Arducam 64MP camera not working on Raspberry Pi 4B with Debian Bullseye kernel 6.1.21-v8+

Raspberry Pi Cameras
1

Hi everyone, I’m stuck trying to get an Arducam 64MP camera working on a Raspberry Pi 4B 2GB. The camera won’t initialize at all. Here’s my setup:

uname -a: Linux raspberrypi 6.1.21-v8+ #1642 SMP PREEMPT Mon Apr 3 17:24:16 BST 2023 aarch64 GNU/Linux

OS is Debian 11 (bullseye). I’ve been through the FAQ thread but no luck so far. Any pointers?

2

Hey, welcome. Could you run cat /etc/os-release and paste the output? I’d also like to see exactly what the Arducam install/driver script says when you run it — that error text is usually the key.

3

Sure, here’s /etc/os-release:

cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME=“Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)”
NAME=“Debian GNU/Linux”
VERSION_ID=“11”
VERSION=“11 (bullseye)”
VERSION_CODENAME=bullseye
ID=debian
HOME_URL=“https://www.debian.org/”
SUPPORT_URL=“Debian -- User Support”
BUG_REPORT_URL=“https://bugs.debian.org/”

I was following the steps at How to use arducam_64mp & arducam_64mp FAQ - #34 by Edward when the installer failed.

4

That OS info looks like a standard bullseye install. Can you paste the full output from the install/driver script? The ‘cannot find package’ type message will tell us which driver package it’s trying to fetch.

5

Here’s what the script prints:

Cannot find the corresponding package, please send the following information to [email protected]
Hardware Revision: b03114
Kernel Version: 6.1.21-v8+
Package: 64mp_pi_hawk_eye_kernel_driver – bullseye-v5
You are using an unsupported kernel version, please install the official SD Card image(do not execute rpi-update):
Raspberry Pi OS downloads – Raspberry Pi

Not sure what to do with that.

6

Thanks, that’s the smoking gun. The script is trying to match a driver package (64mp_pi_hawk_eye_kernel_driver – bullseye-v5) against your kernel, and it’s bailing out because 6.1.21-v8+ isn’t supported for that package. That’s why it says ‘cannot find the corresponding package’ — the lookup fails before the camera driver can even be installed, so the 64MP never initializes.

7

Ah okay. So this kernel came from the image I had… I did run rpi-update at some point. Is there any way to force it, or do I really need to start over with the official image?

8

Starting over with the official image is the cleanest fix. The script explicitly says not to use rpi-update because it leaves you on an unsupported kernel. Steps I’d take:

  1. Flash the official Raspberry Pi OS image from Raspberry Pi OS downloads – Raspberry Pi (do not run rpi-update).
  2. After boot, follow the software section of the Quick Start Guide to configure the config file and enable the camera: Quick Start Guide - Arducam Wiki
  3. Re-run the Arducam install script. If it still can’t find the package, send the Hardware Revision (b03114), Kernel Version, and the Package name (64mp_pi_hawk_eye_kernel_driver – bullseye-v5) to [email protected].

In short: kernel 6.1.21-v8+ isn’t supported for the bullseye-v5 driver package, so the recommended path is the official image plus the config file steps in the Quick Start Guide.