Firefly MV / dc1394 setup

Architecture overview — project: cbicari/firefly-mv-dc1394-setup

Purpose

This project sets up a Point Grey Firefly MV (FMVU series) IIDC/DCAM machine-vision camera on Ubuntu (24.04/26.04), so it can be:

accessed as a normal (non-root) user, and
used like an ordinary V4L2 webcam by regular applications (Cheese, a browser, VLC, etc.), even though it natively speaks the IIDC/DCAM protocol rather than V4L2.

Everything is driven by a single idempotent script, install.sh, which can be safely re-run.

Repository layout

Path	Role
`install.sh`	Orchestrates the whole setup: packages, udev rule, group membership, kernel module, build of the test tool
`udev/99-pointgrey-dc1394.rules`	udev rule granting non-root USB access to the camera
`config/v4l2loopback.conf`	Module options for v4l2loopback (device name, index, etc.)
`config/v4l2loopback-load.conf`	Ensures the module loads automatically at boot
`tools/dc1394_grab_test.c`	Small C program using libdc1394 to enumerate/grab frames directly, for testing
`tools/start_virtual_cam.sh`	Starts the GStreamer bridge that feeds frames into the virtual camera device
`camera_hardware.md`	Notes on the physical camera hardware

Architecture

The setup creates two parallel paths once the camera is plugged in and the udev rule is active.

1. Hardware access layer

The camera enumerates as a USB device. The udev rule (99-pointgrey-dc1394.rules) sets permissions so that any user in the plugdev group can open the device without sudo. install.sh copies this rule into /etc/udev/rules.d/, reloads udev, and adds the invoking user to plugdev.

2. Direct/test path (libdc1394)

dc1394_grab_test.c is compiled against libdc1394-2 and used to confirm the camera is visible and can deliver frames, independent of any virtual-camera machinery. This is the quickest way to sanity-check the hardware and udev setup.

3. Virtual webcam path (GStreamer + v4l2loopback)

v4l2loopback is a kernel module (built via DKMS) that creates a fake V4L2 device, here exposed as /dev/video10 and named "Firefly MV Virtual Camera". Its behavior (device name/index) is set through config/v4l2loopback.conf, and config/v4l2loopback-load.conf makes sure it is loaded at boot.
tools/start_virtual_cam.sh runs a GStreamer pipeline that reads frames from the physical camera and writes them into the v4l2loopback device.
Once running, /dev/video10 behaves like any standard webcam, so ordinary V4L2-aware applications can select and use it without knowing anything about IIDC/DCAM or libdc1394.

Installation flow (install.sh)

Install required packages (libdc1394-dev, libusb-1.0-0-dev, v4l2loopback-dkms, GStreamer plugins, etc.).
Install the udev rule and reload/trigger udev.
Add the current user to the plugdev group.
Install v4l2loopback module configuration files.
Build v4l2loopback for the running kernel via dkms autoinstall.
Load the v4l2loopback module.
Compile dc1394_grab_test.
Verify that /dev/video10 ("Firefly MV Virtual Camera") is present.

Typical usage after install

# Raw capture test via libdc1394
./tools/dc1394_grab_test 5

# Start the virtual webcam bridge (Ctrl+C to stop)
./tools/start_virtual_cam.sh

Then open Cheese, a browser's camera picker, or vlc v4l2:///dev/video10, and select "Firefly MV Virtual Camera".

Notes

A reboot or unplug/replug may be required the first time, for the udev rule and plugdev group membership to take full effect.
If dkms autoinstall fails (e.g. missing matching linux-headers on a custom kernel), matching headers must be installed manually and v4l2loopback re-installed for that kernel version.