GMSL2 Troubleshooting

This is a comprehensive guide that addresses the most common issues you may face while setting up your GMSL2 camera with the ZED Link capture cards on NVIDIA® Jetson devices. Follow the steps below to troubleshoot and resolve these issues effectively.

The camera is not detected

GMSL2 cameras have lower flexibility compared to USB cameras. Any modification in the hardware configuration, such as plugging or unplugging a camera, or changing the camera order, requires either rebooting the Jetson, or restarting the installed daemon with the following command:

$
sudo systemctl restart zed_x_daemon

Upgrading a ZED Link driver

If you want to upgrade the ZED Link driver, it is required to uninstall the previously installed version:

$
sudo dpkg -r stereolabs-<name>

To retrieve the correct name of the package to remove, you can use the command:

$
sudo dpkg -l | grep stereolabs-

Troubleshooting commands

The following commands will help troubleshoot your GMSL2 connection:

$
sudo dmesg | grep zedx

Use the ZED Diagnostic tool dmesg option for quick debugging:

$
sudo ./ZED_Diagnostic --dmesg

Xavier NX / Orin NX MIPI Bandwidth

The default configuration for the MIPI lanes may be too high depending on the quality and length of the flat cables used to connect the NX development kit carrier boards to the GMSL2 capture card. In such cases, the dmesg diagnostic report does not indicate any problems, but the camera cannot be detected correctly by the ZED SDK.

You can solve the problem by using shorter flat cables, or by changing the settings for the speed of the MIPI lanes.

If you experience connection issues the recommended maximum length is 7 cm.

Set the speed of the MIPI lanes

Try first with 2 Gbps per lane:

$
sudo i2cset -y -f 30 0x29 0x04 0x15 0x34 i
$
sudo i2cset -y -f 30 0x29 0x04 0x18 0x34 i
$
sudo i2cset -y -f 30 0x29 0x04 0x1B 0x34 i
$
sudo i2cset -y -f 30 0x29 0x04 0x1E 0x34 i

then with 1.6 Gbps per lane if 2 Gbps is still too high:

$
sudo i2cset -y -f 30 0x29 0x04 0x15 0x30 i
$
sudo i2cset -y -f 30 0x29 0x04 0x18 0x30 i
$
sudo i2cset -y -f 30 0x29 0x04 0x1B 0x30 i
$
sudo i2cset -y -f 30 0x29 0x04 0x1E 0x30 i

Blurry images after system update

After a system update, if you experience blurry images from the GMSL2 camera, it may be caused by the overwriting of a patched library used by the ZED Link driver.

To fix this issue, please follow this procedure to manually restore the patched library:

1. Download the latest ZED Link driver package for your device from the ZED X Drivers download page.

2. Extract the downloaded .deb package and copy the patched library to the correct location:

   $
   mkdir temp_zedx
   $
   cd temp_zedx
   $
   ar x ../stereolabs-zed<model>_<version>-<deser>-<l4t_version>_arm64.deb 
   $
   tar xvf data.tar.xz
   $
   sudo cp ./tmp/R<l4t_version>/libnvisppg.so /usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/tegra/libnvisppg.so

   Replace stereolabs-zed<model>_<version>-<deser>-<l4t_version>_arm64.deb with the actual filename of the downloaded package.

   Replace <l4t_version> with your current L4T version (for example, R36.4.3).

3. Reboot the Jetson device:

   $
   sudo reboot

After following these steps, the GMSL2 camera should function correctly with clear images.

Contact Support

If you are unable to resolve your issue, please reach out to us for further assistance.