Alienware 17R4

[4Wheels]

If you had 'ERROR: Impossible to reset the control' message, give the DEBUG info displayed

DEBUG:

Ouput of linux-enable-ir-emitter -v -d /dev/videoX configure

script cannot access the device (Yes, I used sudo)

INFO: Ensure to not use the camera during the execution.
INFO: Warning to do not kill the process !
CRITICAL: Cannot access to /dev/video1
ERROR: The configuration has failed.

Output of v4l2-ctl --list-devices

Integrated_Webcam_HD: Integrate (usb-0000:00:14.0-7):
        /dev/video0
        /dev/video1
        /dev/media0

Ouput of v4l2-ctl -d /dev/videoX --list-formats-ext

Nothing listed

ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT
        Type: Video Capture

Additional info

• Distro: Arch
• Version: 5.18.12-arch1-1 1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri, 15 Jul 2022 15:33:02 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux
• Version of linux-enable-ir-emitter: 1:4.1.2-1
• How did you install linux-enable-ir-emitter: AUR

Please NOTE: /dev/video0 is my regular (non-IR) integrated camera, /dev/video1 is the IR camera. If I try to configure /dev/video0, it just flashes my regular camera light, not the IR (which is red) so I know it's not working.

[EmixamPP]

/dev/video1 is not your infrared camera, in fact, this is nothing which can be used. Are you sure that your computer has an infrared camera ? If so, this is a Kernel compatibility issue. It does not recognize your infrared camera.

[4Wheels]

Thanks for your reply. Yes I'm positive that my computer has an IR camera as I use it in Windows. In Windows it uses a Realtek IR camera driver. and Tobii Aware uses it also

I'm curious, how are you certain that /dev/video1 is not the IR camera? What is it then? Seems strange that the output recognizes "Video capture" even though it doesn't show any modes.

EDIT: This is the actual part: https://www.amazon.com/Alienware-Infrared-Web-Camera-Module/dp/B07PN4Y8PD

[EmixamPP]

Example with my infrared camera

❯ v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video2 --list-formats-ext
ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT
	Type: Video Capture

	[0]: 'GREY' (8-bit Greyscale)
		Size: Discrete 640x360
			Interval: Discrete 0.067s (15.000 fps)
			Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)

As you can see, it has greyscale mode.

Often the kernel create two entry for each camera, one is usable, the other one not. I think this is due to the usb port (but I'm not sure), because the kernel see two entry at the usb subsystem level. If you execute udevadm info -a /dev/video0 and udevadm info -a /dev/video1 you can see the device hierarchy and compare them.

[4Wheels]

Interesting. Thank you for sharing those details... so it's basically a "ghost entry"

Here is the output then, of v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video0 --list-formats-ext `ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT Type: Video Capture

    [0]: 'MJPG' (Motion-JPEG, compressed)
            Size: Discrete 1280x720
                    Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
                    Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
            Size: Discrete 960x540
                    Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
            Size: Discrete 848x480
                    Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
            Size: Discrete 1280x720
                    Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
                    Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
    [1]: 'YUYV' (YUYV 4:2:2)
            Size: Discrete 340x340
                    Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
                    Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
            Size: Discrete 640x480
                    Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
            Size: Discrete 640x360
                    Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
            Size: Discrete 424x240
                    Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
            Size: Discrete 320x240
                    Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
            Size: Discrete 320x180
                    Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
            Size: Discrete 160x120
                    Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
            Size: Discrete 340x340
                    Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
                    Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)

`

So, is there anything else I can do or try to get the IR working?

[EmixamPP]

#9 has the same problem with his Dell computer.

Personally, I think the problem is that the camera does not use a "standard protocol" to identify itself to the system. It needs its own driver, and unfortunately, except from managing to get the code developed by the manufacturer for Windows, and then to "translate" it to Linux, I'm afraid that the camera will never be correctly recognized by the kernel.

My software is looking for a way to activate the IR emitter, but it needs access to the IR camera.

[EmixamPP]

May be try some other distros like Fedora or Ubuntu ?

[4Wheels]

I appreciate the effort, thanks. I'm not really interested in changing distros since everything else works great with Arch, and I need the computer for work. I was just hoping that I could get the IR camera functioning.

Thanks anyway. If you happen to think of something, or any other info would help get this working, let me know, I'll do what I can to assist.

[EmixamPP]

Closing because we can't do anything until this infrared camera is recognized by the kernel :confused: