adding monitors

[markieman]

Ok, Ihave read the docs, I have read the forums, I have yet ti find anything that relates to my issue......

I have re-installed zoneminder a half dozen times, according to instructions the easy way for debian Wheezy, everything is perfect and stable, I add 7 monitors that all perform as expected, for several days, then, I try to add another monitor, identical to the first seven, same settings, same everything, and it will not work, the monitor address stays red in the console, no matter what I change, it will not work, unless I remove everything and reinstall.
From what I have read, it seems like file permissions somewhere, but where?, what?
Where does ZM put the camera information, and why cant I add to it after initial install?

[bbunge]

Looks like you are running out of memory. Check the space in the tmpfs area. If you are running high resolution in your cameras, try something lower like 640x480 or whatever your cameras can do.

Many Linux distros, Ubuntu and Debian for two. use half of the available RAM for tmpfs. Zoneminder uses the area defined by PATH_MAP for "operating files" and the larger the monitor resolution the more area needed. The choice is yours: high resolution few cameras, low resolution more cameras. Or more RAM.

[markieman]

so, a simple matter of adding memory to the machine?
the main errors I keep seeing in the logs, say zmc -m? crashed, signal 6, and shared data not valid, when I search for those terms, everything comes back about shared memory not valid, is shared data, and shared memory the same?

[bbunge]

so, a simple matter of adding memory to the machine?
the main errors I keep seeing in the logs, say zmc -m? crashed, signal 6, and shared data not valid, when I search for those terms, everything comes back about shared memory not valid, is shared data, and shared memory the same?

May be just that simple. The tmpfs is the shared memory area. As I said before try a lower monitor resolution and lower frame rate. For a security camera system you do not need theater quality video...

[markieman]

That was the trick!
I was charged with resurrecting an old installation that used commercial software, I told my client it could be done for much less than the original installer wanted.
There were some old Axis cameras, half of them had to be replaced, I got full hd cameras from super circuits,(btw, I was told by their tech support that their cameras wouldn't work on a Linux based system......)
Anyways, I reduced the resolution from 1080 to 720 on the 5 new hd cameras and Poof!, they all came online and have been functioning flawlessly for the last 12 hours

Thank you very much for the input!

Headed to the computer store to buy a stick of ram

[bbunge]

I have an old Axis IP camera that bangs out images at 1 fps! Has no issues compared to modern cameras.

[SteveGilvarry]

FYI also check usage of /dev/shm, and search at how to increase it from default of 50% of physical ram on your distro. Should be able to get back to 1080 if you only needed another monitor or two. That plus more physical ram and you should be set.