OV9281 Arducam B0162 not working on Raspberry Pi 4, same as GitHub issue #126

Raspberry Pi Cameras
1

OV9281 on RPi 4B cannot capture

Hi, I’ve got an OV9281 Arducam module (model B0162) hooked up to a Raspberry Pi 4 and I just can’t get it to capture anything. I followed the instructions in the MIPI_Camera RPI guide here: MIPI_Camera/RPI at master · ArduCAM/MIPI_Camera · GitHub but it doesn’t work at all. It looks like the exact same situation people are describing in OV9281 on RPi 4B cannot capture · Issue #126 · ArduCAM/MIPI_Camera · GitHub.

I attached a couple of screenshots of my RPi4 setup below with the system/environment details:

2022-09-15-143706_1920x1080_scrot.png
2022-09-15-143814_1920x1080_scrot.png

Anyone know what I’m doing wrong? Thanks.

2

Hi, thanks for the detailed report and the screenshots. A couple of quick questions so I can narrow this down:

  1. Which OS release are you running on the Pi? Can you paste the output of cat /etc/os-release and uname -a?
  2. Did you enable the camera interface and reboot before running anything?
  3. What exactly happens when you try to capture — no device found, blank/green frames, or an error from the test app?

The issue #126 you linked is a useful reference, so let’s see if your case matches.

3

Sure. Here’s what I get:

$ cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)"
NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="10"
VERSION="10 (buster)"

$ uname -a
Linux raspberrypi 5.10.63-v7l+ #1459 SMP Wed Oct 6 16:41:41 BST 2021 armv7l GNU/Linux

Yes I enabled the camera interface and rebooted. When I run the test, I just get no image at all — the demo app doesn’t throw anything obvious, it just doesn’t capture. That’s basically what the people in #126 are seeing too.

4

That output is the key part. You’re on Raspbian 10 (Buster) and the repo you followed — MIPI_Camera — is the old/deprecated path. MIPI_Camera is no longer supported on BusterOS, so the whole ./RPI build-and-run workflow from that guide won’t work on your system no matter how many times you rebuild it.

The current supported path for these camera modules is:

  1. Re-burn the latest BullseyeOS.
  2. Install libcamera.
  3. For the Pivariety camera, install the kernel driver following the guide here: Redirecting...

Can you move to a fresh Bullseye image and let me know how the libcamera detection goes?

5

Ah, that explains it — I was banging my head against the MIPI_Camera build for hours. So Buster is basically a dead end for this camera, got it.

I’ll grab a fresh BullseyeOS image and re-flash. I’ll install libcamera and then follow the Pivariety kernel driver guide you linked. I’ll report back what happens after the driver install and reboot.

6

Sounds good. When you’re back up on Bullseye, a good first check is to list the detected cameras:

libcamera-hello --list-cameras

and then do a quick test capture:

libcamera-still -o test.jpg

If the sensor shows up in the list, you’re on the right track. If it still doesn’t appear, paste the output and also check dmesg | grep -i -e ov9281 -e imx -e arducam so we can see whether the kernel driver is binding to the module. Don’t worry,'t worry about the old MIPI_Camera repo anymore — that’s the deprecated route.

7

OK, re-flashed with BullseyeOS, installed libcamera, and followed the Pivariety kernel driver guide. After reboot:

$ libcamera-hello --list-cameras
Available cameras
-----------------
0 : ov9281 [1280x800] (/base/soc/i2c0mux/i2c@1/ov9281@60)

And libcamera-still -o test.jpg produced an actual image this time. Nothing like the dead MIPI_Camera demo on Buster. Two full days of fighting the wrong repo, ha.

So it looks like moving to Bullseye + libcamera is what fixed it. Thanks!

8

Great, that confirms it. The sensor being enumerated as ov9281 and a real JPEG out of libcamera-still means the driver is bound and the pipeline is working.

To wrap up for anyone else reading this thread: the root cause was that MIPI_Camera is no longer supported on BusterOS, and the old MIPI_Camera/RPI at master · ArduCAM/MIPI_Camera · GitHub workflow (the same one behind issue #126) simply won’t work there. The supported route is to re-burn the latest BullseyeOS, install libcamera, and follow the official Pivariety kernel driver install guide: Redirecting...

If you hit anything else after the update, just reply here and we’ll take a look.