Pixelbook Go Webcam LED always on?

Bug Reports Firmware Bugs
1

I just installed the UEFI firmware and Windows 11 on my Pixelbook Go, and noticed that the webcam LED is always on.

I was under the impression that the UEFI firmware fully disables the Webcam (since it doesn’t work under windows or linux), but I can still see what I think is the associated acpi\int3478\0 device in device manager (and it’s associated I2C bus, 9D63).

I tried disabling them in device manager, but the green LED stays on.

Is this a bug in the UEFI firmware, or am I missing a setting somewhere?

Edit: I guess I see a reference to it here: Camera light suck on: Pixelbook Go (Atlas) and Pixel Slate (Nocturne) after updating to most recent firmware · Issue #362 · MrChromebox/firmware · GitHub

I’m on MrChromebox-2408.1 9/14/2024 (the latest), so I think it should have that fix. I’ll keep investigating.

2

Ah, it looks like the fix was included for Nocturne:

But not for Atlas:

I’ll give compiling my own firmware a try.

is there any reason this fix can’t be applied to Atlas too?

3

compile it then

if and only if it works: PR it.

A likely reason it hasnt been applied to Atlas is that MrChromebox couldnt test it

4

Related: Pixel Slate Linux (Debian) Camera driver?

5

Good news, it worked! I’m very glad that there are good directions on how to compile and manually flash.

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I compiled it via an Ubuntu Mate VM, then booted from a Ubuntu Mate USB stick, flashed it, and rebooted back into windows.

The camera still seems to be in device manager, but it doesn’t seem to do anything. I’ll leave it disabled.

Edit: I may have spoken too soon, audio seems to have stopped working and I’m not sure why. Maybe I need to re-authorize the driver or something, I’ll take a look at it shortly.

Edit 2: Sound came back after I reinstalled the audio driver license! The camera also appears to be gone from device manager.

6

Worked great all weekend, making a PR now.

7

I don’t like these “fixes” because it prevents the camera from potentially working under Linux, though I guess we can cross that bridge once we come to it

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