webcam-server with Zoneminder 1.24.2

[storrgie]

Hello all, I recently purchased several Logitech 4000 USB webcams that I want to attach to clients through the premises to monitory entry and exit ways. These clients are all running ubuntu server 10.04. I have a central server, also running ubuntu 10.04, that I would like to run zoneminder and connect via network to the other machines with usb cameras plugged into them.

I was searching for a simple way to expose the webcam via network and found webcam-server, I have it working on all clients now and I can view all the webcams via my browser by switching the address and port.

I have not been able to figure out how to add the webcam-server feed to zoneminder though. Is this something that is possible?

The webcam-server feed is just an address to a .jpg file.

Is there a better option for exposing the webcams? I would like to use something with as little depenencies as possible as some of the clients are VERY slim and I don't want the security or administration overhead of having sql/web servers in multiple locations.

Thank you all very much for your time, I look forward to using zoneminder and anticipate that it is a great suite of software.

[kingofkya]

Yeah you should be able to just add the path to zm if it really just is a jpeg there are no problems.

[storrgie]

I have the server running, the address to the image is:

http://minerva:4254/minerva.jpg

Here is how I am adding the monitor:



No luck so far when I click on the name... nothing shows.

I can browse to the location and see the monitor... but nothing in zm.

[storrgie]

help!

I still can't figure it out. Is there another utility I can use in linux to expose the webcam feed?

[kingofkya]

try using the ip rather than name.

also in the zm server run this
wget http://minerva:4254/minerva.jpg

make sure it saves a image.

[storrgie]

when I perform that wget I get a jpeg back, exactly what I expect to see in zm. How should I set the monitor up to use this?

[storrgie]

With all kinds of variations of the monitor add source menu I cannot get it to capture the stream from webcam-server.... this cant be this difficult. Can someone please! help me out.

[Flasheart]

That looks ok.

Double check the image properties, if the size is out it'll fail.

Easiest way is to right-click the image in firefox and check the properties.

If that doesn't work, check the logs. I'm betting you'll find there's a message about shmall or shmax.

640x480 colour is too large for ubuntu to handle by default.

echo 134217728 >/proc/sys/kernel/shmall
echo 134217728 >/proc/sys/kernel/shmmax

Try again. If that works;

To change them permanently you will need to edit /etc/sysctl.conf and add the following lines (for example) :-

kernel.shmall = 134217728
kernel.shmmax = 134217728


(from the wiki faq)

[river100]

are thise webcams UVC ? if so why not run mjpeg-streamer
i tried it with a 9000 pro with 10.04 and it works great @ 640x480 and 15fps.
the picture is awsome.
bty the way this will run on a router and is in the openwrt package list so it can't be too heavy.