Surface Go 4 IPU6 camera status: rear OV8865 detected/partially streams, front OV5693 LED only #2154

Description

I would like to report the current camera detection / partial streaming status for the Microsoft Surface Go 4.

Surface Go 4 appears to use Intel IPU6 with OmniVision camera sensors. This is different from older Surface Go models that use IPU3.

On my Surface Go 4, the rear camera OV8865 can be detected and can partially stream through libcamera's simple pipeline in my test environment.

The front camera OV5693 is not working properly. The LED turns on, but no usable video stream is produced.

This is not a complete camera support solution. It is only a status report and an experimental setup attempt.

I also maintain an experimental repository here:

https://github.com/Fugu0141/Surface-Go4-IPU6-camera-linux/tree/test/26.04LTS

This branch contains shell scripts for Ubuntu 25.10 and Ubuntu 26.04 LTS test environments.

The scripts are intended for testing camera detection / libcamera integration on Surface Go 4 only.

They are not guaranteed to work on other systems, future kernels, or future libcamera versions.

Environment

• Hardware model: Microsoft Surface Go 4
• CPU: Intel N200
• IPU: Intel IPU6
• Rear camera sensor: OV8865
• Front camera sensor: OV5693
• VCM: dw9714
• Distribution: Ubuntu 25.10 / Ubuntu 26.04 LTS test environment
• Kernel version: please see uname -r output
• Camera stack: libcamera simple pipeline + PipeWire

Current behavior

• IPU6-related devices are detected.
• Rear camera OV8865 can be detected and can partially stream through libcamera simple pipeline in my environment.
• PipeWire camera integration can expose the camera to some applications.
• Front camera OV5693 LED turns on, but no usable video stream is produced.
• GNOME Camera / Cheese and VLC are not reliable as direct test applications in this setup.

Expected behavior

Both the rear OV8865 camera and the front OV5693 camera should ideally be usable through the Linux camera stack, preferably through libcamera/PipeWire-compatible applications.

Important note about the scripts

The scripts in my repository are experimental.

They are provided under the MIT License, but I cannot guarantee that they will work correctly in every environment.

They may fail depending on kernel version, libcamera version, firmware state, PipeWire/WirePlumber configuration, distribution packages, or future Ubuntu changes.

Please review the scripts before running them.

Steps to reproduce / test

On a fresh Ubuntu 25.10 or Ubuntu 26.04 LTS test installation on Surface Go 4:

1. Install the linux-surface kernel if required.

2. Install/build the required libcamera and camera-related userspace components.

3. Run the experimental Surface Go 4 IPU6 setup script from:

   https://github.com/Fugu0141/Surface-Go4-IPU6-camera-linux/tree/test/26.04LTS

4. Restart PipeWire/WirePlumber.

5. Check camera detection with the following commands:

   • cam --list
   • v4l2-ctl --list-devices
   • pw-cli ls Node | grep -Ei "camera|libcamera|ov5693|ov8865"

6. Test camera usage with PipeWire/libcamera-compatible applications.

Logs / diagnostic commands

I can provide full logs.

These are the commands I am using for diagnostics:

uname -r
cat /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/product_name
lspci -nn | grep -Ei "ipu|image|camera"
dmesg | grep -Ei "ipu|ov5693|ov8865|dw9714|int3472|v4l2|camera"
lsmod | grep -Ei "ipu|ov5693|ov8865|dw9714|v4l2"
v4l2-ctl --list-devices
cam --list
pw-cli ls Node | grep -Ei "camera|libcamera|ov5693|ov8865"
systemctl --user status pipewire wireplumber

Additional information

I could not find a dedicated issue for Surface Go 4 IPU6 camera status.

There is an existing IPU6 camera discussion, but I am opening this separately because Surface Go 4 has a device-specific status:

• Rear OV8865 camera: detected and partially streaming in my environment.
• Front OV5693 camera: LED turns on, but no usable video output.
• Experimental Ubuntu 25.10 and Ubuntu 26.04 LTS setup scripts are available for testing.
• Surface Go 4 uses IPU6, unlike older Surface Go models that use IPU3.

Related repository:

https://github.com/Fugu0141/Surface-Go4-IPU6-camera-linux/tree/test/26.04LTS

Questions

1. Is Surface Go 4 IPU6 camera support expected to work with the current linux-surface kernel?
2. Are additional kernel-side patches required for OV5693 / OV8865 / dw9714 on Surface Go 4?
3. Is the front camera issue likely related to sensor initialization, ACPI/software-node configuration, VCM/lens initialization, or libcamera pipeline handling?
4. Would Surface Go 4-specific camera notes be useful for the linux-surface camera documentation?