Fixing LIBUSB_ERROR_IO in OpenKinect‐libfreenect (Kinect LED Initialization Issue) Python Wrapper Setup

📌 Fixing LIBUSB_ERROR_IO in OpenKinect-libfreenect (Kinect LED Initialization Issue) + Python Wrapper Setup

While setting up OpenKinect libfreenect on Linux, I encountered the following blocking error:

Failed to set the LED of K4W or 1473 device: LIBUSB_ERROR_IO

Additionally, the default Python wrapper inside libfreenect/wrappers/python produced compatibility issues with modern Python environments.

This guide documents the complete working setup process, including:

1. Installing dependencies
2. Building libfreenect from source
3. Fixing the K4W / Device 1473 LED initialization error
4. Manually adding missing audio.bin firmware
5. Configuring udev rules for non-root access
6. Fixing and installing the Python wrapper using setuptools + Cython3

---

Root Cause of the Error

The error:

Failed to set the LED of K4W or 1473 device: LIBUSB_ERROR_IO

typically happens because the required Kinect audio firmware (audio.bin) is missing from the expected installation path.

Running the firmware fetch script and copying the binary manually resolves the issue.

---

Python Wrapper Fix

The original Python wrapper shipped with libfreenect may fail on modern Linux systems due to:

• deprecated distutils usage
• outdated build configuration
• missing NumPy include handling
• compatibility issues with newer Cython versions

Updating setup.py to use setuptools + cython3 fixes these issues and enables successful installation.

---

Tested Environment

This setup was verified on:

• Ubuntu (24.04 LTS)
• Python 3.x
• Kinect for Windows (Device 1473)
• OpenKinect libfreenect (source build)

---

Result

After applying these fixes:

✔ Kinect initializes correctly ✔ LED error disappears ✔ Audio firmware loads properly ✔ Camera + depth streams work ✔ Python wrapper imports successfully

Example test commands:

freenect-glview
freenect-camtest
freenect-micview

---

Steps :

Installing Freenect

1. Make sure the machine is up to date.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

2. Install the necessary dependancies

sudo apt-get install git-core cmake freeglut3-dev pkg-config build-essential libxmu-dev libxi-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev

3. Clone the libfreenect project to the machine.

git clone https://github.com/OpenKinect/libfreenect

4. Now install libfreenect

cd libfreenect
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -L ..
make
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig /usr/local/lib64/

5. To use kinect as a non-root user, do the following

sudo adduser $USER video
sudo adduser $USER plugdev

6. Make a rule for linux device manager

sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/51-kinect.rules

Add the following to the file:

# ATTR{product}=="Xbox NUI Motor"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="045e", ATTR{idProduct}=="02b0", MODE="0666"
# ATTR{product}=="Xbox NUI Audio"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="045e", ATTR{idProduct}=="02ad", MODE="0666"
# ATTR{product}=="Xbox NUI Camera"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="045e", ATTR{idProduct}=="02ae", MODE="0666"
# ATTR{product}=="Xbox NUI Motor"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="045e", ATTR{idProduct}=="02c2", MODE="0666"
# ATTR{product}=="Xbox NUI Motor"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="045e", ATTR{idProduct}=="02be", MODE="0666"
# ATTR{product}=="Xbox NUI Motor"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="045e", ATTR{idProduct}=="02bf", MODE="0666"

7. "Failed to set the LED of K4W or 1473 device: LIBUSB_ERROR_IO" was a fatal error we faced. To rectify the error, we need to add audios. bin manually.

cd libfreeconnect(or use this           cd ~/libfreenect)

python3 ./src/fwfetcher.py

This will add the audio.bin file to the libfreenect/src folder. Move it to the installed libfreeconnect library location.

sudo mv ./audios.bin /usr/local/share/libfreenect/

8. Build again

cd ..
cd build
sudo make install

9. To test the intallation, try running these commands

freenect-micview
freenect-camtest 
freenect-glview

Python Wrapper - Make freenect work with python

1. Install Libraries

sudo apt-get install cython3
sudo apt-get install python-dev-is-python3
sudo apt-get install python3-numpy

2. Modify setup.py file in the directory .../libfreenect/wrappers/python. Change the content to work with setup-tools, cython3.

#!/usr/bin/env python
from setuptools import setup, Extension
import re
import numpy as np


def get_cython_version():
    """
    Returns:
        Version as a pair of ints (major, minor)

    Raises:
        ImportError: Can't load cython or find version
    """
    import Cython

    try:
        # old way, fails for me
        version = Cython.__version__
    except AttributeError:
        version = Cython.Compiler.Main.version

    match = re.search('^([0-9]+)\.([0-9]+)', version)
    try:
        return [int(g) for g in match.groups()]
    except AttributeError:
        raise ImportError

# Only use Cython if it is available, else just use the pre-generated files
try:
    cython_version = get_cython_version()
    # Requires Cython version 0.13 and up
    if cython_version[0] == 0 and cython_version[1] < 13:
        raise ImportError
    from Cython.Distutils import build_ext
    source_ext = '.pyx'
    cmdclass = {'build_ext': build_ext}
except ImportError:
    source_ext = '.c'
    cmdclass = {}


ext_modules = [Extension("freenect", ["freenect" + source_ext],
                         libraries=['usb-1.0', 'freenect', 'freenect_sync'],
                         runtime_library_dirs=['/usr/local/lib',
                                               '/usr/local/lib64',
                                               '/usr/lib/'],
                         extra_compile_args=['-fPIC', '-I', '../../include/',
                                             '-I', '/usr/include/libusb-1.0/',
                                             '-I', '/usr/local/include/libusb-1.0',
                                             '-I', '/usr/local/include',
                                             '-I', '../c_sync/',
                                             '-I', np.get_include()])]
setup(name='freenect',
      cmdclass=cmdclass,
      ext_modules=ext_modules)

3. Install

sudo python setup.py install

Happy coding!