HELP Newbie to Linux, and This Video Capture Stuff is Ripe..

[kenehresman]

Ok, I'm not new to computers and the last time I ran linus it was pre GUI.... So I downloaded the bootable version of this Zone Minder and ran it and installed it on a PC..

Here are My Questions I hope someone can answer...

I have 2 of the eBay specials installed, yes the notorious BT848 series cards with the crappo windows software,, hence why I am here.. Since I installed the bootable version, did mandrake Plug and Pray my 2 cards into this version or do I need to install then, and If I need to install them please give DETAILED instructions....

next, I think it might have one card installed,so I can get to the webpage no problem on a machine and setup what I though to be correct, then clicked on a monitor and walla, the screen started to open a JAVA applet then totally LOCKED UP MY XP MACHINE! I have XP Pro, and I did this 3 times to make sure it was a real problem and everytime i click on a camera it locks me up.....

finally, I downloaded the windows based software to view the ZM and it ask for a login and password... Where do I get that???

Thanks
Ken

P.S.

I'm really sick of setting all this crap up, I just need the 2 cards to work with 8 inputs and need the software setup. If someone can do that, I have a hundred paypal bucks I will pay.... I have wasted WAY too much time allready.... I can probably open a port on a firewall and setup VNC so you can login and get me taken care of...

PM me at ken@bktechsolutions.com if you can do this for me and we can get it done and make a few bucks and friends on the way )

Ken

[cordel]

Hi Ken,
If you would like you are welcome to pm me the information and I can take a peek. There are several cards on ebay, If you could discribe the card a little better might be useful. You will need to forward ports 80 and 22 to the machine.

Regards,
Corey

[jameswilson]

Corey is the biggest gentleman on here

**edit i mean i have had a few beers and i get pissed off by lazy people who cant be arsed to read and try, but Corey and Phil will will always try to help. But Corey has 10x the patiance i have. I do feel if you cant be arsed to read and try, you really can stick your $100

[kenehresman]

Thanks for offering to help Cory, to the other naysayer.. have a few more beers, by yourself I'm sure! and keep your opinion to yourself...

What you don't know is:

It isn't about being LAZY, it is all about having the time... I guess if I were loser like you I would have all the time in the world to read and figure things out, but since I actually have a life and business to run, it becomes more about me trying to find people who are better at this than me and partnering with them..

You wouldn't know anything about that though, would you?

Ok on another topic, maybe the wise guy can answer this since he seems to know everything...

Since this video server is running on another box, and not my main IIS server box that serves up other web sites that I use, and I only have one public IP, I can't forward port 80 to this box since it is allready being forwarded to the IIS Webserver. Having said that, I can get 22 to forward no porblem, so If I change the Apache Web Server to run on another port other than 80, then can I forward that port (Say 84) and 22 to the Linux box and expect everything to work correctly? or are there other calls and port forwards, specifically dynamically opened ports that might come into play?

This is also related to the windows application I downloaded. It works really good on one machine but is generating some errors on another. will this window application also work if I tell it to call the Public IP in the config section? I guess my short question is, what port is the camera video traveling on, and is there more than one port if you have more than one card?

TO any one that WANTS to help please let me know, to anyone that doesn't have anything better to do than badger me, please don't respond.

Best Regards,
Ken

[rdmelin]

Having said that, I can get 22 to forward no porblem, so If I change the Apache Web Server to run on another port other than 80, then can I forward that port (Say 84) and 22 to the Linux box and expect everything to work correctly?

Yes, no ports are needed other than the one apache is set to use.
Edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd2.conf
Look for

<IfDefine !APACHEPROXIED>
Listen 80
</IfDefine>

And yes James, Corey does have more patience than most anyone I know.

[jameswilson]

the video is requested via port 80 on the windows app, but if you move the apache port then you can tell the windows app to get it images from any port, just enter the required port in the settings with a leading :

Im off to the fridge to get another beer for my lone self lol

James

[jameswilson]

the steps i think you need to take (i have assumed some stuff for the moment as the info is limited.

Edit your modprobe.conf and add
options bttv card=77,77

reboot machine.
Create your monitors as req ensuring all on the same chip have the same settings. If your only creating 1 monitor per Chip to start with limit the max fps to say 5 to begin with.

Update your java client on your xp machine as i cant see why anything on zm can cause xp to lock.

I would recommend getting the webside running before you go down the zm4ms route, but the default passwords etc are admin and admin, It might also be worth scanning through the forum topic for zm4ms as there is Currently no manual. Ps if you have webmin running i can help out remotly, Corey csn do it without webmin but i cant

[kenehresman]

Ok James and Corey, I think we are nearing the end of this install. Thanks to all who have provided input... I will list a few notes then address one issue we are having:

I have received the information on changing apache to a new port, I will do that tomorrow when I am in front of the machine since I don't have VNC loaded currently. Since the window app request the information via HTTP ports then it should work remotely as long as the appropriate ports are forwarded which I have allready done.


Next, the cards did plug into the LiveCD version no problem once I rebooted, so I think all is well there... One note I didn't know but might be worth mentioning for others, do NOT mix B/W and Color cameras on these cheap eBay 4 port DVR cards based on the BT 848 chipset. It doesn't seem to like that and has problems.

Then, once that is done I can remotely test it... I am however receiving some errors on one of the XP machines we have tested the windows based applciation. the other machine seems to work fine. Before troubleshooting too far, I intend to uninstall the app, and hte dotnet stuff and re-install and see if it fixes it. FWIW, it didn't start erroring out until I added a couple more cameras exceeding the inital4..

Here are a few questions I could use some help with..

Question1, What changes do I need to make to setup a different port on VNC, and how do I get the "Server" fucntion to load auctomatically on boot so I can remote to the box from wherever I want on a designated port? This is on LiveCD installed version.

Question2, Is there any significant advantage to upgrading from the livecd version(I think is like 1.21something) to the latest 1.22(something)? and if so can i just download and try the RPM INstaller? I know the risk and will "Ghost" an image of this box prior to the upgrade to a different server so if it craps out I can just roll the image back onto the machine and keep going...

Question3, Is there any software that can show each of the 4 ports on these cheap cards as a seperate image just for screen usage on the server? The Tv tuner software shows the card but since it is multiplexing 4 channels into one it jsut flashes each so fast you can't really see anything... I guess what I am asking, is there a utility or program I can install locally on this box that will show these camera screens live without using the ZM and the overhead and resources that it might require? I don't seem to get anything on server anyway when i try to use the montage screen....

Thanks,
Ken

[jameswilson]

there are 2 ways to display images on the server. There is a 'raw' viewer that only works on 1.22 and up, and there is a beta version i have written that will work, But its a viewer only and no-where near complete.

What errors are you getting on zm4ms. It shouldnt do that on live view as all errors on live view should be suppressed

[kenehresman]

Here is the opening error dialog box:

Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click quit, the application will close immediately.

Conversion from string "" to type "Integer" is not valid.

Furthermore, if I click Details button here is a cut paste from that...

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.InvalidCastException: Conversion from string "" to type 'Integer' is not valid. ---> System.FormatException: Input string was not in a correct format.
at Microsoft.VisualBasic.CompilerServices.Conversions.ParseDouble(String Value, NumberFormatInfo NumberFormat)
at Microsoft.VisualBasic.CompilerServices.Conversions.ToInteger(String Value)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at Microsoft.VisualBasic.CompilerServices.Conversions.ToInteger(String Value)
at ViseonViewer2.sequenceView.Timer2_Tick(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Timer.OnTick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Timer.TimerNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
ViseonViewer2
Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Ken/Local%20Settings/Apps/2.0/3R0QY1LJ.0TD/OZMP2V38.5QB/vise..tion_84f1c4803f9b5668_0001.0000_7b0d44a0c6d88448/ViseonViewer2.exe
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
Assembly Version: 8.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 8.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Runtime.Remoting
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Remoting/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Remoting.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.




this seems to be hapening on at least 2 machines, at almost appeared to start when I was moving and resizing windows and placed a cycle window surrounded by smaller windows....

Let me know if I can be of more help.

Ken

[jameswilson]

mmmmm, interesting So this started after you saved a custom view, and now it happens as soon as you load the app?

[kenehresman]

The exact order was:

Launched the software and setup the paths and maeras
closed and relaumched at ot worked so I switch to 9 camera view (1 have six)
then I closed the windows I didn't want.
then I opened a cycle window
started resizing cycle windows and other smaller windows and walla, error
I saved the view
exited and restarted but to this point i'm unsure if it is happening again.
I did try to replicate it follwing the above steps and I could get it to replicate the error pretty easily...

Ken

[jameswilson]

ok then i will try to replicate and post a fix once i find it, assuming i can

[jameswilson]

Ken I have tried to replicate and mine works as expected,
A couple of things, what do you have the cycle settings set to and what version you running?

[kenehresman]

Ok, the cycle time is set for 15000 and the version if whatever was linked to on the website, I think it is 2.74 beta...

One more thought. I can put my finger on it but I think this is only when you size and move windows arround..

Here is another symptom, maybe related - maybe not...

I noticed today when I lauch the software after logging in it minimizes the screen to the task bar and the only way I can get it back it to right click and select mximize... I can;t get it to restore to anything other than full minimize for maximize...

KEN