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).