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

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 !

peat_psuwit

@Luksus Turns out the log doesn't tell much. Please try again, but increase the log level to 5 i.e. GST_DEBUG=5.

malditobastardo

Hello, first I would like to thanks everyone involved on this fix. Great work!!
Second, I would like to know if this fix will eventually land on the Nexus 5 also? It's possible now to test it?
Thank you in advance

flohack

@malditobastardo I will try to get it into my Halium 7.1 port for hammerhead, which is already shaping up nicely. SO yes ^^

malditobastardo

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

@malditobastardo I will try to get it into my Halium 7.1 port for hammerhead, which is already shaping up nicely. SO yes ^^

Thanks a lot Flo.
If there is anything we (I can do) to help you with your hard work. You can count with me as always

peat_psuwit

I've just updated the camera app to fix the issue with the rotation of the front camera. Grab the new binaries at the same link in the first post.

A Former User

@peat_psuwit I think there something wrong with the arm64 version it is only 85k and it dont install, i have see previous version and that was 485k... ?

Luksus

@peat_psuwit : sadly with debuglevel 5 the log files get very big (>50MB) and I cannot extract useful data out of it.
But meanwhile I am pretty sure, that it has something to do with active rotation-lock. With 1080p video, the app freezes reproducible within the first 5 to 8 seconds.

Without rotation lock I can record longer videos, most of the time. In this case, after stopping the recording, sometimes the app can't get access to the camera again, the camera-view stays black and I cannot start the next recording.
Switching to the front-camera and recording with it works though.

ernest

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

UPDATED: This is no longer required. The correct fix is now in the GStreamer.

So it mean we can come back on the std droid-media and the GStreamer update should be in the latest rootfs ?

peat_psuwit

@Xray2000 Yes it was. I have a problem with my server setup which causes files to be randomly truncated. The file is now fixed and should be 475k (or so) in size.

@Luksus I know why the file gets that large and I still want to look into it (a large amount of that size is a binary file gets hex-printed). Maybe you could compress it and upload it somewhere (if not here)?

@ernest The update is in the xenial_-_gst-droid repo mentioned in the instruction. You should get it automatically via apt.

A Former User

@peat_psuwit Thanks!