2. Installation of drivers & libraries

libfreenect Installation:

OpenKinect’s getting started page provides a well enough documented installation guide that anyone should be able to get them up and running under Windows/Linux or OSX. With Ubuntu being the distro of choice for installation guide. - http://openkinect.org/wiki/Getting_Started

If you’re running Arch, there are a few AUR packages available however they all seem to have lacked updates for a few months but the manual build is pretty simple on the getting started page, I’ve also added a quick list of commands to get you there:

Grab the git copy of the libraries:

git clone https://github.com/OpenKinect/libfreenect.git
cd libfreenect/

Make, install:

mkdir build
cd build/
cmake ..
make
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig /usr/local/lib64/

Add your user to allow access to the connect by creating a group called video and adding your user to it:
note: this can be skipped if you don’t mind running as root/sudo

sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/66-kinect.rules
sudo usermod -G video username

Test the kinect with the example program:

bin/glview

If all went well you should have seen a sight similar to the screenshot above, if not check out the OpenKinect page for more information and see if the problems you’re having haven’t already been resolved.