ZoneMinder Forums

Hello all -

First I'd like to say Zoneminder is exactly what I was looking for! Nice job!


Ok, on to the problems. I've got two cameras I've tested under ZM, both connected to a BT878 capture card (at seperate times to test them), configured properly and running nicely under xawtv. 'zmc' runs fine, no errors. In fact, I have not had a single 'ERR' in the logs since I installed ZM.

Problem 1:
ZM will never start when using the web interface, it pops up a JS window to verify that I want to start all services, then accepts 'yes' and refreshes the page. Still shows 'Stopped'.

Problem 2:
ZM seemingly starts when it wants to, although I am using the '/usr/local/bin/zmpkg.pl start' command at system start in my rc.local file. No feedback on the command line that anything is starting, 'ps -ax' doesn't reveal anything. Checking logs doesn't show anything until I bring up ZM in the webpage, or unless I run 'zmc' standalone.

Problem 3:
Had ZM working fine last night, capturing images, setting zones, etc. Only had one problem last night, which was the fact that thumbnails were not shown. Now nothing works. I've even deleted the monitor I had setup and built a new one just in case. Nothing. Everything hangs if I try to view the monitor.

I realize these are very vague statements, but I'm curious if there are any other Debian users that can give me some insight as to how to configure ZM properly on my system, vs what may be shown in the README (which I followed to the letter). TIA!

Ok, since this reply I've dumped Debian as my choice for camserver (against my wishes and better judgement, I might add). Installed RH 8.0, as I had this handy laying around, and ZM works great. No more problems with services starting. I am planning on upgrading Apache HTTPD to the latest version on their site, since RH doesn't offer an updated package. I'm finding memory issues and also CPU utilization issues...does anyone else have 100% CPU _ALL_THE_TIME_ ???

I too have 100% CPU utilization. Looking at top, it appears that the zma daemons are responsible for the high cpu utilization. The two zma daemons in my case usually account for ~75 - 80% of my cpu load.

I capture both my monitors in 620x480, but if I half the resolution to 310x240, my CPU utilization goes from 100% --> 30%.

BTW, Your not Brian L. from Sac CA are you?

Well my Problems are nearly identical (bar the complete breakage and hanging) and I am running it on Debian Woody as well , the images aren't getting put in the images dir and the web interface says "ZoneMinder Console - Stopped - v0.9.16" no matter if I tell it to start or not .. (I have even tried this in multiple browsers Safari, Mozilla and god forbid Exploder) .. I can't see any problems in the logs, the daemons are all running and my setup looks fine (one of the cameras is a network cam and I can get to its image via http any other way) , I wget'ed the network cams picture and named it correctly in the images folder and it worked in the browser like it should , but I cant work out how to get this thing to download the image by itself ... I may try switching to Redhat but I am really dont want to as our entire network here is Debian and we dont want to have the management nightmare of a Redhat box .. :-/ Any help from anyone would be much apreciated ..

A couple of things to check.

When you hit 'start' the web interface basically just runs 'zmpkg.pl start'. So try logging into your system directly and doing

<i>zmpkg.pl start</i>

and seeing what happens. Check the zmpkg.log and see if that records anything, if it does then check the zmdc.log file to see if things start up ok. If you can't even find any logs then it may be a permissions error on your defined log directory so check that. Finally it may be that you need to make a small modification to zmpkg.pl as some other people have had to do on Gentoo and Slackware, it's basically changing the form of the 'su' on line 142 (or thereabouts) of zmpkg.pl. There is a thread discussing it <a href="http://www.zoneminder.com/forum_general ... 3">here</a>. If I could figure out how to determine easily which form a particular computer uses then I'd make it dynamic.

Cheers,

Phil,

Thanks heaps for the help , well I am futher along the path now but I am still having the same problems

>A couple of things to check.
>When you hit 'start' the web interface basically just runs 'zmpkg.pl start'. So try logging into your system directly and doing
>zmpkg.pl start
>and seeing what happens.

Should have mentioned I had already done that , it appears to start fine , no errors and the processes apear to be running

>Check the zmpkg.log and see if that records anything, if it does then check the zmdc.log file to see if things >start up ok. If you can't even find any logs then it may be a permissions error on your defined log directory so check that.

I did find I was missing some perl modules from checking zmdc.log , have fixed that but here is what zmdc.log says now

Starting pending process, zmfilter.pl -m 6 -e -1
'zmfilter.pl -m 6 -e -1' starting at 04/01/10 14:49:46, pid = 3133
'zmfilter.pl -m 6 -e -1' started at 04/01/10 14:49:46
'zmfilter.pl -m 6 -e -1' crashed at 04/01/10 14:49:52, exit status 2
Starting pending process, zmc -d 0
'zmc -d 0' starting at 04/01/10 14:57:03, pid = 3138
'zmc -d 0' started at 04/01/10 14:57:03
'zmc -d 0' crashed at 04/01/10 14:57:03, exit status 255
Starting pending process, zmfilter.pl -m 6 -e -1
'zmfilter.pl -m 6 -e -1' starting at 04/01/10 15:04:52, pid = 3141
'zmfilter.pl -m 6 -e -1' started at 04/01/10 15:04:52
'zmfilter.pl -m 6 -e -1' crashed at 04/01/10 15:04:58, exit status 2
Starting pending process, zmc -d 0
'zmc -d 0' starting at 04/01/10 15:12:03, pid = 3146
'zmc -d 0' started at 04/01/10 15:12:03
'zmc -d 0' crashed at 04/01/10 15:12:03, exit status 255
Starting pending process, zmfilter.pl -m 6 -e -1
'zmfilter.pl -m 6 -e -1' starting at 04/01/10 15:19:58, pid = 3149
'zmfilter.pl -m 6 -e -1' started at 04/01/10 15:19:58
'zmfilter.pl -m 6 -e -1' crashed at 04/01/10 15:20:04, exit status 2
'zmc -H 203.30.125.10 -P 80 -p /fullsize.jpg' stopping at 04/01/10 15:26:48
'zmc -H 203.30.125.10 -P 80 -p /fullsize.jpg' died at 04/01/10 15:26:48
'zmc -H 203.30.125.10 -P 80 -p /fullsize.jpg' starting at 04/01/10 15:26:48, pid = 3156
'zmc -H 203.30.125.10 -P 80 -p /fullsize.jpg' started at 04/01/10 15:26:48
Starting pending process, zmc -d 0
'zmc -d 0' starting at 04/01/10 15:27:03, pid = 3158
'zmc -d 0' started at 04/01/10 15:27:03
'zmc -d 0' crashed at 04/01/10 15:27:03, exit status 255
'zmfilter.pl -m 5 -e -1' crashed at 04/01/10 15:27:33, exit status 43
'zmfilter.pl -m 5 -e -1' starting at 04/01/10 15:27:33, pid = 3163
'zmfilter.pl -m 5 -e -1' started at 04/01/10 15:27:33
Starting pending process, zmfilter.pl -m 6 -e -1
'zmfilter.pl -m 6 -e -1' starting at 04/01/10 15:35:04, pid = 3197
'zmfilter.pl -m 6 -e -1' started at 04/01/10 15:35:04
'zmfilter.pl -m 6 -e -1' crashed at 04/01/10 15:35:10, exit status 2
sekhmet:~#

zmpkg.log says the following

Executing: su apache --shell=/bin/sh --command='/usr/local/bin/zmdc.pl check'
Executing: su apache --shell=/bin/sh --command='/usr/local/bin/zmdc.pl shutdown'
Removing shared memory
Command: start
Executing: su apache --shell=/bin/sh --command='/usr/local/bin/zmdc.pl check'
Removing shared memory
Executing: su apache --shell=/bin/sh --command='/usr/local/bin/zmfix'
Executing: su apache --shell=/bin/sh --command='/usr/local/bin/zmdc.pl status'
Executing: su apache --shell=/bin/sh --command='/usr/local/bin/zmdc.pl start zmc -d 0'
Executing: su apache --shell=/bin/sh --command='/usr/local/bin/zmdc.pl start zmfilter.pl -m 6 -e -1'
Executing: su apache --shell=/bin/sh --command='/usr/local/bin/zmdc.pl start zmc -H 203.30.125.10 -P 80 -p '/fullsize.jpg''
Executing: su apache --shell=/bin/sh --command='/usr/local/bin/zmdc.pl start zmfilter.pl -m 5 -e -1'
Executing: su apache --shell=/bin/sh --command='/usr/local/bin/zmdc.pl start zmaudit.pl -d 900 -y'
Executing: su apache --shell=/bin/sh --command='/usr/local/bin/zmdc.pl start zmwatch.pl'
Command: stop
Executing: su apache -c /usr/local/bin/zmdc.pl check
Command: start
Executing: su apache -c /usr/local/bin/zmdc.pl check

this is what zmwatch.log says

Can't get shared memory id: No such file or directory
Can't get shared memory id: No such file or directory
Can't get shared memory id: No such file or directory
Can't get shared memory id: No such file or directory
Can't get shared memory id: No such file or directory

zmfliter.log says

Can't read from shared memory: Identifier removed at /usr/local/bin/zmfilter.pl line 206.
Scanning for events since id -1
Can't read from shared memory: Identifier removed at /usr/local/bin/zmfilter.pl line 206.
Scanning for events since id -1
Can't read from shared memory: Identifier removed at /usr/local/bin/zmfilter.pl line 206.
Scanning for events since id -1

and lastly and most disturbingly zmaudit.log says this

Database monitor 'USBcam' does not exist in filesystem, deleting
Database monitor 'Adlcam' does not exist in filesystem, deleting
Database monitor 'USBcam' does not exist in filesystem, deleting
Database monitor 'Adlcam' does not exist in filesystem, deleting
Database monitor 'USBcam' does not exist in filesystem, deleting
sekhmet:#


This makes belive it is a mysql problem , cant figure out what though ..


Also I have made the change the zmpkg.pl and it made no difference ... :-(

I was having some of those same problems. I finally got everything working right under Debian. I am using Unstable, but things should be very similar.

First, I was using too big of a video capture size. Read the stuff about the buffers in the README. For now, use 320x240 with greyscale.

Database monitor 'USBcam' does not exist in filesystem, deleting

For these problems it’s a permissions issue. The default user for apache in the dist is ‘apache’. When configuring I used this line (from memory so I hope it’s right)…

./configure --with-mysql=/usr --with-webdir=/var/www --with-cgidir=/usr/lib/cgi-bin --with-webuser=www-data --with-webgroup=www-data

Specifying the correct apache user fixed many problems with permissions. In Woody, if I recall correctly the user is nobody and the group is nogroup. Also when I did a make install, the cgidir I had originally was /var/www/cgi-bin. Since this directory did not exist, I kept having to create it.

Make sure you watch the output of make install. I was just seeing a bunch of stuff fly by assuming it worked when it was telling me important stuff.

In httpd.conf, comment out all information about the /images alias. Also the special permissions stuff about /images. I stared at these logs until my eyes were watered over and finally noticed the apache error was “Couldn’t find /usr/share/images/new.jpg”. I realized /images was being aliased.

I had the crashing problems too. I found this to be because I unmarked the option “ZM_STRICT_VIDEO_CONFIG Whether to allow errors in setting video config to be fatal (?)” and my video settings were screwed up.

If the large buffer size works, my belief would be it’s due to a configuration option in the kernel. The ZoneMinder README points to this document to explain: http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/data ... urces.html

Good luck, I started this morning and was quite frustrated most of the day but I do have a ZoneMinder working with Debian now.