After the release of the official Kinect SDK, by Microsoft, I decided to test the OpenKinect drivers for linux (as I already installed the official SDK in a Windows box).

The process is as exposed in the wiki installation guide , but it refers to Fedora/Ubuntu.

The whole procedure in opensuse is as follows:

• Install build dependencies (I had most of them already installed):
  sudo zypper in cmake libusb-1_0-0 libusb-1_0-devel pkg-config freeglut freeglut-devel
• Clone GIT repository (in a new directory if desired):
  git clone https://github.com/OpenKinect/libfreenect.git
• Prepare the «build environment» :
  cd libfreenect/
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
• Install and link the libraries:
  make -j3
sudo make install && sudo /sbin/ldconfig /usr/local/lib64/
• Config the Kinect so it can be used as a normal user:
  • Create file : /etc/udev/rules.d/66-kinect.rules containing:
    

    #Rules for Kinect ####################################################
    SYSFS{idVendor}==»045e», SYSFS{idProduct}==»02ae», MODE=»0660″,GROUP=»video»
    SYSFS{idVendor}==»045e», SYSFS{idProduct}==»02ad», MODE=»0660″,GROUP=»video»
    SYSFS{idVendor}==»045e», SYSFS{idProduct}==»02b0″, MODE=»0660″,GROUP=»video»
    ### END #############################################################

  • Add your user to the group Video (mine was already in that group, just check it in YaST, for instance)
• Test the Kinect:
  glview

It should now work and show you the depth view, as well as the normal one. If it doesn’t work, just unplug and plug again the device (mine didn’t work before doing so).

Congratulations, you have your Kinect working in your openSUSE box!

Here’s a screenshot of what you will see (it’s set to IR mode):

Thanks a lot to Marcan for the development of this project (the initial dev. and now with the open kinect team), and the whole community for keeping the good work 😉

Have fun!