Raspberry Pi HQ camera IMX477 Linux driver for Jetson

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Introduction to Raspberry Pi HQ camera Sony IMX477 Linux driver

RidgeRun is actively working to enable customers with great software solutions on top of powerful hardware. For this reason, RidgeRun is currently working to create the V4L2 driver for the Raspberry Pi HQ camera. This wiki contains a brief introduction to the sensor and hardware that will be used to develop the driver. Please keep in mind that the driver can be ported to other Jetson platforms if needed. Please contact us if you require more information.

Raspberry Pi HQ camera

Camera Features

• 12.3-Megapixel high-resolution Sony IMX477 sensor.
• 1.55μm × 1.55μm Pixel Size – double the pixel area of IMX219 for improved low-light performance.
• Back-illuminated sensor architecture for improved sensitivity.
• Support for different C- and CS-mount lenses.
• Integrated back-focus adjustment ring and tripod mount.

Sony IMX477 Basic Drive Mode

The Raspberry Pi HQ camera uses the IMX477 CMOS sensor of Sony to capture. Such a sensor provides the modes included in the table below. At this point RidgeRun is working to support one mode only but others can be added per request.

Drive Mode	Number of active pixels	Maximum frame rate [frame/s]	Output Interface	ADC [bit]
Full (4:3) (Normal)	4056 x 3040 approx. 12.33 M pixels	60	CSI-2	10
		40	CSI-2	12
Full (4:3) (DOL-HDR)	4056 x 3040 approx. 12.33 M pixels	DOL 2 frame:30 DOL 3 frame:15	CSI-2	10
Full (16:9) 4K2K (Normal)	4056 x 2288 approx. 9.28 M pixels	79	CSI-2	10
Full (16:9) 4K2K (DOL-HDR)	4056 x 2288 approx. 9.28 M pixels	DOL 2 frame:39 DOL 3 frame:19	CSI-2	10
Full (4:3) Binning (Normal)	2028 x 1520 approx. 3.08 M pixels	179	CSI-2	10
Full (16:9) Binning 1080P (Normal)	2028 x 1128 approx. 2.29 M pixels	240	CSI-2	10
Full (16:9) Binning 720P (Normal)	1348 x 750 approx. 1.01 M pixels	240	CSI-2	10
Full (16:9) Scaling 1080P (Normal)	2024 x 1142 approx. 2.31 M pixels	79	CSI-2	10
Full (16:9) Scalling 720P (Normal)	1348 x 762 approx. 1.03 M pixels	79	CSI-2	10

Compatibility with NVIDIA^®Jetson™ Platforms

The Raspberry Pi HQ camera module requires a hardware modification in order to work with Jetson Platforms. Both Jetson Nano and Jetson Xavier NX provides 1.8V for reset GPIO in the camera interface, but the camera module requires 3.3V.

To fix this issue a resistor labeled as R8 must be removed from the camera module. If you decide to apply this fix it is under your own risk. RidgeRun is not responsible for any damage caused to your board. The following picture shows the location of the R8 in the module.

Figure 1. R8 resistor on RPi HQ camera module.

Raspberry Pi HQ camera IMX477 Linux driver for NVIDIA^®Jetson Xavier™ NX

RidgeRun Engineering has developed the driver with NVIDIA Corporation and Leopard Imaging Inc. as a collaborative initiative. In this section, you will find the instructions to patch the JetPack sources enabling the IMX477 sensor driver for the Jetson Xavier NX. These instructions have been validated in the following Jetpack versions:

• Jetpack 4.4
• Jetpack 4.4.1
• Jetpack 4.5

Download JetPack

The current version of the driver is supported in Jetpack 4.4, 4.4.1 and 4.5. Porting the driver to other versions and platforms is possible.

1. Download and install the NVIDIA SDK Manager (membership is required).

2. Put your NVIDIA membership credentials in the SDK Manager main window:

Figure 2. Required SDK Manager credentials.

3. Select JetPack version and Jetson [Xavier NX | Nano] as shown below and press Continue:

Figure 3. Required SDK Manager options.

4. Accept the terms and conditions and press Continue. The SDK Manager will download and install the selected components:

Figure 4. SDK Manager download and install software.

5. Select Manual Setup. Make sure the board is in Recovery Mode and then press Flash:

Figure 5. Manual setup to start the flashing process.

Recovery Mode for Jetson NX

• NOTE: To set the Xavier NX developer kit in Recovery Mode the following steps are required:

1. Ensure the device is powered off and the power adapter is disconnected.
2. Verify that a microSD card is inserted in the Jetson Xavier NX module's card slot.
3. Place a jumper across the Force Recovery Mode pins (9 and 10) on the button header [J14]. Please, see Figure 6 below.
4. Connect your host computer to the developer kit's USB Micro-B connector.
5. Connect the power supply to the power jack [J16]. The developer kit automatically powers on in Force Recovery Mode.
6. Remove the jumper from the Force Recovery Mode pins.
7. Use the lsusb command to check if the NVidia corp message is shown.
   

Figure 6. Jumper between pins 9 and 10 to get the board on Recovery Mode (top view).

6. When the OS has been installed successfully in the [Xavier NX | Nano], you will be asked to enter the board IP, a username and a password, as shown below in Figure7:

Figure 7. Required username and password for your profile in the board.

7. Don't close the window of Figure 7 and don't modify its content yet. Yo need to connect a screen to the board via HDMI, a keyboard/mouse via USB port, and a network cable via Ethernet port. You can remove the jumper that keeps the board in Recovery Mode and then reboot the Xavier board at this point if necessary.

8. After reboot, you will be asked to accept the terms of the license' on the board's screen. Select the checkbox and press Continue.

9. Select your language in the next screen and press Continue:

Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination

Figure 8. Language selection.

10. Select your keyboard layout and press Continue:

Figure 9. Keyboard layout selection.

11. Select your location and press Continue:

Figure 10. Location selection.

12. Enter a username and a password. Then, press Continue:

Figure 11. User credentials for Ubuntu.

13. Wait for the system to apply the changes. The board will restart automatically.

14. Now you are able to access Ubuntu as a new user in the [Xavier NX | Nano]. You can find the board IP by using ifconfig from a terminal.

15. Get back to the window presented in Figure 7 (in your host PC) and enter the IP, username, and password which the [Xavier NX | Nano] has been configured with. Then press Install.

Figure 12. User credentials to start the software installation process.

16. The software installation process should finish successfully, as shown in Figure 13:

Figure 13. Finishing software install.

• IMPORTANT: From now on we will refer as $JETPACK_DIR/ to the directory where the SDK Manager placed the JetPack_4.4_Linux_JETSON_[PLATFORM]_DEVKIT / JetPack_4.4.1_Linux_JETSON_[PLATFORM]_DEVKIT / JetPack_4.5_Linux_JETSON_[PLATFORM]_DEVKIT folder.
  

Where [PLATFORM] must be replaced by XAVIER_NX or NANO.

Installing the Driver - Option A: Debian Packages (Recommended)

This is the simplest way to install the IMX477 driver on Jetson platforms.

Downloading the debian packages

You can download the Debian packages according to your platform from the following link:

Kernel Debian Packages

Installing the debian packages

Jetson Xavier NX

• Copy the kernel and dtb debian packages to your board filesystem:

scp debian_nx/nvidia-l4t-kernel_4.9.140-tegra-32.4.3-20200625213407_arm64.deb [jetson-username]@[jetson-ip]:/home/nvidia/
scp debian_nx/nvidia-l4t-kernel-dtbs_4.9.140-tegra-32.4.3-20200625213407_arm64.deb [jetson-username]@[jetson-ip]:/home/nvidia/

• Install the debian packages in your board:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall ./nvidia-l4t-kernel_4.9.140-tegra-32.4.3-20200625213407_arm64.deb
sudo apt-get install --reinstall ./nvidia-l4t-kernel-dtbs_4.9.140-tegra-32.4.3-20200625213407_arm64.deb

• Enable the dtb changes by modifying the /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf file:

 TIMEOUT 30
 DEFAULT primary

 MENU TITLE L4T boot options

 LABEL primary
       MENU LABEL primary kernel
       LINUX /boot/Image
       INITRD /boot/initrd
       APPEND ${cbootargs} quiet root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 rw rootwait rootfstype=ext4 console=ttyTCU0,115200n8 console=tty0 fbcon=map:0 net.ifnames=0 
       FDT /boot/tegra194-p3668-all-p3509-0000.dtb

• Reboot your board:

sudo reboot

Jetson Nano

• Copy the kernel and dtb debian packages to your board filesystem:

scp debian_nano/nvidia-l4t-kernel_4.9.140-tegra-32.4.3-20200625213809_arm64.deb [jetson-username]@[jetson-ip]:/home/nvidia/
scp debian_nano/nvidia-l4t-kernel-dtbs_4.9.140-tegra-32.4.3-20200625213809_arm64.deb [jetson-username]@[jetson-ip]:/home/nvidia/

• Install the debian packages in your board:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall ./nvidia-l4t-kernel_4.9.140-tegra-32.4.3-20200625213809_arm64.deb
sudo apt-get install --reinstall ./nvidia-l4t-kernel-dtbs_4.9.140-tegra-32.4.3-20200625213809_arm64.deb

• Enable the dtb changes by modifying the /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf file:

 TIMEOUT 30
 DEFAULT primary
 MENU TITLE L4T boot options
 LABEL primary
       MENU LABEL primary kernel
       LINUX /boot/Image
       INITRD /boot/initrd
       APPEND ${cbootargs} quiet root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 rw rootwait rootfstype=ext4 console=ttyS0,115200n8 console=tty0 fbcon=map:0 net.ifnames=0
+      FDT /boot/tegra210-p3448-0000-p3449-0000-b00.dtb

• Reboot your board:

sudo reboot

• After these steps, the driver should be working and you can run some capture tests described below.
• IMPORTANT: You may see some washed-out colors in the captured image. This is because you haven't applied the ISP configuration file. Make sure to install the ISP file that you can find in the repo using these instructions.

Installing the Driver - Option B: JetPack sources patch

Getting the kernel patch

RidgeRun has created a repository from where you can download the patch files with the following structure:

.
├── li-camera-calibration-files
│   └── camera_overrides.isp
├── patches_nano
│   ├── 4.5_nano_imx477-v0.1.0.patch
│   └── series
├── patches_nx
│   ├── 4.5_nx_imx477-v0.1.0.patch
│   └── series
└── README.md

Older versions can be found in jetpack-4.4 and jetpack-4.4.1 branches in the repository. You just have to switch to the jetpack version branch you want to use

Download the JetPack sources

The sources can be downloaded from the NVIDIA's Download Center:

Jetpack 4.4

• Jetson Nano sources
• Jetson Xavier NX sources

Jetpack 4.4.1

• Jetson Nano sources
• Jetson Xavier NX sources

Jetpack 4.5

• Jetson Nano sources
• Jetson Xavier NX sources

1. You must be able to download a file called public_sources.tbz2.

2. Untar the sources

tar -xvf public_sources.tbz2

3. Move the hardware/ and kernel/ folders into Linux_for_Tegra/ inside the JetPack directory $JETPACK_DIR/:

cd Linux_for_Tegra/source/public/
tar -xvf kernel_src.tbz2
JETSON_KERNEL_SOURCE=$JETPACK_DIR/JetPack_[JETPACK_VERSION]_Linux_JETSON_[PLATFORM]_DEVKIT/Linux_for_Tegra/source/
mkdir -p $JETSON_KERNEL_SOURCE
mv hardware/ kernel/ $JETSON_KERNEL_SOURCE

Where [PLATFORM] must be replaced by XAVIER_NX or NANO, and [JETPACK_VERSION] must be replaced by 4.4, 4.4.1 or 4.5.

Patch instructions

Download the patches

cd $HOME
git clone https://github.com/RidgeRun/NVIDIA-Jetson-IMX477-RPIV3.git

• Check out an older branch in case you want to test an older Jetpack version.

git checkout jetpack-4.4 # or jetpack-4.4.1

KERNEL_PATCH=$HOME/NVIDIA-Jetson-IMX477-RPIV3/
cp -r $KERNEL_PATCH/patches_[PLATFORM]/ $JETSON_KERNEL_SOURCE
mv $JETSON_KERNEL_SOURCE/patches_[PLATFORM]/ $JETSON_KERNEL_SOURCE/patches/

Where [PLATFORM] must be replaced by nx or nano.

Apply the patches

cd $JETSON_KERNEL_SOURCE
quilt push

Kernel build instructions

Once the sources have been patched, perform the following steps in order to build and install the driver.

Install the Toolchain

NVIDIA recommends using the Linaro 7.3.1 2018.05 toolchain. Download the pre-built toolchain binaries as follows:

wget http://releases.linaro.org/components/toolchain/binaries/7.3-2018.05/aarch64-linux-gnu/gcc-linaro-7.3.1-2018.05-x86_64_aarch64-linux-gnu.tar.xz

Execute the following commands to extract the toolchain:

mkdir -p $HOME/l4t-gcc
cd $HOME/l4t-gcc
tar xf gcc-linaro-7.3.1-2018.05-x86_64_aarch64-linux-gnu.tar.xz

Build the kernel

• Create the main directories:

cd $JETSON_KERNEL_SOURCE/../
mkdir -p modules/
mkdir -p packages/
mkdir -p dtb/

• Establish the building paths:

CROSS_COMPILE=$HOME/l4t-gcc/gcc-linaro-7.3.1-2018.05-x86_64_aarch64-linux-gnu/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-
KERNEL_OUT=$JETSON_KERNEL_SOURCE/../build
KERNEL_MODULES_OUT=$JETSON_KERNEL_SOURCE/../modules

• Configure and build kernel:

cd $JETSON_KERNEL_SOURCE
make -C kernel/kernel-4.9/ ARCH=arm64 O=$KERNEL_OUT tegra_defconfig
make -C kernel/kernel-4.9/ ARCH=arm64 O=$KERNEL_OUT menuconfig

• Select:

Device Drivers  --->
  <*> Multimedia support  --->
      NVIDIA overlay Encoders, decoders, sensors and other helper chips  --->
          <*> IMX477 camera sensor support

Press the Y key in order to select the IMX477 option. Go back by hitting the double Esc key until you get the message: Do you want to save your new configuration?, select Yes and press Enter.

• Compile kernel, device tree and modules:

make -C kernel/kernel-4.9/ ARCH=arm64 O=$KERNEL_OUT CROSS_COMPILE=${CROSS_COMPILE} -j4 Image
make -C kernel/kernel-4.9/ ARCH=arm64 O=$KERNEL_OUT CROSS_COMPILE=${CROSS_COMPILE} -j4 dtbs
make -C kernel/kernel-4.9/ ARCH=arm64 O=$KERNEL_OUT CROSS_COMPILE=${CROSS_COMPILE} -j4 modules
make -C kernel/kernel-4.9/ ARCH=arm64 O=$KERNEL_OUT modules_install INSTALL_MOD_PATH=$KERNEL_MODULES_OUT

Flash the Jetson

Flash the Xavier NX

Please, make sure the board is in Recovery Mode.

• Copy the generated kernel and dtb:

cd $JETSON_KERNEL_SOURCE/../
cp build/arch/arm64/boot/dts/tegra194-p3668-all-p3509-0000.dtb ./kernel/dtb
cp build/arch/arm64/boot/Image ./kernel

• Flash the dtb:

sudo ./flash.sh -r -k kernel-dtb -d kernel/dtb/tegra194-p3668-all-p3509-0000.dtb jetson-xavier-nx-devkit mmcblk0p1

• Copy the kernel image:

scp ./kernel/Image <nvidia-nx-user>@<nvidia-nx-ip>:/tmp/

• Move the Image from /tmp to /boot inside the Xavier NX's filesystem:

sudo mv /tmp/Image /boot/

Flash the Nano

• Make sure your extlinux.conf file at /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf in your Nano's filesystem looks as follows:

TIMEOUT 30
DEFAULT primary

MENU TITLE L4T boot options

LABEL primary
      MENU LABEL primary kernel
      LINUX /boot/Image
      INITRD /boot/initrd
      FDT /boot/tegra210-p3448-0000-p3449-0000-b00.dtb
      APPEND ${cbootargs} quiet

• Copy the kernel image and DTB:

cd $JETSON_KERNEL_SOURCE/../
scp ./kernel/Image ./kernel/dtb/tegra210-p3448-0000-p3449-0000-b00.dtb <nvidia-nano-user>@<nvidia-nano-ip>:/tmp/

• Move the files from /tmp to /boot inside the Nano's filesystem:

sudo mv /tmp/Image /boot/
sudo mv /tmp/tegra210-p3448-0000-p3449-0000-b00.dtb /boot/

Copy the kernel modules

• You can also just access your SD card in your PC and copy the KERNEL_MODULES=$JETPACK_DIR/JetPack_[JETPACK_VERSION]_Linux_JETSON_[PLATFORM]_DEVKIT/Linux_for_Tegra/modules/lib/modules/4.9.140/* directory content into /lib/modules/4.9.140/ in your SD card to update the modules. Where [PLATFORM] must be replaced by XAVIER_NX or NANO, and [JETPACK_VERSION] must be replaced by 4.4, 4.4.1 or 4.5.

• Or you can update with your compiled modules If your board is up you can update the kernel modules as follows:

KERNEL_MODULES=$JETPACK_DIR/JetPack_[JETPACK_VERSION]_Linux_JETSON_[PLATFORM]_DEVKIT/Linux_for_Tegra/modules/lib/modules/4.9.140
cd $KERNEL_MODULES
scp -r ../4.9.140/ <nvidia-nx-user>@<nvidia-nx-ip>:/tmp/

Where [PLATFORM] must be replaced by XAVIER_NX or NANO, and [JETPACK_VERSION] must be replaced by 4.4, 4.4.1 or 4.5.

• Move the modules from /tmp to the /lib/modules/ folder inside the Jetson's filesystem and reboot:

sudo mv /tmp/4.9.140/ /lib/modules/
sudo reboot

• After these steps, the driver should be working and you can run some capture tests described below.
• IMPORTANT: You may see some washed-out colors in the captured image. This is because you haven't applied the ISP configuration file. Make sure to install the ISP file that you can find in the repo using these instructions.

ISP camera overrides installation

Please, visit the Custom ISP Configuration page in order to learn how to use the camera_overrides.isp file to configure the ISP.

Supported Features

Resolutions and framerates

• 1920x1080 @ 60fps
• 4032x3040 @ 30fps

Controls

• Gain
• Exposure
• Framerate
• Group Hold

Example Pipelines

Find some example pipelines to use the IMX477 on Jetson Xavier NX below:

Display

1920x1080

SENSOR_ID=0 # 0 for CAM0 and 1 for CAM1 ports
FRAMERATE=60 # Framerate can go from 2 to 60 for 1920x1080 mode
gst-launch-1.0 nvarguscamerasrc sensor-id=$SENSOR_ID ! "video/x-raw(memory:NVMM),width=1920,height=1080,framerate=$FRAMERATE/1" ! nvvidconv ! nvoverlaysink

4032x3040

SENSOR_ID=0 # 0 for CAM0 and 1 for CAM1 ports
FRAMERATE=30 # Framerate can go from 2 to 30 for 4032x3040 mode
gst-launch-1.0 nvarguscamerasrc sensor-id=$SENSOR_ID ! "video/x-raw(memory:NVMM),width=4032,height=3040,framerate=$FRAMERATE/1" ! nvvidconv ! "video/x-raw(memory:NVMM),width=1920,height=1080,framerate=$FRAMERATE/1" ! nvoverlaysink

MP4 Recording

1920x1080

SENSOR_ID=0 # 0 for CAM0 and 1 for CAM1 ports
FRAMERATE=60 # Framerate can go from 2 to 60 for 1920x1080 mode
gst-launch-1.0 -e nvarguscamerasrc sensor-id=$SENSOR_ID ! "video/x-raw(memory:NVMM),width=1920,height=1080,framerate=$FRAMERATE/1" ! nvv4l2h264enc ! h264parse ! mp4mux ! filesink location=rpi_v3_imx477_cam$SENSOR_ID.mp4

4032x3040

SENSOR_ID=0 # 0 for CAM0 and 1 for CAM1 ports
FRAMERATE=30 # Framerate can go from 2 to 30 for 4032x3040 mode
gst-launch-1.0 -e nvarguscamerasrc sensor-id=$SENSOR_ID ! "video/x-raw(memory:NVMM),width=4032,height=3040,framerate=$FRAMERATE/1" ! nvv4l2h264enc ! h264parse ! mp4mux ! filesink location=rpi_v3_imx477_cam$SENSOR_ID.mp4

JPEG snapshots

1920x1080

SENSOR_ID=0 # 0 for CAM0 and 1 for CAM1 ports
FRAMERATE=60 # Framerate can go from 2 to 60 for 1920x1080 mode
NUMBER_OF_SNAPSHOTS=20
gst-launch-1.0 -e nvarguscamerasrc num-buffers=$NUMBER_OF_SNAPSHOTS sensor-id=$SENSOR_ID ! "video/x-raw(memory:NVMM),width=1920,height=1080,framerate=$FRAMERATE/1" ! nvjpegenc ! multifilesink location=%03d_rpi_v3_imx477_cam$SENSOR_ID.jpeg

4032x3040

SENSOR_ID=0 # 0 for CAM0 and 1 for CAM1 ports
FRAMERATE=30 # Framerate can go from 2 to 30 for 4032x3040 mode
NUMBER_OF_SNAPSHOTS=20
gst-launch-1.0 -e nvarguscamerasrc num-buffers=$NUMBER_OF_SNAPSHOTS sensor-id=$SENSOR_ID ! "video/x-raw(memory:NVMM),width=4032,height=3040,framerate=$FRAMERATE/1" ! nvjpegenc ! multifilesink location=%03d_rpi_v3_imx477_cam$SENSOR_ID.jpeg

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