Arducam Multi Camera Adapter on Pi 4B: black libcamera window, libc6:armhf dependency error

Raspberry Pi Cameras
1

Hello, first time posting here. I have an Arducam multi-camera adapter for Raspberry Pi (this one from LEXTRONIC: Adaptateur Arducam Multi Cameras pour Raspberry Pi B012001) and honestly I never got it to work.

I’m on a Pi 4B with Raspberry Pi OS 11.6. I followed the guide at RaspberryPi/Multi_Camera_Adapter/Multi_Adapter_Board_4Channel at master · ArduCAM/RaspberryPi · GitHub

At first I couldn’t install the recommended packages (wiringpi, python3-libcamera) because of a persistent libc6:armhf dependency error. I got past that with sudo apt --fix-broken install.

Now when I run sudo ./init_camera.sh from RaspberryPi/Multi_Camera_Adapter/Multi_Adapter_Board_4Channel/Multi_Camera_Adapter_V2.2_python/ the image of camera A shows up for a split second, then the libcamera-app window opens completely black, and there’s also some shell message. Anyone know what’s going on?

2

Hi, thanks for reaching out. Before we dig deeper, could you send us two things:

  1. A screenshot of the error log in the terminal (the full shell output when it fails).
  2. A few pictures of the hardware connection so we can check the wiring.

That should help us narrow it down.

3

Sure, here’s everything.

Environment: Pi 4B, Pi OS 11.6, Arducam Multi_Camera_Adapter (Multi_Camera_Adapter_V2.2_python).

Commands I ran:

sudo apt --fix-broken install
sudo apt-get install wiringpi
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt install -y python3-kms++ python3-libcamera
sudo apt install -y python3-pyqt5 python3-prctl libatlas-base-dev ffmpeg
sudo pip3 install numpy --upgrade
sudo pip3 install picamera2
cd /tmp
wget https://project-downloads.drogon.net/wiringpi-latest.deb
sudo dpkg -i wiringpi-latest.deb
git clone https://github.com/ArduCAM/RaspberryPi.git
cd RaspberryPi/Multi_Camera_Adapter/Multi_Adapter_Board_4Channel/Multi_Camera_Adapter_V2.2_python/
sudo chmod +x init_camera.sh
sudo ./init_camera.sh

Terminal error log: pn8P6LG8mysCELp0.png

Hardware connection pictures:
IMG_1.png
IMG_2.png
IMG_3.png

I already tried reinstalling the OS with the latest version and re-checking all the connections, they look correct to me. The libc6:armhf error I got rid of with sudo apt --fix-broken install.

4

Thanks for the pictures and the log. One quick thing before we go further: have you enabled the i2c interface on the Pi? If i2c isn’t enabled the adapter won’t behave correctly, and this could explain the black preview window.

If you haven’t done it yet, follow this guide: Enable I2C Interface on the Raspberry Pi - Raspberry Pi Spy

Once it’s enabled, run sudo ./init_camera.sh again and let us know how it goes.

5

Ah, yes, I have forgotten it. Enabled it now following the guide you linked. Installation is almost good now, but there’s still an error when I execute the previewOpencv.py example from GitHub - ArduCAM/RaspberryPi: This is Arducam camera demos used on Raspberry Pi paltform · GitHub

Error screenshot: gXItCCtam2q0r87r.png

Still Pi 4B, Pi OS 11.6, same adapter. The libc6:armhf dependency thing stays resolved.

6

OK, good, that’s progress. So to recap where we are: the libc6:armhf dependency issue was sorted with sudo apt --fix-broken install, the i2c interface is now enabled (that was likely causing the earlier black init_camera.sh preview), and the install itself is basically fine now.

The remaining failure has moved to the previewOpencv.py example instead of init_camera.sh. Since the adapter has never shown a clean working preview on this setup and camera A only flashed briefly before, we can’t call it solved yet.

Can you post the exact terminal output you get when running previewOpencv.py (the full traceback / error text), and confirm whether the same error appears in a fresh terminal after a reboot now that i2c is enabled? That will tell us whether it’s still a config problem or something in the OpenCV example itself.