iSight Firmware Tools

Cannot get isight-firmware-tools_1.6 to ift-extract

Asked by Rob Fincher on 2014-01-17

I have two HP Compaq Presario C700 laptops operating under Mac OS 10.6.8, Snow Leopard. Thebuilt-in webcams installed on these 2 machines are different. On the first machine, the Chicony CNF7041 camera works just fine in PhotoBooth and Skype. On the second machine, its Suyin 0x64e:0xC108 webcam is not supported by the drivers installed with Snow Leopard, and my research has led me to believe that Etienne Bersac's "Isight-firmware-tools" program can extract the isight.fw file from AppleUSBVideoSupport. This would allow me to change the vendor and product ID's to 0x64e:0xC108 to match the Suyin webcam, and insert the edited isight.fw information back into the AppleUSBVideoSupport driver. So I installed the live CD version of Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex on to the computer fitted with the Suyin webcam. I was easily able to transfer the AppleUSBVideoSupport driver from the Snow Leopard drive to the Ubuntu Desktop. Then I followed the instructions contained in "How to fix webcam on Macbook Pro 5,5" from Ask Ubuntu, but could not get past the second line "....sudo apt-get install isight-firmware-tools". I gather the "IFT" program is archived and not so easily downloaded by the apt-get install command. After more fruitless efforts, I downloaded "Isight-firmware-tools_1.6" from Etienne's site, hoping to get this program to work by extracting the isight.fw firmware from AppleUSBVideoSupport. So I'm very frustrated by my poor understanding of navigating through the complexities of the Ubuntu system.
So in summary, my problem is how to download the correct version of 'Isight-firmware-tools", and how to get it to extractisight.fw and load the modified vendor and product data back into the AppleUSBVideoSupport driver. BTW the Suyin webcam operates just fine under the live CD version of Intrepid and Cheese Webcam Booth. Hope you can help - Rob

Question information

Language:: English Edit question

Status:: Solved

For:: iSight Firmware Tools Edit question

Assignee:: No assignee Edit question

Solved by:: Étienne BERSAC

Solved:: 2014-01-21

Last query:: 2014-01-21

Last reply:: 2014-01-21

Link existing bug

Revision history for this message

Étienne BERSAC (bersace) said on 2014-01-17:

Hi,

Thanks for pointing me to this question. I didn't received a notification.

IFT is a set of two tools : ift-extract and ift-load.

ift-extract sort out the firmware blob from de AppleUSBVideoDriver file. It also patches the firmware to fix some bugs in it. Especially it patches USB declaration. See source code for the list of patches.

ift-load uses libusb to inject the firmware in the device. Once the firmware boots up, the device disappears and reappear with a new Product ID. This product ID is supported by linux UVC video driver by Laurent PINCHARD.

Anyway, it looks like you confuse Apple support of PCs buit-in webcams and Linux support of Apple built-in webcams. That's totally different. And i'm not going to provide any support for Mac OS X.

Regards,
Étienne BERSAC

Revision history for this message

Rob Fincher (rfincher132) said on 2014-01-18:

Bonjour Etienne,

Thanks for your reply. It adds a bit to my understanding of what ift-extract and ift-load actually do. However, I do not know how to get the tools to function.

Could you please explain how I should proceed, now that I have downloaded from Launchpad and unzipped Isight-firmware-tools-1.6 tar.gz.

I have a folder in Ubuntu>Home>Downloads titled Isight-firmware-tools-1.6, which contains 4 folders (doc,po,src,tests) and 21 files. I also have a copy of the file AppleUSBVideoSupport on the Desktop, and a copy in /lib/firmware.

In the "doc" folder are files associated with ift-export and ift-extract. In the src folder are C source code files for export, extract, isight rules etc.

Due to my very limited knowledge of such files, I have no idea how to get ift-extract to start from Terminal using the command sudo ift-extract -a /lib/firmware/AppleUSBVideoSupport. Consequently, I cannot proceed with the remaining commands to modify the isight.fw firmware “file”. Could you please advise what to do.

By the way, I also tried another approach to download the isight-firmware-tools file, typing sudo apt-get install isight-firmware-tools in Terminal, but the file could not be found. I read that the file was only available in the Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid) repository, so I used my 8.10 Install DVD to load a live session of 8.10. The I-F-T file could not be found by this method either. Incidentally, I have DVD’s for 7.04, 8.10, 9.04, 12.10 and 13.10, but no computer on which Ubuntu is fully installed on a hard drive.

Finally, I may be confused with Apple and Linux support of built-in webcams, but I am trying to get a webcam to work on a non-Apple computer which is operating under Mac OS 10.6.8. So it is not the usual problem of trying to get a webcam to work on a genuine Apple computer running under Linux/Ubuntu.

I would be very grateful if you can get me through this exercise.

Amicalement
Rob Fincher

On 17 Jan 2014, at 11:06 pm, Étienne BERSAC <email address hidden> wrote:

> Your question #242345 on iSight Firmware Tools changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/isight-firmware-tools/+question/242345
>
> Étienne BERSAC posted a new comment:
> Hi,
>
> Thanks for pointing me to this question. I didn't received a
> notification.
>
> IFT is a set of two tools : ift-extract and ift-load.
>
> ift-extract sort out the firmware blob from de AppleUSBVideoDriver file.
> It also patches the firmware to fix some bugs in it. Especially it
> patches USB declaration. See source code for the list of patches.
>
> ift-load uses libusb to inject the firmware in the device. Once the
> firmware boots up, the device disappears and reappear with a new Product
> ID. This product ID is supported by linux UVC video driver by Laurent
> PINCHARD.
>
> Anyway, it looks like you confuse Apple support of PCs buit-in webcams
> and Linux support of Apple built-in webcams. That's totally different.
> And i'm not going to provide any support for Mac OS X.
>
> Regards,
> Étienne BERSAC
>
> --
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.

Bonjour Etienne,

Thanks for your reply. It adds a bit to my understanding of what ift-extract and ift-load actually do. However, I do not know how to get the tools to function.

Could you please explain how I should proceed, now that I have downloaded from Launchpad and unzipped Isight-firmware-tools-1.6 tar.gz.

In the "doc" folder are files associated with ift-export and ift-extract. In the src folder are C source code files for export, extract, isight rules etc.

I would be very grateful if you can get me through this exercise.

Amicalement
Rob Fincher

On 17 Jan 2014, at 11:06 pm, Étienne BERSAC <question242345@answers.launchpad.net> wrote:

> Your question #242345 on iSight Firmware Tools changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/isight-firmware-tools/+question/242345
> 
> Étienne BERSAC posted a new comment:
> Hi,
> 
> Thanks for pointing me to this question. I didn't received a
> notification.
> 
> IFT is a set of two tools : ift-extract and ift-load.
> 
> ift-extract sort out the firmware blob from de AppleUSBVideoDriver file.
> It also patches the firmware to fix some bugs in it. Especially it
> patches USB declaration. See source code for the list of patches.
> 
> ift-load uses libusb to inject the firmware in the device. Once the
> firmware boots up, the device disappears and reappear with a new Product
> ID. This product ID is supported by linux UVC video driver by Laurent
> PINCHARD.
> 
> Anyway, it looks like you confuse Apple support of PCs buit-in webcams
> and Linux support of Apple built-in webcams. That's totally different.
> And i'm not going to provide any support for Mac OS X.
> 
> Regards,
> Étienne BERSAC
> 
> -- 
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.

Revision history for this message

Rob Fincher (rfincher132) said on 2014-01-21:

Hello again Etienne,

It seems that no-one is looking at this page any more. After all, most people have moved on from old Hackintoshes, and HP Compaqs.

Could I therefore ask if you could please answer my questions, which, on the surface appear straight forward to experienced Ubuntu users.

Many thanks

Rob Fincher

On 18 Jan 2014, at 10:45 pm, Rob Fincher <email address hidden> wrote:

> Bonjour Etienne,
>
> Thanks for your reply. It adds a bit to my understanding of what ift-extract and ift-load actually do. However, I do not know how to get the tools to function.
>
> Could you please explain how I should proceed, now that I have downloaded from Launchpad and unzipped Isight-firmware-tools-1.6 tar.gz.
>
> I have a folder in Ubuntu>Home>Downloads titled Isight-firmware-tools-1.6, which contains 4 folders (doc,po,src,tests) and 21 files. I also have a copy of the file AppleUSBVideoSupport on the Desktop, and a copy in /lib/firmware.
>
> In the "doc" folder are files associated with ift-export and ift-extract. In the src folder are C source code files for export, extract, isight rules etc.
>
> Due to my very limited knowledge of such files, I have no idea how to get ift-extract to start from Terminal using the command sudo ift-extract -a /lib/firmware/AppleUSBVideoSupport. Consequently, I cannot proceed with the remaining commands to modify the isight.fw firmware “file”. Could you please advise what to do.
>
> By the way, I also tried another approach to download the isight-firmware-tools file, typing sudo apt-get install isight-firmware-tools in Terminal, but the file could not be found. I read that the file was only available in the Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid) repository, so I used my 8.10 Install DVD to load a live session of 8.10. The I-F-T file could not be found by this method either. Incidentally, I have DVD’s for 7.04, 8.10, 9.04, 12.10 and 13.10, but no computer on which Ubuntu is fully installed on a hard drive.
>
> Finally, I may be confused with Apple and Linux support of built-in webcams, but I am trying to get a webcam to work on a non-Apple computer which is operating under Mac OS 10.6.8. So it is not the usual problem of trying to get a webcam to work on a genuine Apple computer running under Linux/Ubuntu.
>
> I would be very grateful if you can get me through this exercise.
>
> Amicalement
> Rob Fincher
>
>
> On 17 Jan 2014, at 11:06 pm, Étienne BERSAC <email address hidden> wrote:
>
>> Your question #242345 on iSight Firmware Tools changed:
>> https://answers.launchpad.net/isight-firmware-tools/+question/242345
>>
>> Étienne BERSAC posted a new comment:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Thanks for pointing me to this question. I didn't received a
>> notification.
>>
>> IFT is a set of two tools : ift-extract and ift-load.
>>
>> ift-extract sort out the firmware blob from de AppleUSBVideoDriver file.
>> It also patches the firmware to fix some bugs in it. Especially it
>> patches USB declaration. See source code for the list of patches.
>>
>> ift-load uses libusb to inject the firmware in the device. Once the
>> firmware boots up, the device disappears and reappear with a new Product
>> ID. This product ID is supported by linux UVC video driver by Laurent
>> PINCHARD.
>>
>> Anyway, it looks like you confuse Apple support of PCs buit-in webcams
>> and Linux support of Apple built-in webcams. That's totally different.
>> And i'm not going to provide any support for Mac OS X.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Étienne BERSAC
>>
>> --
>> You received this question notification because you asked the question.
>

Hello again Etienne,

It seems that no-one is looking at this page any more. After all, most people have moved on from old Hackintoshes, and HP Compaqs.

Could I therefore ask if you could please answer my questions, which, on the surface appear straight forward to experienced Ubuntu users.

Many thanks

Rob Fincher

On 18 Jan 2014, at 10:45 pm, Rob Fincher <rfincher132@gmail.com> wrote:

> Bonjour Etienne,
> 
> Thanks for your reply. It adds a bit to my understanding of what ift-extract and ift-load actually do. However, I do not know how to get the tools to function.
> 
> Could you please explain how I should proceed, now that I have downloaded from Launchpad and unzipped Isight-firmware-tools-1.6 tar.gz. 
> 
> I have a folder in Ubuntu>Home>Downloads titled Isight-firmware-tools-1.6, which contains 4 folders (doc,po,src,tests) and 21 files. I also have a copy of the file AppleUSBVideoSupport on the Desktop, and a copy in /lib/firmware.
> 
> In the "doc" folder are files associated with ift-export and ift-extract. In the src folder are C source code files for export, extract, isight rules etc.
> 
> Due to my very limited knowledge of such files, I have no idea how to get ift-extract to start from Terminal using the command sudo ift-extract -a /lib/firmware/AppleUSBVideoSupport. Consequently, I cannot proceed with the remaining commands to modify the isight.fw firmware “file”. Could you please advise what to do.
> 
> By the way, I also tried another approach to download the isight-firmware-tools file, typing sudo apt-get install isight-firmware-tools in Terminal, but the file could not be found. I read that the file was only available in the Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid) repository, so I used my 8.10 Install DVD to load a live session of 8.10. The I-F-T file could not be found by this method either. Incidentally, I have DVD’s for 7.04, 8.10, 9.04, 12.10 and 13.10, but no computer on which Ubuntu is fully installed on a hard drive.
> 
> Finally, I may be confused with Apple and Linux support of built-in webcams, but I am trying to get a webcam to work on a non-Apple computer which is operating under Mac OS 10.6.8. So it is not the usual problem of trying to get a webcam to work on a genuine Apple computer running under Linux/Ubuntu.
> 
> I would be very grateful if you can get me through this exercise.
> 
> Amicalement
> Rob Fincher
> 
> 
> On 17 Jan 2014, at 11:06 pm, Étienne BERSAC <question242345@answers.launchpad.net> wrote:
> 
>> Your question #242345 on iSight Firmware Tools changed:
>> https://answers.launchpad.net/isight-firmware-tools/+question/242345
>> 
>> Étienne BERSAC posted a new comment:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> Thanks for pointing me to this question. I didn't received a
>> notification.
>> 
>> IFT is a set of two tools : ift-extract and ift-load.
>> 
>> ift-extract sort out the firmware blob from de AppleUSBVideoDriver file.
>> It also patches the firmware to fix some bugs in it. Especially it
>> patches USB declaration. See source code for the list of patches.
>> 
>> ift-load uses libusb to inject the firmware in the device. Once the
>> firmware boots up, the device disappears and reappear with a new Product
>> ID. This product ID is supported by linux UVC video driver by Laurent
>> PINCHARD.
>> 
>> Anyway, it looks like you confuse Apple support of PCs buit-in webcams
>> and Linux support of Apple built-in webcams. That's totally different.
>> And i'm not going to provide any support for Mac OS X.
>> 
>> Regards,
>> Étienne BERSAC
>> 
>> -- 
>> You received this question notification because you asked the question.
>

Revision history for this message