ai-rpi-cam

Custom build of rpicam-apps which contains an extra app for interfacing with libwallaby.

Pi Zero 2W Setup

If you wish to skip this step, you can simply flash the Pi with the latest image from the releases. The one labeled gadget has:

• Gadget mode already enabled.
• rpicam-apps-core and rpicam-apps removed.
• Fully updated as of 11-18-2025.

You can also use the image labeled gadget_rpicam, which has all of the above, along with rpicam-kipr installed.

First, flash trixie-lite with the official raspberry pi imager. Then, enable gadget mode (instructions taken from this guide)

1. Append the following to /boot/config.txt:

dtoverlay=dwc2

2. Find and remove or comment out:

otg_mode=1

3. Edit /boot/cmdline.txt by inserting the following text between rootwait and quiet:

modules-load=dwc2,g_ether g_ether.dev_addr=12:34:56:78:9a:bc g_ether.host_addr=16:23:45:78:9a:bc

4. Create a new udev rule file. Create /etc/udev/rules.d/90-usb-gadget.rules and insert the following:

SUBSYSTEM=="net",ACTION=="add",KERNEL=="usb0",RUN+="/sbin/ifconfig usb0 192.168.1.2 netmask 255.255.255.0",RUN+="/usr/bin/python -c 'import time; time.sleep(20)'",RUN+="/sbin/ip route add 192.168.1.1 dev usb0"

5. (Optional) Edit /etc/sysctl.conf and append the following line to the end of the file (this allows normal mode, when not a gadget):

net.ipv4.conf.all.ignore_routes_with_linkdown=1

Boot the Pi and wait for it to finish initial setup. Once done, ssh into the Pi either over the network or over gadget mode (ssh [email protected]). Remove the old rpicam-apps and update:

sudo apt purge -y rpicam-apps-core rpicam-apps && sudo apt autoremove -y --purge && sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y
sudo reboot

Installation

Check the releases for a pre-built .deb file. If you want to build from scratch, read on.

Docker cross-compilation (recommended)

Pull the sysroot with git LFS. It is over a gigabyte, so it may take a while.

git lfs pull

Ensure that you have Docker installed and set up for your user. From the root of this repo run:

./build.sh

It will place all logs and build artifacts in an out directory. You can then copy out/rpicam-apps-kipr.deb to a Trixie-based Raspberry Pi OS and install:

sudo apt install ./rpicam-apps-kipr.deb

Local build on a Pi

Install build dependencies:

sudo apt install -y git meson libcamera-dev libboost-all-dev libswscale-dev libavcodec-dev libavdevice-dev libexif-dev libjpeg-dev libtiff5-dev libpng-dev libopencv-dev libdrm-dev cmake libexif-dev liblapack-dev libblas-dev libarmadillo-dev

Then compile and install with meson:

Tip

When compiling on a memory constrained like a Pi, consider adding -j1 to the compile command to reduce the chances of build failure due to running out of memory. If it still fails, consider using the Docker build procedure.

meson setup build --prefix /usr -Denable_libav=enabled -Denable_drm=disabled -Denable_egl=disabled -Denable_qt=disabled -Denable_opencv=enabled -Denable_tflite=disabled -Denable_hailo=disabled -Denable_imx500=true -Ddownload_imx500_models=true
meson compile -C build
sudo meson install -C build

Running

You can run the rpicam-kipr app manually like this:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/librpicam_app.so rpicam-kipr -o udp://192.168.1.1:9000 --post-process-file /usr/share/rpi-camera-assets/kipr_mobilenet_ssd.json -t0

Debugging With systemd

If you installed from the .deb package, rpicam-kipr is automatically started at boot as a systemd unit. You can view a unit's logs by running:

sudo journalctl -b -f -u <service-name>.service

So, for rpicam-kipr:

sudo journalctl -b -f -u rpicam-kipr.service

Flags:

• -b: Only show logs from current boot.
• -f: Emulates tail -f with a continuous stream.
• -u UNIT: Only view logs for UNIT, rather than viewing logs for everything systemd is tracking.

See man journalctl for more info.

You can also list everything systemd is currently tracking by running:

systemctl

Generally the entries suffixed with .service are the most pertinent.

License

The original rpicam-apps is made available under the simplified BSD 2-Clause license.

All changes made by KIPR and KIPR volunteers are licensed under the terms of the GPLv3 License.