Fedora 41 Has Working Intel IPU6 Web Camera Support With Modern Laptops

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Fedora 41 Has Working Intel IPU6 Web Camera Support With Modern Laptops

It's been a long journey to see good web camera support for Intel Alder Lake and newer designs making use of the IPU6 imaging IP. But with Fedora 41 due for release in the coming weeks, there will finally be good out-of-the-box, open-source support for the IPU6-based web cameras in modern Intel Core laptops across Tigerlake / Alder Lake / Raptor Lake laptops...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Fedora-41-Intel-IPU6-Webcam

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

Title should probably include "For Some Laptops" at the end. Part of the important bit from Hans' blog...

The IPU6 input-system CSI receiver driver is common to all laptops with an IPU6 camera, but different laptops use different camera sensors and each sensor needs its own driver and then there are glue ICs like the LJCA USB IO-expander and the iVSC (Intel Visual Sensing Controller)

Only a few sensors have working drivers. I'll have to poke around some more, but I had no working camera on F41 beta with the live media on my HP Dragonfly Elite G3 (Alder Lake).

And even if you win the IPU6 lottery and your camera works, there's no hardware ISP support. Intel really screwed the pooch on this one in terms of Linux support.

[ahrs]

And even if you win the IPU6 lottery and your camera works, there's no hardware ISP support. Intel really screwed the pooch on this one in terms of Linux support.

Odd, because Intel usually has such good Linux support with everything else, from graphics, to Ethernet, to Wireless/Bluetooth, if it's Intel it's been a given that it'll work. I guess nobody in the data center needs a working webcam.

[Ferrum Master]

Odd, because Intel usually has such good Linux support with everything else, from graphics, to Ethernet, to Wireless/Bluetooth, if it's Intel it's been a given that it'll work. I guess nobody in the data center needs a working webcam.

It was, certainly it not same in recent years, including networking.

Either way... that's not a camera... it is a sophisticated ambient light sensor...

[V1tol]

But why, why in modern world we need drivers for a webcam? Okay, you may have super duper camera with advanced image processing and other rtarded stuff nobody needs. Can you expose a generic USB interface with 640x480 video feed? The same sht happens with sound for some reason though we have great USB sound support for years (I love my Realtek 4080 for this).

[Espionage724]

But why, why in modern world we need drivers for a webcam?

Vendors do weird stuff with cameras

On an older OnePlus 6 Android phone (SDM845), OnePlus has the rear camera doing "something" to do 60 FPS from their stock OxygenOS, but that hasn't been able to be done on any OS outside of that (updated Android ROMs, postmarketOS upstream Linux stuff).

I also heavily questioned why I couldn't plug in a Xbox Kinect V1 into a motioneyeOS (Linux) camera system and use it as a webcam years ago; I know the Kinect V1 had a general camera stream outside the IR/Kinect stuff and iirc it just-worked fine from Cheese on GNOME.

[Ferrum Master]

Vendors do weird stuff with cameras

On an older OnePlus 6 Android phone (SDM845), OnePlus has the rear camera doing "something" to do 60 FPS from their stock OxygenOS, but that hasn't been able to be done on any OS outside of that (updated Android ROMs, postmarketOS upstream Linux stuff).

I also heavily questioned why I couldn't plug in a Xbox Kinect V1 into a motioneyeOS (Linux) camera system and use it as a webcam years ago; I know the Kinect V1 had a general camera stream outside the IR/Kinect stuff and iirc it just-worked fine from Cheese on GNOME.

Cameras, their APIs, interfaces etc are a mess tbh... it is no easy feat to process large amount of raw data and by using few wire lanes unless you put the controller ASIC on the camera itself or near it.

But still, quality wise, those are atrocities... my Sony A7m4 does native USB mode for that... okay limited, but is enough, I also have some of those cheap HDMI to USB UVC dongles, I pair it with my older a6500 camera... so 1080p30 put a vintage 50mmF1.4 on it and pretty much onlyfans premium grade, no need for software filters as my back is blurred using proper optic.

[intelfx]

But why, why in modern world we need drivers for a webcam? Okay, you may have super duper camera with advanced image processing and other rtarded stuff nobody needs. Can you expose a generic USB interface with 640x480 video feed?

Ah yes, the good old "I don't need" ⇒ "r[e]tarded stuff nobody needs". In these statements, usually the only r[e]tarded thing is the person making that statement.

Big surprise, not everyone is content with a 640x480 video feed.

[treba]

But why, why in modern world we need drivers for a webcam? Okay, you may have super duper camera with advanced image processing and other rtarded stuff nobody needs. Can you expose a generic USB interface with 640x480 video feed? The same sht happens with sound for some reason though we have great USB sound support for years (I love my Realtek 4080 for this).

AFAIK the main reason is that it would be a waste of resources. Modern cameras consist of various components - the sensor, a VCM for focus, a ISP etc. - than can be combined in various combinations. If you have proper drivers that are made for the used combination it's all fine. If you don't want to open up your drivers though, you need a whole small system with a custom OS as firmware that has these drivers. ChromeOS so far apparently required UVC conform cameras, so vendors build sometimes quite funny ones requiring firmware including an Android image of 1.5GB (https://blogs.gnome.org/hughsie/2024/10/04/fwupd-2-0-0/). Thus arguably it's a good thing to just use the main OS - just that for the FLOSS world it creates challenges around drivers.

[chithanh]

Odd, because Intel usually has such good Linux support with everything else, from graphics, to Ethernet, to Wireless/Bluetooth, if it's Intel it's been a given that it'll work.

No, it doesn't.
How well Intel works on Linux is very much a mixed bag.

There were total duds like Poulsbo and its successors.

Bay Trail and Cherry Trail were more like a trail of tears for many users especially in the MID platform. Low power states caused CPU hangs, and other essential functions needed to be contributed by the community.

More recently, the MSI Claw A1M didn't work well under Linux for months after launch because no power controls, Vulkan driver missing essential features for GameScope, etc.