[HN Gopher] IPU6 camera support in Fedora 41
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       IPU6 camera support in Fedora 41
        
       Author : JNRowe
       Score  : 49 points
       Date   : 2024-10-03 07:37 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (hansdegoede.dreamwidth.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (hansdegoede.dreamwidth.org)
        
       | jeffbee wrote:
       | If you lack ideological purity these have been working in
       | ChromeOS for 4 years and Ubuntu for 2 years.
        
       | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
       | > Currently the IPU6 integrated in the following CPU models works
       | if the sensor + glue hw/sw is also supported
       | 
       | I know I'm a little out of the loop, but why on Earth is the
       | camera integrated to the _CPU_!?
        
         | bpye wrote:
         | My understanding is that it's not the camera that's integrated,
         | but the ISP - image signal processor.
        
       | yoavm wrote:
       | Since I got my Gen 7 X1 Yoga I was following the IPU6 driver
       | development pretty closely - how we moved from multiple patches,
       | to DKMS, and now to "it just works". So many of us (and probably
       | countless users in the future) owe so much to the work done by
       | Hans de Goede. Kudos! Intel, on the other hand, could have done a
       | much better job it seems.
        
       | RockRobotRock wrote:
       | Are there benefits to moving away from USB UVC and handling the
       | image processing on the CPU?
        
         | the-rc wrote:
         | Cheaper camera hardware, more advanced software with
         | computational photography?
        
         | jeffbee wrote:
         | Doing the image processing in software would use too much
         | energy. The IPU6 is a PCI device that does complete image
         | processing, handing fully baked frames to the system. If you
         | wanted to do what the IPU does but on the CPU, you'd need to
         | use the vector units and they use a lot of power.
        
         | nrp wrote:
         | USB cameras are interfaced over USB 2.0 because USB 3.0 is
         | extremely difficult to make work from an EMI perspective
         | running through a laptop's hinges and lid. USB 2.0 means heavy
         | compression to get 1080p60, and on pretty mediocre ISPs in
         | those low cost camera controllers.
         | 
         | MIPI is easier from an EMI perspective and lets you use a much
         | better ISP on the processor.
        
       | smiley1437 wrote:
       | IPU6 for image sensors feels so much like GDI print drivers from
       | the 90s
        
       | seltzered_ wrote:
       | This implies Microsoft Surface pro 7+, 8 & 9 support for webcams
       | too.
       | 
       | https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Camera-S...
        
       | benjiweber wrote:
       | Which kernel version has the latest fixes?
        
       | jackhalford wrote:
       | Isn't driver support tied to a kernel version? Why would it be
       | tied only to a fedora version?
       | 
       | Edit: the whole chain is kernel - libcamera - pipewire |
       | pipewire-camera-consuming-app, from the article. So other distros
       | will be getting it too
        
         | johnny22 wrote:
         | Nobody is saying other distros won't. This is just talking
         | about it in Fedora and what it took to make it happen.
        
       | ladyanita22 wrote:
       | Wasn't this already possible through RPMfusion?
        
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       (page generated 2024-10-05 23:00 UTC)