monitor doesn't work: socket_sendto failed: No such file or directory

[tusconnor]

Hello all,

I just did a fresh install of Debian Jessie. I installed zone minder from Debian jessie back ports (1.28.1).
Installation went fine, server runs, but monitoring does not work:
I have the same error messages in the log already described here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1159361

socket_sendto( /var/run/zm/zms-347773s.sock ) failed: No such file or directory] at /usr/share/zoneminder/includes/functions.php ...

Sadly, as far as I can see, none of the methods proposed solves the problem for me:
- the missing script alias directives don't apply to my system
- restarting the system or restarting zoneminder / Apache in the proposed order doesn't help
- Apache module cgi is already installed and activated
- As far as I can see, links/directories concerning cgi-bin are all right.

Any suggestions?

[tusconnor]

I solved the problem. The problem was that the variable PATH_ZMS originally points to /cgi-bin/nph-zms but the ScriptAlias is configured for /zm/cgi-bin/.
So, changing PATH_ZMS solved the problem.

[knight-of-ni]

This issue, along with the solution, is one of the most common questions Ubuntu & Debian users post about.
The thing is, the solution is well documented, not only in multiple forum responses by myself and others, but in the documentation found in the wiki.

https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Debian_8.1_ ... e_Easy_Way

If you scroll down to the bottom, there you will see in the instructions the step that tell you to change PATH_ZMS.

So the next time you run into an issue, rather than ask the same question that has been asked over and over again, try searching first.

[tusconnor]

Many apologies for asking the same question for the 1000th time.
Maybe one should add the error message to the respective wiki site, and not to the bottom but rather at the beginning, so that it is more likely to be found by googling (that is what I did for quite a long while).

[knight-of-ni]

If we moved that to the top, then someone else would miss a different step, which would now be at the bottom. That hypothetical person would be equally justified in requesting, "Please move the step I missed to the top".

The thing is, if you overlook any of the steps in the documentation, then ZoneMinder is not going to work correctly.

I think we can both agree that ZoneMinder can be hard to configure. There is a lot you need to know to install it and then get all your cameras working. To help mitigate this, guys like bbunge have spent a lot of time making sure there is documentation available for Debian and Ubuntu users to avoid the pitfalls common to these distros. We know how difficult it can be, which is why we harp on the forum users to follow the documentation.