ZoneMinder Forums

Hi. I have a server running Debian 8. I installed ZM 1.29 according to the instructions of the wiki. Everything works great, except for sending e-mail notifications about events. Mail I also set up the following wiki. Sending mail from the console, but that's it. The wiki indicates need to make changes to the file /usr/bin/zmfilter.pl Prompt, please, that I need to change in my file? And what other steps need to be taken?

My /usr/bin/zmfilter.pl
https://gist.github.com/anonymous/ebd45 ... 8e2b81d92f
(edited by asker to reduce post length - pointed to gist above instead of paste)

The Wiki is entirely community based. We encourage our user base to contribute to it as often as they are willing.
Unfortunately, due to so many hands in the cookie jar, it can be a bit disorganized, there can be more than one article on the same topic, and many are not maintained.

Consequently, when you said you followed the wiki, I had no idea exactly which wiki article you followed. It would be very helpful if you confirmed exactly which article you followed.

Do you mean this one?
https://wiki.zoneminder.com/How_to_get_ ... Zoneminder

Looking at the history, it appears to be written by Asker, which is good because he is active in the forum and can answer your questions. The changes mentioned in that article to zmfilter.pl already appear to be in our master branch. You might be better off waiting for 1.30.0 release, which is just around the corner.

I'll let asker know you've got a question, but in the meantime, we will need to see how you populated the fields under Options -> Email. Simply telling us you did it right, is not particularly helpful. You need to show us, preferably via screenshot. You should also enable Debug and inspect your ZoneMinder logs for errors related to zmfilter.

hi, please confirm that you are indeed using https://wiki.zoneminder.com/How_to_get_ ... Zoneminder.
Also how did you test your email is working - please post the exact command.

Thanks for your answer. I use this command for testing

echo "Test message" | mail -s Test targetemail@example.com

I have configured msmtp and mutt. For example, I can receive messages from my backup script after successful execution of the backup task. Mail working correctly.

Okay, so then you are not following the wiki link knnniggett or I pointed to right (as that is only for ssmtp) ?
a) So which wiki are you following? Please post the link
b) Look at your syslog -- are there any logs related to mail sending?
c) Please respond to knniggett's request on posting a screenshot of your Options->Email.

Please be very specific in your response so we know what exactly is going on.

I used this wiki page https://wiki.zoneminder.com/How_to_get_ ... Zoneminder

And I could not understand what I must to change in zmfilter.pl I tried several times to make changes, but none option does not work. I do not understand the code enough to understand what the problem is, unfortunately.

Fragments of syslog:

Jul 9 06:52:56 debian rsyslogd: [origin software="rsyslogd" swVersion="8.4.2" x-pid="607" x-info="http://www.rsyslog.com"] rsyslogd was HUPed
Jul 9 06:52:56 debian rsyslogd0: action 'action 17' resumed (module 'builtin:ompipe') [try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/0 ]
Jul 9 06:52:56 debian rsyslogd-2359: action 'action 17' resumed (module 'builtin:ompipe') [try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2359 ]
Jul 9 06:55:01 debian CRON[8687]: (root) CMD (command -v debian-sa1 > /dev/null && debian-sa1 1 1)
Jul 9 06:55:52 debian zmdc[1650]: INF [Starting pending process, zmfilter.pl]
Jul 9 06:55:52 debian zmdc[8689]: INF ['zmfilter.pl' started at 16/07/09 06:55:52]
Jul 9 06:55:52 debian zmdc[1650]: INF ['zmfilter.pl' starting at 16/07/09 06:55:52, pid = 8689]
Jul 9 06:55:53 debian zmdc[1650]: ERR ['zmfilter.pl' exited abnormally, exit status 9]
Jul 9 07:00:01 debian zmdc[1650]: INF [Starting pending process, zmc -m 3]
Jul 9 07:00:01 debian zmdc[1650]: INF ['zmc -m 3' starting at 16/07/09 07:00:01, pid = 8699]
Jul 9 07:00:01 debian zmdc[8699]: INF ['zmc -m 3' started at 16/07/09 07:00:01]
Jul 9 07:00:01 debian undef[8699]: INF [No Server ID or Name specified in config. Not using Multi-Server Mode.]
Jul 9 07:00:01 debian zmc[8699]: ERR [Bogus number of lines return from query, 0 returned for query select Id, Name, ServerId, Type, Function+0, Enabled, LinkedMonitors, Device, Channel, Format, V4LMultiBuffer, V4LCapturesPerFrame, Protocol, Method, Host, Port, Path, Options, User, Pass, Width, Height, Colours, Palette, Orientation+0, Deinterlacing, RTSPDescribe, Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Colour, EventPrefix, LabelFormat, LabelX, LabelY, LabelSize, ImageBufferCount, WarmupCount, PreEventCount, PostEventCount, StreamReplayBuffer, AlarmFrameCount, SectionLength, FrameSkip, MotionFrameSkip, AnalysisFPS, AnalysisUpdateDelay, MaxFPS, AlarmMaxFPS, FPSReportInterval, RefBlendPerc, AlarmRefBlendPerc, TrackMotion, SignalCheckColour, Exif from Monitors where Id = 3.]
Jul 9 07:00:01 debian zmc[8699]: ERR [Can't use query result: ]
Jul 9 07:00:01 debian zmdc[1650]: INF ['zmc -m 3' exited normally]
Jul 9 07:05:01 debian CRON[8707]: (root) CMD (command -v debian-sa1 > /dev/null && debian-sa1 1 1)
Jul 9 07:05:53 debian zmdc[1650]: INF [Starting pending process, zmfilter.pl]
Jul 9 07:05:53 debian zmdc[8710]: INF ['zmfilter.pl' started at 16/07/09 07:05:53]
Jul 9 07:05:53 debian zmdc[1650]: INF ['zmfilter.pl' starting at 16/07/09 07:05:53, pid = 8710]
Jul 9 07:05:54 debian zmdc[1650]: ERR ['zmfilter.pl' exited abnormally, exit status 9]
Jul 9 07:09:01 debian CRON[8717]: (root) CMD ( [ -x /usr/lib/php5/sessionclean ] && /usr/lib/php5/sessionclean)
Jul 9 07:10:01 debian zmdc[1650]: INF [Starting pending process, zmc -m 3]
Jul 9 07:10:01 debian zmdc[8750]: INF ['zmc -m 3' started at 16/07/09 07:10:01]
Jul 9 07:10:01 debian zmdc[1650]: INF ['zmc -m 3' starting at 16/07/09 07:10:01, pid = 8750]
Jul 9 07:10:01 debian undef[8750]: INF [No Server ID or Name specified in config. Not using Multi-Server Mode.]
Jul 9 07:10:01 debian zmc[8750]: ERR [Bogus number of lines return from query, 0 returned for query select Id, Name, ServerId, Type, Function+0, Enabled, LinkedMonitors, Device, Channel, Format, V4LMultiBuffer, V4LCapturesPerFrame, Protocol, Method, Host, Port, Path, Options, User, Pass, Width, Height, Colours, Palette, Orientation+0, Deinterlacing, RTSPDescribe, Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Colour, EventPrefix, LabelFormat, LabelX, LabelY, LabelSize, ImageBufferCount, WarmupCount, PreEventCount, PostEventCount, StreamReplayBuffer, AlarmFrameCount, SectionLength, FrameSkip, MotionFrameSkip, AnalysisFPS, AnalysisUpdateDelay, MaxFPS, AlarmMaxFPS, FPSReportInterval, RefBlendPerc, AlarmRefBlendPerc, TrackMotion, SignalCheckColour, Exif from Monitors where Id = 3.]
Jul 9 07:10:01 debian zmc[8750]: ERR [Can't use query result: ]
Jul 9 07:10:01 debian zmdc[1650]: INF ['zmc -m 3' exited normally]
Jul 9 07:15:01 debian CRON[8863]: (root) CMD (command -v debian-sa1 > /dev/null && debian-sa1 1 1)

May be, I configured wrong filters for events? Screenshots attached

In zmfilter log was errors "Can't send email: SMTP mail() command failed: : sender address must contain a domain". I added in e-mail options domain (just root@mydebian.com) and no more errors in log but still no notifications in my email.

Can you post your zmfilter.pl into a github gist ? https://gist.github.com

Thanks - also can you confirm if you are using msmtp or ssmtp ? My guide was for ssmtp. You mentioned msmtp earlier.

I using msmtp because ssmtp do not work on my Debian 8, unfortunately. Also I using mutt. I can send email-message from console using command "mail" or using command "msmtp".

Okay, I just set up ssmtp again (I am using ZM 1.30, but should be the same for 1.29) and verified it works

Since your command line is working, the chances of something being wrong in your ZM Email settings is high. Note that my notes below are for ssmtp not msmtp (no idea about msmtp)

a) Please make sure you restart ZM after making mail changes

a) You do _not_ have to change anything in zmfilter.pl --> ZM has implemented the changes. My wiki article was pre 1.29. I've edited/corrected the wiki.

Here are my ZM email settings --> I've circled the important parts:



Please make sure you have the correct values set and also have checked the "new mail modules checkbox"

b) Here are my ssmtp settings with gmail SMTP (I have no idea of msmtp but if its similar, you probably have something similar, plus since your command line is working, you should not need to fiddle with it) (emails have been changed)


cat /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf

Once again, I checked all the settings according to your advice, but nothing new has happened. Then I did the following:
1. Uninstalled msmtp
2. Installed ssmpt
3. Set ssmpt like your files

Configure the event filter as follows:

Alarm frames -> greater than or equal to -> 1
Email details of all matches -> checked
Run in background -> checked

Restart ZM, I began to observe. In the logs ZM began to appear with red line errors from zmfilter:

Can't send e-mail: SMTP Failed to connect to mail server: Connection refused at /usr/bin/zmfilter.pl line 1181.

I opened zmfilter.pl in nano and go to line 1181. There are was

1179 ### Send the Message
1180 MIME::Lite->send( "smtp", $Config{ZM_EMAIL_HOST}, Timeout=>60 );
1181 $mail->send();

I went back to your instructions on the wiki and copied the line from there. I got so:

### Send the Message
#MIME::Lite->send( "sendmail", $Config{ZM_EMAIL_HOST}, Timeout=>60 );
#$mail->send();
$mail->send('sendmail','/usr/sbin/ssmtp',$Config{ZM_EMAIL_ADDRESS});

That is, I brought to the configuration as described in your instruction. After these steps event notification works!

From all this I conclude that your article, asker, in the wiki is absolutely correct, but it is absolutely necessary to set up ssmtp. Thank you! And excuse me for my bad english, it's not my native language.

Ah yes, it looks like this ssmtp change was _not_ added in 1.29 but after it ! So correct, you do need to apply the change. Glad it worked out.

I just run into this same problem after upgrading from 1.29.0 to 1.30.0 on Linux Mint 17.2 (based on Ubuntu 14.04).

I've been beating my head against a wall all day trying to figure this out until I ran across this post.

The message that I was getting in the logs with ZoneMinder 1.30.0 was:
Can't send email: SMTP Failed to connect to mail server: Connection refused at /usr/bin/zmfilter.pl line 918.

After I edited line 918 from to and restarting zoneminder, I was miraculously able to get notifications.

The wiki at https://wiki.zoneminder.com/How_to_get_ ... Zoneminder says that this is no longer needed with 1.30.0, but this is incorrect.

Thank you so much for posting this.