ZoneMinder Forums

Yesterday I allowed my Fedora 10 install to upgrade itself to Fedora 11.
However, that made the ZoneMinder also update itself to v1.24.2

Since then I have wasted many hours trying to make ZoneMinder work again. It runs but won't accept the source settings for the cameras (which work find with xawtv and tvtime.

I have read through countless ZM documentations, FAQs and forum postings. I'm guessing the mysql database might need updating using the zmupdate.pl script, however that is also failing:

• # zmupdate.pl --version=1.23.3
  ERROR 1142 (42000) at line 8: ALTER command denied to user 'zmuser'@'localhost' for table 'Monitors'
  Output:
  Command 'mysql -hlocalhost -uzmuser -pzmpass zm < /usr/share/zoneminder/db/zm_update-1.23.3.sql' exited with status: 1

I'm just guessing that we were using v1.23.3 before because now ZM has updated to 1.24.2 I don't know what version was previously running!!

I'm guessing that the mysql database needs updating because at boot the log shows:

• Mar 3 10:31:43 localhost zmfix[27217]: ERR [Can't stat /dev/video: No such file or directory]
  Mar 3 10:31:44 localhost zmdc[11462]: INF [Command 'zmc -d /dev/video0' removed from pending list at 10/03/03 10:31:44]
  Mar 3 10:31:44 localhost zmdc[27227]: INF ['zmc -d /dev/video0' started at 10/03/03 10:31:44]
  Mar 3 10:31:44 localhost zmc_dvideo0[27227]: INF [Debug Level = 0, Debug Log = <none>]
  Mar 3 10:31:44 localhost zmdc[11462]: INF ['zmc -d /dev/video0' starting at 10/03/03 10:31:44, pid = 27227]
  Mar 3 10:31:44 localhost zmc_dvideo0[27227]: ERR [Can't run query: Unknown column 'Method' in 'field list']
  Mar 3 10:31:44 localhost zmdc[11462]: ERR ['zmc -d /dev/video0' exited abnormally, exit status 30]

Seems like an awful lot of frustration and effort just because Fedora upgraded. Can anybody please advise if I'm doing anything right, and what I need to do to get this thing working again?

...and now I'm getting the following in /var/log/message when I try to set camera source:

• Mar 3 17:38:12 localhost zma_m4[1809]: WAR [Waiting for capture daemon]
  Mar 3 17:38:12 localhost zma_m1[2148]: WAR [Waiting for capture daemon]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmdc[1735]: INF [Starting pending process, zmc -d /dev/video0]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmdc[2167]: INF ['zmc -d /dev/video0' started at 10/03/03 17:38:13]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmc_dvideo0[2167]: INF [Debug Level = 0, Debug Log = <none>]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmdc[1735]: INF ['zmc -d /dev/video0' starting at 10/03/03 17:38:13, pid = 2167]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmc_dvideo0[2167]: INF [Starting Capture]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmc_dvideo0[2167]: FAT [Failed to set video format: Invalid argument]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmc_dvideo0[2167]: INF [Got signal 6 (Aborted), exiting and forcing backtrace]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmc_dvideo0[2167]: ERR [Signal address is (nil), from 0x2ca422]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmc_dvideo0[2167]: ERR [Backtrace: [0x2ca422]]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmc_dvideo0[2167]: ERR [Backtrace: [0x2ca422]]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmc_dvideo0[2167]: ERR [Backtrace: /lib/libc.so.6(gsignal+0x51) [0x80b781]]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmc_dvideo0[2167]: ERR [Backtrace: /lib/libc.so.6(abort+0x17a) [0x80d04a]]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmc_dvideo0[2167]: ERR [Backtrace: /usr/bin/zmc [0x805473d]]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmc_dvideo0[2167]: ERR [Backtrace: /usr/bin/zmc [0x8067ef3]]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmc_dvideo0[2167]: ERR [Backtrace: /usr/bin/zmc [0x8068d0f]]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmc_dvideo0[2167]: ERR [Backtrace: /usr/bin/zmc [0x804bd6a]]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmc_dvideo0[2167]: ERR [Backtrace: /lib/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xe6) [0x7f6a86]]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmc_dvideo0[2167]: ERR [Backtrace: /usr/bin/zmc [0x804b8f1]]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmc_dvideo0[2167]: INF [Backtrace complete, please execute the following command for more information]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmc_dvideo0[2167]: INF [addr2line -e /usr/bin/zmc 0x2ca422 0x2ca422 0x80b781 0x80d04a 0x805473d 0x8067ef3 0x8068d0f 0x804bd6a 0x7f6a86 0x804b8f1]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zmdc[1735]: ERR ['zmc -d /dev/video0' exited abnormally, exit status 6]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zma_m4[1809]: WAR [Waiting for capture daemon]
  Mar 3 17:38:13 localhost zma_m1[2148]: WAR [Waiting for capture daemon]

The WAR [Waiting for capture daemon] repeats every few seconds.

Camera settings are:

Source: Local
Max FPS: 10
Device Path: /dev/video0
Capture Method: V4L v2
Device Channel: 1 (or 0 or 2, etc.)
Format: PAL
Palette: RGB24
Width: 640
Height: 480

Any ideas...?

Solved...

I found everything started working again when I selected "YUYV" as the Capture Palette.

Bizarre! I'm sure it was on RGB24 before the upgrade.

THANK YOU wormburp. I couldn't for the life of me figure out the problem I was having -- partly because I too could swear it was RGB24 before (and thus hadn't yet tried such a longshot). Switched all my sources to YUYV and everything came back.

This is actually my own rebuild of 1.24.2 (from Fedora 12) on CentOS 5 -- ZoneMinder is the only thing I changed (for anyone keeping track).

After further research I discovered the following command to be hugely useful in solving this problem with picking 'Source' settings which will work:

• # zmu -d /dev/video0 -q -v

The output of this command gives information about the settings with which the device may operate. For example, part of the output on my system is:

• Formats:
  8 bpp, gray (GREY)
  8 bpp, dithered color (HI24)
  15 bpp RGB, le (RGBO)
  15 bpp RGB, be (RGBQ)
  16 bpp RGB, le (RGBP)
  16 bpp RGB, be (RGBR)
  24 bpp RGB, le (BGR3)
  32 bpp RGB, le (BGR4)
  32 bpp RGB, be (RGB4)
  4:2:2, packed, YUYV (YUYV)
  4:2:2, packed, YUYV (YUYV)
  4:2:2, packed, UYVY (UYVY)
  4:2:2, planar, Y-Cb-Cr (422P)
  4:2:0, planar, Y-Cb-Cr (YU12)
  4:2:0, planar, Y-Cr-Cb (YV12)
  4:1:1, planar, Y-Cb-Cr (411P)
  4:1:0, planar, Y-Cb-Cr (YUV9)
  4:1:0, planar, Y-Cr-Cb (YVU9)

This does not include the RGB24 that I had been trying. But is it does include "24 bpp RGB, le (BGR3)" (as well as the YUYV). And indeed I found that the source setting of BGR24 did work for ZM.

I have left as BGR24 because I understand from reading other articles that it requires less processing than YUYV (which requires internal conversion to 24 bit RGB).

To the development guys I would suggest incorporating the output of "zmu -d /dev/video0 -q -v" into some kind of auto config for the camera source settings (if only to restrict the drop-down list to valid choices). It would save a whole bunch of grief to those of us who just want to use a CCTV system without having to learn how to administer a whole bunch of zm console commands, and trawl though log files. This is not a rant - I honestly perceive that droves of potential ZM users must just give up when it "doesn't work" and go and find something more user-friendly to set-up. ZoneMinder is a fantistically capable system, but it's just really really hard for a newbie to overcome the many potential (but avoidable) pitfalls. [I say this from having been a software developer for 20+ years]