How To: Setup a Linux System for 1394 Cameras

This is a very basic quickstart guide to setting up a Red Hat Linux system for use with the 3DTI firewire cameras.

The Steps

1. Start with a fresh install of Red Hat Linux.
   
   
2. Update Red Hat with all of the latest patches. Most important here is to update the kernel.
   
   
3. Download the latest CVS versions of libraw1394 and libdc1394. The CVS versions are important because they match the latest kernels best.
   
   
   • libraw1394 can be downloaded here by selecting libraw1394 from the dropdown and then clicking "Download tarball".
   • libdc1394 can be downloaded here by clicking on the CVS link and following the directions for downloading the CVS code.
     • cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/libdc1394 login
     • cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/libdc1394 co libdc1394
   
   
   
4. Compile & Install libraw1394
   
   
   1. Unpack the tar file
   2. cd to libraw1394/tags/v*
   3. chmod +x autogen.sh
   4. ./autogen.sh
   5. ./configure.sh
   6. make
   7. su root; make install
   
   
   
5. Compile & Install libdc1394 - It's very important that libraw is installed before doing this.
   
   
   1. cd to the downloaded libdc1394 directory
   2. chmod +x autogen.sh
   3. ./autogen.sh
   4. ./configure
   5. make
        NOTE: If the make fails I had to go into all of the Makefiles, do a search for libtool, and change the path to /usr/bin/libtool. There are 3 Makefiles. One in this directory and one each in libdc1394 and examples.
   6. make install
   
   
   
6. That's it! Your machine should now be setup to run 1394 cameras.
   
   

Feedback

Please send me some feedback on how this worked for you. I'd be happy to help you figure it out for yourself.