Hi, I’m stuck with my new Arducam setup. Any libcamera command I run just comes back with “no cameras found” and earlier I was seeing “error: no cameras available”. The cameras don’t show up at all. Anyone know what’s going on?
Sorry you’re hitting this. Can you share a bit more about your setup — which Pi board, which camera kit/module, and roughly what OS/kernel you’re on? That’ll help narrow it down.
Sure. It’s a Raspberry Pi 4B with the Arducam multi-camera HAT kit, 4x 16MP cameras. Not sure of the exact kernel off the top of my head, I’ve been reflashing so many times I’ve lost track.
Just to clarify the hardware first — from what you’ve described this is the multi-camera CamArray HAT kit, not the single 16MP IMX298 module. That matters because the setup and overlays are different. Before we troubleshoot, make sure all four cameras are actually connected to the HAT board. If any port is left empty or half-seated, libcamera can end up reporting no cameras at all.
I have all four cameras plugged into the HAT now. I’ve followed the Arducam online docs, and honestly I’ve wiped and reflashed the device around 20 times trying different things, plus unplugged and replugged the cables a bunch. It still says “no cameras found” when I run any libcamera command, and right now it tells me “error: no cameras available”. Can I get step-by-step instructions for the 4-camera setup? Maybe I’m missing something basic.
There are a few things we’ve seen cause exactly this on the multi-camera kit. On a Raspberry Pi 4B rev 1.5, if the OS is burned with kernel 6.1.21, Pivariety cameras aren’t detected at all by the Pi — that’s a known bug. Also, the dtoverlay must be dtoverlay=imx519, not dtoverlay=arducam-pivariety. And if Arducam’s libcamera isn’t installed, the cameras won’t be picked up either.
As a first pass: re-flash the Pi to kernel 5.15.84 and follow the documentation from scratch. Then edit /boot/config.txt and set dtoverlay=imx519, reboot so the overlay takes effect, and try the libcamera command again.
Okay, I reflashed to 5.15.84 and changed the overlay to dtoverlay=imx519, rebooted, and… still “no cameras found”. Same as before.
Let’s grab a proper bug report so we can see what the system is actually loading. With all four cameras connected, reboot the device, then 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 produces an arducam-bug-report.txt in the current directory — attach that here.
While you’re at it, double-check the overlay is still imx519 and review these docs: the CamArray quick start (Quick Start Guide for Arducam CamArray HAT Kit - Arducam Wiki), the Libcamera User Guide (libcamera and rpicam-apps - Arducam Wiki), and the Pivariety Camera Quick Start Guide (Quick Start Guide - Arducam Wiki). The cameras should be accessed with libcamera commands, and the overlay needs to stay imx519, not arducam-pivariety.
I ran the tool and attached the file, but I think the first one I uploaded might have been the wrong file. I’ve now attached both arducam-bug-report.txt and arducam-camera-bug-report just in case.
Thanks, that was enough to spot it. Looking at the bug report, Arducam’s libcamera isn’t installed on your Pi — that’s why the cameras still aren’t recognized even though the overlay and kernel look right. The stock libcamera doesn’t know how to bring up these Pivariety cameras.
Please follow the Libcamera User Guide here and install Arducam’s libcamera from scratch:
https://docs.arducam.com/Raspberry-Pi-Camera/Native-camera/Libcamera-User-Guide/#getting-started
Then retry the camera commands. Installing Arducam’s libcamera is required for the camera to be recognized and used via libcamera commands. Give that a shot and let us know what you get.