MP All Models Firewire Isight Audio is back for Catalina and Bs ?

[bbb555]

I really love the cool magnet feature which goes on nicely with my Apple 30" CD. I only used this for remote video conferencing so don't need the high-resolution and features of modern webcam's, but if time's are a'changin' and the FW iSight is now unsupported I'll reluctantly bite the bullet with a new Logitech Brio...

I was in the same boat - still use my Apple 30" CD with my Mac Pro, running OCLP 0.3.0 & 11.6.
Wanted to stick with my iSight FW that sat beautifully on top of the CD, but with all the reading and testing, couldn't get it to work even though it was being recognised.
Retired the iSight about a month ago, replaced with a 720p Logitech USB connected to a USB port in the back of the CD. Does the job for audio & video conferencing.

 

[Auggie]

I was in the same boat - still use my Apple 30" CD with my Mac Pro, running OCLP 0.3.0 & 11.6.
Wanted to stick with my iSight FW that sat beautifully on top of the CD, but with all the reading and testing, couldn't get it to work even though it was being recognised.
Retired the iSight about a month ago, replaced with a 720p Logitech USB connected to a USB port in the back of the CD. Does the job for audio & video conferencing.

Shame to put out to pasture perfectly usable tech.

My, how the third-party webcams look hideous on the Apple Cinema. (sigh) No recourse it seems...

Guess I'll get ready to pull the trigger on the Logitech.

 

[erikkfi]

Yeah that is truly awful. Here’s hoping there’s eventually a nice webcam whose guts fit in the iSight’s casing. That fancy Dell one is SO CLOSE.

 

[Auggie]

Yeah that is truly awful. Here’s hoping there’s eventually a nice webcam whose guts fit in the iSight’s casing. That fancy Dell one is SO CLOSE.

Huh, never heard of it, but read up on the Amazon reviews and no Mac support... bummer. For its extremely high price point with no Mac support, have to pass on that too...

 

[Lobodraco]

[edited] I've changed the name of the folder, so now it s the good one thank you @Andrew Kinnear
Hi all,
I was so upset that my iSight wasn't no more supported by apple system, I had video working but no sound, no iSight sound in sound pref pane ... and after some research I found this folder in my old disk....
So the fix to have sound back in Catalina [working], Big Sur [not tested yet] but probably ok , is to put the folder
iSightAudio.driver in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/
Restart and....
View attachment 1682757

One quick question: Anybody knows how to add the iSightDriver

Confirmed on MP3,1 see screenshot!
@dosdude1 whenever your timetable allows again (2021), please consider including the patch for Mojave and Catalina. Thanks!

View attachment 1686486

Quick question: How do you copy the "iSightAudio.driver" folder into the System>Library>Audio>Plug-Ins>HAL? I tried changing the permissions but it will not allow me to copy it to the HAL folder. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. I'm running Catalina 10.15.7 , Thanks!

 

[Larsvonhier]

One quick question: Anybody knows how to add the iSightDriver

Quick question: How do you copy the "iSightAudio.driver" folder into the System>Library>Audio>Plug-Ins>HAL? I tried changing the permissions but it will not allow me to copy it to the HAL folder. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. I'm running Catalina 10.15.7 , Thanks!

As far as I know, the prerequesites for copying to that folder are:
- disable SIP (on newer macOS also secure boot model, SBM)
- mount target volume as writeable
Even if done so, after actually copying it might be required to update the system volume snapshot (or next boot might corrupt it).
There are tools to "open up" and snapshot the boot volume for modifications like this. Have not yet tried to add back the iSight stuff to Monterey...

So if someone figures that out, I´d also be one of the happy legacy iSight users! ;-)

 

[Ausdauersportler]

One quick question: Anybody knows how to add the iSightDriver

Quick question: How do you copy the "iSightAudio.driver" folder into the System>Library>Audio>Plug-Ins>HAL? I tried changing the permissions but it will not allow me to copy it to the HAL folder. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. I'm running Catalina 10.15.7 , Thanks!

Check this link, it describes the method to jail break Big Sur and Monterey.

I assume you do not need to run kmutil, just create the new snapshot after changing the root volume and reboot.

 

[HaimJ]

[edited] I've changed the name of the folder, so now it s the good one thank you @Andrew Kinnear
Hi all,
I was so upset that my iSight wasn't no more supported by apple system, I had video working but no sound, no iSight sound in sound pref pane ... and after some research I found this folder in my old disk....
So the fix to have sound back in Catalina [working], Big Sur [not tested yet] but probably ok , is to put the folder
iSightAudio.driver in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/
Restart and....
View attachment 1682757

Hi

How can i find the /System/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/ Directory ?

I tried via Finder Go holding the option key and that show me the Library, however there is no HAL directory

Please advise

 

[skodises]

I'm running Catalina on my mid-2010 5,1 (via the DosDude1 patch), and have my FW iSight camera working properly. I paid a bundle for the damned thing as an early adopter, so you gotta believe that I'm still using it! I updated it to V1.0.3 back in the ancient past, so it has been up-to-date all along. I installed iSightAudio.driver in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/, rebooted, and all has been well since.

The question was asked on the previous page about the kexts that would be running under Catalina, and they are as follows:

foo:log bar$ kextstat | grep FireWire
111 3 0xffffff7f82a22000 0x73000 0x73000 com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily (4.7.5) 8C78BF7D-6364-3B4B-98F5-17D87AF9FBE3 <6 5 3 1>
132 0 0xffffff7f833ca000 0xd000 0xd000 com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireIP (2.3.0) 0F620868-8B84-322A-A7ED-0A2C26499DA2 <111 29 6 5 3 1>

And yes, copying the folder to /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL did require disabling SIP and remounting the volume as read/write.

These actions are far easier to execute via Terminal than using the Finder. This kind of extracurricular activity is the place where the Mac loses its legendary easiness, and becomes the Unix box that it really has always been just underneath the pleasant skin (since OS X, anyway). It is unfortunate, but comfort with command-line hackery is pretty much required, once one gets off Apple's carefully-paved path...

I do hope that someone somewhere takes the time to patch the video for Big Sur: that's pretty much the only thing keeping me from finally going to OpenCore/BS. I still spend 20 hours a weeks in videoconferences, will be doing so for the foreseeable future, and I just don't want to spend money on a new camera when I've got one that works. I would happily donate to such an effort (hint, hint). I even have an entire spare FW iSight that I'd donate to such a charitable cause...

 

[ssj92]

Hi everyone,

has anyone tried iSight on macOS Monterey? I have been looking into getting an iSight for my 5,1 MacPro but it sounds like even in Big Sur people are having issues. Seems like something I'd want to play with but only if there's any hope.

I would want video and audio working.

 

[Frixo Cool]

Is there any way in OpenCore to bring external iSight (FireWire) camera bring to life? I use it for video meetings and only now I found that it's not recognized. I guess some kext should be moved from Mojave, but is there a way to sign it?

 

[trifero]

Is there any way in OpenCore to bring external iSight (FireWire) camera bring to life? I use it for video meetings and only now I found that it's not recognized. I guess some kext should be moved from Mojave, but is there a way to sign it?

FireWire was dropped from Apple support many, many years ago.

 

[Frixo Cool]

Any news on this topic? Is there a known version of a iSight video and audio driver for Mojave or High Sierra that works on Big Sur? I am on Mac Pro 5,1 with OpenCore, SIP disabled.

 

[PeterHolbrook]

Is there any way in OpenCore to bring external iSight (FireWire) camera bring to life? I use it for video meetings and only now I found that it's not recognized. I guess some kext should be moved from Mojave, but is there a way to sign it?

FireWire was dropped from Apple support many, many years ago.

I can still use an external drive connected via FireWire in Monterey, so I don't know what exactly might be behind the reported lack of FireWire support.

As for a non-working iSight camera, perhaps you should launch Terminal and run

sudo killall VDCAssistant

See if that makes a difference.

 

[ssj92]

Any news on this topic? Is there a known version of a iSight video and audio driver for Mojave or High Sierra that works on Big Sur? I am on Mac Pro 5,1 with OpenCore, SIP disabled.

From what I've been reading,

iSight should have firmware 1.0.3
then using the kexts provided in the correct place should allow it to work.

I don't have an iSight atm to test this and don't know if I want to try using $$$ on something that might not work.

 

[erikkfi]

People keep saying it should work in Big Sur but I don't think anyone has tested any approach in that version and found it working. Same with Monterey. And same with Apple Silicon under any OS.

I would love to hear confirmation otherwise -- particularly with Apple Silicon -- along with precise steps to get it working.

 

[Frixo Cool]

"No matching processes were found". The original iSight is such a cool camera, I really hate to lose it just because of a missing driver...

 

[Frixo Cool]

There is a YouTube video of iSight Firewire camera working in Big Sur. However, the guy is using Firewire to Thunderbolt adapter. So is the problem in missing iSight driver or maybe in Firewire driver that no longer works as in Mojave? Could it help to copy Firewire support from Mojave to Big Sur?

 

[ssj92]

There is a YouTube video of iSight Firewire camera working in Big Sur. However, the guy is using Firewire to Thunderbolt adapter. So is the problem in missing iSight driver or maybe in Firewire driver that no longer works as in Mojave? Could it help to copy Firewire support from Mojave to Big Sur?

Here's the thing, there's at least two people in this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/firewire-isight-audio-is-back-for-catalina-and-bs.2272444/

That say their intel mac on big sur works for video but not audio. Is yours not working for either?

I really want to mess around with this but do not have a iSight camera. I am tempted to buy one since now I got a 30" ACD as well and it'd match perfectly. My goal would be to get audio and video.

If video already works and it's just audio, it sounds like no one was able to install that kext file in the proper location in Big Sur/Monterey due to changed location and needing to make the disk read/write.

Another thing is, firmware 1.0.3 seems to be best but most people probably don't have it since it requires such an old OSX version. I wonder if the iSight has a SPI chip that can be flashed directly by opening it up or if there's a way it can be flashed on a more modern OS whether through VM or Linux.

 

[Frixo Cool]

That say their intel mac on big sur works for video but not audio. Is yours not working for either?

I really want to mess around with this but do not have a iSight camera. I am tempted to buy one since now I got a 30" ACD as well and it'd match perfectly. My goal would be to get audio and video.

No video and no audio for me. I have placed iSight audio driver from Mojave to Big Sur, but no joy. I have the latest iSight firmware 1.0.3. I use iSight on top of 30" ACD and it's really great, I'd hate to lose it.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

No video and no audio for me. I have placed iSight audio driver from Mojave to Big Sur, but no joy. I have the latest iSight firmware 1.0.3. I use iSight on top of 30" ACD and it's really great, I'd hate to lose it.

You may test with Mojave which kernel extensions will be loaded when using/activating the iSight.

If those exists and Apple has dropped them completely one could easily reload them using OpenCore like the FireWire boot and USB3 boot extensions. I have neither a Mojave system nor a iSight Camera to do this on my own.

 

[ssj92]

No video and no audio for me. I have placed iSight audio driver from Mojave to Big Sur, but no joy. I have the latest iSight firmware 1.0.3. I use iSight on top of 30" ACD and it's really great, I'd hate to lose it.

That’s weird as some have it working. I would do what @Ausdauersportler said. Find out which extensions are used when iSight is active in mojave and copy them to a folder then try adding to big sur. If possible also upload here

 

[Frixo Cool]

Can I see active iSight extensions in Acitvity Monitor in Mojave, or there is some other way to check that out? Terminal? Can those exentsions be added to OpenCore Kexts folder? Is it automatic or there is way to modify config.plist to load them?

 

[ssj92]

Can I see active iSight extensions in Acitvity Monitor in Mojave, or there is some other way to check that out? Terminal? Can those exentsions be added to OpenCore Kexts folder? Is it automatic or there is way to modify config.plist to load them?

I wish I knew to tell you.

Maybe @Ausdauersportler can explain

 

[erikkfi]

I'm starting to wonder if FireWire video input is simply no longer supported in either post-Catalina macOS or Apple Silicon (not sure where the dividing line is).

I have an old Sony HandyCam that has FireWire video output. It's recognized in Photo Booth on a 2009 MBP running Catalina (via DosDude's patcher) - and it works brilliantly over FireWire, at least for full-motion video and photo capture. However on a 2020 M1 MBP, it only shows up in System Information in the FireWire Bus. Kinda like the iSight. The system sees it but won't treat it as a video source. Nothing in Photo Booth, nothing in Zoom. If there's something else I can try, I'm open to suggestions.

For the record it's connected via a Mini FireWire 400 -> FireWire 400 cable, which is then plugged into a FireWire 400>800 converter, then plugged into an old Thunderbolt Display, all of which is running into a CalDigit 3 dock, then into one of the ThunderBolt ports on the MBP.