Elgato 4K60 Pro MK.2 (1cfa:000e) and Elgato 4K Pro (1cfa:0012) Linux Driver

High-performance, multi-client Linux driver for the Elgato 4K60 Pro MK.2 and Elgato 4K Pro PCI-e capture cards. Engineered for stability on modern kernels (6.12 through 7.0+).

For older kernels, use the original stoth68000/sc0710 repository (MK.2 only).

Supported cards

Card	Subsystem ID	Notes
Elgato 4k60 Pro MK.2	`1cfa:000e`	Plug-and-play after driver load. No FPGA firmware step.
Elgato 4K Pro	`1cfa:0012`	Requires ECP5 FPGA firmware programming on every cold boot. Handled automatically by the installer and the AUR package; manual `insmod` builds need extra steps (see below).

Both cards share the same 12ab:0710 Magewell chipset but use different board profiles in the driver.

Kernel compatibility

Distribution	Status	Notes
Arch Linux	Stable	DKMS via AUR (`sc0710-dkms-git`) or manual build. Includes `sc0710-cli` and 4K Pro firmware helpers (see below).
Fedora / RHEL	Stable	DKMS via the automatic installer.
Debian / Ubuntu	Stable	Warning: distro OBS packages may crash; prefer Flatpak OBS.
Fedora Atomic (Bazzite, Bluefin, Aurora, Silverblue)	Stable	Boot-time build service at `/var/lib/sc0710`. No DKMS. 4K Pro ECP5 stack included.
NixOS	Supported	Flake module builds the driver and installs `sc0710-cli`; 4K Pro firmware is a one-time `extract-firmware.sh` run (see below).

Tested on kernel 6.12 through 7.0+. Newer kernels may work but are not guaranteed until tested.

Installation

Automatic installation (recommended)

Unified installer — auto-detects atomic vs standard distros. Supported on Arch, Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora, and Fedora Atomic (Bazzite, Silverblue, Bluefin, Aurora).

sudo bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Nakildias/sc0710/main/scripts/install-sc0710.sh)"

Standard distros get DKMS (optional) or a manual module build, sc0710-cli, and boot-time module loading via modules-load.d.

Atomic distros get:

Driver source at /var/lib/sc0710/ (persists across rpm-ostree updates)
sc0710-build.service — rebuilds and loads the module on each boot
sc0710-cli with atomic-specific commands (--rebuild, etc.)

4K Pro on any distro additionally gets extraction of SC0710.FWI.HEX from the Elgato Windows driver at install time (extract-firmware.sh, with pinned checksums). Downloading from Elgato always asks for consent first, so a non-interactive install extracts only if the Elgato package is already on disk — otherwise re-run the script in a terminal afterwards.

4K Pro ECP5 firmware (cold boot)

The 4K Pro has a Lattice ECP5 FPGA whose configuration is volatile — it is lost on full power-off / cold boot. Windows programs it on every boot; this driver programs it during its probe, and fails the probe if it can't (missing firmware file, upload failure) — the card then stays unbound and no /dev/video* appears, with the reason in dmesg.

If the card didn't bind:

sudo dmesg | grep sc0710              # shows why the probe failed
sudo bash scripts/extract-firmware.sh # if the firmware file is missing
sudo sc0710-cli --restart

Arch Linux (AUR)

yay -S sc0710-dkms-git

The AUR package installs:

DKMS kernel module — rebuilds automatically on kernel updates
sc0710-cli at /usr/bin/sc0710-cli — same management tool as the automatic installer
4K Pro firmware helpers under /usr/lib/sc0710/ (extract-firmware.sh, sc0710-firmware-lib.sh)

MK.2 users can load with sudo modprobe sc0710 (or enable /etc/modules-load.d/sc0710.conf for boot load) and manage the driver with sc0710-cli.

4K Pro users — if a 4K Pro card (1cfa:0012) is present at install/upgrade time, the package hook:

Extracts SC0710.FWI.HEX if the Elgato installer is already on disk (p7zip needed; the hook never downloads — pacman runs it non-interactively, and downloading from Elgato requires a consent prompt). If firmware ends up missing, run sudo bash /usr/lib/sc0710/extract-firmware.sh in a terminal afterwards.
Configures boot module loading via modules-load.d and modprobe.d softdeps
Loads the driver (which programs the ECP5 during its probe)

After a cold boot, the driver programs the ECP5 when the module loads — no services involved. If the card didn't bind (no /dev/video*):

sudo dmesg | grep sc0710
sudo sc0710-cli --restart

If the card was added after the AUR install, extract the firmware manually:

sudo /usr/lib/sc0710/extract-firmware.sh
sudo sc0710-cli --restart

Removing the AUR package — firmware files under /lib/firmware/sc0710/ are not removed by yay -R; use sc0710-cli --remove for a full cleanup.

Upgrading from an older package version — old versions created sc0710-firmware.service/sc0710-firmware-verify.service outside the package (the driver programs the ECP5 itself now, so they no longer exist). The package upgrade removes those leftovers automatically; the removal check script flags any stragglers.

4K Pro on Arch — the maintainer primarily tests on MK.2 hardware. Cold-boot ECP5 reports from 4K Pro users are especially welcome (open an issue with sc0710-cli --dump).

NixOS (flakes)

Add github:Nakildias/sc0710 as a flake input and import sc0710.nixosModules.default:

{
  inputs = {
    # ...
    sc0710.url = "github:Nakildias/sc0710";
  };

  outputs = { self, nixpkgs, sc0710 }: {
    nixosConfigurations.<your-hostname> = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      modules = [
        # ...
        sc0710.nixosModules.default
      ];
    };
  };
}

Host configuration:

hardware.sc0710.enable = true;          # kernel module + sc0710-cli
# hardware.sc0710.kernel = pkgs.linuxPackages_6_19.kernel;  # optional override

Note: The NixOS module builds the driver and installs sc0710-cli. 4K Pro users on NixOS additionally run scripts/extract-firmware.sh once (as root, from a repo checkout) to provision the ECP5 firmware and EDID profiles — it installs to /lib/firmware/sc0710, which the kernel firmware loader reads directly. (MK.2 users don't need it: capture works without firmware files, and custom EDIDs are written at runtime — no firmware install required.) The driver programs the FPGA at every module load and refuses to bind if it can't, so no boot service is needed.

Manual compilation

For development or unsupported distros.

Install dependencies
- Arch: sudo pacman -S base-devel linux-headers git
- Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r) git
- Fedora/RHEL: sudo dnf install kernel-modules-$(uname -r) kernel-devel kernel-headers gcc make git

Build and load

git clone https://github.com/Nakildias/sc0710
cd sc0710
make
sudo insmod build/sc0710.ko

4K Pro only — insmod alone is not enough on cold boot. You also need:
- SC0710.FWI.HEX in /lib/firmware/sc0710/ (extract with scripts/extract-firmware.sh)
- Reload the module after cold boot so the driver can program the ECP5, or use the automatic installer

Driver management (`sc0710-cli`)

Installed by the automatic installer, the AUR package, and the NixOS module. Provides real-time control on both atomic and standard distros.

Command	Alias	Description
`--status`	`-s`	Module state, card info, signal format, ECP5 status (4K Pro), DKMS or build service status
`--load`	`-l`	Load the module. On 4K Pro, verifies ECP5 programming after load
`--unload`	`-u`	Unload the module (stops PipeWire consumers if the module is busy)
`--restart`		Full reload. On 4K Pro, runs ECP5 programming with retries
`--debug`	`-d`	Toggle verbose `dmesg` logging
`--image-toggle`	`-it`	Toggle No Signal images vs colorbars
`--procedural-timings`	`-pt`	Cycle timing mode: merge → procedural-only → static-only
`--update`	`-U`	Pull latest source, rebuild, reload. On 4K Pro, re-runs ECP5 programming with retries
`--rebuild`		(Atomic only) Force rebuild the module for the running kernel
`--dump`		Save a debug report to the Desktop (`dump-DD-MM-YYYY.txt`) for GitHub issues
`--remove`	`-r`, `-R`	Uninstall driver, CLI, services, config files, and 4K Pro firmware
`--version`	`-v`	Show installed driver version
`--help`	`-h`	Show all options

After sc0710-cli --remove, verify everything is gone:

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Nakildias/sc0710/main/scripts/check-sc0710-removal.sh)"

Verify complete removal

Same command as above — checks module, DKMS, CLI, systemd units, config files, logs, and 4K Pro firmware. No clone or sudo required. Exits 0 when fully clean.

Features

Multi-client support — multiple apps (e.g. OBS + Discord) can open the device simultaneously
DKMS integration — automatic rebuilds on kernel updates (standard distros)
Atomic / immutable support — boot-time rebuild via sc0710-build.service (Bazzite, Silverblue, etc.)
4K Pro ECP5 auto-programming — firmware extraction at install time; the driver programs the FPGA at load and refuses to bind if it can't
Status images — storage-efficient No Signal / No Device screens
Connection sensing — distinguishes unplugged cables from signal loss (not 100% reliable)
Video formats — 4K60, 1440p144, 1080p240. EDID Source control (Internal/Display/Merged) on both cards via the EDID Source V4L2 control (v4l2-ctl --set-ctrl=edid_source=N). Custom EDID read/write on both cards via VIDIOC_G_EDID/VIDIOC_S_EDID — the 4K Pro through its EEPROM (edid= boot param, profiles from scripts/extract-firmware.sh), the MK.2 through its MCU (runtime only). The graphical EDID Config app (sc0710-cli --edid-config) manages this for both cards and can fetch Elgato's official EDID profiles
Mode-switch stability — DMA resync, restart validation, and watchdog recovery during resolution/refresh changes; apps are told to renegotiate via V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
Timing controls — runtime modes (merge, procedural-only, static-only) via CLI
HDR (MK.2) — host PQ→SDR tonemap on YUYV and BGR24, MCU hardware tonemap via hw_tonemap / MCU 0x11, or native BGR24 HDR passthrough with BT.2020/PQ tags
Driver manager GUI — sc0710-cli --gui (load/unload/restart, toggles, EDID/HDR config launchers, dump + HDR tests)
Debug dumps — sc0710-cli --dump collects distro, kernel, lspci, driver version, and service state for issue reports

Pixel formats (YUYV 4:2:2 and native BGR24 4:4:4)

Two capture formats are offered; pick per app over V4L2, no reload:

YUYV (default) — packed 4:2:2, 2 bytes/pixel. Lowest bandwidth, always available.
BGR24 — native 4:4:4, 3 bytes/pixel: the card's full-chroma mode (Elgato markets it "RGB24 8-bit 4:4:4"; the bytes are BGR-ordered). ~50 % more PCIe/RAM bandwidth than YUYV, so it is opt-in. Reported as full-range sRGB for SDR, or BT.2020 / PQ when HDMI is HDR and host tonemap is off.

v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video0 --list-formats                     # YUYV + BGR3
v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video0 --set-fmt-video=pixelformat=BGR3   # select 4:4:4
# OBS / ffmpeg pick it via the normal format menu / -pixel_format bgr24

On MK.2, HDR mode can also auto-select the format while idle:

sw_tonemap=1 (default) + HDMI HDR-PQ → host PQ→SDR preview: BGR24 luminance-preserving RGB (preferred); YUYV limited-range Y LUT + mild chroma pull. SDR tags.
sw_tonemap=0 + hdr_bgr24=1 (default) + HDMI HDR → prefer BGR24, BT.2020/PQ tags (no P010)
SDR → leave format alone / YUYV default; no tonemap

Use sc0710-cli --gui for the manager, --hdr-config (-hc) for tonemap presets, or --hdr-toggle to cycle modes.

The format is device-wide (one card, one DMA pipeline) and can only be changed while no app is capturing or holding buffers (a change attempt then returns EBUSY). Interlaced sources are YUYV-only: a BGR24 request is clamped to YUYV, and if a signal turns interlaced mid-session under BGR24 the driver delivers no frames until the format or signal changes. For bit-accurate RGB capture, also present an RGB-only EDID (below): on a YCbCr wire the card round-trips RGB→YCbCr→RGB and loses ~2 codes; on an RGB wire it captures within ±1 of bit-perfect.

Choosing the presented EDID

The card presents an EDID to the HDMI source; changing it changes what the source outputs (resolution, and RGB vs YCbCr). Two ways:

edid=<name> module param — loads /lib/firmware/sc0710/edid/<name>.bin at module load (profiles installed by extract-firmware.sh), e.g. edid=1440p.
VIDIOC_S_EDID at runtime — v4l2-ctl --set-edid. For a raw binary EDID file add ,format=raw; the default expects the hex-text format that --get-edid produces:

v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video0 --get-edid                          # dump current (hex text)
v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video0 --set-edid=file=my-edid.bin,format=raw   # write a raw .bin

An RGB-only EDID (color-encoding bits 00, no YCbCr flags) makes the source output RGB 4:4:4 — the wire to pair with BGR24 for bit-accurate 4:4:4 capture. The source renegotiates ~8–10 s after a write (a brief re-detect of the old mode first is normal).

Low-latency capture

Interrupt-driven completion (irq_service=1, default) — the card's MSI wakes the DMA service when a frame completes, replacing the 2 ms completion polling; completion latency drops to interrupt latency and the idle polling load goes away. Polling survives as a 100 ms watchdog tick: completed work the watchdog finds that no interrupt announced is logged and counted (irq: line in /proc/sc0710-state), and three consecutive misses drop the session back to 2 ms polling with a KERN_ERR in dmesg. irq_service=0 restores classic polling; failed MSI allocation logs a warning and falls back to polling. (thread_dma_poll_interval_ms remains as an override for the service tick; the default auto-selects.)
zero_copy=1 (experimental) — DMA frames straight into the capturing app's buffers, skipping the per-frame copy (~1.5–3 ms at 4K). Strict single-client mode: one streaming app per video node (a second gets EBUSY). Load-time only. The DMA descriptor fetcher is credit-gated in this mode — early hardware testing caught it consuming stale (pre-rewrite) descriptors and writing into already-delivered buffers; with credits a chain is only fetchable after its rewrites, and a permanent writeback sentinel trips loudly (and falls back to the copy path) if a stale fetch ever happens anyway. Validated on hardware: a userspace mutation checker (checksumming app-owned buffers) runs clean, with zero sentinel events across long captures. For full engagement keep more buffers queued than the DMA ring has chains (5+, e.g. --stream-mmap=8; most players do) — a thin queue routes starved laps through the copy path (zc frames: in /proc/sc0710-state shows the direct/copied split). Buffers can be exported as dmabufs (VIDIOC_EXPBUF) for GPU-direct consumers. zero_copy=0 (the default) keeps the vendor's free-running ring, byte-identical.

Zero-copy buffer eligibility: a frame is DMA'd directly into a buffer when the buffer's DMA segments fit the chain's descriptor budget (zc_split=, default 8, max 32); the frame is tiled across the buffer's own segments, so fragmentation within the budget is fine. Buffers over the 32-segment hard limit are refused at QBUF with a zero-copy: buffer memory too fragmented dmesg line; buffers between the budget and the limit are accepted but served through the copy path (visible in the zc frames: split — raise zc_split= to widen the budget). If buffers are too fragmented, fixes, best first:

# Give ONLY the capture card a translating IOMMU domain (runtime, reversible,
# no reboot; resets to the boot default on reboot). VFIO passthrough and every
# other host device are unaffected.
G=$(basename $(readlink /sys/bus/pci/devices/<BDF>/iommu_group))
echo <BDF> | sudo tee /sys/bus/pci/devices/<BDF>/driver/unbind
echo DMA-FQ | sudo tee /sys/kernel/iommu_groups/$G/type
echo <BDF> | sudo tee /sys/bus/pci/drivers_probe
# or: defragment and retry
sudo sh -c 'echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/compact_memory'

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to try
*4K Pro: card didn't bind / no `/dev/video`** (cold boot)	`sudo dmesg \| grep sc0710` for the probe error; if firmware is missing run `extract-firmware.sh`, then `sudo sc0710-cli --restart`
Module won't unload (app in use)	`sc0710-cli --unload` stops PipeWire first; close OBS/etc.
Atomic: module not built after kernel update	`sudo sc0710-cli --rebuild` or check `journalctl -u sc0710-build.service -b`
Driver still present after `--remove`	Run `sudo sc0710-cli --remove` again, then the removal check script
4K60 tearing / frame shifts at max bandwidth	Under investigation; try lower resolution/refresh or close extra consumers in the meantime

For GitHub issues, attach output from sc0710-cli --dump.

Known limitations / roadmap

4K60 DMA tearing — horizontal tears or frame shifts at 4K60 (~995 MB/s) under heavy load; under active investigation
10-bit planar formats — P010/P016 not implemented; HDR passthrough uses native BGR24 4:4:4 instead

Help wanted

Maintainer Nakildias only has an Elgato 4k60 Pro MK.2 available for hands-on testing. That limits how much can be validated on other hardware.

Contributions and testing help are especially welcome for:

Elgato 4K Pro — ECP5 cold-boot behavior, atomic/Bazzite installs, and general capture stability
Unsupported cards — other 12ab:0710 subsystem IDs (e.g. HD60 Pro) that are not yet fully supported
Open issues — bugs that need reproduction on hardware the maintainer does not own (4K60 tearing, edge-case distros, etc.)

If you can test, debug, or submit patches for any of the above, please open an issue or a pull request. Include sc0710-cli --dump output when reporting problems.

Credits and copyright

This fork is maintained by Nakildias (nakildiaspro@gmail.com).

Based on original reverse engineering by Steven Toth (@stoth68000) and subsequent work by @Subtixx.
Thanks to Onhil (@Onhil) for his work on the Elgato 4K Pro.
Thanks to JerwuQu (@JerwuQu) for his work on the Elgato 4K Pro EDID Flashing & BRG24 Support.

The kernel module is a derivative of Steven Toth's sc0710 driver (GPL v2). Original copyright notices are preserved in source files; modifications in this fork are attributed separately. Installer scripts are original work in this repository. See COPYRIGHT for details.

This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Elgato, Magewell, or Kernel Labs.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 190 Commits
aur		aur
lib		lib
scripts		scripts
.gitignore		.gitignore
COPYRIGHT		COPYRIGHT
LICENSE		LICENSE
Makefile		Makefile
README.md		README.md
default.nix		default.nix
dkms.conf		dkms.conf
flake.nix		flake.nix
update-version.sh		update-version.sh
version		version

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Elgato 4K60 Pro MK.2 (1cfa:000e) and Elgato 4K Pro (1cfa:0012) Linux Driver

Supported cards

Kernel compatibility

Installation

Automatic installation (recommended)

4K Pro ECP5 firmware (cold boot)

Arch Linux (AUR)

NixOS (flakes)

Manual compilation

Driver management (`sc0710-cli`)

Verify complete removal

Features

Pixel formats (YUYV 4:2:2 and native BGR24 4:4:4)

Choosing the presented EDID

Low-latency capture

Troubleshooting

Known limitations / roadmap

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Elgato 4K60 Pro MK.2 (1cfa:000e) and Elgato 4K Pro (1cfa:0012) Linux Driver

Supported cards

Kernel compatibility

Installation

Automatic installation (recommended)

4K Pro ECP5 firmware (cold boot)

Arch Linux (AUR)

NixOS (flakes)

Manual compilation

Driver management (sc0710-cli)

Verify complete removal

Features

Pixel formats (YUYV 4:2:2 and native BGR24 4:4:4)

Choosing the presented EDID

Low-latency capture

Troubleshooting

Known limitations / roadmap

Help wanted

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Driver management (`sc0710-cli`)