libraw1394 for Debian --------------------- This library supports both the old Firewire stack and the new "juju" stack. The new stack is recommended if you are using Linux kernel versions >= 2.6.33. Before all, you must verify if your actual linux kernel is built with ieee1394 and raw1394 support. Generaly, if you use a debian linux kernel package, it is the case, but you can know that with this command: grep FIREWIRE /boot/config-`uname -r` grep IEEE1394 /boot/config-`uname -r` If these features are available in you kernel, you may see these lines: CONFIG_FIREWIRE=y/m (new stack) CONFIG_IEEE1394=y/m (old stack) CONFIG_IEEE1394_RAWIO=y/m (old stack) If these features are compiled as modules, you might need to load the modules. You can do that with this command: sudo modprobe firewire (new stack) sudo modprobe raw1394 (old stack) With the old stack, the device file /dev/raw1394 will be created for libraw1394. This library is used by applications to access FireWire devices. The default access permissions allows only users in the "disk" group. This restrictive setting was chosen since raw1394 allows almost full access to the FireWire bus and all connected devices are accessible, which may include hard disks. You can add your user in the "disk" group with this command: sudo adduser disk If you don't intend to connect sensitive devices and e.g. only want to get video streams out of a camera, you can relax the permissions. If you don't have malicious users on your system, you can allow access for all users with this command: sudo chmod 666 /dev/raw1394 With the new stack, the FireWire devices are accessed through the /dev/fw* files.