get install libusb-0.1-4 libusb-dev linux-headers-$(uname -r)

* Download the new all-in-one bundle, with firmware autoloader as provided by Ivan N. Zlatev ( see http://i-nz.net/projects/linux-kernel/ )
$ wget http://files.i-nz.net/projects/linux...-isight.tar.gz
$ tar -xzvf uvcvideo-isight.tar.gz

* Build and Install the uvcvideo module
$ cd against-revision-*
$ sudo make
$ sudo make install

* Load the module
$ sudo modprobe uvcvideo

Original Installation Instructions:
* Install prerequisites, libusb-dev, you might need kernel headers that match your kernel ( I already had them )
$ sudo apt-get install libusb-0.1-4 libusb-dev linux-headers-$(uname -r)

* Download the patched linux-uvc source, with firmware extraction tool as provided by Ronald S. Bultje ( see http://blogs.gnome.org/view/rbultje )
$ wget http://people.freedesktop.org/~rbult...0.1.0-b.tar.gz

* Extract the archive
$ tar zxf linux-uvc-0.1.0-b.tar.gz

* Build and Install the uvcvideo module
$ cd linux-uvc-0.1.0-b
$ sudo make
$ sudo make install

* Mount the mac partion, to give access to the iSight firmware
$ sudo mkdir /mnt/mac
$ sudo mount -t hfsplus /dev/sda2 /mnt/mac/

* Load the iSight firmware
$ sudo ./extract /mnt/mac/System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBVideoSupport.kext/Contents/MacOS/AppleUSBVideoSupport

* Load the module
$ sudo modprobe uvcvideo


NOTES
It seems that we are also getting close to having this installable via .deb packages. I found the following Debian packages. This was my initial attempt, before backing out what I had done and following the directions above.

* linux-uvc-source ( 0.1.0-4 )
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/...nux-uvc-source
This requires module-assistant. It seemed to build and install fine. I downloaded and installed with Gdebi. Then, to build the kernel module:
$ sudo m-a prepare
$ sudo m-a a-i linux-uvc

* linux-uvc-tools ( 0.1.0-4 )
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/...inux-uvc-tools
This includes the tool macbook-isight-firmware-loader ( the equivalent of extract above ). I couldn't get this toolset to install properly, due to dependencies. The toughest dependency was the need for libc6(>= 2.3.6-6).

[chasisaac]

I cannot wait to till Sunday afternoon when I can try this.

Yeah!

[leonedo]

it works great, thanks!!

[phico]

Originally Posted by leonedo it works great, thanks!!

Thank you rapido ! It is working for me also.

(I just had to install :
sudo apt-get install libusb-0.1-4 libusb-dev
instead of :
sudo apt-get install libusb libusb-dev)

[rapido]

Originally Posted by phico Thank you rapido ! It is working for me also. (I just had to install : sudo apt-get install libusb-0.1-4 libusb-dev instead of : sudo apt-get install libusb libusb-dev)

Thanks for the correction. I have updated the original post.

[blindspy]

$ sudo modprobe uvcvideo
FATAL: Error inserting uvcvideo (/lib/modules/2.6.15-23-686/usb/media/uvcvideo.ko): Invalid module format

any suggestions?

[phetre]

Wow, thank you! This is very impressive. Only two little things went wrong on mine:

1. The GStreamer test fails with the message: "ERROR: pipeline could not be constructed: no element "v4l2src"."
2. The image displays beautifully in Ekiga, but it seems to be cropped weirdly: the camera shows only objects to its left, so I have to lean right to get in the picture.

Any ideas?

[rapido]

Originally Posted by phetre Wow, thank you! This is very impressive. Only two little things went wrong on mine: The GStreamer test fails with the message: "ERROR: pipeline could not be constructed: no element "v4l2src"." The image displays beautifully in Ekiga, but it seems to be cropped weirdly: the camera shows only objects to its left, so I have to lean right to get in the picture. Any ideas?

As far as the GStreamer test, it looks like you may not have the video4linux2 plugin installed in gstreamer. Looking at the gstreamer documentation, it seems the plugin ( which provides support for v4l2src ) is part of the gst-plugins-bad.

I would try first executing the following ( the second requires multiverse enabled ). These are two plugin packages I have installed that look like good candidates for that plugin.

$ sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse

Then try the GStreamer command again, as shown above.

As far as Ekiga, mine is also displaying roughly one quadrant of the actual camera input. Not sure why yet. I found nothing obvious in the preferences. I will have to dig deeper in documentation.

[phetre]

Thanks, it worked after a reboot. Maybe the codecs just hadn't settled in yet.
And you're right: the GStreamer test window shows the camera's entire field. How strange!

[rapido]

Originally Posted by phetre Wow, thank you! This is very impressive. Only two little things went wrong on mine: The GStreamer test fails with the message: "ERROR: pipeline could not be constructed: no element "v4l2src"." The image displays beautifully in Ekiga, but it seems to be cropped weirdly: the camera shows only objects to its left, so I have to lean right to get in the picture. Any ideas?

phetre,

I figured out how to configure Ekiga to show the entire video display. First, open gconf-editor.

$ gconf-editor &

Now, from the left-hand tree, navigate to:
apps > ekiga > devices > video

Change the value for size from 0 to 1. This changes the size from Small ( QCIF 176x144 ) to Large ( CIF 352x288 ).

Reopen Ekiga and you should see the full video image.