really need some help

barrydocks · Post by **barrydocks** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 12:33 pm

Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction as I am fairly new to linux
Background
Ubuntu 8.04 server 64bit edition
PCI-e DVR card with 8 chips - based on phillips SAA7130 chipset
this is the card I have:
http://www.camsecure.co.uk/PCIECapture.html

According to HCL the drivers for the card are installed:

video 0 to 7 are listed in the /dev directory

zmu output:

root@fileserver:~# zmu -d /dev/video0 -q -v
Video Capabilities
Name: UNKNOWN/GENERIC
Type: 45
Can capture
Does teletext
Overlay onto frame buffer
Can clip
Video Channels: 1
Audio Channels: 0
Maximum Width: 720
Maximum Height: 578
Minimum Width: 48
Minimum Height: 32
Window Attributes
X Offset: 0
Y Offset: 0
Width: 0
Height: 0
Picture Attributes
Palette: 4 - 24bit RGB
Colour Depth: 24
Brightness: 46774
Hue: 32896
Colour :33026
Contrast: 35090
Whiteness: 0
Channel 0 Attributes
Name: default
Channel: 0
Flags: 0
Type: 2 - Camera
Format: 0 - PAL

I currently can't get an image from either zoneminder or xawtv
output from xawtvis:

root@fileserver:~# xawtv
This is xawtv-3.95.dfsg.1, running on Linux/x86_64 (2.6.24-24-server)
xinerama 0: 1024x768+0+0
Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-ledfixed-medium-r-*--39-*-*-*-c-*-*-*" to type FontStruct
game over

I have read that there is a bttv.conf or an modprobe.conf file that probably needs modifying but I can't find either!

Some help would be really appreciated!

Post by **knight-of-ni** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 2:42 pm

For Unbuntu, you need to create a configuration file (call it something like "saa7134") in the following folder:

/etc/modprobe.d/

FYI: The /etc/modprobe.conf file is depreciated, which is why you didn't see it.

The next step (the hard part) will be to populate the file with the right configuration info. It looks like this driver is configured similar to the bttv driver so the following may be helpful:
http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.ph ... t8x8_Cards

You'll need to figure out the correct card type for your hardware. You may not have that info on your machine. I had to download the saa7134 driver here:
http://dl.bytesex.org/releases/video4linux/

and then open the file "CARDLIST.saa7134" found under the doc subfolder.
That lists all the available card types.

barrydocks · Post by **barrydocks** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 3:28 pm

Thanks for your reply.

knnniggett wrote:You'll need to figure out the correct card type for your hardware. You may not have that info on your machine. I had to download the saa7134 driver here:
http://dl.bytesex.org/releases/video4linux/

and then open the file "CARDLIST.saa7134" found under the doc subfolder.
That lists all the available card types.

Yeah, I had a look at that - I think it's fairly out of date as it only lists 33 cards and the return from dmsg lists 117! - I tried dmsg and found that the card is listed as indervidual chips (ie 8 of them) plus all the possible card options:

[ 73.955083] saa7130/34: v4l2 driver version 0.2.14 loaded
[ 73.955147] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:00.0[A] -> Link [LNEC] -> GSI 19 (lev
el, low) -> IRQ 19
[ 73.955157] saa7130[0]: found at 0000:03:00.0, rev: 1, irq: 19, latency: 64, mmio: 0xfceffc00
[ 73.955164] saa7134: <rant>
[ 73.955165] saa7134: Congratulations! Your TV card vendor saved a few
[ 73.955166] saa7134: cents for a eeprom, thus your pci board has no
[ 73.955167] saa7134: subsystem ID and I can't identify it automatically
[ 73.955168] saa7134: </rant>
[ 73.955169] saa7134: I feel better now. Ok, here are the good news:
[ 73.955169] saa7134: You can use the card=<nr> insmod option to specify
[ 73.955170] saa7134: which board do you have. The list:
[ 73.955173] saa7134: card=0 -> UNKNOWN/GENERIC
[ 73.955176] saa7134: card=1 -> Proteus Pro [philips reference design] 1131:2001 1131:2001
[ 73.955179] saa7134: card=2 -> LifeView FlyVIDEO3000 5168:0138 4e42:0138
[ 73.955183] saa7134: card=3 -> LifeView/Typhoon FlyVIDEO2000 5168:0138 4e42:0138
[

blah, blah

[ 73.955470] saa7134: card=116 -> 10MOONS TM300 TV Card 1131:2304
[ 73.955472] saa7134: card=117 -> Avermedia Super 007 1461:f01d
[ 73.955475] saa7130[0]: subsystem: 1131:0000, board: UNKNOWN/GENE

knnniggett wrote:For Unbuntu, you need to create a configuration file (call it something like "saa7134") in the following folder:

/etc/modprobe.d/

What would happen if I inlcuded several options in the file, I was thinking of adding them all? ie:

options bttv card=1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1
options bttv card =2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2
etc, etc,

knnniggett wrote:FYI: The /etc/modprobe.conf file is depreciated, which is why you didn't see it.

sorry t show my ignorance but why is this and what does it mean? Similar to hiding system files/folders in windows?

Post by **knight-of-ni** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 1:32 pm

Hmmm.... my hunch is that adding all 117 options to your configuration file will not work. My guess is that either the first or the last set of options will be the one that takes effect, but I've never tried it myself. It's possible you could end up with a system that doesn't finish booting (or boots incredibly slow) so, unless you are up to a good challenge, you may want to avoid trying this.

Oh and about the "depreciated" comment....
When a certain way of configuring something in software becomes outdated, we call it "depreciated"... meaning that it's possible you could get your system to run using the old method, but at some point in the future only the new method will work. Consequently, one should typically start using the new method as soon as possible.

In your case, the "old" method is to place module options (for all modules on your system) into a single file called "modprobe.conf". Today some systems may have this file hanging around and some may not. It's possible you could get things working by placing your module options inside this file. However, the "new" way of doing things is to create a separate file for each module in the folder "modprobe.d". At some point, placing your options into the "modprobe.conf" file will no longer work.

I know.... that was the long answer to your question... sorry about that.

But back to addressing the real issue...
You are in what I would call interesting position (maybe I'm weird, but I find it kind of fun). You've got a card with a chipset known by Linux, but it doesn't look like anyone has posted instructions for the specific card you have (at least I did not see any). What I recommend you do is follow the method posted in this thread:
http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5921

While the card in that thread is different than yours, the method for determining the card type should work for you.

The author shows how to go through all the card types w/o rebooting. Once you find a set of options that work for your card, to make it permanent, simply place the options into a text file in your modprobe.d folder as mentioned previously.

And lastly, let us know your results so that we all can benefit from your work.

Hope that helps, and I hope you enjoy your Linux experience(es).

barrydocks · Post by **barrydocks** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 7:06 pm

one other thing if I used these commands with the appropriate vales:

rmmod saa7134 (remove current driver)
modprobe saa7134 card=n,n,n,n (Install new driver, n = cardtype)

and then listed dmsg, would this then list the new driver or just the orginal?

Thanks for your help

Post by **knight-of-ni** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 9:56 pm

As changes to your system occur, new information is appended to your dmesg output.

barrydocks · Post by **barrydocks** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 4:44 pm

Sucess! I found card=2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2 worked and also card=3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3 - can't decide which gives the best picture.

I also found that adding -v to the "rmmod saa7134" and "modprobe saa7134 card=n,n,n,n" line was useful to esnsure things were actually happening becuase:

knnniggett wrote:As changes to your system occur, new information is appended to your dmesg output.

Not accutally sure if they do when an option is specified in a config file in the /etc/modprobe.d direcetory. I foud if I removed this then there was less of a problem.

I think I will write this up with a pitcure of the card as a how to post?

Thanks for your help.

Just one other thing I realise that I need to install cambozola to allow streaming to IE. I have downloaded the tar.gz file but have no idea how what to do with it once extracted? I have installed the ant command but just get errors (will post these for you to see on monday), any suggestions in the meantime?

Post by **knight-of-ni** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 11:09 pm

Glad you got your card working. I bet you are glad that your card was number 2 or 3 in the list rather than number 115.

IMO the easiest way to get Cambozola to work is to simply download the one from the Zoneminder Downloads section. After downloading simply uncompress and copy the cambozoola.jar file to your zm web root folder. Then it just magically works... no need to use ant.

barrydocks · Post by **barrydocks** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 11:52 am

Ok after many hours trying to get this card to work I threw in the towel and got Phil to SSH into my server to sort it! Here is a list of the CLI history for those that are interested. I have not had a chance to go through it myself yet, I would be grateful if someone has the time to interpret which are the important commands and what they do?

Code: Select all

   67  v4l-info | more
   68  v4l-info | more
   69  v4l-info | more
   70  v4l-conf 
   71  v4l-conf -h
   72  vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/default 
   73  ls -l /usr/share/zoneminder/
   74  vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/default 
   75  fg
   76  apache2ctl restart
   77  tail -f /var/log/messages
   78  ls -l /dev/video*
   79  v4l-info | more
   80  v4l-info | more
   81  tail -f /var/log/messages
   82  ps -edalf | grep zmc
   83  tail -f /var/log/messages
   84  zmpkg.pl stop
   85  ps -edalf | grep zm
   86  export ZM_DBG_PRINT=1
   87  ./zmc -d /dev/video0
   88  zmc -d /dev/video0
   89  export ZM_DBG_LEVEL=5
   90  zmc -d /dev/video0
   91  zmc -d /dev/video0
   92  export ZM_DBG_LEVEL=9
   93  zmc -d /dev/video0
   94  export ZM_DBG_PRINT=0
   95  zmc -d /dev/video0 &
   96  zmu -m 1 -t
   97  zmu -m 1 -t
   98  zmu -m 1 -t
   99  zmu -m 1 -t
  100  zmu -m 1 -t
  101  zmu -m 1 -t
  102  zmu -m 1 -t
  103  zmu -m 1 -t
  104  top
  105  zmu -m 1 -t
  106  zmu -m 1 -t
  107  zmu -m 1 -i
  108  ls -lrt
  109  pwd
  110  zmu -m 1 -i
  111  ls -lrt
  112  zmu -m 1 -i
  113  ls -lrt
  114  fg
  115  export ZM_DBG_PRINT=1
  116  export ZM_DBG_LEVEL=5
  117  zmc -d /dev/video0
  118  zmc -d /dev/video0
  119  v4l-info /dev/video1 | more
  120  v4l-info /dev/video1 | more
  121  zmc -d /dev/video1
  122  export ZM_DBG_PRINT=0
  123  zmc -d /dev/video1
  124  zmc -d /dev/video1 &
  125  zmu -m 2 -i
  126  ls -lrt
  127  lsmod | more
  128  fg
  129  jobs
  130  zmc -d /dev/video1 &
  131  zmu -m 2 -i
  132  ls -lrt
  133  ls -lrt
  134  zmu -m 2 -i
  135  ls -lrt
  136  fg
  137  zmc -d /dev/video1 &
  138  zmu -m 2 -i
  139  ls -lrt
  140  fg
  141  zmc -d /dev/video0 &
  142  zmu -m 1 -i
  143  ls -lrt
  144  fg
  145  zmpkg.pl start
  146  tail -f /var/log/messages
  147  zmdc.pl stop zmwatch.pl
  148  tail -f /var/log/messages
  149  ls -l /var/log
  150  ls -l /var/log/zm/
  151  tail -f /var/log/messages
  152  tail -f /var/log/apache2/error.log
  153  tail -f /var/log/apache2/access.log
  154  vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/default 
  155  ls -l /usr/share/zoneminder/cgi-bin/
  156  ls -l /usr/share/zoneminder/cgi-bi
  157  ls -l /usr/share/zoneminder/cgi-bin
  158  ls -l /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
  159  fg
  160  apache2ctl restart
  161  tail -f /var/log/apache2/access.log
  162  ls -l /usr/share/zoneminder/images
  163  ls -l /usr/share/zoneminder/images/
  164  ls -l /var/cache/zoneminder/images/
  165  ls -lrt
  166  apt-get 
  167  man apt-get
  168  man apt-get
  169  dpkg
  170  dpkg -h
  171  dpkg -L zoneminder | more
  172  vi /etc/zm/apache.conf 
  173  fg
  174  cd /etc/apache2/
  175  ls -lrt
  176  ls conf.d/
  177  cd sites-available/
  178  vi default 
  179  ln -s /etc/zm/apache.conf /etc/apache2/conf.d/zoneminder
  180  apache2ctl restart
  181  tail -f /var/log/apache2/error.log
  182  ls -l /usr/bin/
  183  ls -l /usr/bin/zmfix
  184  chmod 4755 /usr/bin/zmfix
  185  ls -l /usr/bin/zmfix
  186  zmfix -a
  187  ls -l /dev/video*
  188  tail -f /var/log/apache2/error.log
  189  chown www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/temp
  190  tail -f /var/log/apache2/error.log
  191  tail -f /var/log/messages
  192  zmu -m 1 -t
  193  zmu -m 1 -t
  194  tail -f /var/log/messages
  195  ps -edalf | grep zmc
  196  ps -edalf | grep zm
  197  zmpkg.pl stop
  198  ps -edalf | grep zm
  199  zmpkg.pl start
  200  ps -edalf | grep zm
  201  ps -edalf | grep zm
  202  tail -f /var/log/messages
  203  uptime
  204  df
  205  tail -f /var/log/messages
  206  ls -l /usr/share/zoneminder/
  207  ls -l /usr/share/zoneminder/events
  208  ls -l /var/cache/
  209  ls -l /var/cache/zoneminder/
  210  ls -l /media/disk/
  211  ls -l /media/disk/cctv/
  212  ls -ld /media/disk/cctv/
  213  mount
  214  cp -P /usr/share/zoneminder/events/* /media/disk/cctv/
  215  cp -pR /usr/share/zoneminder/events/* /media/disk/cctv/
  216  zmpkg.pl stop
  217  cd /media/disk/cctv/
  218  ls -lrt
  219  vi /etc/modprobe.d/libsane 
  220  cd /usr/share/zoneminder/
  221  rm events
  222  ln -s /media/disk/cctv events
  223  ls -l
  224  ls -ld
  225  ls -ld events
  226  cd events
  227  ls
  228  more CCTV\ Phillips\ cards.txt 
  229    
  230  ls -lrt
  231  rm CCTV\ Phillips\ cards.txt Phillips\ DVR\ cards.doc Screenshot.jpg xawtv 
  232  ls
  233  ls -lrt
  234  rm New2
  235  ln -s New 1
  236  ln -s New2 2
  237  ls -lrt
  238  ls 1
  239  rm 1/New 
  240  rm 2/New2 
  241  ln -s 1 New
  242  ln -s 2 New2
  243  ls -l
  244  chown www-data:www-data New*
  245  ls -lrt
  246  chown -h
  247  chown --help
  248  chown -h www-data:www-data New*
  249  lsmod | grep bttv
  250  ls-l
  251  ls -l
  252  zmpkg.pl start
  253  tail -f /var/log/messages
  254  ls l /media/disk/cctv/1/
  255  ls l /media/disk/cctv/1
  256  ls -l /media/disk/cctv/1
  257  ls -l /media/disk/cctv/1/1/  
  258  ls -lrt
  259  history
  260  history > /root/cctv-history.txt

Post by **knight-of-ni** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 1:52 pm

I've skimmed through Phil's command history a few times and here is my take on what was done:

- gather info about your video device with v4l-info
- Turn up zm debug
- Check that the Ubuntu deb package you used put everything in the right places with the right permissions
- Check zm log, apache log, and syslog for errors
- Edit/Read apache config file (my guess is to determine the proper user and group names ...e.g. www-data and www-data)
- Check /etc/modprobe.d/libsane for blacklisted bbtv module?
- Delete all existing zm events
- Create a new events folder, linked to the following disk /media/disk/cctv
- Change user and group ownership of your events folder to www-data:www-data
- (re)start zm, check log files for errors
- Done

Barrydocks, unless I overlooked something, to me it looks like the root cause of your problem was an incorrectly configured events folder. Based on what you told me privately and what I see in the history, it does not appear that any configuration files (zm, apache, or your driver modules) needed to be changed.

Perhaps we could get Phil to confirm or deny this.

barrydocks · Post by **barrydocks** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 1:59 pm

hmmm...

I didn't think there was anything spectacular going on, I think I might hook up a spare HHD with a fresh Ubuntu install and try to replicate the steps (not sure when mind).

Thanks for your help.

PS how are you with SAMBA problems? have a look at:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1297825

Post by **knight-of-ni** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 3:10 pm

If you feel you must share your zm events folder, I recommend setting the read only flag on your cctv samba share just to prevent any accidental deletions or modifications.

barrydocks · Post by **barrydocks** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 3:22 pm

knnniggett wrote:If you feel you must share your zm events folder, I recommend setting the read only flag on your cctv samba share just to prevent any accidental deletions or modifications.

yes the thought had crossed my mind, I was a bit worried about preventing the zm filter I have set up from deleting events and ending up with a full HDD

ps have replyed to the other thread with even more questions

thanks for your time

barrydocks · Post by **barrydocks** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 3:19 pm

I've just realised that if I limit the access to the CCTV folder via samba, it will no affect data being written to the folder by ZM as this is not governed by samba, right?

Post by **knight-of-ni** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 4:10 pm

There are two layers of permissions we are dealing with here: file permissions and samba permissions.

The way your system is configured, Zoneminder records directly to /media/disk/cctv. It doesn't use samba to do this. Consequently, you can set your Samba permissions to anything you want, and it will not affect Zoneminder.

Out of curiosity sake, for what purpose do you want to remotely access your Zonemidner Events folder? Backups perhaps?