macOS
Homebrewverified · 100%
brew install libfreenectlocal Homebrew formula metadata
brew
Install libfreenect with Homebrew, apt, dnf
Drivers and libraries for the Xbox Kinect device. Version 0.7.5 via Homebrew; verified from local package data.
install
Additional install commands
Linux
Debian aptverified · 92%
sudo apt install freenectDebian stable package indexes · freenect · source: deb.debian.org
Fedora dnfverified · 92%
sudo dnf install libfreenectFedora Rawhide package metadata · libfreenect · source: dl.fedoraproject.org
overview
Package summary
Drivers and libraries for the Xbox Kinect device
Project links
Commands and aliases
- fakenect
- fakenect-record
- freenect-camtest
- freenect-chunkview
- freenect-cpp_pcview
- freenect-cppview
- freenect-glpclview
- freenect-glview
- freenect-hiview
- freenect-micview
- freenect-regtest
- freenect-regview
- freenect-tiltdemo
- freenect-wavrecord
history
Project history and usage
libfreenect is the OpenKinect community userspace driver and library for the original Xbox Kinect, exposing RGB, depth, motor, accelerometer, LED, and audio access outside Microsoft’s Xbox stack.
Project history
The OpenKinect repository was created on GitHub on 2010-11-12, days after the Kinect hardware reached consumers. The README credits original code and engineering to Hector Martin, community leadership to Josh Blake, and integration to Kyle Machulis, and marks the copyright year as 2010 for individual OpenKinect contributors.
The project later settled into a long-lived cross-platform hardware support library. GitHub release metadata records public libfreenect releases from v0.2.0 through v0.6.4 between 2014-02-15 and 2022-09-20, while the repository README points users of the newer Kinect v2 hardware to OpenKinect/libfreenect2.
Adoption history
libfreenect was adopted by hackers, artists, robotics users, and computer-vision experimenters who wanted raw access to Kinect sensors on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Distribution packages in Homebrew, Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora made that access available without requiring users to build the USB stack from source.
How it is used
The package provides libraries and utilities such as freenect-glview, freenect-regview, freenect-micview, fakenect, and recording or test tools. It is used for capturing depth and color streams, testing Kinect hardware, and feeding higher-level vision or robotics frameworks.
Why package nerds care
libfreenect is a classic package-manager artifact from the 2010 hardware-hacking wave: a reverse-engineered userspace driver that turned a mass-market console peripheral into a general-purpose depth camera. Its packaging also illustrates how fragile USB device access, udev rules, OpenGL demos, language bindings, and optional audio support can be for cross-platform formulae.
Timeline
- 2010-11-12: GitHub repository metadata records creation of OpenKinect/libfreenect.
- 2014-02-15: GitHub release metadata records v0.2.0, v0.2.1, v0.3.0, and v0.4.0 releases.
- 2017-11-20: GitHub release metadata records libfreenect v0.5.7.
- 2020-02-16: GitHub release metadata records libfreenect v0.6.0.
- 2022-09-20: GitHub release metadata records libfreenect v0.6.4.
Related projects
- OpenKinect/libfreenect2 is the related driver stack for Kinect v2 hardware.
- Higher-level projects such as OpenNI and robotics or vision frameworks consume Kinect streams after libfreenect exposes the device.
Sources
security posture
Risk level: blue
broad file, network, media, or database tool signal.
Risk classifier
blue risk · medium confidence · tool
Why
- broad file, network, media, or database tool signal
Signals
- text:record
Install behavior
- No Homebrew post-install hook is recorded in formula metadata.
- Homebrew bottle metadata is available for 10 platform targets.
- Installs with 1 runtime dependencies.
- Build metadata lists 1 build dependencies.
Recommended review
Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.
executables
Installed executables
| Command | Kind | Exposure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
fakenect | cli | global executable | |
fakenect-record | cli | global executable | |
freenect-camtest | cli | global executable | |
freenect-chunkview | cli | global executable | |
freenect-cpp_pcview | cli | global executable | |
freenect-cppview | cli | global executable | |
freenect-glpclview | cli | global executable | |
freenect-glview | cli | global executable | |
freenect-hiview | cli | global executable | |
freenect-micview | cli | global executable | |
freenect-regtest | cli | global executable | |
freenect-regview | cli | global executable | |
freenect-tiltdemo | cli | global executable | |
freenect-wavrecord | cli | global executable |
freshness
Version and freshness
These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.
page generated2026-07-08
manager version0.7.5
manager updated
local dataok
upstreamcurrent
latest detectedv0.7.5
https://github.com/OpenKinect/libfreenect
- infoNo package-manager update timestamp was available.low confidence
install metadata
Package metadata
| Package key | brew:libfreenect |
|---|---|
| Version | 0.7.5 |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Package manager page | https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/libfreenect |
| Homepage | https://openkinect.org/ |
| Repository | https://github.com/OpenKinect/libfreenect |
| Upstream docs | https://github.com/OpenKinect/libfreenect#readme |
| License | Apache-2.0 OR GPL-2.0-only |
| Source archive | https://github.com/OpenKinect/libfreenect/archive/refs/tags/v0.7.5.tar.gz |
| Dependencies | libusb |
| Build dependencies | cmake |
| Bottle | available (on arm64_linux, arm64_monterey, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, arm64_ventura, monterey, sonoma, ventura, x86_64_linux) |
| Homebrew post-install | not defined |
| Service | none declared |
registry facts
Source database details
| Source Database | Homebrew formula API |
|---|---|
| Tap | homebrew/core |
| Full Name | libfreenect |
| Version Scheme | 0 |
| Revision | 0 |
| Head Version | HEAD |
| Bottle Stable Root URL | https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core |
| Deprecated | no |
| Disabled | no |
| Keg Only | no |
| URL Keys |
|
source database matches
Other package-manager records
Matches are pulled from external package-manager indexes and kept separate from local Automic Vault package links.
Debian apt95%
freenect 1:0.5.3-3.2+b1
library for accessing Kinect device -- metapackage
sudo apt install freenect- Section: libs
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: libfreenect
- 4 dependencies
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Libfreenect
Debian apt95%
libfreenect-bin 1:0.5.3-3.2+b1
library for accessing Kinect device -- utilities and samples
sudo apt install libfreenect-bin- Section: utils
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: libfreenect
- 8 dependencies
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Libfreenect
Debian apt95%
libfreenect-demos 1:0.5.3-3.2+b1
library for accessing Kinect device -- dummy package
sudo apt install libfreenect-demos- Section: libdevel
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: libfreenect
- 1 dependencies
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Libfreenect
Debian apt95%
libfreenect-dev 1:0.5.3-3.2+b1
library for accessing Kinect device -- development files
sudo apt install libfreenect-dev- Section: libdevel
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: libfreenect
- 2 dependencies
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Libfreenect
Debian apt95%
libfreenect-doc 1:0.5.3-3.2
library for accessing Kinect device -- documentation
sudo apt install libfreenect-doc- Section: doc
- Architecture: all
- Source Package: libfreenect
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Libfreenect
Debian apt95%
libfreenect0.5t64 1:0.5.3-3.2+b1
library for accessing Kinect device
sudo apt install libfreenect0.5t64- Section: libs
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: libfreenect
- 2 dependencies
- 1 provides
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Libfreenect
Ubuntu apt95%
freenect 1:0.5.3-3.2build1
library for accessing Kinect device -- metapackage
sudo apt install freenect- Section: universe/libs
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: libfreenect
- 4 dependencies
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Libfreenect
Ubuntu apt95%
libfreenect-bin 1:0.5.3-3.2build1
library for accessing Kinect device -- utilities and samples
sudo apt install libfreenect-bin- Section: universe/utils
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: libfreenect
- 8 dependencies
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Libfreenect
Ubuntu apt95%
libfreenect-demos 1:0.5.3-3.2build1
library for accessing Kinect device -- dummy package
sudo apt install libfreenect-demos- Section: universe/libdevel
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: libfreenect
- 1 dependencies
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Libfreenect
Ubuntu apt95%
libfreenect-dev 1:0.5.3-3.2build1
library for accessing Kinect device -- development files
sudo apt install libfreenect-dev- Section: universe/libdevel
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: libfreenect
- 2 dependencies
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Libfreenect
Ubuntu apt95%
libfreenect-doc 1:0.5.3-3.2build1
library for accessing Kinect device -- documentation
sudo apt install libfreenect-doc- Section: universe/doc
- Architecture: all
- Source Package: libfreenect
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Libfreenect
Ubuntu apt95%
libfreenect0.5t64 1:0.5.3-3.2build1
library for accessing Kinect device
sudo apt install libfreenect0.5t64- Section: universe/libs
- Architecture: amd64
- Source Package: libfreenect
- 2 dependencies
- 1 provides
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Libfreenect
dnf95%
libfreenect 0.7.5-8.fc45
Device driver for the Kinect
https://github.com/OpenKinect/
sudo dnf install libfreenect- License: Apache-2.0 AND (GPL-2.0-only OR Apache-2.0) AND MIT AND BSD-2-Clause
- Category: Unspecified
- Architecture: x86_64
- Source Package: libfreenect
- 11 dependencies
- 3 provides
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Libfreenect
dnf95%
libfreenect-devel 0.7.5-8.fc45
Development files for libfreenect
https://github.com/OpenKinect/
sudo dnf install libfreenect-devel- License: Apache-2.0 AND (GPL-2.0-only OR Apache-2.0) AND MIT AND BSD-2-Clause
- Category: Unspecified
- Architecture: x86_64
- Source Package: libfreenect
- 7 dependencies
- 2 provides
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Libfreenect
dnf95%
libfreenect-fakenect 0.7.5-8.fc45
Library to play back recorded data for libfreenect
https://github.com/OpenKinect/
sudo dnf install libfreenect-fakenect- License: Apache-2.0 AND (GPL-2.0-only OR Apache-2.0) AND MIT AND BSD-2-Clause
- Category: Unspecified
- Architecture: x86_64
- Source Package: libfreenect
- 6 dependencies
- 3 provides
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Libfreenect
dnf95%
libfreenect-opencv 0.7.5-8.fc45
OpenCV bindings for libfreenect
https://github.com/OpenKinect/
sudo dnf install libfreenect-opencv- License: Apache-2.0 AND (GPL-2.0-only OR Apache-2.0) AND MIT AND BSD-2-Clause
- Category: Unspecified
- Architecture: x86_64
- Source Package: libfreenect
- 7 dependencies
- 2 provides
- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Libfreenect
source trail
Generated from repository data
This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.
Combined YAML source
View the package source record on GitHub.
Used sources
- Geiger risk classifier
- Nucleus package database
- av.db category and tag curation
- cross-ecosystem install command graph
- curated package history
- external package-manager database matches
- package relationship graph
- package version freshness
- package-page enrichment