● Covered by 1 source · 1 reportLow impact1 neutral
Experimental Linux Support Achieved for Fairphone 6 Wide Camera
Key points
- Fairphone 6 wide camera gained experimental Linux support.
- OmniVision OV13B10 sensor now functional for QR scanning.
- Progresses mainline Linux and postmarketOS efforts for the device.
- Fairphone 6 supports alternative operating systems.
Fairphone 6 and Mainline Linux Efforts
The Fairphone 6 is a target for mainline Linux and postmarketOS due to its relatively modern hardware and Fairphone's investment in Linux support. Fairphone deliberately allows alternative operating systems and aims for long-term device support, making it a stable base for development.
Initial efforts have provided promising support for the hardware, but onboard audio and camera support remain key blockers for general usability.
Camera Support Progress
The Fairphone 6 features three cameras: a rear Sony IMX896, a front Samsung S5KKD1, and a wide OmniVision OV13B10. While the Sony and Samsung sensors lack mainline Linux drivers, the OmniVision OV13B10 has an existing mainline driver.
Experimental support for the wide-angle OmniVision camera has been achieved, making it sufficient for tasks like QR scanning.
Technical Implementation Details
On Qualcomm SoCs, the camera capture path involves multiple components from the image sensor to memory, managed by Qualcomm's proprietary CAMX/cam-kernel stack in Android. For mainline Linux, the `qcom-camss` driver handles this, with `libcamera` providing userspace integration.
To enable the OmniVision camera, the `qcom-camss` driver was updated to recognize the SoC's specific blocks, hardware details were added to the device tree, the sensor driver was enabled, and `libcamera` was configured to process raw Bayer frames into usable images.
Significance for Alternative OS Development
This development is a step towards making the Fairphone 6 generally usable with mainline Linux and postmarketOS. The initial research indicated feasibility, as the FP6's Qualcomm milos (SM7635) SoC and its downstream board, codenamed volcano, already have some postmarketOS boot capabilities.
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Primary sources
GitHub nondescriptpointer/fairphone6-wide-camera-linuxReporting from
Experimental Linux support has been achieved for the Fairphone 6's wide-angle OmniVision OV13B10 camera, enabling basic functions like QR scanning. This development contributes to the ongoing effort to bring full mainline Linux and postmarketOS support to the Fairphone 6, a device designed for long-term support and alternative operating systems.