# Can't connect to the camera (again)...



## jayedcoins

Hi Everyone,

I know this topic has come up a number of times, but I have yet to find a solution that is either clear to me, or of the ones that made sense, I was able to try without success.

I just got a Galaxy S3 with Verizon (i535 model). Of course, the first thing I did was get Clockwork and Cyanogen 10.1 loaded up. For reference, here are the instructions I followed to get everything loaded (of course, based on past experience I filled in a few of the blanks in the instructions, and knew where to go to get the latest stable versions of everything): http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_d2vzw

These instructions worked like a charm -- I had no issues on the first attempt, got CWM loaded easily, did a backup from CWM, cleared caches, formatted, and flashed on CM 10.1.2 from this page: http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?type=stable&device=d2vzw

This worked great as well. Got CM loaded up, got my old phone out (also running CM 10.1), went through, and got everything configured just the way I like it. Then of course, I did a second backup with CWM, because I had done basic smoke tests on each app after getting everything set just the way I like it, and things looked good...

...except, I forgot to test the camera!

So after doing all that, and things having gone smooth, I finally went to test the camera, and got the dreaded "Can't connect to the camera" error message.

Of course, the next thing I did was hit Google and start searching. Of all the threads I found, this was the one that had instructions that made sense to me (http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/66022-cant-connect-to-camera/), that I knew I could figure out how to implement on my own. And to make life easier, my wife also had a brand new i535 that was 100% stock, so I figured I could use that to compare the camera binaries and pull them down.

Based on that thread, the first thing I did was figure out what binaries were in my system/cameradata folder, and which were in my wife's stock cameradata folder. This is what I found (two additional files on my phone that weren't on my wife's stock image):

My Phone After CWM and CM Install:

SlimISP_GC.bin

SlimISP_GD.bin

SlimISP_GE.bin

*SlimISP_GH.bin*

SlimISP_ZC.bin

SlimISP_ZD.bin

SlimISP_ZE.bin

*SlimISP_ZH.bin*

datapattern_420sp.yuv

datapattern_front_420sp.yuv

My Wife's Stock Phone:

My Phone After CWM and CM Install:

SlimISP_GC.bin

SlimISP_GD.bin

SlimISP_GE.bin

SlimISP_ZC.bin

SlimISP_ZD.bin

SlimISP_ZE.bin

datapattern_420sp.yuv

datapattern_front_420sp.yuv

The thread I linked above provided a GitHub download to a ...ZH.bin file. The first thing I tried was replacing my phone's ZH file with the GitHub ZH file. Set permissions (chmod 644), rebooted, and same error. The second thing I tried was wiping my cameradata directory, pulling the files off my wife's stock phone, and pushing them onto my phone. Again, set permissions (644), reboot, and same error. So I restored the original set of binaries I had in my cameradata folder. For kicks, I went into the About Phone screen, and did a check for CM updates, and found that I had deployed 10.1.2, but there was a new, stable RC 10.1.3, so I went ahead with the update. Still, same camera error.

After none of that working, I went back to Google and found a few posts on the CM Jira about this error. One essentially endorsed what I had already tried. Another one suggested putting a ...BH.bin into the cameradata folder. So I tried that, and again, set permissions, reboot, and still no luck.

So that brings me here. On the RootzWiki forum for VZW GS3 dev, I found some folks talking about firmware version MF1 vs. MB1. I have MF1. Some threads say, "You need to be on MF1," but then some posts from late June in another thread say if you go back to MB1 it will fix the camera. But I'm not sure A: if that's correct on account of the conflicting posts, B: where to get the firmware file to flash, C: will flashing the firmware require me to reflash CM, or can I just flash the firmware, leaving my CM installation and all my setups in place?

I'm really hoping some of the experts here can help me figure this one out, and teach me some skills in the process. :grin:

For full reference, here's all the relevant information about my phone that I can think of:

- Model Number: SCH-I535

- Android Version: 4.2.2

- Baseband Version: I535VRBMF1

- Kernel Version: 3.4.53-cyanogenmod-g8d6f740 [email protected] #1 Wed Aug 28 16:09:11 PDT 2013

- CyanogenMod Version: 10.1.3-RC1-d2vzw

- Build Date: Wed Aug 28 15:53:30 PDT 2013

- Build Number: cm_d2vzw-userdebug 4.2.2 JDQ39E eng.jenkins.20130828.155243 test-keys

- ClockworkMod Version: 6.0.3.6-d2vzw.img

Let me know what I can do to help the experts out there help me! :grin:

Thanks again!


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## SlimSnoopOS

> B: where to get the firmware file to flash


There's been a firmware/modem thread in the VZW dev section since September. Honestly, its hard to miss given that you're already aware of and mentioned in this post the word "firmware."



> Some threads say, "You need to be on MF1," but then some posts from late June in another thread say if you go back to MB1 it will fix the camera. But I'm not sure A: if that's correct on account of the conflicting posts


There are conflicting posts because literally no one method works for everyone since VRBMF1 was pushed. I only ever run TW (and match the firmware to the build) as my daily but this hasn't happened to me the few times I've used AOSP. Flashing firmware/modems modifies a partition independent of the rom itself so you can try leaving your CM setup alone and giving it a go. Next step would be to try a clean flash of CM 10.1.3. And lastly, Odin. Like I said, there's no single solution cuz there are multiple people who post back stating solution A, B, or C did not work for them.


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## poontab

The only time I've had this happen was when I had used a gapps package containing picasa sync/photosphere. I about threw the phone out the window when I realized that was my issue so I know it's frustrating.

*Disclosure: I've only had this device for a week. Within 20 minutes of unboxing I had this issue lol.


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## jayedcoins

SlimSnoopOS said:


> There's been a firmware/modem thread in the VZW dev section since September. Honestly, its hard to miss given that you're already aware of and mentioned in this post the word "firmware."
> 
> There are conflicting posts because literally no one method works for everyone since VRBMF1 was pushed. I only ever run TW (and match the firmware to the build) as my daily but this hasn't happened to me the few times I've used AOSP. Flashing firmware/modems modifies a partition independent of the rom itself so you can try leaving your CM setup alone and giving it a go. Next step would be to try a clean flash of CM 10.1.3. And lastly, Odin. Like I said, there's no single solution cuz there are multiple people who post back stating solution A, B, or C did not work for them.


Fair enough, I suppose. I guess my vision got a little narrow as I was reading two or three specific pages in the post where the problem was mentioned, and just totally forgot to bounce back to the OP. I also see now that I got my head out of the clouds that the OP (well, the second post) explains all the answers to the questions I had. I suppose since MF1 isn't working for me I'll give MB1 a try and see how that shakes out, and of course I'll post back for future reference in case others stumble upon the thread.



poontab said:


> The only time I've had this happen was when I had used a gapps package containing picasa sync/photosphere. I about threw the phone out the window when I realized that was my issue so I know it's frustrating. *Disclosure: I've only had this device for a week. Within 20 minutes of unboxing I had this issue lol.


Thanks for chiming in, much appreciated. I actually didn't flash a GApps package at first because my backup with Google immediately downloaded all the apps I had associated with my account for me. As a later step I tried flashing the latest stable GApps but that didn't change anything (not surprisingly as I probably already had all the given apps loaded).

The only Picasa-related app that I see under "All" in the app manager is Picasa Uploader. I disabled that and rebooted the phone, no luck. I also tried disabling Face Unlock for the heck of it, no luck on that either. Also tried uninstalling Barcode Scanner, again, no luck.

Not trying to look a gift horse in the mouth, just wanting to post all the stuff I tried so folks that stumble upon this in the future can read clearly what didn't (and hopefully soon, did) work for me.

I've only had the device three days myself.  Just had to get CM immediately, so much better than the bloatware that Verizon and the MFGers force on these phones. And it was only $50... can't beat that for a pretty nice piece of hardware, even if the S4 is out now.


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## jayedcoins

Okay, I just tried flashing all three firmware versions available on the firmware thread (http://rootzwiki.com/topic/34053-firmware-vrbmf1-modemrpmtzsbl-verizon-sgs3-sch-i535/; downloads at http://invisiblek.org/sch-i535/firmware/). None of the three worked (MF1, MB1, MD3), so I've reflashed MF1 since it is the latest.

Noob question -- I didn't wipe caches ("wipe cache partition" and "wipe dalvik cache") in CWM before I flashed these. Should I do that? On past phones I had only done that when flashing a totally new ROM, and not had issues, so I wasn't really sure.

Another idea I had was, disabling (or uninstalling if disabling isn't an option) each app one-by-one that uses the camera in any way to make sure there are no glitches there. Do you know of any easier way to determine all apps using the camera other than going through each one in the app manager and looking at the permissions?

As a shot in the dark, I also tried unmounting the external SD card from my old phone that I had put in, didn't make a difference.


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## SlimSnoopOS

jayedcoins said:


> Okay, I just tried flashing all three firmware versions available on the firmware thread (http://rootzwiki.com/topic/34053-firmware-vrbmf1-modemrpmtzsbl-verizon-sgs3-sch-i535/; downloads at http://invisiblek.org/sch-i535/firmware/). None of the three worked (MF1, MB1, MD3), so I've reflashed MF1 since it is the latest.
> 
> Noob question -- I didn't wipe caches ("wipe cache partition" and "wipe dalvik cache") in CWM before I flashed these. Should I do that? On past phones I had only done that when flashing a totally new ROM, and not had issues, so I wasn't really sure.
> 
> Another idea I had was, disabling (or uninstalling if disabling isn't an option) each app one-by-one that uses the camera in any way to make sure there are no glitches there. Do you know of any easier way to determine all apps using the camera other than going through each one in the app manager and looking at the permissions?
> 
> As a shot in the dark, I also tried unmounting the external SD card from my old phone that I had put in, didn't make a difference.


There are no wipes necessary for firmware flashes. Try returning to stock and doing this.


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## jayedcoins

Thanks again Snoop. That thread didn't specifically get me working, but I did a few more searches and like a nerd took some notes to clear my thoughts.  And I now have a working camera... here's a summary of how I got there for anyone that can use this information in the future.

Of all the threads I dug up, the (lack of) consensus was something like this:

- If you are running CM 10.1.x, you need firmware MB1 to get the camera working

- If you are running CM 10.2.x, you need firmware MF1 to get the camera working

- Some folks seem to think that you can run the newer MF1 firmware with CM 10.1.x if you update your kernel to the latest KT build; other folks say it won't/doesn't/shouldn't make a difference

Based on that information, the first thing I tried was restoring the backup of my initial install and config of 10.1.2 from CWM, since I had been trying most of these other steps in 10.1.3. After restoring, I wiped caches, and installed the MB1 firmware, and rebooted, really really hoping it would work based on what I had read (10.1.x --> MB1). It did not work for me. For the heck of it, I then tried both the MF1 and MD3 firmwares with CM 10.1.2, with no luck.

Now, a quick note for other folks with this problem -- just because MB1 with CM 10.1.x didn't work for me doesn't mean you shouldn't try it! In fact, given that today, CM 10.2.x are still nightlies, I would recommend trying the stable 10.1.x builds with MB1 first, as enough folks have said this solved their issue that I think it is probably the best route to a fix even though it didn't help for me.

What I ultimately did to get it working was wipe/factory reset from CWM, wipe caches, and then flash the latest CM 10.2.x nightly build with firmware MF1. I then booted up, and the camera worked, no problems. I don't love being on a nightly build, but after 4 or 5 hours messing with it, things seem very stable with this CM build on the i535. I'm sure in the coming weeks I'll stumble upon a few quirks (some may be related to CM, some may be related to the new phone in general). The only complaint I have at this point is that the battery life isn't great -- but I believe this has nothing to do with CM, and everything to do with simply moving from an older phone with a much smaller screen, to a newer phone with a big screen and higher resolution. I'm sure I'll get a better feel for that soon enough.

So, in conclusion, my advice to folks is, first try CM 10.1.x with firmware MB1. If that doesn't work, grab the latest nightly of 10.2.x and flash MF1 back on. And please remember... when bouncing from 10.1 to 10.2, you will need to switch to the right GApps version! These are listed right on the CM wiki page about GApps. I now have both firmware ZIPs, both GApps ZIPs, and both CM ZIPs on my external SD card so I can easily switch back and forth if for some reason I need to, without ever having to go to my computer.

I will stay subscribed to this thread for a while in case any other folks with issues with the camera have any questions about what I did to get mine working. Hopefully my posts are clear and make it easy to understand, but feel free to ask questions and I'll do my best to respond.


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## sspencer10

I've tried all the above steps to get my camera working with no luck. My i535 is brand new and the camera has never worked on AOSP. I found my camera firmware is JHFJ02 and phone also JHFJ02. I have found no reference on the entire internet about that camera firmware.


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## SlimSnoopOS

sspencer10 said:


> I've tried all the above steps to get my camera working with no luck. My i535 is brand new and the camera has never worked on AOSP. I found my camera firmware is JHFJ02 and phone also JHFJ02. I have found no reference on the entire internet about that camera firmware.


"JHFJ02" is not Verizon Galaxy SIII software (d2vzw aka SCH-I535). I know cuz I've had one since release so I'm certain this thread is not for you. Did you look in your respective phone's forum on xda?

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4


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## jayedcoins

sspencer10 said:


> I've tried all the above steps to get my camera working with no luck. My i535 is brand new and the camera has never worked on AOSP. I found my camera firmware is JHFJ02 and phone also JHFJ02. I have found no reference on the entire internet about that camera firmware.


I agree with SS. You are either assuming you have a different model of the GSIII than you really have, or you got crossed up and tried to use firmware files that are for a different model/carrier edition of the GSIII. Or you could be misunderstanding what the JHFJ02 file is entirely, and it may have nothing to do with the firmware, camera, or even anything native to the phone.

I believe on XDA they just reorganized (nicely, I might add) the GSIII sections to divide things up clearly by carrier/model. So, make sure you know what carrier you're with, and then the best place to start is to find the right GSIII carrier/model sub-forum on XDA and search around.


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## sspencer10

SlimSnoopOS said:


> "JHFJ02" is not Verizon Galaxy SIII software (d2vzw aka SCH-I535). I know cuz I've had one since release so I'm certain this thread is not for you. Did you look in your respective phone's forum on xda?
> 
> Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4


I was on the right track, jhfj02 is verizon s3 software. In my case, in system/cameradata i need SlimISP_JH.bin which is not there. I found that file in my stock rom. Added it to system/cameradata in my choice aosp rom and now camera works. Ive since created pull request and had merged SlimISP_JH.bin into various roms http://github.com/sspencer10

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


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## sspencer10

jayedcoins said:


> I agree with SS. You are either assuming you have a different model of the GSIII than you really have, or you got crossed up and tried to use firmware files that are for a different model/carrier edition of the GSIII. Or you could be misunderstanding what the JHFJ02 file is entirely, and it may have nothing to do with the firmware, camera, or even anything native to the phone.
> 
> I believe on XDA they just reorganized (nicely, I might add) the GSIII sections to divide things up clearly by carrier/model. So, make sure you know what carrier you're with, and then the best place to start is to find the right GSIII carrier/model sub-forum on XDA and search around.


Lol, thanks, im pretty sure i know which model i have

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


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## sspencer10

Heres a link to a flashable zip that puts the SlimISP_JH.bin into system/cameradata if anyone needs it
https://db.tt/QMqbQfbA

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


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## SlimSnoopOS

sspencer10 said:


> I was on the right track, jhfj02 is verizon s3 software. In my case, in system/cameradata i need SlimISP_JH.bin which is not there. I found that file in my stock rom. Added it to system/cameradata in my choice aosp rom and now camera works. Ive since created pull request and had merged SlimISP_JH.bin into various roms http://github.com/sspencer10
> 
> Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


Oh, ok. Well that's cool if you fixed it! My issue was that you said the "phone was JHFJ02" as well as the camera software. What did you mean by "phone is JHFJ02"? Cuz to me, that means you're referring to the details in About Phone which I know is not software that we've received via OTA on Verizon. Every update we've received begins with VRA or VRB. Could you clarify that part?

Edit: Oddly enough, I'm on Slim Bean 4.3 wekly 1.6 and that file is absent from the same path yet my camera works. Actually, none of the nine files in that path have the letter "J" in them but there are a few that are close but have "GD" "GE" or "GH."

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4


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## sspencer10

SlimSnoopOS said:


> Oh, ok. Well that's cool if you fixed it! My issue was that you said the "phone was JHFJ02" as well as the camera software. What did you mean by "phone is JHFJ02"? Cuz to me, that means you're referring to the details in About Phone which I know is not software that we've received via OTA on Verizon. Every update we've received begins with VRA or VRB. Could you clarify that part?
> 
> Edit: Oddly enough, I'm on Slim Bean 4.3 wekly 1.6 and that file is absent from the same path yet my camera works. Actually, none of the nine files in that path have the letter "J" in them but there are a few that are close but have "GD" "GE" or "GH."
> Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4


Thats the thing, your phone only needs one of those slimisp files, mine just happens to need the jh one, see diff hardware, even tho its the same phone. And slimisp.bin just hasnt been merged into slim yet. As for phone firmware https://db.tt/x9LFkyc9

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


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## sspencer10

Latest Carbon nightly:

https://db.tt/kAXBLx1T

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


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## Shine

Thanks! The zip worked for me.

Sent from my cm_tenderloin using Tapatalk 4


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## sspencer10

Shine said:


> Thanks! The zip worked for me.
> 
> Sent from my cm_tenderloin using Tapatalk 4


Glad i could help 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


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## sspencer10

SlimISP_JH was just merged to TheMuppets so this file should make its way into most roms real soon
https://github.com/TheMuppets/proprietary_vendor_samsung/pull/298

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


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