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To test a Linux media driver, match the test to the interface: run v4l2-compliance for V4L2 API conformance, use vivid to exercise a configurable virtual video device, and use vimc to test a connected media pipeline with subdevices. For CEC drivers, use cec-compliance. The Linux media maintainer checklist says these tests should pass before patches go upstream: Media Subsystem Profile.
Choose the test that matches your goal
| Goal | Tool or driver | What it checks |
|---|---|---|
| Check a V4L2 driver against the API | v4l2-compliance |
V4L2 API behavior, including media-controller usage within V4L2 drivers. |
| Exercise applications against a configurable virtual video device | vivid |
Emulated device behavior, formats, controls, and selected error cases. |
| Configure and stream through a pipeline of linked subdevices | vimc |
Media-pipeline setup and streaming across a capture device and processing subdevices. |
| Check a CEC driver | cec-compliance |
CEC compliance; it is not a substitute for V4L2 testing. |
| Test V4L2 virtual drivers | test-media |
The maintainer checklist names it for testing V4L2 virtual drivers. |
The kernel documentation describes the current interfaces and tools; check the documentation for the kernel version you are targeting because driver options and maintainer guidance can change.
Run V4L2 compliance checks
v4l2-compliance is a userspace utility from v4l-utils that checks whether a driver follows the V4L2 API. For media topology work, the kernel debugging guide documents these commands:
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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →v4l2-compliance -M /dev/mediaX --verbose— inspect and check a media topology in detail.v4l2-compliance -m /dev/mediaX— run a full compliance check for the devices referenced by that media topology.
Replace /dev/mediaX with the media device node present on your system. The options above are documented in the media subsystem debugging guide. These checks address API and topology behavior; they do not establish target-hardware performance or image quality.
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Use vivid to test a virtual video device
vivid is a configurable virtual video test driver. It lets developers exercise applications and V4L2 behavior without a physical camera or capture device, and can model hardware that is not yet available. Its documented device types, options, and controls let you vary the behavior under test; exact capabilities depend on the configuration and emulated device type. See the vivid documentation for options applicable to your kernel.
What vivid can exercise
- Video capture and output, along with other device classes documented for the driver.
- Test patterns and color controls, plus multiple pixel formats.
- Crop, compose, and scale behavior. The documented scaler can scale up or down by as much as four times, but is intentionally simple and low-quality.
- Different inputs, outputs, and selected error conditions, depending on the selected device type and module options.
Webcam inputs have enumerated discrete frame sizes; those sizes do not combine with cropping, composing, or scaling. Treat vivid as a way to test the behaviors it emulates, not as a representation of every camera or capture device.
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Keep error injection out of ordinary compliance runs
For a compliance run, configure vivid with no_error_inj. This disables error-injection controls such as Disconnect, which can make the test device inaccessible during a run. Because the option also removes those controls, use a separate vivid configuration when deliberately testing error handling.
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Use vimc to test linked subdevices
vimc emulates a multi-subdevice video pipeline through the V4L2 and Media APIs. Its documented default topology includes a capture device connected to a sensor, debayer, and scaler subdevices. This makes it useful when the question is whether linked entities can be configured and stream together, rather than whether an isolated virtual endpoint behaves correctly.
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The topology is hardcoded unless the driver is modified and recompiled. Formats and dimensions must be consistent across linked subdevices; mismatches can prevent streaming. The kernel’s vimc documentation points to media-ctl and v4l2-ctl, both from v4l-utils, for configuring the pipeline.
Understand what virtual testing cannot establish
Virtual drivers let you test software behavior against documented emulations, but they do not reproduce all characteristics of a physical device. In particular, success with vivid or vimc does not validate a real sensor, transport link, hardware timing, or image quality. This is a practical limit of emulation, not a claim that the kernel tools test those properties.
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Use virtual testing to catch API, application, configuration, and pipeline issues early, then validate hardware-dependent behavior on the target device. A vivid compliance run with error injection disabled also says nothing about how the driver or application handles the deliberately injected errors that the disabled controls would have produced.
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