The short answer is no.
If you have the skills and desire to make OpenIPC to work on the new hardware, we can share the knowledge we have. If not, get yourself a supported camera.
Most of the time you can't. Especially if it is a cheap Chinese clone of a clone of a rebranded camera. For reputable name brands that go through certification of the hardware, there is a chance to look at the inside the camera in the certification documents. Look for the FCC ID on the camera's box or case and then look it up in the FCC ID database.
- Amazon server support
- QR code recognition support (basic)
- iptables support (firewall)
- ZeroTier tunnel support
- MQTT (telemetry) support
- WiFi support (there are no drivers for network cards)
- lame (mp3) and libwebsockets support
- experimental WebRTC support (only recent Hisi/Goke)
The Firmware repository is the basis of the OpenIPC project and contains universal basic configurations for devices, regardless of the device manufacturer and usually contains many drivers for sensors, i.e. it is universal.
The Builder repository is a system that uses the basic Firmware repository when assembling firmware, while adding profiles for specific devices from manufacturers and usually already has presets for all GPIOs, contains the necessary WiFi drivers and contains only those sensor drivers that are used in a given model.
Sometimes vendor's firmware consists of binary images intended for use with U-Boot image loader and prepended with headers in U-Boot Image wrapper format. The header should be stripped off before you can use such an image as a raw binary file. Here's how you can strip the first 64 bytes from a file:
dd if=inputfile.img of=outputfile.bin bs=64 skip=1alternatively
tail -c +65 inputfile.img > outputfile.binThere is a handful of ways to get access to a locked bootloader shell
Sometimes improper settings make the camera unstable to the point where it is impossible to log in or not enough time before rebooting to fix the settings. Here's how to completely erase the overlay partition in the OpenIPC firmware, right from the bootloader shell, to bring the camera back to its pristine state:
only for 8MB flash partitioning
sf probe 0; sf erase 0x750000 0xb0000; reset
only for 16MB flash partitioning
sf probe 0; sf erase 0xd50000 0x2b0000; reset
ssh root@<camera_ip_address>
There is 12345 password by default.
Open http://<camera_ip_address> and sign in using default username root and default password 12345. You will be asked to change the password after successful login.
Please note, it will also change your ssh root password!
Create a serial connection to the camera using a UART adapter and a terminal program. After turning on the camera, press Ctrl-C to interrupt the boot sequence and enter the bootloader shell.
For a camera with 8MB flash chip, run
sf probe 0; sf erase 0x750000 0xb0000; resetFor a camera with 16MB flash chip, run
sf probe 0; sf erase 0xd50000 0x2b0000; resetSee seperate wiki page here
Sign in on camera via ssh and run ipctool.
You don't see it because initially it is not there, but there is a shell command of the same name.
(Since it's a shell command, it won't work from Web Console in web UI. Sign in to the camera via SSH and run the command in there.)
When you run this command, the latest available version of ipctool utility
gets downloaded into /tmp/ directory and runs from there. Since the utility
resides in /tmp/, it won't survive a reboot, thus won't take any useful space
on the camera afterwards.
If you need to know what is in the command, search for ipctool in the
/etc/profile file.
Commands are executed separately by each line with a wait for the end of execution. The full name of the replacement bootloader and its availability can be checked here
Before running the commands, don't forget to enter the correct bootloader name!
FILE=u-boot-SOC-TYPE.bin
curl -k -L https://github.com/OpenIPC/firmware/releases/download/latest/${FILE} -o /tmp/${FILE}
flashcp -v /tmp/${FILE} /dev/mtd0
flash_eraseall /dev/mtd1
Save wireless credentials:
FILE=/usr/share/openipc/wireless.sh
echo "#!/bin/sh" > ${FILE}
echo "fw_setenv wlandev $(fw_printenv -n wlandev)" >> ${FILE}
echo "fw_setenv wlanssid $(fw_printenv -n wlanssid)" >> ${FILE}
echo "fw_setenv wlanpass $(fw_printenv -n wlanpass)" >> ${FILE}
chmod 755 ${FILE}
Commands are executed separately by each line with a wait for the end of execution. The first command updates a utility whose algorithm was changed in February 2023. If you need to update the utility on T31 processors, please add the -mips suffix to the URL of the downloaded utility. The second command updates the firmware components themselves.
curl -L -o /tmp/ipcinfo https://github.com/OpenIPC/ipctool/releases/download/latest/ipcinfo && chmod +x /tmp/ipcinfo; /tmp/ipcinfo -csF
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenIPC/firmware/master/general/overlay/usr/sbin/sysupgrade | sh -s -- -k -r -n
On Ingenic and Sigmastar it is possible to split the ultimate rootfs.squashfs and flash it to the rootfs (mtd3) and overlay (mtd4) partition.
dd if=rootfs.squashfs of=mtd3.bin bs=1k count=5120
dd if=rootfs.squashfs of=mtd4.bin bs=1k skip=5120
flashcp mtd3.bin /dev/mtd3 -v
flashcp mtd4.bin /dev/mtd4 -v
This could work if you are lucky, you gained access into Linux shell on stock firmware, and it does support NFS mounting:
fw=$(mktemp -t)
nfs=$(dirname $fw)/nfs
mkdir -p $nfs
mount -t nfs -o tcp,nolock 192.168.1.123:/path/to/nfs/share $nfs
cat /dev/mtdblock? > $fw
mv $fw ${nfs}/firmware_full.binMake sure to use your own IP address and path to the NFS share!
strings dumpfile.bin | grep ^ethaddrTo build an image to upload via TFTP or a programmer, you will need several components:
- U-Boot bootloader for your device type
- Linux kernel taken from the firmware archive
- root file system in squashfs format taken from the firmware archive
You can use either the full build script from the Firmware archive: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenIPC/firmware/refs/heads/master/general/scripts/repack_firmware.sh
Or its simplified copy with an example here:
#!/bin/sh
uboot=u-boot-ssc338q-nor.bin # Get from https://github.com/OpenIPC/firmware/releases/download/latest/u-boot-ssc338q-nor.bin
kernel=uImage.ssc338q # Get from https://github.com/OpenIPC/builder/releases/download/latest/ssc338q_fpv_openipc-urllc-aio-nor.tgz
rootfs=rootfs.squashfs.ssc338q # Get from https://github.com/OpenIPC/builder/releases/download/latest/ssc338q_fpv_openipc-urllc-aio-nor.tgz
output=fullflash-openipc-ssc338q-openipc-fpv-nor.bin
dd if=/dev/zero bs=1K count=5000 status=none | tr '\000' '\377' > ${output}
dd if=${uboot} of=${output} bs=1K seek=0 conv=notrunc status=none
dd if=${kernel} of=${output} bs=1K seek=320 conv=notrunc status=none
dd if=${rootfs} of=${output} bs=1K seek=2368 conv=notrunc status=nonePlease note that this method is currently only suitable for SigmaStar and Ingenic devices in which the SD card is initialized in the bootloader.
Download the files of the firmware you need, unzip them, put them on the SD card. Also put the file with instructions for the U-Boot bootloader on the SD card. You can take my ready-made file or create your own in Linux using the mkimage command:
echo -e "setenv updatetool fatload mmc 0\nrun uknor\nrun urnor" >./bootcmd.txt
mkimage -A arm -T script -d ./bootcmd.txt ./boot.scrThe principle of operation is very simple: at startup, the bootloader searches for a file with commands on the SD card, if it is found, the commands will be executed and the device will be flashed. In this example, this is firmware from the SD card, but no one forbids modifying the script for advanced functions and introducing new variables, such as WiFi settings, and other things that we use now in the any firmware.
Enable and configure Core Dump in the menu Majestic > Majestic Debugging.
You need to specify GPIO pins to control the infrared filter. Settings for some cameras can be found in this table. If your camera is not in the table then you need to use ipctool utility.
The OpenIPC firmware will automatically download the latest version of the
utility to the /tmp directory when ipctool is invoked first time.
On stock firmware, you will need to download the utility to the camera yourself using any tools available in the system: wget, curl, tftp etc.
For example, download the ipctool utility to TFTP server on the local network, then download it to the camera:
tftp -g -r ipctool -l /tmp/ipctool 192.168.1.1
chmod +x /tmp/ipctool
/tmp/ipctoolIf the camera has access to the internet, you can try to mount a public NFS sharing and run the utility from it, without downloading to the camera:
mkdir -p /tmp/utils
mount -o nolock 95.217.179.189:/srv/ro /tmp/utils/
/tmp/utils/ipctoolAfter the utility is downloaded to the camera, run the ipctool gpio scan
command in the terminal and open-close the camera lens a couple of times with
your palm.
Watch the output of ipctool to determine the pins responsible for controlling the IR filter curtain.
Enter the values obtained in the settings for the night mode Majestic. If the pink tint still persists, you may need to enable sensor signal inversion.
Don't forget to add the camera model and found GPIO values to the table!
instead of the current sample_af in the standard /metrics?
No, this is a difficult algorithm, it does not have a sense to run it this way.
Sometimes you need to transfer files to the camera. In addition to the above
method using NFS (Network File System) you can use the standard Linux scp
command to copy files over an SSH connection:
scp ~/myfile root@192.168.1.65:/tmp/This command will copy myfile from the home directory to the /tmp/
directory on the camera.
On recent Linux systems the following error may occur:
sh: /usr/libexec/sftp-server: not found
scp: Connection closedIn this case, add -O option to the command:
scp -O ~/myfile root@192.168.1.65:/tmp/