MacBook Air 2013 MX23 - Help with Webcam

[rob2cv]

I have been given a redundant MacBook Air which is no longer supported by Apple.
I have never used MacOS but I have managed to install the latest version of MX and the machine runs well apart from a couple of niggling things. One is that the "comma" key is not functional (excuse my punctuation in advance!) the other is that the web camera is not working. I'm sure that the "comma" key is a physical problem.

Can anyone offer any advice to get the webcam working?
Thank you in anticipation.
(-:

Code: Select all

Snapshot created on: 20231215_1232
System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-17-amd64 [6.1.69-1] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-17-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.36 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.18.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.26.0 Distro: MX-23.2_x64 Libretto December 15  2023 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Apple product: MacBookAir6,2 v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required> Chassis:
    type: 10 v: Mac-7DF21CB3ED6977E5 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Apple model: Mac-7DF21CB3ED6977E5 v: MacBookAir6,2 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: Apple v: 120.0.0.0.0 date: 02/05/2020
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 20.1 Wh (56.6%) condition: 35.5/54.3 Wh (65.3%) volts: 7.1 min: 7.6
    model: DP bq20z451 type: Li-ion serial: N/A status: discharging cycles: 2136
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i5-4250U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Haswell gen: core 4 level: v3
    note: check built: 2013-15 process: Intel 22nm family: 6 model-id: 0x45 (69) stepping: 1
    microcode: 0x26
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 2 tpc: 2 threads: 4 smt: enabled cache: L1: 128 KiB
    desc: d-2x32 KiB; i-2x32 KiB L2: 512 KiB desc: 2x256 KiB L3: 3 MiB desc: 1x3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1266 high: 1276 min/max: 800/2600 scaling: driver: intel_cpufreq
    governor: ondemand cores: 1: 1276 2: 1275 3: 1250 4: 1266 bogomips: 15199
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB
    filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics vendor: Apple driver: i915 v: kernel
    arch: Gen-7.5 process: Intel 22nm built: 2013 ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-1,
    HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0a26 class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.18.0 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: crocus gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1440x900 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 381x238mm (15.00x9.37") s-diag: 449mm (17.69")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: Apple Color LCD built: 2011 res: 1440x900 hz: 60 dpi: 128 gamma: 1.2
    size: 286x179mm (11.26x7.05") diag: 337mm (13.3") ratio: 16:10 modes: 1440x900
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 5000 (HSW GT3)
    direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT HD Audio vendor: Apple driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:03.0 chip-ID: 8086:0a0c class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: Intel 8 Series HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
    chip-ID: 8086:9c20 class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: Broadcom 720p FaceTime HD Camera driver: N/A pcie: speed: Unknown lanes: 63 link-max:
    gen: 6 speed: 64 GT/s bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:1570 class-ID: 0480
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-17-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Apple driver: wl v: kernel
    modules: bcma pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:43a0
    class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Apple Bluetooth USB Host Controller type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-3.3:6
    chip-ID: 05ac:828f class-ID: fe01
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 2.1 lmp-v: 4.0
    sub-v: 4196 hci-v: 4.0 rev: 2466
  Info: acl-mtu: 1021:8 sco-mtu: 64:1 link-policy: rswitch sniff link-mode: peripheral accept
    service-classes: rendering, capturing, object transfer, audio, telephony
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 113 GiB used: 10.16 GiB (9.0%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Apple model: SSD SM0128F size: 113 GiB block-size:
    physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: EA1Q scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 30.44 GiB size: 29.79 GiB (97.86%) used: 9.56 GiB (32.1%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 256 MiB size: 252 MiB (98.46%) used: 274 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
  ID-3: /home raw-size: 82.31 GiB size: 80.46 GiB (97.76%) used: 610.1 MiB (0.7%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 185.8 MiB (9.1%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 55.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2083 libs: 1055 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://mxlinux.mirrors.uk2.net/packages/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
Info:
  Processes: 235 Uptime: 1h 33m wakeups: 3 Memory: 3.77 GiB used: 3.01 GiB (80.0%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI

[xaol]

Code: Select all

Audio:
  Device-3: Broadcom 720p FaceTime HD Camera driver: N/A pcie: speed: Unknown lanes: 63 link-max:
    gen: 6 speed: 64 GT/s bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:1570 class-ID: 0480

that looks like it might be similar to or the same as the camera on my 2014 macbook pro. i haven't set the camera up for it, but found some info about it here: https://linux-hardware.org/?id=pci:14e4 ... 570&page=1

the supported kernels look older than what you would mostly find on mx 23. there is a 5.10 in the mx package manager, but i'm not sure it has the right driver. there is an alternate driver listed. while i haven't tried it on my mbp, it did build just fine in an mx 23 virtual machine. all the timestamps on the github page are at least 3 years old so i don't know if it will still work.

[rob2cv]

Thank you xaol for the quick reply.
I have managed to install the earlier Antix kernel (after reading the MX manual).
The camera still does not work.
I have had a look at the link you have shared. I'm afraid that this is beyond the level of my experience. I'm not comfortable tinkering with something that I have no understanding of.
)-:

Code: Select all

Snapshot created on: 20231215_1232
System:
  Kernel: 5.10.197-antix.1-amd64-smp arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10.197-antix.1-amd64-smp root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet
    splash
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.36 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.18.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.26.0 Distro: MX-23.2_x64 Libretto December 15  2023 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Apple product: MacBookAir6,2 v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required> Chassis:
    type: 10 v: Mac-7DF21CB3ED6977E5 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Apple model: Mac-7DF21CB3ED6977E5 v: MacBookAir6,2 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: Apple v: 120.0.0.0.0 date: 02/05/2020
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 20.5 Wh (58.7%) condition: 34.9/54.3 Wh (64.3%) volts: 7.3 min: 7.6
    model: DP bq20z451 type: Li-ion serial: N/A status: discharging cycles: 2137
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i5-4250U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Haswell gen: core 4 level: v3
    note: check built: 2013-15 process: Intel 22nm family: 6 model-id: 0x45 (69) stepping: 1
    microcode: 0x26
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 2 tpc: 2 threads: 4 smt: enabled cache: L1: 128 KiB
    desc: d-2x32 KiB; i-2x32 KiB L2: 512 KiB desc: 2x256 KiB L3: 3 MiB desc: 1x3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1959 high: 2108 min/max: 800/2600 scaling: driver: intel_cpufreq
    governor: ondemand cores: 1: 1945 2: 2013 3: 2108 4: 1772 bogomips: 15199
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB
    filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics vendor: Apple driver: i915 v: kernel
    arch: Gen-7.5 process: Intel 22nm built: 2013 ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-1,
    HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0a26 class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.18.0 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: crocus gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1440x900 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 381x238mm (15.00x9.37") s-diag: 449mm (17.69")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: Apple Color LCD built: 2011 res: 1440x900 hz: 60 dpi: 128 gamma: 1.2
    size: 286x179mm (11.26x7.05") diag: 337mm (13.3") ratio: 16:10 modes: 1440x900
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 5000 (HSW GT3)
    direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT HD Audio vendor: Apple driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:03.0 chip-ID: 8086:0a0c class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: Intel 8 Series HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
    chip-ID: 8086:9c20 class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: Broadcom 720p FaceTime HD Camera driver: N/A pcie: speed: Unknown lanes: 63 link-max:
    gen: 5 speed: 32 GT/s bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:1570 class-ID: 0480
  API: ALSA v: k5.10.197-antix.1-amd64-smp status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Apple driver: wl v: kernel
    modules: bcma pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:43a0
    class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Apple Bluetooth USB Host Controller type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-3.3:6
    chip-ID: 05ac:828f class-ID: fe01
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: down bt-service: N/A rfk-block: hardware: no
    software: yes address: <filter>
  Info: acl-mtu: 1021:8 sco-mtu: 64:1 link-policy: rswitch sniff link-mode: peripheral accept
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 113 GiB used: 10.4 GiB (9.2%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Apple model: SSD SM0128F size: 113 GiB block-size:
    physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: EA1Q scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 30.44 GiB size: 29.79 GiB (97.86%) used: 9.64 GiB (32.4%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 256 MiB size: 252 MiB (98.46%) used: 274 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
  ID-3: /home raw-size: 82.31 GiB size: 80.46 GiB (97.76%) used: 777 MiB (0.9%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 49.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2085 libs: 1054 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://mxlinux.mirrors.uk2.net/packages/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
Info:
  Processes: 257 Uptime: 34m wakeups: 3 Memory: 3.76 GiB used: 2.58 GiB (68.5%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI

[xaol]

you are welcome. i am sorry to hear the older kernel didn't work. it can be daunting building your first program (or in this case driver) from github to be sure. the linked page does show that your camera was (supposedly) supported from kernel 3.19 to 5.11. i just tried the 5.10 because it was the most recent. i did see two older ones (4.19 and 4.9) listed in the package manager. those might be an option if you want to try some further testing.

[Charlie Brown]

You need this: https://github.com/patjak/facetimehd

Though the instructions are a bit confusing / scattered :

Code: Select all

git clone https://github.com/patjak/facetimehd-firmware.git ; cd facetimehd-firmware ; sudo make ; sudo make install

Reboot

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git clone https://github.com/patjak/bcwc_pcie.git ; cd bcwc_pcie ; sudo make ; sudo make install ; sudo depmod ; sudo modprobe facetimehd

[rob2cv]

@xaol @Charlie Brown
Thank you for the replies, much appreciated.
I don't have time today but I will try your suggestions as soon as I can.
(-:

[thequickbrownfox]

You have to install the firmware for the facetime camera. Here's a step-by-step

If not already installed, install curl, xzcat and cpio and git:

sudo apt install curl
sudo apt install xzcat
sudo apt install cpio
sudo apt install git

Open a terminal and Clone the git repository with:

Code: Select all

git clone https://github.com/patjak/facetimehd-firmware.git

Open a terminal and cd to the the location of the repository cloned to your HD

In the directory with the cloned repository type:

make

The results should be:

Downloading the driver--please wait.......

Found matching hash from OS X, El Capitan 10.11.5
==> Extracting firmware...
--> Decompressing the firmware using gzip...
--> Deleting temporary files...
--> Extracted firmware version 1.43.0


Then type:

sudo make install


The result should be:

Copying firmware into '/usr/lib/firmware/facetimehd'

Note: a reboot will be required after installing the modules before they will work.

[Charlie Brown]

Have you seen post #5 ?

[turfymiler]

I had the same issue with a Macbook Air 6,2, Early 2014. Thank you Charlie Brown, your concise instructions in post #5 were the prefect fix. Webcam now working fine having tested in guvcview.

[Charlie Brown]

@turfymiler

Thank you, too for the feedback :)