Hi,
So a while ago, I upgraded my Samsung Fascinate to a custom ROM (this one here), mainly to help with some battery issues I was having, and to get a custom kernel that had some lag fixes. Anyway, after I did this, I noticed that every time I tried to open my Camera app it would just give me a “Camera failed” error and close. Checking dmesg, I found a bunch of errors relating to the camera driver in the kernel (notably, this one: “ce147_get_fw_data: Failed: Reading firmware version”). So, some googling led me to an obscure forum post (whose forum is down for some reason), but I’ll post the gist of the procedure here:
1. Download “LauncherPro” from the App Market. Its free, don’t worry.
2. Launch LauncherPro, and hold click on your home screen. Choose create new shortcut, and then choose activity, and then click “Camera Firmware”.
3. Choose the option ending in _user.
4. Click Ok, then click the shortcut you just made on your desktop.
5. Choose “Phone to Cam FW write” and set your phone down.
Once it gets done, your camera should magically work again.
Disclaimer: This worked for me, but it doesn’t mean it will work for you. Heck, it may burn your house down or bring about the apocalypse. I’m not liable if any of these things (or anything else) happens as a result of following the above instructions.
