Webcam not working on Huawei MateBook Pro (VGHH-XX) - Intel Core Ultra 7 155H

[abbood]

System Information

Laptop Model: Huawei MateBook Pro VGHH-XX
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) Ultra 7 155H
BIOS Version: 1.18
Distribution: Arch Linux (Omarchy)
Kernel: 6.17.9-arch1-1
Display Manager: Wayland/Hyprland

Camera Hardware

Detected ACPI Devices:

OVTI01AS:00 - OmniVision OV01A1S (1MP IR camera, likely Windows Hello)
OVTI13B1:00 - OmniVision OV13B10 (13MP main camera)

ACPI Status:

$ cat /sys/bus/acpi/devices/OVTI*/status
0
0

Both cameras show status 0 (disabled), despite Camera Enable being ON in BIOS.

INT3472 PMIC Devices: 19 detected (INT3472:00 through INT3472:12)

IPU6 Status

$ sudo dmesg | grep -i ipu6
[    2.XXXXXX] intel-ipu6 0000:00:05.0: IPU6 in secure mode

Media Controller Topology:

• 6 CSI-2 interfaces (Intel IPU6 CSI2 0-5)
• 48 capture devices (/dev/video0 through /dev/video47)
• All configured for SGRBG10_1X10/4096x3072 (raw Bayer format)

$ media-ctl -d /dev/media0 -p
# Shows 6 CSI-2 receivers, each with 8 output pads
# No sensor devices connected to any CSI-2 sink pads

libcamera Status:

$ cam -l
[17:51:51.162905235] [2443340]  INFO SimplePipeline simple.cpp:1686 No sensor found for /dev/media0
Available cameras:

Installed Packages

intel-ipu6-camera-bin r92.30e8766-1
intel-ipu6-dkms-git r245.69b2fde9e-1
intel-ipu6ep-camera-hal-git r126.c933525-1
intel-ipu6ep-camera-hal-git-debug r126.c933525-1
libcamera 0.5.2-1
libcamera-ipa 0.5.2-1
libcamera-tools 0.5.2-1

Loaded Kernel Modules

$ lsmod | grep -E "ipu6|ov|imx"
overlay               245760  0
intel_ipu6_psys       114688  0
intel_ipu6_isys       143360  0
v4l2_fwnode            36864  1 intel_ipu6_isys
videobuf2_dma_sg       24576  1 intel_ipu6_isys
videobuf2_v4l2         40960  2 intel_ipu6_isys,uvcvideo
videobuf2_common       94208  6 videobuf2_vmalloc,videobuf2_v4l2,intel_ipu6_isys,uvcvideo,videobuf2_dma_sg,videobuf2_memops
v4l2_async             32768  2 v4l2_fwnode,intel_ipu6_isys
videodev              401408  5 v4l2_async,v4l2_fwnode,videobuf2_v4l2,intel_ipu6_isys,uvcvideo
mc                     90112  7 v4l2_async,videodev,snd_usb_audio,videobuf2_v4l2,intel_ipu6_isys,uvcvideo,videobuf2_common
intel_ipu6             86016  2 intel_ipu6_isys,intel_ipu6_psys
ipu_bridge             24576  2 intel_ipu6,intel_ipu6_isys
pmt_discovery          16384  1 pmt_telemetry
pmt_class              20480  2 pmt_telemetry,pmt_discovery

Note: No OmniVision sensor modules (ov13b10, ov01a10, etc.) are loaded, despite being available in the kernel.

Available Sensor Modules

$ find /lib/modules/$(uname -r) -name "ov*.ko*" -o -name "imx*.ko*" | grep camera
# Multiple OV and IMX sensor modules available including:
# ov01a10.ko.zst
# ov13b10.ko.zst (matches OVTI13B1)
# imx258.ko.zst
# etc.

Manual modprobe ov13b10 loads successfully but produces no dmesg output and doesn't bind to ACPI devices.

I2C Bus Status

$ ls /sys/bus/i2c/devices/
# Multiple i2c buses (i2c-0 through i2c-20)
# No OmniVision camera devices present
# Expected devices like i2c-OVTI13B1:00 or i2c-OVTI01AS:00 are missing

The ACPI camera devices exist but are not bridged to I2C - no physical_node links or I2C device bindings.

BIOS Settings

Advanced → Camera Enable: ON (blue toggle, enabled)

This confirms the hardware is not disabled at BIOS level.

Troubleshooting Attempts

1. ACPI OSI Override

Attempted to force Windows ACPI behavior:

Kernel Parameter Tested: acpi_osi=Windows 2020

Result: No change - ACPI status remained 0 for both cameras.

Rationale: Huawei's ACPI firmware might enable camera devices only when Windows OS is detected. This approach works on some laptops but did not affect the OVTI devices.

2. Manual Sensor Module Loading

$ sudo modprobe ov13b10
$ sudo modprobe ov01a10
$ dmesg | tail -20
# No new messages - modules loaded but didn't bind to any devices

3. I2C Device Detection

No camera sensors appear on any I2C bus, suggesting ipu_bridge is not creating the necessary I2C client devices from ACPI.

Root Cause Analysis

The fundamental issue: ipu_bridge module is loaded but failing to:

1. Parse the ACPI SSDB (Sensor Static Database) entries for OVTI01AS and OVTI13B1
2. Create I2C client devices for these sensors
3. Bind the appropriate sensor drivers (ov01a10/ov13b10) to them
4. Connect them to IPU6 CSI-2 interfaces

Evidence:

• ACPI devices exist (OVTI01AS:00, OVTI13B1:00) with status=0
• 19 INT3472 PMIC devices detected (camera power management)
• IPU6 CSI-2 receivers initialized and ready
• Sensor drivers available but not loaded/bound
• No I2C device bindings created
• libcamera reports "No sensor found"

Hypothesis: Huawei's ACPI implementation either:

• Uses non-standard SSDB format that ipu_bridge can't parse
• Requires specific ACPI methods to be called before exposing sensors
• Has ACPI status set incorrectly (status=0 instead of 15)
• Needs vendor-specific quirks/workarounds

Similar Issues

This appears similar to other laptop manufacturers with IPU6 cameras where ACPI tables don't follow Intel's reference implementation (e.g., certain Dell, Samsung, ASUS models).

Questions

1. Does ipu_bridge support the ACPI format used by Huawei MateBook Pro? Are there known quirks needed?

2. Why do ACPI devices show status=0 despite BIOS having Camera Enable=ON? Is there an ACPI method that needs to be called to enable them?

3. Can we manually force I2C device creation? Is there a way to bypass ipu_bridge and manually create I2C clients for the sensors?

4. Should we expect dmesg errors from ipu_bridge? Currently there are no error messages, just silent failure to create devices.

5. Is there a way to dump/inspect the ACPI SSDB data to verify it exists and is correctly formatted?

Logs Available

I can provide:

• Full dmesg output
• Complete /proc/acpi dump
• ACPI DSDT/SSDT tables (extracted via acpidump)
• Detailed media-ctl topology
• Any other diagnostic output needed

Expected Behavior

• ACPI devices should show status=15 (enabled)
• ipu_bridge should create I2C devices (i2c-OVTI13B1:00, i2c-OVTI01AS:00)
• Sensor modules should auto-load and bind
• libcamera should detect cameras
• Applications like Chromium should be able to access camera

Workaround

Currently using external USB webcam as a temporary solution.

---

Any guidance on debugging this further or information needed to add Huawei MateBook Pro support would be greatly appreciated!

[yegor-alexeyev]

#272
That issue is for the same laptop (HUAWEI MateBook X Pro 2024 VGHH-XX). Interestingly, it mentions the another camera sensor(GC2607)

I also have VGHH-XX and both GCTI2607:00 and OVTI13B1(and OVTI01AS) nodes are present in ACPI /sys/devices tree.

What can this mean? Same model can use different OEM sensors and acpi firmware is supporting both? How to tell which one is really installed?

Hope it's helpful.

[abbood]

Update: Confirmed GC2607 Sensor on MateBook Pro VGHH-XX

Thanks @yegor-alexeyev for pointing me to the GC2607 driver! I can confirm my laptop has the GC2607 sensor, not the OmniVision sensors I originally thought.

Hardware Detection Results

# ACPI device exists and is ENABLED
$ cat /sys/bus/acpi/devices/GCTI2607*/status
15

# I2C device successfully created by ipu_bridge
$ ls /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:19.1/i2c_designware.5/i2c-5/i2c-GCTI2607:00
modalias  name  firmware_node  [...]

$ cat .../i2c-GCTI2607:00/modalias
acpi:GCTI2607:GCTI2607:

$ cat .../i2c-GCTI2607:00/name  
GCTI2607:00

PMIC Status

# INT3472 PMIC driver loaded and bound
$ lsmod | grep int3472
intel_skl_int3472_discrete    28672  0
intel_skl_int3472_common      16384  2

# Privacy LED exists but camera is unpowered (brightness=0)
$ cat /sys/devices/pci0000:00/INT3472:01/leds/GCTI2607_00::privacy_led/brightness
0

I2C Bus Status

# I2C bus exists but sensor doesn't respond (because it's unpowered)
$ sudo i2cdetect -y -r 5
     0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  a  b  c  d  e  f
00:                         -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
10: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
[all addresses show -- (no response)]

What This Means

Unlike the OmniVision sensors (which had status=0 and weren't detected at all), the GC2607 sensor is:

• ✅ Enabled in ACPI (status=15)
• ✅ Successfully bound to I2C bus 5 by ipu_bridge
• ✅ PMIC driver loaded and ready
• ❌ Just missing the sensor kernel driver

The sensor doesn't respond on I2C because it's unpowered - the PMIC only powers the camera when a proper V4L2 driver binds to it.

The Ask

You mentioned the GC2607 driver exists for MIPS/T41 platform. Would you be willing to help port this driver to work with:

• Linux V4L2 subsystem (instead of T41-specific APIs)
• Intel IPU6 camera stack
• INT3472 PMIC framework
• Modalias matching for acpi:GCTI2607:GCTI2607:

All the infrastructure is ready - we literally just need the sensor driver to complete the stack. If you're interested in helping with this, I'm happy to test any code and provide logs/debugging info.

Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction!

[abbood]

ok @yegor-alexeyev i've been working on it myself all night.. i got the camera to work! it's not perfect but huge progress!

here is the github repo with all my work and summary: https://github.com/abbood/gc2607-v4l2-driver

happy to hear your feedback if you got any. Disclaimer: this is 100% claude code work i just did the prompting lol

[yegor-alexeyev]

Hi! That's a very nice news.
I rebuild the kernel with patched ipu_bridge, but can't get a image from camera.
I am doing insmod, setting up pipeline and getting error:
l2-ctl -d /dev/video0 --stream-mmap --stream-count=1 --stream-to=capture.raw

	VIDIOC_STREAMON returned -1 (Broken pipe)

I checked, if camera works at all. It is, Windows captures video
without problem.

May be I should try with your kernel version..
Now I tried with latest 6.18.3.

[yegor-alexeyev]

Update: I reproduced your state of work and got a photo from camera(very dark)
I needed to setup pipeline format additionily to achieve this:
media-ctl -d /dev/media0 --set-v4l2 "'gc2607 5-0037':0 [fmt:SGRBG10_1X10/1920x1080 field:none]" --verbose

[abbood]

yeah i found the camera very dark at first and grainy.. i'm still playing with the settings

[abbood]

@yegor-alexeyev I update the repo with some instructions on how to improve exposure/gain and connect the cam to obs studio https://github.com/abbood/gc2607-v4l2-driver

note: i'm still not happy with the final outcome.. but it's better than the initial state at least (extremely dark).. it's a wip

[abbood]

i'm still making improvements:

[yegor-alexeyev]

GC2607 CSP 模组设计指南 Preliminary V0.1.pdf
GC2607 CSP Datasheet Preliminary V0.1_20220120.pdf

I found datasheet and usage notes for GC2607 sensor. Can be useful to find right values for configuration.

[abbood]

good find! things are a lot better but still need improvement, so far this is what i have (comparing the laptop camera vs phone camera)

[yegor-alexeyev]

I am not expert, but this looks like a valid raw image from sensor.
Rest may be handled by postprocessing.
For example halo is removed by applying sensor matrix coefficients to the raw image, this way brightness becomes uniform.

[abbood]

still working on it, this is what i have so far