no image when streaming (cont)

maclellan · Post by **maclellan** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:37 pm

Thanks to zoneminder and maciekc for your sugestions. I tried all the tests and all checks out. BUT - still no images.

I checked all error logs and no messages. I tested php and cgi - all seems to work.

Are there any other additional tests you can suggest?

Thanks!
scott

Here is a summary from the Mar1 thread..

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This may not be a zoneminder issue but maybe someone will know. Could be a V4l problem.

he symtom is I'm streaming some content ~ 640 bytes (refresh- jpeg) but no image. Checked and corrected all error messages. No change. >Tried running ZMC as suggested and does not exit. ZMU returns realistic >data. Strict video error logging is set and I use authentication. Monitor >labels are all green in the Zoneminder console. Same results locally and remote.

Everything seems to be stable otherwise. Used mozilla, netscape, explorer, opera on linux and win2000. I also see no images using GV4L in xorg for 4 channels. Videodog pulls in still images on all channels. XAWTV crashes the system but hand generated a .XAWTV file. May be an Xorg issue. I dont usually use X anyway for this system.

Here are the details:

- Gentoo with 2.6.10-r6 kernel - ASROCK K7S41GX
- SIS chipset MB
- video capture - Grandtec multi 4 ch. BTTV - 878 chip. similar to Pico2000 - card 77
- AMD sempron
- PHP 4.3
- Apache 2.0.52
- Zoneminder 1.20.1 - built from sources.

Some questions:
- Do I need to have framebuffer activated?
- I suspect possible memory issue although no errors in logs. Tried relocating common memory as in options.
- Do I need to execute v4l-config? I've tried anyway with no changes.
- DMESG shows everything to be OK - I think. BTTV Card is detected.
- Transcode says cant read video0 configuration. Dont know why.
- It seems like I just cannot get the video from the card even though the zm log file says streaming at 10 fps on the first channel.
- tried mpeg / jpeg same result.

Any help would or suggestions would be very much appreciated!

Thanks!

From maciekc:

Check apache log.
I think that your zms in cgi-bin is not running correctly. Maybe you don't have cgi script support in apache. Take a look at image source in monitor window and paste it to browser address - you'll check zms.

I have something like that:
http://localhost/cgi-bin/zms?mode=jpeg& ... n&pass=xxx

from Zoneminder:

zmu has an option to dump an image to the current directory (-i), you could try that and if you get a genuine image from your cam then it is almost certainly a streaming problem, otherwise we need to look elsewhere.

Congratulations on a comprehensive and informative problem report by the way, it makes things much easier to track down.

Phil

Post by **cordel** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 12:05 am

Okay let me see if I have everything correct. All services are running and you have stills being written to your event Dir? Nothing in any of the zm log files, apache error log files, or the messages log. If you have pictures being captured then something is up with ZMS. It could be a path is wrong or some thing is restricting permision to strat ZMS. Have you enabled any debuging? You can edit the zm_config.php file to get more debug. You will see two options for debug that just need to be uncomment, but only do one at a time. The errors if any should go to error http log.
Then post what you find.
Cheers,
Cordel

maclellan · Post by **maclellan** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 3:27 am

OK thanks for the info. I have sinced noticed some error messages after letting zm run for several hours. They are as follows:

[zmu]ERR[Shared memory not initialized by capture daemon.

[zmc_d0]ERR Failed to open device /dev/video):permission denied.

Also in zmwatch.log:

Cant get shared memory id '2053971971' : no such file or directory.

Any ideas?

-Scott

Post by **cordel** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 5:10 am

In the FAQ and the README for one. The other perm for video I'm not sure.

Post by **zoneminder** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 9:53 am

The permissions error on /dev/video is likely yo be the most critical one, I think the others stem from that. Ordinarily zmfix will ensure permissions are correct on the video devices but this only runs on startup so if the permission on the device have changed since it would be a problem (though only if zmc has to restart).

Can you check what the permission on the device are, then run zmfix and see if they change?

Phil

maclellan · Post by **maclellan** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 8:38 am

Ok I checked the permissions of the /dev/videoo device and zmfix does alter this as follows:

/dev/video0 lrw-------

/dev/video0 lrw----rw-

But still no change.

I have found some other clues:

1) I tried to set up the service on startup and found the script does not work...

#zmpkg start

Nor stops zm. I can only do this from the web console. Also the status option does not return anything.

2) I have confirmed that event images get sent to the correct directory and images are very good qua.lity. Error messages have not appeared lately anywhere. With one camera eneabled I get a message showing "ch4: 332000 capturing at 30 fps". It it really close I think.

-scott

maclellan · Post by **maclellan** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 8:52 am

BTW - cardel ,

Could you explain more about which lines to uncomment in the zm_config.php file. I didnt find any.

-scott

Post by **cordel** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 9:00 am

you should see them there towards the top. Within the first 20 lines of code at the top.
they will have a // in front and say debug above it

maclellan · Post by **maclellan** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 10:18 am

OK! found a path error. Now it's working! Great images indeed. I decided to use Firefox as well. Who needs IE anyway!

Thanks for your helpful support!

-scott