wbrickner / mac-gphoto-enabler

Mac OS X disturbs gphoto2 operation, we fix it

mac-gphoto-enabler

Mac OS X comes with its own framework for managing digital cameras. This native framework must be disabled in order for gphoto to claim and drive a camera.

We provide a script to do this in a reversible way on a per user basis.

Additionally we provide a daemon program that may be used by an application built on top of gphoto to subscribe to camera discovered/camera gone notifications. While there is an open connection between the deamon and an app, Mac OS X native digital camera framework is disabled automatically.

Usage

./gphoto-enable.sh — prevent Mac OS X from claiming PTP cameras (for the current user)

./gphoto-disable.sh — revert changes

How does it work?

We patch /Library/Caches/com.apple.ImageCaptureNotifications.DeviceDiscoveryDatabase.${USERID}.

This sqlite database contains the rules describing devices that are known to image capture frawework. When a known device is attached the framework launches the apropriate backend (ex: PTPCamera).

Each user has his own copy of DeviceDiscoveryDatabase. In the unlikely event we damage the database MacOS X rebuilds it from scratch using data in /System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/*.app/Contents/Resources/DeviceMatchingInfo.plist (requires logout).