VD56G3 Linux driver cannot find camera

[ds2]

Hi,
I have installed the v4l2 driver for the STEVAL-56G3MAI1 camera module on ubuntu 22.04.05 LTS on a RPI CM4. But I am unable to access the module through /dev/video0.

I have followed the instructions in the linux start guide fro ST BrightSense but I cannot get it to work.
I am not sure if I need to do something in addition to these instructions:

cd en.vd56g3_1.0.3/src
make
sudo cp *.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)
sudo depmod -a
sudo reboot
sudo apt update
sudo apt install device-tree-compiler
cd en.vd56g3_1.0.3/dts/rpi1_to_4/
sudo dtc pcb4188_vd56g3.dts -o /boot/firmware/overlays/pcb4188_vd56g3.dtbo
sudo sh -c "echo 'dtoverlay=pcb4188_vd56g3' >> /boot/firmware/config.txt"
sudo reboot

v4l2-ctl --list-devices gives:

unicam (platform:fe801000.csi):

/dev/media3

Cannot open device /dev/video0, exiting.

Is there something I am missing in the setup? Should the driver be placed in a different folder?

Thanks for any assistance!

[MeganeG]

Hi @ds2,

Thank you for your feedback on this topic. 

The device tree file must be adapted for the CM4 board, as we provided them for Raspberry Pi 1 to 5 boards. A device tree is very specific to the target platform and somewhat specific to its Linux distribution (specifically its Linux kernel). Our drivers have been tested on Raspberry Pi 1 to 5 with RPI OS. 

We are currently looking at the driver compatibility with Ubuntu and the CM4 board. I will get back to you once I have more feedback. 

Thanks, Megane.

[ds2]

Hi,

Thanks for getting back to me.

I have now installed the v4l2 driver with libcamera on the Raspberry Pi 5 running RPI OS and the camera is recognized but will not stream.

I get this error trying to capture an image using v4l2 

v4l2-ctl --device=/dev/video0 --set-fmt-video=width=640,height=480,pixelformat=GREY
v4l2-ctl --device /dev/video0 --stream-mmap --stream-count=1 --stream-to=test_frame.raw
 VIDIOC_STREAMON returned -1 (Invalid argument)

This is what dmesg shows:

[ 3.146432] vd56g3: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[ 3.161425] rp1-cfe 1f00110000.csi: Using sensor vd56g3 6-0010 for capture
[ 3.161519] rp1-cfe 1f00110000.csi: Registered [rp1-cfe-csi2_ch0] node id 0 successfully as /dev/video0
[ 3.161545] rp1-cfe 1f00110000.csi: Registered [rp1-cfe-embedded] node id 1 successfully as /dev/video1
[ 3.161571] rp1-cfe 1f00110000.csi: Registered [rp1-cfe-csi2_ch2] node id 2 successfully as /dev/video2
[ 3.161593] rp1-cfe 1f00110000.csi: Registered [rp1-cfe-csi2_ch3] node id 3 successfully as /dev/video3
[ 3.161615] rp1-cfe 1f00110000.csi: Registered [rp1-cfe-fe_image0] node id 4 successfully as /dev/video4
[ 3.162262] rp1-cfe 1f00110000.csi: Registered [rp1-cfe-fe_image1] node id 5 successfully as /dev/video5
[ 3.163741] rp1-cfe 1f00110000.csi: Registered [rp1-cfe-fe_stats] node id 6 successfully as /dev/video6
[ 3.164209] rp1-cfe 1f00110000.csi: Registered [rp1-cfe-fe_config] node id 7 successfully as /dev/video7
[ 3.164523] vd56g3 6-0010: Successfully probe vd56g3 sensor

[   91.574082] rp1-cfe 1f00110000.csi: csi2_ch0 node link is not enabled.

I have also tried to run the V4L2 python sample code in the linux start guide and it produces this error:

>> get device capabilities
>> device setup
width: 640 height 480
>> init mmap capture
>> Start streaming
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "~/st_start.py", line 46, in <module>
    fcntl.ioctl(vd, VIDIOC_STREAMON, buf_type)
OSError: [Errno 22] Invalid argument

[MeganeG]

Hi @ds2,

Sorry for my late reply. We needed to do a few tests on our side as we did not support v4l2 stream yet, but only using Libcamera. I will soon share the procedure for Raspberry Pi 5 running on RPI OS regarding your latest post.

In the meantime, we are now able to stream with Ubuntu 24.04 on RPI5. We have updated the driver to support it, and is now available on Github (it will be on st.com soon): https://github.st.com/IMG-SW-INT/vd56g3-linux-driver/releases/tag/1.0.5.

Here is the procedure we followed:

Update system
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade

# Install requirements for driver compilation (my ubuntu is running kernel 6.8)
$ sudo apt install git make gcc linux-headers-6.8.0-1020-raspi

$ cd vd56g3/src

# Build and install driver
$ make
$ sudo cp vd56g3.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)
$ sudo depmod -a

# Install devicetree overlay
$ cd ../dts/rpi5/
$ sudo dtc pcb4188_vd56g3_cam0.dts -o /boot/firmware/overlays/pcb4188_vd56g3_cam0.dtbo
$ echo "dtoverlay=pcb4188_vd56g3_cam0" | sudo tee -a /boot/firmware/config.txt

# Reboot and check than probe is OK
$ sudo reboot
$ sudo dmesg | grep vd56

# Install utils and make sensor stream
$ sudo apt install v4l-utils qv4l2
$ media-ctl -p
$ qv4l2 

Thanks, Megane.