ipu6-camera

Enable the integrated Intel IPU6 MIPI camera on Alder Lake (12th Gen)

The Problem

Modern Intel laptops use MIPI cameras connected through the IPU6 (Imaging Processing Unit 6). On Ubuntu 24.04 with kernels 6.10+, these cameras produce a black screen or aren't detected because:

1. The PSYS module isn't in the mainline kernel. Intel considers the hardware ISP interface proprietary and never upstreamed it.
2. Ubuntu's libcamera (v0.2.0) doesn't support IPU6. IPU6 support requires libcamera ≥0.3.2, which isn't in the repos.
3. The old icamerasrc stack fails without the out-of-tree PSYS module — "Failed to open PSYS" errors.

This script builds the complete camera stack from Intel's upstream sources.

Architecture

Browser (Chrome, Brave, Edge)
        ↑
/dev/video99  ← v4l2loopback virtual camera
        ↑
GStreamer:  icamerasrc → videoconvert → v4l2sink
        ↑
Intel Camera HAL  (libcamhal — userspace ISP)
        ↑
IPU6 PSYS (out-of-tree)  +  IPU6 ISYS (mainline)
        ↑
OV2740 sensor  ←  IVSC (powers the sensor on/off)

Supported Hardware

Platform	PCI IDs	HAL	Status
Alder Lake (12th Gen)	8086:462e, 8086:465d	ipu6ep	✅ Tested
Raptor Lake (13th Gen)	8086:a75d	ipu6ep	✅ Should work
Tiger Lake (11th Gen)	8086:9a19	ipu6	⚠️ Experimental
Meteor Lake (12th Gen)	8086:7d19	ipu6epmtl	→ Use ipu6-camera

Tested On

• Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 — Alder Lake, OV2740 (INT3474), kernel 6.17.0-1012-oem, Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/Jem256/ipu6-camera.git
cd ipu6-camera

# Optional: check hardware first
sudo ./setup.sh --check

# Install
sudo ./setup.sh
sudo reboot

Test at webcamtest.com in Chrome, Brave, or Edge.

What It Does

Step	Description	Source
1	Install build deps	Ubuntu repos
2	Remove conflicting intel-ipu6-dkms	—
3	Build IPU6 PSYS module (DKMS + fallback)	intel/ipu6-drivers
4	Install firmware + ISP libs + create linker symlinks	intel/ipu6-camera-bins
5	Build Camera HAL (libcamhal)	intel/ipu6-camera-hal
6	Build icamerasrc GStreamer plugin	intel/icamerasrc (icamerasrc_slim_api)
7	Configure v4l2loopback /dev/video99 + systemd service	—

Commands

sudo systemctl status ipu6-camera-loopback    # Service status
sudo journalctl -u ipu6-camera-loopback -f    # Live logs
sudo ./uninstall.sh                           # Remove everything

Troubleshooting

Black screen

Check IVSC modules (they power the sensor):

lsmod | grep -E "ivsc|mei_vsc"
# Should show: ivsc_ace, ivsc_csi, mei_vsc_hw
# If missing:
sudo modprobe mei_vsc ivsc_ace ivsc_csi

"Failed to open PSYS"

The PSYS module didn't build. Check:

ls /dev/ipu-psys*
cat /var/lib/dkms/ipu6-drivers/0.0.0/build/make.log

Firefox doesn't see the camera

Firefox Snap can't access v4l2loopback. Use Chrome, Brave, Edge, or install Firefox from .deb.

1080p instead of 720p

sudo systemctl edit ipu6-camera-loopback

Replace 1280,height=720 with 1920,height=1080 in both caps, then:

sudo systemctl restart ipu6-camera-loopback

Key Insights

Non-obvious lessons from building this:

1. Linker symlinks are critical. ipu6-camera-bins ships libia_aiq-ipu6ep.so.0 but the linker needs libia_aiq-ipu6ep.so. Without explicit symlinks, the HAL build fails.

2. Pkgconfig needs generic names. CMake expects ia_imaging.pc but only ia_imaging-ipu6ep.pc exists. Symlinks fix this.

3. IVSC must load before IPU6. If ivsc_ace/ivsc_csi load after IPU6 scans for sensors, the camera appears in media topology but stays powered off.

4. PCI ID 465d is common but undocumented. Many guides only list 462e — the 465d variant (Alder Lake-P) is on ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10/11 and is often missing from detection scripts.

5. DKMS often fails on 6.11+. The out-of-tree patches don't apply cleanly. The direct make fallback builds whatever modules it can.

Related Projects

• achrafsoltani/ipu6-camera — Meteor Lake (USB-IO bridge)
• stefanpartheym/archlinux-ipu6-webcam — Arch Linux
• intel/ipu6-drivers — Intel's upstream source

Credits

• Intel — open-source Camera HAL and GStreamer plugin
• Achraf Soltani - Intel IPU6 Camera on Linux: Automated Setup for Meteor Lake Laptops
• Javier Tia — mainline migration documentation
• Launchpad bugs #2125294, #2107304, #2114878

Contributing

If you've tested this on additional hardware, please open an issue or PR with your laptop model, sensor, and kernel version.

License

GPL-3.0. See LICENSE. Intel camera binaries are proprietary — see Intel's license.