[Bug 2044991] Re: Intel IPU6 camera support for Dell MayaBay MLK

[You-Sheng Yang]

@Sebastien,

The upstream repository does not have semantic release tags as usually
are. The releases they have are more like milestones that mark a certain
condition. For the changes between the two releases, there are only 5
commits:

* README: Updated dependencies
* Fix compilation with kernels >= 6.6.0
* ipu6: Fix sensor driver compilation with kernels >= 6.6.0
* media: i2c: Add IVSC handshake support
* media: i2c: Fix coding issues

The thing we must have for this bug are the last two after requested to
remove 6.6 compilation support in bug 2026402.

However, in oem projects we're based on the latest LTS, currently 22.04
Jammy, and run a much recent oem kernel, currently oem-6.5 forked from
Mantic. As new platforms enabled and features requested, these out-of-
tree drivers updates frequently and massively to adopt support for new
kernel versions and new hardwares. This, however, becomes a problem that
massive changes are always disfavored by stable release team, so
ipu6-drivers/jammy will not receive updates necessary for oem-6.5
kernel, but only ipu6-drivers/mantic (before Noble is released) or
ipu6-drivers/noble do.

Therefore we're actually compiling linux-
modules-{ipu6,ivsc}-oem-22.04.d/jammy with ipu6-drivers, ivsc-driver
from Mantic instead of those from Jammy. And ipu6-drivers, ivsc-driver
dkms from Jammy do not compile against linux-oem-6.5/jammy, either. Even
they do, the supported hardware list is different from that of linux-
modules-{ipu6,ivsc}-oem-22.04.d, which is built from dkms packages from
Mantic.

And to make things worse, Intel does not keep API/ABI compatibility
between kernel and userspace HAL framework. Meaning the userspace HAL
must be of the latest release to match the kernel drivers. And we're
supposed to have only one copy of userspace HAL in Jammy after those HAL
framework being MIRed, which follows we're going to break ancient models
once done. Currently those HAL frameworks reside in a separate, per
platform, oem archive.

All these messes can only be resolved in one way: to backport the latest
drivers dkms packages to Jammy.

With that,

1. linux-modules-{ipu6,ivsc}-oem-22.04.d/jammy can be built from
ipu6-drivers/jammy directly,

2. users installed {ipu6-drivers,ivsc-driver}/jammy will get exactly the
same thing with linux-modules-{ipu6,ivsc}-oem-22.04.d/jammy,

3. userspace HAL and drivers will always match.

So, here is an attempt to check what will stable release team choose. I
would like to end Jammy users' suffering, but I need the admission.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Sponsors, which is subscribed to the bug report.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2044991

Title:
  Intel IPU6 camera support for Dell MayaBay MLK

Status in HWE Next:
  New
Status in ipu6-drivers package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in ivsc-driver package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in ipu6-drivers source package in Mantic:
  Incomplete
Status in ivsc-driver source package in Mantic:
  Incomplete
Status in ipu6-drivers source package in Noble:
  Fix Released
Status in ivsc-driver source package in Noble:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  [SRU Justification]

  [Impact]

  Missing Intel MIPI firmware for Intel IPU6 camera support for Dell
  MayaBay MLK.

  [Fix]

  Upstream release for support of ivsc in two additional camera sensors:
  * https://github.com/intel/ipu6-drivers/tree/Release_20231127
  * https://github.com/intel/ivsc-driver/tree/Release_20231127

  [Test Case]

  This is verified on MTL VSC platforms, as well as previous generations
  e.g. TGL and ADL.

  To actually verify the camera framework:
  ```
  # enable mantic-proposed, update the kernel, make sure you get 6.5.0-14.14
  # reboot into the 6.5.0-14.14 kernel
  $ sudo apt install intel-ipu6-dkms intel-vsc-dkms
  $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oem-solutions-group/intel-ipu6 -y -u
  $ sudo apt install gstreamer1.0-icamera v4l2-relayd
  ```
  In the above steps, make sure that only gstreamer1.0-icamera, v4l2-relayd, and their dependencies, are fetched from the oem-solutions-group PPA. Everything else must come from the mantic archive.

  And then browse https://webcamtests.com/ for testing.

  [Where problems could occur]

  This is a new platform with new combination of camera hardware. We've
  been verifying its functions and features to make sure it meets
  mandatory quality and stability, but it may still take updates for
  further tuning.

  [Other Info]

  While Intel Meteor Lake is only supported by linux-oem-6.5/jammy, and
  we're compiling linux-modules-{ipu6,ivsc} from dkms packages of
  Mantic, Noble/Mantic are therefore nominated.

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/hwe-next/+bug/2044991/+subscriptions