Genesys Logic GL860 USB webcam bridge
Support for a small family of late-2000s laptop-integrated USB webcams built around the Genesys Logic GL860 bridge chip, found in machines like the Asus Z37E and certain Medion notebooks. It covers only the pre-UVC variant of the chip; later GL860A cameras already work through the standard USB Video Class driver.
recommendation
A candidate for future removal because the driver only matches two USB IDs tied to obsolete laptop webcams from around 2008, hasn't been meaningfully touched upstream in years (just two substantive commits in five years, last in 2021), and the hardware has not been sold new for well over a decade. There is no active push to delete it and no in-tree replacement for these specific non-UVC devices, so removal isn't urgent, but it is a reasonable target for eventual retirement once any remaining users are identified.
repository signals
sources
- cateee.net
LKDDb maps this driver to only two USB IDs, 05e3:0503 and 05e3:f191, and shows it remains buildable as CONFIG_USB_GL860 in current kernels.
- gl860.sourceforge.net
The historical GL860 project page describes this as a Genesys Logic GL860 webcam chipset driver, says only two USB IDs had been found, and ties 05e3:0503 to old laptop-integrated webcams such as Asus Z37E and Medion models; it also notes GL860A devices are UVC-compliant instead.
- bugs.launchpad.net
An Ubuntu bug from 2008-era deployment reports 05e3:0503 as a Genesys Logic onboard webcam on Kubuntu Jaunty, reinforcing that known field use is legacy laptop hardware rather than current products.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local source inspection (`sed`/`rg`) shows this is a real USB webcam driver (`MODULE_DESCRIPTION` says Genesys Logic USB PC Camera Driver) for IDs 05e3:0503 and 05e3:f191. `lore_file_timeline` on the directory path returned zero indexed mailing-list events, and phase-1 metadata already showed only 2 substantive commits in 5 years with latest substantive touch on 2021-10-19, so upstream attention is minimal and there is no visible removal discussion to justify `remove`. The cited LKDDb URL was obtained via web search (`turn0search0`), the SourceForge project page via web search (`turn0search1`), and the Launchpad bug via web search (`turn0search2`). Recommendation is `deprecate`: hardware appears limited to legacy non-UVC laptop webcams, likely not sold new in 2025, but there is no active upstream removal push and no in-tree drop-in replacement for these exact non-UVC devices.