How to: test GStreamer-droid based camera support in Ubuntu Touch (for Halium 7.1 based port)

[pbt100]

Fixes video recording on garlic ,halium-7.1 with/without minimedia, miniaf and minisf services. For initial few shots from front camera were purple .

[tigerpro]

@pbt100 interesting, does your device have a delayed wake from sleep as a result of no mediaservice? Somewhere along the line an update broke video recording on my device

[pbt100]

@tigerpro minimediaservice was the last thing i added to the port to only fix wake lag and it broke bluetooth ,on mine, video recorder working with/without it though

[Luksus]

Tested on FP2 -> works like a charm.
The execution of taking a photo is superfast now, compared to legacy-image.
Rear-camera and capturing videos does work too.

[peat_psuwit]

@pbt100 @tigerpro The wake lag without minimediaservice should be fixed by including this commit into your Halium tree: https://github.com/Halium/android_frameworks_native/pull/6 (And if it works please add some voice to the PR. Thanks!)

@Luksus You've compiled Halium-7.1 image yourself? Also, is it with the old or new camera modules? I don't have new camera modules myself, so I would like to know how that works.

[Luksus]

@peat_psuwit : yes I compiled it myself.
It is with the new camera module, I don't have the older one.
There is no HDR function as it used to be with the legacy-port, but I assume its just not implemented?!

So far, the camera-experience is way better, than with the legacy-port.

[tigerpro]

@Luksus I dont know of thats necessarily the case as the camera app on my note 4 has HDR available, I typically dont use it though

[ernest]

@peat_psuwit
Some update, i've tried to follow your tchat with Walid on Telegram history.
See the logs :
https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/sYpS5cX6KT/
https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/qJ3rr62j9r/
https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/gnnW2pkf55/
https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/wxKK3krMzg/
https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/qD85477qRy/

Thanks

[Luksus]

Regarding video capturing (on FP2):
After some seconds the image freezes and the app gets unresponsive.
The Log says something like: "audio could not be recorded fast enough".

If you stop the recording before freezing, the video gets saved correctly but with sound a little off the line.

[Emphrath]

@peat_psuwit up this thread, you said: "This patch is in the process of upstreaming, so soon you won't have to do this."
Is it still something ? Or is it still to buggy to consider ? I mean the patch but also the halium 7 port as a whole. Thanks.

[peat_psuwit]

@Emphrath Well, turns out that patch isn't needed anymore. I'll remove it from the instruction.

[peat_psuwit]

@Luksus Video recording works fine here on my FP2 with an old camera module. Could you please post the log? Follow the instruction above, but replace GST_DEBUG="droidcamsrc:4" to just GST_DEBUG="4".

[Luksus]

@peat_psuwit here is the log, I redirected it to a file with &>: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/8Sy4gkzrDD/
I have to say that I still have the manually patched Halium, if that is something we have to take into account.

[Emphrath]

@peat_psuwit but it's still needed to compile halium manually, right ? This is not going in the next OTA I mean ?

[A Former User]

@peat_psuwit Following a hint from ernesst on github I tried the steps at the beginning of this thread and I'm happy to report that camera is now mostly working on my OP3T. Hooray and thanks for that!

I have only just done this and there are some problems, but at the moment...
Camera takes pictures and I can view them in gallery, on photoroll.
No video recording. On pressing the record button the timer comes up and freezes on 0.00
Here is the output from the debugging command you provided at the top.
https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/nBkqmQCSpR/

[A Former User]

@peat_psuwit Camera didn't survive the latest system update; is this the expected behaviour?
Here is the log just in case it's useful https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/DMn8FfBWXz/
Running through the steps to Install GStreamer-droid restored the situation to yesterday's state

[Emphrath]

@ziggutas I reckon that's because the patch is installed through apt - as long as it won't be added to the system image, every system update might roll back the changes...

[peat_psuwit]

@Emphrath Unfortunately this won't go into the next OTA. This still needs some refining for stability and I want to make sure it won't affect the existing ports.

@ziggutas The trouble with video on OP3T (and devices using 64-bit rootfs) is known. However, my only 64-bit device is not working right now and is in the repair shop. And, yes, system image upgrade will wipe this out. I suggested using apt to update the phone. Make sure you have another phone before doing that.

[A Former User]

@Emphrath @peat_psuwit Thank you both very much for your replies, I understand a bit more now! It's one long and gentle learning curve!

For now though, it is very useful to have access to the camera should need it.

[Emphrath]

@peat_psuwit Thanks for the explanations ! Good luck !