Hi everyone, I’m trying to get an Arducam OV9281 MIPI camera working on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ but it’s just not being detected. I’m running Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye (latest). Glamor is already enabled. I followed the driver install from the Arducam docs (Quick Start Guide - Arducam Wiki) plus a bunch of other sites. Installed libcamera and libcamera-apps. In /boot/config.txt I added dtoverlay=ov9281 and set camera auto detect to 0. I also tried deleting the camera auto detect line and setting it to 1. Nothing works, the camera has never worked properly. This is the Arducam OV9281 1MP monochrome global shutter module.
Can you confirm exactly which Arducam module you bought? Just to be sure it matches this one: Arducam OV9281 1MP Global Shutter Monochrome NoIR Camera Module with M12 Mount lens for Raspberry Pi 4/3B+/3
Also check your /boot/config.txt. The OV9281 needs dtoverlay=ov9281 with camera auto detect set to 0. And make sure Glamor is enabled:
sudo raspi-config
→ 6. Advanced Options → A8 Glamor → enable it
Then reboot and try the camera with a libcamera command. Getting started reference here: https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/camera_software.html#getting-started
Worth double checking all of that first.
Yep, that’s the exact one — Arducam OV9281 MIPI 1MP monochrome global shutter. Glamor is definitely already enabled. I’ve attached a photo of the box and camera so you can see it. I already have dtoverlay=ov9281 in config.txt with camera auto detect set to 0, and I also tried it with 1 and with the line removed entirely. Still nothing.
Let’s get some proper diagnostic info. Can you generate an Arducam bug report? Reboot the device and run:
wget -O arducam-camera-bug-report https://github.com/ketai-dhr/arducam-camera-bug-report/releases/download/tools/arducam-camera-bug-report
chmod +x ./arducam-camera-bug-report
./arducam-camera-bug-report
That creates an arducam-bug-report.txt in the current directory. Upload that file here so I can see what’s going on.
Okay, so I did a clean reinstall of Raspberry Pi OS. Enabled SSH, VNC, SPI, I2C, Camera, and Glamor. config.txt has dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d active and I added dtoverlay=ov9281 at the end. camera_auto_detect is not present.
I tested my regular NoIR camera with raspistill and it works fine, so the camera port itself is okay. But when I shut down, connect the Arducam OV9281, and run raspistill or libcamera-hello, nothing works.
vcgencmd get_camera gives:
supported=1 detected=0, libcamera interfaces=1
I also ran the bug report commands and attached the output.
Looking at your info, it seems libcamera from the Arducam website isn’t actually installed. The OS-provided libcamera doesn’t include the support needed for the OV9281. Install the Arducam-provided libcamera from here: libcamera and rpicam-apps - Arducam Wiki
After it finishes, reboot the Pi and try the libcamera command again.
I followed that Arducam libcamera link and did the steps, but it still doesn’t work. libcamera-hello always starts with this line:
libEGL warning: DRI2:failed to authenticate
I ran another bug report and attached it, along with a screenshot of the directory. Could the camera just be faulty?
It sounds like the Arducam libcamera install still hasn’t completed on your system. That libEGL DRI2 warning is usually just the display/GL side of things, not the camera itself. The key point is that the OV9281 needs the Arducam-provided libcamera — the generic OS build won’t have the necessary support.
Please go through the install here again and make sure it finishes without errors: libcamera and rpicam-apps - Arducam Wiki
Once it’s fully installed, restart the Pi so the changes take effect, then run libcamera-hello again. If you can post the full terminal output from the install step and the libcamera-hello run, that would help too. The camera being faulty is still possible, but we need to rule out the libcamera installation first.