motion detection and stalling apache

[tilman]

Hello

Setup:
=====
CPU: AMD Sempron(tm) 2600+ @ 1,8 Ghz
Main Memory: 128 MB
Distribtion: #88-Ubuntu
Kernel: 2.6.32-41-generic
Framegraber Card: Pinnacle pctv pro (00:0a.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture (rev 11))
Zoneminder: v1.24.2

Problem Discription:
===============
Whem I enable motion detection (Function = MoDetect), events are created whenever something moves in front of the camera. The status in the monitor window goes to alarm, and apparently, the video stream is recorded

- Issue1: The status however does not return to idle even though there are no movements any longer
By "disable alarm" the status can be changed back to idle, and the recording of the motion event then completes. "Enable alarm" rearms the motion detector

- Issue 2: When trying to view the recorded motion event, apache does not respond any longer to requests and remains in status "connecting". Existing connection are however being serviced, i.e. if I have a monitor window open, the video feed will still be updated. There are in the order of 100 instances of apache in the process list. The number of instances rise over time.

Code: Select all

# ps aux 
www-data  9437  0.0  0.3  30732  3648 ?        S    15:34   0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
...

Restarting apache with "# service apache2 restart" finishes the freeze. The issue is however reproducable, i.e. if I then try to view the motion event again, apache will show the same behavior.

I will sent contents of apache's error log in the next post as forum engine considers the urls in the error message as "too spamy for a new user"

I do not really know where to start looking. I am suspecting a configuration issue. I would hence apperciate help...
If you have question or want me to try something, please let me know.

Thanks
Tilman

[tilman]

I still can't sent the error message of apache:
- If I try to sent them as message, I get the the messege "Your post looks too spamy for a new user, please remove off-site URLs.".
- If I try to attached them as file I get "The extension asc is not allowed."

Any advise how to convey the error messages would be appreciated

Thanks
Tilman

[tilman]

I have reinstalled it. The apache issue then did not show. Defining zones did however not work which might be a configuration issue. I then installed it on a new machine (with more RAM and an AMD-64), and I am stuck again with the behavior as described above. Reinstalling did not help this time.

Now, I am trying to compile 1.25. It however does not compile as the mpeg library that ubuntu installs are not compatible with libavcodec provided by ffmpeg (zoneminder is requiring a method avcodec_decode_video2 which the library does not provid. Only avcodec_decode_video, it provides.

I would really appreciate some help. Zoneminder seems to have every feature one would expect for camera surveillance system. Getting it to run however seems to require patience and stamina...

Thanks

Tilman

[tilman]

After some more trying, I somehow got it working, i.e. for newly recorded alarm events, the replay function works (and apache2 does not stall unless I try to replay some of the alarm sequences that were recorded when apache was still stalling). I do not really know what the root cause is nor do I understand the dependencies. During my attempts,
- I changed to Mcord (continuous recording) and back to Modetect
-changed from zms to nph-zms
- reactivated the default zone that spans over the whole picture ( I have now 3 zones: 1 spanning over the whole picture with low sensitivity, and 2 subregion with high sensitivity. That makes the motion detection work.

Should a developper of zoneminder be interested in digging for the root cause(s) - I would be happy to contribute, and provide whatever information is required or to conduct experiments on request to understand and trace down the issues.

Best Regards

Tilman