Using GMSL Camera in Docker

To run a GMSL camera inside Docker on Jetson, you must correctly bridge the camera devices into the container after Jetpack5.x

The two critical devices are:

• --device /dev/media0:/dev/media0

• --device /dev/capture-vi-channel0:/dev/capture-vi-channel0

Without these, the GMSL camera will not work inside Docker.

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Basic Command

Use docker run with device mapping:

sudo docker run -it --rm --net=host \
  --device /dev/video0:/dev/video0 \
  --device /dev/media0:/dev/media0 \
  --device /dev/capture-vi-channel0:/dev/capture-vi-channel0 \
  --runtime nvidia \
  -e DISPLAY=$DISPLAY \
  -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix \
  -v /lib/modules:/lib/modules \
  nvcr.io/nvidia/l4t-base:r35.2.1

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Example: Jetson Inference Docker

If using Jetson Inference’s Docker run script, replace the camera mapping lines with the following:

sudo docker run --runtime nvidia -it --rm \
  --network host \
  -v /tmp/argus_socket:/tmp/argus_socket \
  -v /etc/enctune.conf:/etc/enctune.conf \
  -v /etc/nv_tegra_release:/etc/nv_tegra_release \
  -v /tmp/nv_jetson_model:/tmp/nv_jetson_model \
  -v /var/run/dbus:/var/run/dbus \
  -v /var/run/avahi-daemon/socket:/var/run/avahi-daemon/socket \
  --device /dev/media0:/dev/media0 \
  --device /dev/capture-vi-channel0:/dev/capture-vi-channel0 \
  -w $DOCKER_ROOT \
  $DISPLAY_DEVICE $V4L2_DEVICES \
  $DATA_VOLUME $USER_VOLUME $DEV_VOLUME \
  $CONTAINER_IMAGE $USER_COMMAND

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_#bp